Judge: Convicted Drug Dealer Can Travel

A federal judge in Tulsa, Okla., ruled that an Oral Roberts basketball player who pleaded guilty to selling crack cocaine can travel to road games with the Golden Eagles.

U.S. District Judge Sven Erik Holmes on Thursday agreed to lift travel restrictions imposed on Da’Monn Sanders. Sanders pleaded guilty last year to selling crack cocaine to an undercover informant in 1996.

Sanders has already served his prison time and is attending the university on three years’ supervised release. As part of that post-custody term, Sanders’ travel is restricted to the 11 counties that make up the federal Northern District of Oklahoma.

Holmes agreed to lift the restriction if Sanders participates in a community outreach program the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tulsa has begun to discourage young people from committing crimes.

The judge also noted that Sanders is under the authority of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and said it is “not yet clear” if the bureau will complete its administrative work in time for Sanders to suit up today against Texas Christian at Fort Worth, Texas.

Sanders told the court his brush with the law “has changed the way I perceive life.”

Sanders, a walk-on, scored 10 points in Oral Roberts’ exhibition game against Athletes First.

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Paul Hoffman, who played at Purdue in the 1940s and later with the Baltimore Bullets, is dead. He was 73.

Hoffman died Thursday. He had spent two weeks at the Baltimore Medical Center’s Gilchrist Center hospice after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

Hoffman, who graduated from Purdue in 1947, was selected this year by his alma mater as one of the Boilermakers’ best 12 all-time basketball players. In 1948, the Basketball Assn. of America, the precursor to the NBA, selected him rookie of the year.