Tulsa Preps for C-USA Battle With Rice

The Golden Hurricane host the Owls on Saturday looking to climb out of last place in the conference.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:08 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Jan 7, 2011 4:29 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Reporter

TULSA, Oklahoma – The conference season is very young. Tulsa is 0-1 in league play and enters Saturday night’s home contest with Rice with a 7-7 overall record.

The matchup features some talented big men in Tulsa’s Steven Idlet and Rice’s Arsalan Kazemi.

“Kazemi is averaging a double-double [with] 18 points and 11 rebounds,” said TU head coach Doug Wojcik. “He’s not the biggest guy (6-foot-7), but he’s really quick and has good feet in the post.”

Tulsa has struggled in the early going and Rice hasn’t fared much better. The Owls are just 8-7 this season with losses to Oral Roberts, North Texas and Tulane. Rice has shown flashes of what it could become with impressive showings against LSU, TCU and nationally ranked Texas.

“They’ve really improved with (head coach) Ben Braun over the last couple of years,” said Wojcik. “They’ll present some problems because we’ve had problems with foul trouble.”

The Golden Hurricane will have freshman point guard Jordan Clarkson back in the lineup at home for the first time since suffering a high ankle sprain against Princeton on December 12th. Clarkson played 17 minutes and scored just two points in the conference opener on the road against UTEP. Wojcik called Clarkson’s first game back from the injury “rusty”.

Rice will look for its first road win of the season Saturday night. Tulsa is 5-3 in the Reynolds Center this year with wins over ORU, TCU and Missouri State.

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.