Tulsa Basketball Begins Practice Tonight
10/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 14, 2005
Tulsa, Oklahoma - The college basketball season officially kicks off tonight at midnight, but with a new NCAA rule team's can get started earlier. Tulsa's men's basketball team will practice on Friday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center Auxiliary Gym to tip-off the Doug Wojcik era.
First-year Head Coach Doug Wojcik is looking forward to getting official practice underway, but has used the new NCAA rules to get a head start on working with his team. "With the rule change, it's been especially good for me being a first-year head coach, to work out the guys as a team prior to October 15," said Wojcik.
Tulsa has five returning players, including three starters from last year's squad, and a plethora of newcomers. Among the returning players, senior center Anthony Price leads the way for the Hurricane. He is Tulsa's leading returning scorer and rebounder with 13.3 and 4.7 averages.
Fellow senior Chris Wallace played valuable minutes in the past two seasons and will be counted on to provide leadership and stability for the Hurricane. A year ago, Wallace averaged 6.1 points and 3.2 rebounds, while shooting 36-percent from three point range.
Sophomores Brett McDade and Deion James (6'1") started the majority of the games a year ago in the backcourt. McDade started 24 games, while James was in the starting lineup 15 times.
McDade, as a red-shirt freshman, averaged 9.6 points and 2.6 assists. With his 270 points on the season he ranks fourth on the school's all-time freshman scoring list. James averaged 5.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists while playing in 27 contests.
The only other returning player is 6-10 forward Charles Ramsdell. A year ago, Ramsdell averaged 1.5 points and one rebound while playing just over six minutes a game. As a freshman though, Ramsdell scored at a 3.7 clip and grabbed 2.4 rebounds, while averaging 14.6 minutes per game.
Among the Hurricane newcomers, two junior college players, six scholarship freshman and two freshman walk-ons will take the court today for the first time in a Hurricane uniform. The JC Transfers are 6-2 guard Roderick Earls and 6-7 forward Darold Crow. Both led their junior college teams to the national tournament a year ago, while Earls was named the NJCAA Tournament MVP in leading his Paris (Texas) Junior College team to the national title.
"I think it was big to get eight new guys. It ives us the flexibility to red-shirt, which I think is definitely going to happen.
The six scholarship newcomers include Sean Coleman (6-8), Ashton Hall (6-6), Antonio Hanson (6-2), Sam Mitchell (6-9), Ray Reese (6-6) and Bishop Wheatley (6-6). Freshman walk-on athletes are Joey Kieval (6-1) and Kyle Young (6-6).
Tulsa's practices are closed.
