October 14, 2010

Tech men’s basketball follows up Friday’s first practice with an intersquad scrimmage on Saturday

The Golden Eagle men’s basketball team will start hooping on Friday with their first official practice of the 2010-11 season. Eager to give fans a sneak peak of this year’s team, the team will follow up with a team scrimmage in the Hooper Eblen Center on Saturday.

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Mid-October marks the half-way point for regular season college football, but any true college basketball fan knows that Oct. 15 brings with it the official start date for upwards of 345 Division I men’s basketball teams. After 5 p.m. on Friday, all programs are permitted to commence practicing for the season, striving for the ultimate goal for any NCAA DI team - a trip to the Big Dance.

Ninth-year coach Mike Sutton will lead his team through their first practice of the season Friday evening, and will follow it up with an intersquad scrimmage on Saturday that is open to the public to give fans their first look at the 2010-11 team.

With a night football game scheduled to kick off in Tucker Stadium a 7 p.m. on Saturday, the Golden Eagle ballers will start their scrimmage at 5:30 p.m. so that fans of TTU Athletics can swing by before the football game to catch a glimpse of the newest additions to the team, including two international students in German All-Star Dennis Ogbe and the 7’0” center out of Marquette University, Canadian Liam McMorrow.

Fans can also expect to see some of their star players from 09-10 on the floor as leading scorer Kevin Murphy will be back in action, as will returning starter Alfred Jones.

The Golden Eagles will kick off their season on Nov. 4 with an exhibition double header against Carson-Newman in the Hoop, with the men’s tip off scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Following the exhibition game, Tech will hit the road for Raleigh to take on N.C. State and Sidney Lowe’s Wolfpack.

For information on season tickets, which are currently available for sale, please contact the ticket office at (931) 372-3940.