I don’t have to tell you this has been a crazy year for all of us, and that the sports and entertainment business has been hit particularly hard with cancellations and limiting fan attendance, but the local universities are now facing this head-on as basketball season begins.

Oral Roberts University men’s basketball team opened their home season last Saturday with a 93-63 win over Rogers State. It was the first official athletic event on the ORU campus since a March 3rd baseball game against UA-Little Rock. The following weekend, the ORU men’s and women’s basketball teams competed at the Summit League Basketball Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D., but on March 12, the NCAA and the Summit League shut down all spring sports, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and no sports have been played on campus since.

Things were quite different at the Mabee Center Saturday night, and as a member of the ORU Pep Band, there were a few new rules and regulations to get used to.

We had to put cloth covers on the bells of our trumpets and trombones; I suppose it was to keep from spewing the coronavirus through our horns. We wore masks when we weren’t playing and we tried to distance ourselves, as best we could, in the band.

It’s been true for a few years now that the ORU men’s and women’s basketball teams haven’t drawn very big crowds, but the fact that they have to limit the number of tickets sold, made the crowd at the game even smaller, and that’s sad.

Fans coming into the game had to have their temperature taken by automated machines set up throughout the Mabee Center lobby area, and masks had to be worn in the arena, except when eating. The overall experience, however, wasn’t that different and the regulations were tolerable.

The Golden Eagles will be home again this Saturday, Dec. 5, to take on Southwestern Christian, at 7:00 p.m.

Across town, the University of Tulsa is taking a different approach to the first part of its men’s and women’s basketball season. The TU Athletics Department announced last week that spectators will not be permitted to attend Golden Hurricane men’s and women’s basketball home games through Dec. 19  to protect the health of the students, staff and fans.

The men’s games during this time include: UT Arlington (Dec. 4), Arkansas (Dec. 8), Wichita State (Dec. 15), and Northwestern State (Dec. 18). For the Tulsa women, the schedule includes home games against Wichita State (Dec. 16) and UCF (Dec. 19).

Information regarding attendance for remaining games on the Tulsa basketball schedules will be released at a later time.

The Mayor’s Cup game between the TU and ORU men’s teams will take place on Dec. 12, at 2:00 p.m. at the Mabee Center.

TU FOOTBALL POSTPONED – AGAIN

For the seventh time this season, the University of Tulsa football team has had a game cancelled or postponed. Last Saturday’s game at Houston was postponed earlier in the week, due to positive COVID-19 cases at the University of Houston and the ensuing contact tracing of student-athletes.

It may be rescheduled for Dec. 19, if neither team is in the American Athletic Conference Championship. However, Tulsa, ranked No. 22 nationally, is in second place in the conference behind No. 7 ranked Cincinnati, and could very well end up playing for the AAC title.

“Again, I’m disappointed for our student-athletes who have worked extremely hard in their preparations this fall, whether the game was played or not,” said Tulsa’s Director of Athletics Rick Dickson. “Our young men have continued to answer the bell to physically put themselves in the right spot to play each week. We wish the student-athletes and coaches at UH a speedy recovery.”

The next scheduled game for Tulsa will be Dec. 5, against Navy, at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2. The Golden Hurricane will close out the regular season at H.A. Chapman Stadium against the nation’s 7th-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats on Saturday, Dec. 12.