UCLA Will Play Host to Oral Roberts Tonight in Basketball Season Opener

UCLA will open its basketball season tonight, playing host to Oral Roberts in the first round of the Big Apple National Invitation Tournament at 7:30 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion.

Coach Walt Hazzard got a look at his team under game conditions Tuesday night when the Bruins beat a Swedish club team in an exhibition. “I’d like to see how we respond in a tournament situation,” Hazzard said. “It’s sudden death. You lose, you go home. It’s a good experience for our team. Hopefully, we can learn from it.”

Of the Titans, Hazzard said: “They’re averaging 150 points in scrimmages. We respect the coach (Ken Trickey). He put the program on the map.”

In other tournament games tonight, Arkansas Little Rock is at Purdue, Alcorn State is at Georgia Tech, Texas is at Iowa State, George Mason is at Seton Hall and Weber State is at New Mexico. Two more games Saturday night--Virginia Tech at Middle Tennessee and Jacksonville at Florida--complete the first round.

Second-round games will be played Monday and Tuesday nights at campus sites, with the semifinals and final scheduled for Nov. 27-28 at Madison Square Garden in New York.