Tulsa Announces 2005-06 Men's Basketball Schedule
8/27/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Aug. 27, 2005
Tulsa, Oklahoma - The University of Tulsa men's basketball schedule features a 14-game conference schedule, state schools -- Oral Roberts and Oklahoma -- and four home games against teams that advanced to either the NCAA or NIT post-season tournaments last year, it was announced today by Head Coach Doug Wojcik. The Hurricane will play a total of nine games against post-season tournament teams from a year ago.
The nine games against 2005 post-season teams comes against Oklahoma (NCAA), Oral Roberts (NIT), Houston (NIT), Rice (NIT), and UAB (NCAA) once, and two games each against Memphis (NIT) and UTEP (NCAA).
Tulsa will play 13 non-conference games and 14 league contests as the Hurricane begin its first season in Conference USA. The C-USA schedule has the Hurricane playing Memphis, UTEP and SMU in home-and-home match-ups while Tulsa will play the remaining eight schools once.
"With 14 Conference USA games, we'll play 13 non-conference games, and that many is not easy to schedule," said Wojcik. "I'm really pleased to be playing some similar opponents and some old rivals, and at the same time trying to create some new rivals. We've put together a fair schedule. We're able to spread ourselves out west to California, to Utah, up to Michigan, and Conference USA puts us in the Eastern Time zone. We'll be playing pretty much in all parts of the country minus the northeast and upper Midwest."
The Hurricane open the season on November 19 against Stephen F. Austin at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. It's the first meeting between the two schools.
Tulsa will play two more games in the month of November against first-time opponents -- Cal State Northridge and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi -- before closing out the first month of the season against Oklahoma.
Tulsa travels to the west coast for a contest against Cal State Northridge on No. 22, and four days later returns to the Reynolds Center to face Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Nov. 26. The Sooners come to town on Nov. 30 to complete a three-game series with the Hurricane.
This is the 35th meeting between the two teams as Oklahoma leads the series 23-12. OU has won the last two meetings, including a 70-64 win last year in Oklahoma City. The game has not been played in Tulsa for the last eight times. The last visit by the Sooners to Tulsa came on Jan. 9, 1985, as Tulsa captured a 104-89 victory. OU owns a 6-5 record over the Hurricane in Tulsa, but Tulsa has won the last two times at home. Oklahoma finished the 2004-05 season with a 25-8 record and in a first-place tie in the Big12 with a 12-4 mark.
The month of December has Tulsa opening up on Dec. 3 against city rival Oral Roberts. Tulsa leads the series 27-14, but ORU has won the last two meetings. The Hurricane has won 24 of the last 29 contests with a series-long winning streak of 13 games. Tulsa holds a 12-9 record against ORU at the Mabee Center. ORU finished with a 25-8 record last year and claimed first-place in the Mid-Continent Conference.
On Dec. 6, the Hurricane returns a game from the ESPN Bracket Buster of a year ago to Northern Arizona. Tulsa won last year's meeting by a 79-64 count. Tulsa returns home for a Dec. 11 contest against Southern Arkansas, before heading back on the road to southern Texas to face the Billy Tubbs-coached Lamar Cardinals on Dec. 17. Lamar won the contest a year ago in Tulsa, 91-85.
Tulsa will play two more games before Christmas with a home contest against Southern (Dec. 20) and a road game at Eastern Michigan (Dec. 22). Both contests are first-time meetings for the Hurricane.
Tulsa closes out the 2005 portion of the season with a road game at former Western Athletic Conference rival Brigham Young on Dec. 30. BYU leads the series 6-3, as the last meeting came at the 1998 WAC Tournament as Tulsa captured a 59-56 victory.
The Hurricane will finish off the non-conference part of the schedule in the first week of January with a home game against North Texas (Jan. 2) and a road contest at Texas-Pan American (Jan. 7). Tulsa leads both series including 37-11 against North Texas and 5-1 against Texas-Pan American.
Tulsa begins its first season of play in Conference USA action against one of the league's top teams the past two seasons with a road game at UAB on January 11. The Blazers posted an overall 22-11 record a year ago and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament under former Golden Hurricane guard Mike Anderson as the Blazers' head coach.
The home C-USA opener for the Hurricane features the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. The teams have met twice previously on the basketball court, but not since 1987-88 as Tulsa evened the series 1-1 with an 82-80 victory to claim the championship at the First Tulsa Classic. Southern Miss is led by second-year Coach Larry Eustachy.
A familiar face will bring his team to Tulsa on Jan. 18, as the Marshall Thundering Herd is led by third-year Head Coach Ron Jirsa, a former assistant coach at Tulsa under J.D. Barnett and Tubby Smith. It's the first meeting between Tulsa and Marshall.
Tulsa then goes on the road to face UCF in Orlando, Florida on Jan. 21. The two teams have played twice before as Tulsa holds a 2-0 series edge. A week later, Tulsa goes back out east to face East Carolina on Jan. 28. Tulsa won the only previous meeting, 86-63, in the 1984-85 season.
John Calipari's Memphis Tigers come to town on Feb. 1 for the first of two season meetings between the teams this year. The two teams are rivals from the Missouri Valley Conference days in the 1960s and `70s. Memphis leads the series 13-7. The last meeting saw Tulsa defeat the Tigers in the semifinals of the 2001 NIT Championship, 72-64, at Madison Square Garden in New York.
UTEP, a rival moving with Tulsa to C-USA from the WAC, is next up on the Hurricane schedule as the Miners come to town on Feb. 4. Tulsa leads the series 20-8, and has won 13 of the last 16 games. UTEP finished the 2004-05 campaign with a 27-8 record and won the WAC Tournament en route to a first round game in the NCAA Tournament.
After the two-game home-stand, Tulsa will get back on the road to face another WAC transplant, SMU, on Feb. 8. Tulsa holds a 17-11 series advantage, but SMU has won the last five contests. Another familiar face, the Rice Owls, is next up for the Hurricane. The only meeting this year between the two schools will take place in Tulsa on Feb. 11. Tulsa leads the series 13-6, and has an 8-1 mark at home against the Owls. The only home loss for Tulsa in the series came last year, 71-64 in overtime.
Another former Missouri Valley Conference rival of the Hurricane, the Houston Cougars, will play host to Tulsa on Feb. 18. The series is tied 16-16 as the last meeting came in the 1997-98 campaign with the Cougars capturing the victory. Under first-year Head Coach Tom Penders, the Cougars posted a 18-14 mark a year ago and made the post-season NIT field.
Tulsa will play three straight games against the conference opponents that the Hurricane faces twice this season -- hosting SMU (Feb. 22), at Memphis (Feb. 25) and at UTEP (Mar. 1). The Hurricane closes out the regular season at home on March 4 against Tulane. The two teams have met three previous times as the Hurricane holds a 2-1 series edge. The last time the Green Wave visited Tulsa the game was a double-overtime barn-burner as Tulsa claimed an 86-80 victory in the 1997-98 season opener.
The Conference USA Tournament is scheduled for March 8-11 in Memphis, Tennessee. The Conference USA television package will be announced at a later date.
The Hurricane will host two exhibition games in November. Southeastern Oklahoma State comes to Tulsa on Nov. 5, while Central Oklahoma visits the Reynolds Center on Nov. 13.
2005-06 Tulsa Men's Basketball ScheduleDate Day Opponent Time NOVEMBER 5 Sat. SE OKLAHOMA STATE (Exh.)12 noon 13 Sun. CENTRAL OKLAHOMA (Exh.) 2:05 pm 19 Sat. STEPHEN F. AUSTIN 2:05 pm 22 Tues. at Cal State-Northridge 9 pm 26 Sat. TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI7:05 pm 30 Wed. OKLAHOMA 7:05 pm
DECEMBER 3 Sat. at Oral Roberts 7 pm 6 Tues. at Northern Arizona 8 pm 11 Sun. SOUTHERN ARKANSAS 2:05 pm 17 Sat. at Lamar 7:05 pm 19 Mon. SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY 7:05 pm 22 Thurs. at Eastern Michigan 5 pm 30 Fri. at Brigham Young 8 pm
JANUARY 2 Mon. NORTH TEXAS TBA 7 Sat. at Texas Pan American 7:30 pm 11 Wed. at UAB* TBA 14 Sat. SOUTHERN MISS* TBA 18 Wed. MARSHALL* 7:05 pm 21 Sat. at UCF* 6:30 pm 28 Sat. at East Carolina* 6 pm
FEBRUARY 1 Wed. MEMPHIS* 7:05 pm 4 Sat. UTEP* TBA 8 Wed. at SMU* TBA 11 Sat. RICE* TBA 18 Sat. at Houston* 7 pm 22 Wed. SMU* 7:05 pm 25 Sat. at Memphis* 7 pm
MARCH 1 Wed. at UTEP* 8 pm 4 Sat. TULANE* TBA 8-11 W-Sat. at C-USA Tournament TBA @ Memphis, Tenn.
BOLD CAPS are Home Games *Indicates Conference USA Games Game times and dates are subject to change.
