Senior guard Ben Uzoh leads Tulsa in scoring and assists.

Men's Basketball Home HEADLINES Tulsa Basketball to Play UNLV in 76 Classic Tulsa Basketball Announces Non-Conference Schedule for 100th Year of Basketball Tulsa's Jerome Jordan Taken By Milwaukee Bucks with 44th Pick in NBA Draft RELATED LINKS • Follow all of the college basketball action at NCAA.com • Men's Basketball AP Poll • Buy a basketball jersey from the official online store

Tulsa Plays at Kent State in NIT

Hurricane makes third straight trip to postseason play

March 14, 2010

Coach Wojcik Quotes

Tulsa, Oklahoma - Tulsa will play Kent in the first round of the NIT on Wednesday, March 17th at 7:00 p.m. (ET)/6:00 pm (CT). Kent State won the Mid-American Conference regular season championship with a 13-3 conference mark, while posting an overall 23-9 record. Tulsa has a 23-11 mark this year, the fourth straight 20-win season for the Hurricane.

Kent State lost to the MAC Tournament Champion, Ohio, in the quarterfinals of the league tournament, 81-64 last Thursday. Tulsa won two games in the Conference USA Tournament coming against Rice and Marshall, before losing to C-USA regular season champion UTEP in the semifinals.

The two teams have played two common opponents this year. Kent defeated UAB, Tulsa's fellow C-USA member, in the second game of the season, 72-65, and posted a 2-1 record against MAC member Ohio. Tulsa defeated another MAC member, Ohio, at home earlier this season, 81-80, and lost at UAB, 65-55.

This is the first-ever meeting between Tulsa and Kent State.

It's the 26th appearance in postseason play for the Golden Hurricane, and the 10th showing in the NIT for the two-time champion of the tournament. The Hurricane has won the NIT title two times in the history of the tournament, capturing wins over Pan American, UTEP, South Alabama, West Virginia and Syracuse in the championship game of the 1981 tournament. Twenty years later, Tulsa won the NIT crown with a title game victory, 79-60, over Alabama in 2001, after wins over UC Irvine, Minnesota, Mississippi State and Memphis.

Tulsa is making its' second straight trip to the NIT. Last year, the Hurricane captured a 68-59 home win over Northwestern, but fell to Auburn in the second round on the road, 74-55.

The postseason appearance is the third consecutive for Tulsa as the Hurricane won the inaugural College Basketball Invitational (CBI) Championship in 2008.

Senior Ben Uzoh leads the way with a 15.2 scoring average, while also leading the team in assists with a 4.6 average. He also grabs 4.7 rebounds from his point guard position.

Uzoh is the only player in school history ranked among the top-10 list for points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots. His 140 games played in one shy of the school record held by Greg Harrington (1998-02).

Fellow senior Jerome Jordan, the school's career leader for blocked shots with 332, has averaged 15.2 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.4 blocks this season. He has posted 12 double-doubles this year and has scored in double-figures a team-high 30 times and grabbed double-digit rebounds 13 times this year. Junior Justin Hurtt has averaged 14.2 points for the Hurricane this season, while connecting on 38-percent of his three-pointers.

Kent also has three players in double-figures, led by 6-8 sophomore forward Justin Greene, at a 13.7 scoring clip, while also grabbing a team-high 6.8 rebounds. Senior Chris Singletary, a 6'4" guard, averages 12.0 points, while 6'2' junior guard Rodriguez Sherman scored 10.7 points per game. Singletary and Sherman have each totaled over 100 assists this season.

Kent has recorded a 13-2 home record this year with the only losses coming against Wisconsin-Green Bay and Bowling Green, while Tulsa is 5-6 away from home.

The winner of the Tulsa-Kent State contest will play the Illinois (19-14)-Stony Brook (22-9) winner.