Tulsa Men’s Basketball Opens Practice Thursday

TULSA, Okla. –– The University of Tulsa men's basketball team began practices in preparation for the 111th season of Golden Hurricane basketball on Thursday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Head coach Frank Haith starts his eighth season at the helm of the Hurricane and welcomes back seven returning letterwinners and three starters.

"It's always an exciting time of the year," Haith said. "It's a little different in the sense that we are able to work with our kids prior to now, but the anticipation of an official first day of practice never changes for me as a coach. It's an exciting day, a big-time day, and we are ready to get it going."

Tulsa lost its two leading scorers in Elijah Joiner (15.0 points per game) and Brandon Rachal (11.3 ppg), but return The American's reigning Sixth Man of the Year Darien Jackson, Rey Idowu and Keyshawn Embery-Simpson. Also returning is forward Jeriah Horne. He rejoins the Hurricane after spending a graduate season at Colorado, where he helped the Buffaloes to an NCAA Tournament appearance and was second on the team in scoring, averaging 10.8 points per game.

Joining Horne is guard LaDavius Draine, who transfers in as a graduate student out of Southern Miss. He was a 1,000-point scorer in his four years, averaging 9.7 a game. Sam Griffin, a sophomore transfer from UT Arlington, and sophomore Tim Dalger, Independence CC, are two other newcomers with collegiate experience.

The Golden Hurricane will continue practices leading up to its Nov. 3 exhibition against Northeastern State at the Reynolds Center. The Hurricane tip-off it's 2021-22 regular season campaign at home against Northwestern State on Wed., Nov. 10 at 7:00 p.m.

Tulsa Men’s Basketball Opens Practice Thursday

Players Mentioned

Tim Dalger

LaDavius Draine

Keyshawn Embery-Simpson

Sam Griffin

Jeriah Horne

Rey Idowu

Darien Jackson

Elijah Joiner

Brandon Rachal

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