Men's Hoops Set for Weekend Games

Aug. 31, 2007

NORMAN, Okla. - Jeff Capel's Oklahoma men's basketball team departs for Vancouver, Canada, Friday afternoon to play four exhibition games against colleges from the province of British Columbia.

The Sooners start their weekend of games Saturday at 9 p.m. CDT on the campus of the University of British Columbia. UBC is coming off an impressive 33-6 season in which it advanced to the Canadian Intersport Final 8. OU's opener will be played at War Memorial Gym.

On Sunday, OU will be challenged by playing a pair of contests. The Sooners start the day at 2 p.m. CDT against Simon Fraser at the university's West Gym. Simon Fraser was 17-14 last year and finished 11-12 in the Pacific Division of the Canada West Conference.

Sunday's nightcap will be a late one. Capel's bunch will meet Trinity Western for an 11 p.m. CDT tip inside David E. Enarson Gym. The Spartans finished 12-18 last year, but return their top five scorers and six of their top seven.

The Sooners' tour concludes on Monday when they play at Douglas College's New Westminister campus at 11 a.m. CDT. One of the better teams in Canada last year, Douglas won the British Columbia College Athletics Association title before falling in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship game.

"My goal for us this trip it to get better," said Capel on Friday morning. "I want to see if we can take some of the things we've worked on in practice over the last 10 days and implement them in live game situations. I want to see which players will step up, which ones will remember what we learned. I want to see who can make plays and who can lose themselves in the team."

The Sooners practiced nine times in preparation for the trip, and Capel was pleased with what he saw on the court.

"I was happy with how hard our guys practiced. We really, really got after it. Our guys challenged each other, and they challenged themselves both physically and mentally. I thought we picked up on things well. It certainly helps to have returning guys who have a feel for some of the things we're doing. We didn't have that luxury last year."

The Sooners will return to Norman on Monday night.

CROCKER UPDATE
Sophomore guard Tony Crocker, who sustained traumatic compartment syndrome in his left leg during practice Tuesday after getting unintentionally kneed by a teammate, is doing well according to team medical personnel.

Crocker underwent surgery to release blood from his leg Tuesday night. Forty-nine stitches were required to close the wound. Crocker will be released from the hospital Friday.

"Tony is resting comfortably and doing well," said athletics trainer Alex Brown. "We expect him to make a full and complete recovery."

Brown said earlier in the week that recovery time will take three to six weeks. Crocker and junior guard Austin Johnson (back injury) will not make the trip to Canada.

CANADA TRIP BROADCAST AND LIVE STATS INFORMATION

SATURDAY, SEPT. 1
Opponent: University of British Columbia
Tip Time: 9 p.m. CDT
Audio Webcast: http://www.citr.ca/first.php
Live Stats: www.gothunderbirds.ca/livestats/xlive.htm
UBC Official Athletics Site: www.gothunderbirds.ca/

SUNDAY, SEPT. 2
Opponent: Simon Fraser
Tip Time: 2 p.m. CDT
Audio Webcast: http://lidc-dev.lidc.sfu.ca/athletics/broadcast/
Live Stats: http://cgi.sfu.ca/~athlwww/livestats/bball/xlive.htm
SFU Official Athletics Site: www.sfu.ca/athletics

Opponent: Trinity Western
Tip Time: 11 p.m. CDT
Audio Webcast (linked off official site): http://www.gospartans.ca
Live Stats (linked off official site): http://www.gospartans.ca

MONDAY, SEPT. 3
Opponent: Douglas College
Tip Time: 11 a.m. CDT
Radio Coverage: unknown
Live Stats Link: unknown
DC Official Athletics Site: http://www.douglas.bc.ca/csrw/athletics.html

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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