Tulsa World: ORU's next stop on road tour is Virginia

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ORU's next stop on road tour is Virginia

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer
Published: 11/21/2009 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 11/24/2009 11:51 AM

Scott Sutton and his Oral Roberts basketball players and coaches are mixing pleasure with business on their long and winding road trip in the Cancun Challenge.

From their Wednesday win at Stanford, the Golden Eagles flew cross country to Washington, D.C., and visited sights of the nation's capital before making the two-hour trek to Charlottesville, Va., for Saturday's 1 p.m. tipoff against the University of Virginia.

"When you travel to places that have obvious historical significance, I think you need to let your kids experience and see some of those things," Sutton said.

"A lot of them may not appreciate it until a few years down the road when they realize they got to do and see things they may never get a chance to do again."

The coaches' wives and other ORU supporters will be waiting in Cancun, Mexico, when the Eagles fly there Sunday to play their final games in the tournament on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Eagles will spend Thanksgiving in Cancun, giving them an extra day of fun and sun in the resort paradise.

But Saturday will be strictly for business as the Eagles face their second Atlantic Coast Conference foe in eight days and try to build on the 83-81 win at Stanford. Junior guard Roderick Pearson's last-second 18-footer gave the Eagles their biggest out-of-conference win since beating Oklahoma State in the 2007 All-College Classic in Oklahoma City.

"It gave us a lot of confidence to be able to go on the road and play another challenging team," Sutton said.

Virginia improved to 2-1 with Thursday's 79-46 win over Rider, a potential Wednesday opponent for ORU in Cancun. The Eagles play Sam Houston State on Tuesday and Rider or Florida A&M in the final game.

If ACC preseason polls are accurate, the Cavaliers aren't as strong as Wake Forest, which drilled ORU 76-56 in both teams' opener on Nov. 13. Virginia is picked to finish last in the 12-team league. But the Cavaliers still have athletes who would be the envy of the Summit League.

Sophomore guard Sylven Landesberg was the ACC rookie of the year after averaging 16.6 points per game last season, and is on the watch list for this year's Wooden and Naismith awards, given annually to college basketball's top player.

All five starters return from last season, but senior guard Calvin Baker has played sparingly since undergoing arthroscopic surgery on Oct. 27, and 6-foot-9 Jamil Tucker is on a leave of absence.

Tony Bennett replaced Dave Leitao at the Virgina helm after three seasons at Washington State. Bennett was the Cougars' head coach when they beat ORU in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. That same season, he was named national coach of the year by the Associated Press.

Mike Brown 581-8390
mike.brown@tulsaworld.com By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

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