KTUL.com - Tulsa's Channel 8 - News, Weather & SportsSooners Host Idaho State In Season Opener

The Lon Kruger era officially begins in Norman tonight as the Oklahoma Sooners host Idaho State in the regular season opener at Lloyd Noble Center.

Kruger took over the men's basketball program in April following the firing of Jeff Capel. The Sooners have been victorious in a pair of exhibition games over NCAA Division II opponents Northeastern State (85-51) and Washburn (85-59).

The Sooners will be without Steven Pledger in the opener as Kruger announced earlier in the week the junior guard was suspended due to impermissible participation in a pro-am game over the summer. He will return to the lineup for next Friday's game against Coppin State.

Tonight's game begins at 7 p.m. and can be seen on Cox Channel 3 in Tulsa (703 HD).

The opener comes on the same day the Sooners learned that its men's basketball program was slapped with three years probation, a 15-thousand dollar fine and the vacating of 13 victories in 2009-10 for major NCAA violations.

Many of the punishments were recommended by the school itself for infractions that included former assistant coach Oronde Taliafero failing to report that a player had received impermissible benefits, then lied to investigators.

Those violations occurred while the program was already on probation for major violations committed by former head coach Kelvin Sampson.

Luckily for the Sooners, while NCAA bylaws state that a "repeat violator" can face a minimum of having the sport dropped for up to two seasons, that will not happen in this case.