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ORU Accepts Bid To NIT...Will Play At Maryland Wednesday on ESPNU

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Click Photo to Enlarge ORU Coach Scott Sutton

Tulsa, Okla. -- For the first time since 1997, the ORU men's basketball team has advanced to the post-season. The Golden Eagles, the only team in the nation with 25 wins and a conference regular-season championship left out of the NCAA Tournament, learned late Sunday evening that they will visit Maryland at 8 p.m. (Central) Wednesday in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. The game will be televised on ESPNU and the radio broadcast will be on KTBZ-1430 AM "The Buzz" in Tulsa.

ORU (25-7), which won the Mid-Continent Conference Regular-Season Championship after posting a 13-3 record against league foes, was upset by seventh-seeded Oakland, 61-60, in the Mid-Con Tournament Championship Game last Tuesday night in Tulsa. Oakland's Pierre Dukes drained a heavily-guarded 3- pointer with just 1.3 seconds left to spoil ORU's effort to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 21 years.

Despite the loss, ORU is thrilled to be playing in the NIT. It's the first time since 1997 that the Golden Eagles will play following Selection Sunday. That year, ORU dropped a 74-58 decision at Notre Dame in the first round of the NIT in Bill Self's final season as head coach.

Maryland (16-12), the 2002 NCAA Tournament Champion, tied for sixth in the ACC with a 7-9 league mark this year. The eighth-seeded Terps fell to ninth- seeded Clemson, 84-72, in the first round of the ACC Tournament on March 10 in Washington, D.C., and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 12 years.

Quick Facts On The 2004-05 Golden Eagles and ORU:
* ORU's 25 wins this season are the most by any team in the NIT field...
* ORU went 2-1 against others (defeated Georgetown and Southwest Missouri State; lost at Indiana) in this season's 40-team NIT...
* ORU has won a school-record 14 games away from home (#2 in the nation)...
* ORU has lost four games by a TOTAL of five points (two buzzer-beating 3- pointers)...
* ORU has three 1,000-point career scorers in Ken Tutt, Luke Spencer-Gardner and Caleb Green...
* ORU's Caleb Green was recently named a "Mid-Major All-American"...
* ORU was founded in 1963 (first classes in 1965) by Evangelist Oral Roberts...
* ORU President Dr. Richard Roberts began his current post in 1993...