TU defeats Oklahoma Christian in exhibition game

TU fans' first look at the much-hyped Cobe Williams showed some definite wow factor. Clearly, he is as good as advertised.

But Williams wants the fans to know that there is still a lot more to his game that they haven't seen yet.

"I have more in the tank," Williams said. "I did ok. I had too many turnovers."

For Williams, who led Tulsa with 22 points, and for his teammates, the almost entirely new Golden Hurricane defeated Oklahoma Christian 74-60 Wednesday night at the Reynolds Center in an exhibition game.

It took a while for the Golden Hurricane to get going, offensively. Defensively, TU started well.

The score was tied at 3-3 more than 6 minutes into the game before TU started to heat up. Fittingly, Tulsa's first points of the game were scored by Williams with 17:15 left in the first half.

Coming off a 5-25 season, Tulsa has 11 new scholarship players, with only one scholarship holdover, Jesaiah McWright, along with walk-on Ari Seals.

"We were absolutely so nervous," said second-year Tulsa coach Eric Konkol of Tulsa's start. "We are young. We absolutely needed this. This was perfect for us.

"We really needed to test guys. Especially our youngest guys. It was a combination of nerves, anxiousness, and being very excited."

The slow start didn't cause panic, although it caused some adjustment.

"We had to calm down, get a time out, just talk it over with coach," Williams said. "Calm everybody down."

Oklahoma Christian, an Oklahoma City school, looked much better than a team that finished 9-19 last season in NCAA Division II.

Tulsa got out to a 16-6 lead midway through the first half, led 32-24 at halftime, and held a double-digit lead of around 12 to 16 points for most of the second half. However, Oklahoma Christian wouldn't go away.

With Tulsa trying to play a lot of players, it looked like Tulsa was going to finally pull away comfortably after an alley-oop dunk by 6-foot-9 freshman Jarred Hall with 8:41 remaining had Tulsa leading 57-43.

But TU had a lot of its starters out, and Oklahoma Christian cut the Tulsa lead back into single digits at 58-50 with just over 6 minutes remaining. That caused Tulsa to go back to its starters.

The game never got any closer from that point. But it wasn't time to mess around. Tulsa was tested, and responded by not letting things get too close.

"Cobe Williams has been in this situation many, many times. You can tell," Konkol said of Williams, who averaged 18.8 points last season for Louisiana Tech. "So many other guys have not. The ability to have that, to have a lot of pressure down the stretch, was good for us."

Tulsa already seems to have a clear starting lineup, with Williams, who played 3 seasons at Louisiana Tech for Konkol, starting at point guard. Alongside Williams is TCU transfer P.J. Haggerty at shooting guard, Michigan transfer Isaiah Barnes (6-7) at small forward, juco transfer Jared Garcia (6-9) at power forward, and freshman Matt Reed (6-10) at center.

Haggerty had 16 points and 7 rebounds, including a three-pointer. Garcia had 15 points, including two three-pointers. Barnes had 8 points with two three-pointers - all in the second half. And Reed had 4 points, while displaying good passing skills and court awareness.

Tulsa has size and athletic ability that it simply didn't have last season. The lightning-quick Williams leads the way, at only 6-foot. But most of the rest of the team has plenty of length.

Konkol is impressed by the backcourt of Williams and Haggerty.

"He and Cobe are a really good Ying and Yang," Konkol said. "Cobe is a little bit smaller and all quickness, and all the speed and everything. And P.J. is bigger, about 6-foot-4. He's more measured, he's clever, he's different. And both of those guys can play the one, the two."

Projected starting guard Keaston Willis, a 6-3 sharpshooter who averaged 12.4 points per game last season, is out for the first few games while he recovers from a foot issue. The fifth-year senior, like Williams, played for Konkol at La. Tech.

Off the bench were Hall, 6-6 juco transfer Carlous Williams, 7-foot St. John's transfer Mohamed Keita, the 6-4 McWright, 6-foot freshman point guard Tyshawn Archie, and Seals.

All the bench players showed flashes of ability. Carlous Williams hit a three-pointer. Keita showed good defensive presence, and scored on an inside bucket.

Overall, it is clear that this is not last year's team. The ability difference is striking. Although this TU team still needs to find continuity and gel together, this could be a really fun season.