Sunday, November 15th, 3:00 p.m. (et)

FACTS & STATS: Site: Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355) -- Tulsa, Oklahoma. Television: None. Home Record: FIU 0-0, Tulsa 1-0. Away Record: FIU 0-2, Tulsa 0-0. Neutral Record: FIU 0-0, Tulsa 0-0. Conference Record: FIU 0-0, Tulsa 0-0. Series Record: First-ever meeting.

GAME NOTES: The Tulsa Golden Hurricane continue their season-opening five-game homestand today, as they host the Florida International Golden Panthers in non-league play at the Reynolds Center.

The Hurricane opened its season in convincing fashion, capturing a 72-47 victory over St. Mary's-Texas, a Division II program, on Friday. It was an expected win for Tulsa, which is one of the more talented teams around and a favorite to win the Conference USA title this season. Getting off to a fast start shouldn't be a problem either considering the team plays five straight and nine of its first 10 games at home.

As for the Panthers, they are still looking to deliver head coach Isiah Thomas his first victory. After dropping an 88-72 decision to highly-ranked North Carolina last week, FIU was dismantled by Monmouth, 99-70, on Friday. The Panthers are coming off nine consecutive losing campaigns, so the program hired Thomas in an attempt to end that streak, but it doesn't appear that will happen this season.

Today's game marks the first-ever meeting between FIU and Tulsa on the hardwood.

The Panthers lacked any sort of defense on Friday, allowing Monmouth to hit a blistering 63.3 percent from the floor in a lopsided loss. FIU watched UNC torch the nets with a 55.7 percent effort from field, so obviously the club needs to improve on defense. Hanging onto the ball is another area already in need of improvement, as the Panthers have committed 20 turnovers in each game. Marvin Roberts paced the team in the loss against Monmouth with 21 points and four steals, a nice follow up to his 18-point, four-steal effort in the opener. Stephon Weaver added 16 points, and Marlon Bright reached double figures for the second game in a row, with 12 points.

Tulsa turned 18 St. Mary's mishaps into 23 points, as they ran away for a 72-47 victory on Friday. The Hurricane also controlled the offensive glass, 14-3, helping it to score 21 second-chance points. It wasn't all good, though, as Tulsa went just 17-of-30 at the foul line for a poor 56.7 percent effort. Justin Hurtt and Ben Uzoh each tallied 16 points to guide the Hurricane. Uzoh figures to be the team's go-to-guy once again after producing 14.0 ppg in 2008-09. Sophomore Steven Idlet set career highs with 15 points and nine boards in the win, while Jerome Jordan had nine points and 11 boards. The 7-0 Jordan flirted with the NBA draft this past year, but decided to return to Tulsa following a campaign in which he turned in 13.8 ppg and 8.6 rpg.

The Hurricane are a talented team from top-to-bottom and behind Uzoh and Jordan, they should emerge with the victory today.

Predicted Outcome

Tulsa 75, Florida International 62