Tulsa's C-USA Tournament Preview

Originally Published: Mar 10, 2011 9:5 AM CDT

Oklahoma Sports Staff

EL PASO, Texas—The second round of the Conference USA Championship tournament begins Thursday, and the No. 2 ranked Tulsa Golden Hurricane will take the court against No. 10 Rice at 9 p.m. CST.

After tonight only eight teams will still be in the running for the league’s only automatic bid to the NCAA national tournament.

Tulsa (18-12) earned a first round bye in the tournament and Rice (14-17) upset No. 7 SMU 58-57 to advance to the second round.

Oklahoma Sports’s Bobby Lewis is in El Paso and talked with Tulsa men’s basketball coach Doug Wojcik about the upcoming matchup.

“It will be a challenge, but all that matters is the next game, that’s all that matters,” said Wojcik.

Read more about Bobby’s arrival in El Paso.

The Golden Hurricane have won more games in the conference tournament than any of the other teams, and Tulsa will look to that experience to forge a win and advance to the next round.

Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. CST inside the Don Haskins Center on the campus of the University of Texas-El Paso.

See the Conference USA Championship Tournament bracket here.