Southern Utah's men's basketball team opens its final season in the Summit League on Saturday when they meet Oral Roberts in Tulsa, Okla.

The Thunderbirds (4-3/0-0 Summit League) are coming off an 80-76 home loss to Troy, the team's first home loss of the season. SUU had posted wins over Southern Virginia and Montana State-Billings in their previous two home games. SUU is also 2-0 on neutral courts, with wins over UC Davis and Bryant, but are looking for their first road win of the season after falling at San Diego State and Utah State.

Oral Roberts takes a 4-2 mark into a home game against Missouri State on Wednesday. The Golden Eagles have won four straight games after opening with back-to-back losses, at West Virginia (78-71) and vs. Texas-San Antonio (78-77) in Stillwater, Okla., in the opening round of the pre-season NIT. Since the loss to UTSA, ORU has notched a win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff (80-44), also in Stillwater in the NIT, as well as home victories over Austin Peay (71-59), SMU (62-56) and Florida International (73-65).

The Game: Saturday, SUU (4-3) at Oral Roberts (4-2 pending the outcome of Wednesday's game vs. Missouri State), 7:05 p.m. (CST) in the Mabee Center (10,575).

Radio: All Southern Utah men's basketball games will be broadcast live by KSUU (91.1 FM) as well as on the internet at www.suu.edu/ksuu. Art Challis will be in his 39th season as the Thunderbirds' basketball play-by-play voice. Dr. Challis is joined on home and selected road broadcasts by former SUU standout Dean O'Driscoll.

The Series: SUU has faced Oral Roberts more than any other Summit League opponent, 36 times, as the teams began the series when both were NCAA Division I independents in the 1990s. ORU holds a 28-8 lead in the series between the two schools, including an 87-71 win in Tulsa last season. The Golden Eagles have won 18 straight against the Thunderbirds. Prior to the current ORU string of victories Southern Utah had won six straight in the series. SUU is 2-14 vs. ORU in the Mabee Center, where SUU last won in 2002, by a 71-70 count in overtime. The last Thunderbird win was a 73-58 home decision in 2002-03.

Practice Schedule: The practice schedule calls for the team to work out at 3:00 p.m. daily. Contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner for more information.

Media Availability: Players and coaches are available for interviews on Tuesdays prior to practice, between 2:00-3:00 p.m., with occasional adjustments due to scheduling conflicts. To contact a player or coach on another day or time contact Neil Gardner at gardner@suu.edu or 435-586-7753.

Video Highlights: Video highlights of SUU's Summit League home games will be available to accredited media outlets via SUU's FTP site. For information on the schedule and obtaining those highlights contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner.

Affiliations: Southern Utah is in its 15th and final season in The Summit League. All but two of SUU's sports compete in The Summit, with football a member of the Great West Conference and gymnastics an affiliate member of the Western Athletic Conference. Most of SUU's programs will move into the Big Sky Conference in 2012. Oral Roberts is also in its final season in The Summit League.

Videostreaming/Live Stats at www.suutbirds.com: All of Southern Utah's 2011-12 men's basketball home games will be video-streamed on the SUU athletic website at www.suutbirds.com. Live stats for all home games and most road games will also be available. Video streams are on a pay basis but there is no cost for live stats.

Thunderbird Club Luncheons: The Thunderbird Club's weekly no-host luncheon is held Mondays at noon in the Tradition Room in the home of President Michael Benson. The public is invited to attend the luncheons where Southern Utah's in-season coaches talk about their upcoming contests and review the past week's action.

Next Up: SUU travels up I-15 to take on Weber State on Dec. 10, in its only game next week.

The Coaches: 

Head Coach Roger Reid (Weber State '68) is entering his fifth season on the Southern Utah bench.

Reid takes a career Division I mark of 196-159, including a 44-83 record at SUU, into the game. His record includes six years as head coach at Brigham Young.

Coach Reid's career has spanned virtually every level of the coaching strata, including the high school, junior college, and NCAA Division I levels as well as in the NBA and international ranks. He is probably best known for his success at Brigham Young University, where he led the Cougars to five NCAA tournament berths and three Western Athletic Conference championships. He has also coached the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and the Hangzhou Horses of the Chinese Basketball Association. Reid coached Snow College to a conference title and a No. 18 national ranking in his final season on the bench there.

Reid is assisted by Ron Carling (BYU '70), a 40-year coaching veteran who is also entering his fifth season with the program; Johnny Brown (New Mexico '86), an 18-year veteran of the coaching ranks who is in his fifth year in Cedar City; and assistant Kenya Crandell (Nebraska-Kearney '96) who is entering his 15th season as a collegiate coach and his fourth year at SUU.

Captains: This year's captains are the three seniors: Ray Jones, Jr., Matt Massey, and Ramell Taylor.

Thunderbird Notes:

• SUU blocked a season-high three shots vs. Troy, two by Ray Jones, Jr., and one by Jordan Johnson.
• Jones had nine assists vs. Troy, one off his career-high. He leads the team in both assists (6.0 per game) and rebounding (5.7 rpg).
• Damon Heuir hit five 3-pointers vs. Troy, tying his personal high as well as the team's high this season. Heuir, who finished with a team-high 22 points vs. the Trojans, also had five threes vs. Bryant.
• Tyson Koehler had season-highs in points and rebounds vs. Troy, with six points and rive boards. He hit all three of his field goal attempts.
• Matt Massey added 12 points vs. Troy. He has scored in double figures in six of the team's seven games.
• SUU has 118 assists through seven games, an average of 16.9 a game and 49 more than the seven opponents combined.
• Through the first seven games the Thunderbirds have out-rebounded their opponents by a 34.0-29.7 average.
• The Thunderbirds have three players with double-figure scoring averages. Taylor leads the way at 12.6 ppg, while Heuir averages 11.9 and Massey is at 11.1. Stevenett is close, at 9.7 ppg. 
• Heading into the Troy game the Thunderbirds were 4-0 when winning the rebounding battle and 0-2 when losing it, but that streak came to an end when SUU came up short despite out-rebounding the Trojans, 40-28.
• The Thunderbirds' 75-58 win over Southern Virginia was a total team effort. All 14 players on the roster played at least three minutes, all but two scored, all but three had a rebound and all but three had either an assist or a steal.
• Ramell Taylor led the T-Birds in scoring (13 points), rebounds (eight) and assists (five) against SVU.

2011-12 SUU Trivia:

• SUU has seven lettermen returning from last year's squad as well as a redshirt freshman and another player who was on the squad in 2008-09 before serving an LDS Church mission. The eight total returning lettermen are the team's most during the Roger Reid era.
• Three seniors, six juniors, two sophomores, one redshirt freshmen and four true freshmen, including walk-ons, make up the 2011-12 Thunderbird squad.
• The Basketball Travelers Classic makes it three straight years that the Thunderbirds have participated in an in-season tournament. Last year the team competed at the Great Alaska Shootout and two years ago it traveled to Waikiki for Hawai'i's Rainbow Classic.
• Including the two exhibition games, SUU will play 15 contests at home in the Centrum this season. The regular-season home schedule includes nine conference games as well as non-conference match-ups with Troy and UC Davis as well as games against Division II foes Montana State-Billings and Southern Virginia.
• The SUU road schedule has the Thunderbirds playing at Utah State and Weber State, with a return visit to Troy as well as the nine conference road games. SUU will also play a road game against an opponent to be determined, in the Sears Bracket Buster tournament, in mid-February. This is the first season SUU has participated in the Bracket Buster.
• The Summit League tournament returns to Sioux Falls, S.D., for the fourth straight season this March. Eight men's and eight women's teams qualify for the tournament.
• The University of South Dakota joins The Summit League this season. The Coyotes replace Centenary College, which has moved its athletics program to the NCAA Division III level.
• As a result of the league shake-up, SUU will have a new travel partner in 2011-12: Oral Roberts. SUU had been travel partners with UMKC for the past five seasons.
• Oral Roberts announced on Oct. 25, that this will be its final season in The Summit League as well. ORU is moving to the Southland Conference next season.
• SUU qualified for The Summit League tournament as the number eight seed last year. The Thunderbirds finished the season strong, winning five of their final eight regular-season games, with a 2-point and a 3-point loss as well as a loss to regular-season and conference tournament champion Oakland among the three setbacks.
• SUU is in its 49th season as a 4-year institution, its 24th as an NCAA Division I qualifier and its 15th and final season in the Summit League. The Thunderbirds will join the Big Sky Conference next year.

Scouting the Golden Eagles:

Like SUU, Oral Roberts is entering its final season in The Summit League. The Golden Eagles will be moving to the Southland Conference next year.

ORU was the pre-season pick to win the 2011-12 Summit League championship. The Golden Eagles return all five starters from last year's squad that finished 13-5 and in third place in the conference, including a pair of pre-season first-team all-league selections, forwards Dominique Morrison and Michael Craion, and three-second-team selections: center Damen Bell-Holter, guard Warren Niles and forward Steven Roundtree.

Four of those five carry double-figure scoring averages. Morrison (6-6, 210, Sr) leads the way at 18.3 points per game, while Roundtree (6-8, 190, So) averages 14.7, Craion (6-5, 215, Sr) averages 13.0 and Niles (6-4, 175, Jr) checks in at 11.8 ppg. Craion pulls down a team-leading 8.2 rebounds per game, with Roundtree at 7.3, and Niles has dished out a team-leading 3.3 assists per game.

Bell-Holter (6-9, 245, Jr), who has been sidelined by back spasms, has appeared in just one game so far this season. He came off the bench for eight minutes in the season-opener at West Virginia.As a team, ORU has averaged 72.3 points per game on .475 shooting (.327 threes) while holding opponents to 63.3 points on .460 shooting (.347 threes). The Golden Eagles have knocked down 74.0 percent of their free throws and have out-rebounded opponents by an average of 33.3-to-26.7.