Frequent travelers - Tulsa World (12-15-05)

[ORUTerry]

Frequent travelers

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

12/15/2005

Golden Eagles face grueling road test with seven straight

Ken Tutt has done some of his best work on the road for Oral Roberts University.

The junior guard played some of the best games of his first two seasons at Wichita State, Saint Louis University, Chicago-Loyola, Northern Arizona and Western Illinois.

"I like playing in hostile places. I like playing against other people's crowds, where they're really going against you and you're trying to prove them wrong," Tutt said.

The Eagles will encounter more than their share of hostile crowds, playing seven road games in 23 days.

They won at Northern Colorado last Sunday, and Thursday's game at Louisiana-Lafayette is the first of four straight against 2005 NCAA Tournament teams, followed by Utah State (Dec. 20), Oklahoma (Dec. 28) and Minnesota (Dec. 31).

After that, the Eagles open Mid-Continent Conference play at Chicago State (Jan. 2) and Southern Utah (Jan. 4).

Their next home game is Jan. 7 against Western Illinois.

ORU will log nearly 10,000 air miles.

There-and-back trips to Lafayette, Logan (Utah) and Norman will be followed by a three-game, five-day hopscotch from Minneapolis to Chicago to Cedar City, Utah.

Head coach Scott Sutton didn't intend such a stretch, but it worked out that way because the Eagles had difficulty finalizing their schedule.

"We can't do anything about it now," Sutton said. "We've got to go play and get better. We won the first one, and the rest of them are going to be really tough, but I really believe in the long run it's going to toughen us up and get us ready for conference play."

It will if the Eagles can overcome injuries sidelining seniors Jonathan Bluitt, Chris Riouse and Andrew Meloy.

Sutton got good news Wednesday when 6-foot-5 sophomore Moses Ehambe agreed to end his redshirt year, meaning the Eagles will take eight to Lafayette.

"Moses is excited, we're excited, and I think he's really going to help us. He can really shoot the ball," Sutton said.

Louisiana-Lafayette (1-5) has won at least 20 games each of the past four years and represented the Sun Belt Conference in the last two NCAA Tournaments.

The Ragin' Cajuns played five of their first six on the road.

They won at UTEP last Sunday and also played Tennessee to a seven-point loss in Knoxville.

Senior guard Dwayne Mitchell (18.2 ppg, 12.0 rpg) was a first-team selection on the Sun Belt's preseason all-conference team, and senior forward Chris Cameron (9.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg) was a second-team pick.

Three bad breaks painted the Eagles into a logistical corner:

The Oklahoma and Minnesota games were set before the Mid-Con schedule was finalized. Sutton said he would have tried to play one earlier in the month and pick up a late-December home date had he known the Eagles would open conference play on the road.

With two games against Utah State, the Eagles could have visited the Aggies in November and hosted them in December. But Sutton was hesitant to play at Utah State on Saturday before the week-long trip to the Great Alaska Shootout.

The Louisiana-Lafayette starts a four-year contract. Ragin' Cajun officials agreed to play in Tulsa the next two years if ORU would start the series in Louisiana.

The Golden Eagles went 11-3 on the road last season, tying the school's record for road wins at the Division I level.

"That should carry over for us," Tutt said.

"We're playing good teams in their own crib, but it's a time for us to show some character."

[ORUHomer]

I bet P Rob will be delighted to see the nice "bling" in the ear of chello (?) on the front page of the sports section. Then again, he may not mind as much as others. I find it quite amusing myself .

[MadAdder]

Yeah, he won't care.