 "Photo: Zach Gray/O’Collegian")
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But Cowboy head coach Travis Ford said he hopes that isn’t the case with freshman point guard Ray Penn.
In 2008, Penn entered an AAU showcase tournament in Las Vegas. Scout.com said he was “virtually unknown.”
Penn set a Reebok Summer Championships scoring record with his average of 36 points per game and Ford jumped on the opportunity to recruit Penn.
Over the Thanksgiving break, the Cowboy basketball team traveled to Vegas to play in the HoopTV Las Vegas Invitational and Penn was at home again.
The Cowboys won the tournament after beating Bradley in the semifinal round and then bested Utah 77-55 in the championship game.
Penn did not score many points, but Ford said Penn stepped up in other ways to contribute to the victory.
“He had five assists in the first five minutes of the game,” Ford said. “He made the All-Tournament Team. Poor guy had only scored four or five points in the last game, and to still make the All-Tournament Team, shows how much he ran our basketball team.”
Penn led in minutes for the Cowboys in Vegas and was instrumental in leading the Cowboy attack by distributing the ball to other Cowboys, assisting the team to the championship victory against the Runnin’ Utes.
Penn said he was not aware that he received the most playing time of any of the Cowboys, but said it speaks volumes of the trust Ford already has for him as a freshman.
“He’s a good coach. We have a good staff,” Penn said. “My teammates support me. My coach supports me.”
Ford said he doesn’t know what it is about Penn and Vegas but said he likes the duo.
“I guess we need to schedule more games there,” Ford said.
The tournament win was big for the Cowboys and Ford said he saw what he had been waiting to see from the team while in Sin City.
“I hadn’t been happy with the attitude and the energy level and the focus level,” Ford said. “We saw that in Vegas that we hadn’t seen here at all.”
Ford said he expects the team to take the same mentality into the soldout game tonight against Tulsa.
Junior guard Nick Sidorakis’s is expected to return for the Cowboys’ game against their in-state foes.
Sidorakis said he is glad to be back from his right knee injury because now he will be able to refrain from his nerve-racking habit.
“I don’t have any more fingernails left,” Sidorakis said. “I just hurt sitting.”
Tonight, Sidorakis can stop hurting and said he hopes to help bring the Cowboys to a 7-0 record.
Ford said he is highly impressed with this Tulsa team, and they should not be overlooked.
“They’ve got size. They’ve got guards. They’ve got everything you could possibly want to win a conference championship and to have a big year,” Ford said. “They’re a very strong team. Their stats are better than ours.
“This is a big week, period.”
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