OU Men's Basketball Opens Season Friday Versus Alcorn State

Nov. 16, 2000

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TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Ranked 21st in both the AP poll and the ESPN/USA Today coaches' survey, Oklahoma hosts the third annual Sooner Invitational this Friday and Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center. The tournament begins at 6 p.m. Friday when La Salle faces UNC Wilmington. Oklahoma will take on Alcorn State 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. The consolation game will be played at 6 p.m. Saturday and will be followed by the championship contest. Oklahoma's games will be broadcast on the Sooner Basketball Radio Network (flagship KOMA 1520 AM in Oklahoma City on Friday and KRXO 107.7 FM on Saturday). Bob Barry, Sr. (play-by-play) and Mark Mathew (analyst) will call the action.

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
The Sooners are coming off a 27-7 campaign and tied for third place in the Big 12 Conference with a 12-4 record. OU advanced to the Big 12 Tournament championship game before falling to regular season league champ Iowa State. On the evening of the championship contest, the Sooners were named the NCAA Tournament's No. 3 seed in the west regional. It was Oklahoma's sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance under Head Coach Kelvin Sampson. OU, which finished the year ranked 12th in the Associated Press poll and 19th in the ESPN/USA Today version, posted its best record and registered its most wins since the 1989-90 season when Billy Tubbs' crew went 27-5.

This year's squad returns 62.5 percent of its scoring and 47.9 percent of its rebounding from last year. Five of last season's top six scorers are back, with the lone exception being third-team All-American Eduardo Najera, who is now playing for the Dallas Mavericks.

Head Coach Kelvin Sampson has compiled a 130-62 (.677) record in six years at Oklahoma and has guided the Sooners to NCAA Tournament appearances each season. In his 18th year as a collegiate head coach, he holds a 306-210 (.593) career record.

THE REST OF THE FIELD
All four tournament teams will be playing their opening game of the season on Friday. Alcorn State, Oklahoma's first-round opponent, is coming off a 19-10 campaign in which it won the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season title with a 15-3 record. Coached by Davey L. Whitney, the Braves return three starters, including senior forward Marcus Fleming, the team's leading scorer and rebounder last year. At 6-8, Fleming averaged 16.6 points and 7.9 rebounds as a junior and shot .539 from the field. Alcorn State won both of its exhibition games by hefty margins. The Braves topped VASDA All-Stars, 129-97, and Race Express, 112-91. Seven players averaged double figures in scoring while another two averaged 9.5 points. Fleming, the preseason SWAC player of the year, averaged 18.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists over the two exhibition games.

La Salle posted an 11-17 record last season under Head Coach William "Speedy" Morris and finished in fifth place in the Atlantic 10's West Division. The Explorers welcome back the services of four starters, including forwards Rasual Butler and Victor Thomas. Butler averaged 18.4 points and 5.3 rebounds last year while Thomas posted 16.2 and 8.7 figures. In La Salles's lone exhibition contest, a 95-56 win over Big Apple Basketball, Butler scored 28 points and Thomas added 27.

UNC Wilmington, an NCAA Tournament participant last year after winning the Colonial Athletic Association postseason tournament, finished 18-13. Head Coach Jerry Wainwright returns a pair of starters from last season's third-place CAA squad. Sophomore guard Brett Blizzard, recipient of the Edward S. Steitz Award as the nation's top three-point shooter last year, averaged 15.6 points as a freshman. He canned 94 three-pointers and recorded a .468 mark from behind the arc. UNC Wilmington won its two exhibition games by an average of 25.0 points as junior forward Ed Williams led the squad with 18.0 points and 9.0 rebounds.

Oklahoma has never faced Alcorn State, La Salle or UNC Wilmington.

OU SPLITS EXHIBITION GAMES
Oklahoma beat the California Southwest All-Stars in its exhibition opener before dropping a narrow decision to Global Sports in its second preseason contest. Against the competitive All-Stars, guard Kelley Newton came off the bench and scored 22 points with the help of a trio of three-pointers in OU's 82-77 victory. Forward Daryan Selvy notched a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds while forward Aaron McGhee and Hollis Price contributed 13 and 11 points, respectively.

The Sooners led for much of the contest against Global Sports, a team that featured three former Big 12 players, but couldn't hold on late and suffered an 80-78 setback. Newton and McGhee finished with 21 points apiece and Price added 11. OU, which led by 13 midway through the first half, made 10-of-19 three-point attempts (.526), but could not overcome Global Sports' .560 field goal and .600 three-point performances.

SOONERS CAUGHT STREAKING
The Sooners saw their impressive exhibition victory streak snapped last Saturday versus Global Sports. OU owned a 26-game exhibition winning streak entering the contest. Prior to Saturday, the last time OU had lost an exhibition outing was in 1986 when the USSR national team beat Billy Tubbs' Sooners, 102-74.

OU IN SEASON OPENERS
Oklahoma has won 14 of its last 15 season-opening games with the lone defeat during the stretch coming to Massachusetts in 1993 (84-83). The Sooners are even stingier in home openers as they have recorded a 20-1 mark the last 21 seasons (the Massachusetts game was played inside Lloyd Noble Center). Kelvin Sampson is 6-0 in season openers as OU's head coach.

RAYMOND SERVING SUSPENSION
Junior guard J.R. Raymond, OU's top returning scorer from last season, is serving the final game of a three-game suspension issued for violating team rules. Raymond did not play in the Sooners' two exhibition contests. The Gastonia, N.C., native averaged 13.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.4 steals last year while making 95 three-pointers. The 95 treys stand as the second most in Oklahoma single-season history.

NEWCOMER GRIFFIN TO MISS FIRST THREE GAMES
Junior forward Ronnie Griffin will not participate in the first three regular season games. The delay in his initial participation with OU in regular season competition is a result of eligibility issues that occurred prior to his recruitment by or attendance at the University of Oklahoma. Griffin will be eligible to participate in the second game of the Big Island Invitational in Hilo, Hawaii. The tournament runs Nov. 24-26.

The 6-9 Griffin, who hails from Louisville, Ky., averaged 12.5 points and 5.3 rebounds at Tallahassee (Fla.) Community College last year and was a first-team All-Panhandle Conference selection. He shot .544 from the field and helped the Eagles to a 25-5 final record.

LONG-RANGE WEAPONRY
The Sooners have been a strong three-point shooting team under Coach Sampson and last year was no different as guards J.R. Raymond, Tim Heskett, Kelley Newton and Hollis Price posted an aggregate .407 mark from beyond the arc. The good news for OU is that all four guards return this season. Here's a quick look at their individual performances last year and a quick note on each:

Tim Heskett - .417 (75-for-180), Needs 76 three-pointers to become the school's all-time leader and his .420 career three-point percentage is already tops at OU.

J.R. Raymond - .413 (95-for-230), Ranked third in the Big 12 with his 95 makes, which was also the second-highest total in OU single-season history.

Kelley Newton - .398 (49-for-123), Shot .540 from long distance the first half of the season.

Hollis Price - .373 (25-for-67), Made 9-of-17 attempts during a six-game stretch late in the year.

PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
In the annual preseason Big 12 media poll released Nov. 2, Oklahoma was picked to finish second in the league race behind Kansas. Among the teams the Sooners were predicted to finish ahead of were Missouri (third), Texas (fourth), Iowa State (fifth) and Oklahoma State (sixth). OU was also picked second in the league race by conference coaches.

MORE PRESEASON PICKS
Oklahoma is picked as high as 11th nationally (Blue Ribbon Yearbook) in preseason publications. Here's a quick sampling:

PublicationOU's Nat'l Ranking
Blue Ribbon Yearbook - 11
ESPN Magazine - 18
Street & Smith's - 19
Dick Vitale's - 21
The Sporting News - 23

OU BOASTS NATION'S FOURTH-LONGEST POSTSEASON STREAK
Oklahoma has made 19 consecutive postseason appearances (15 NCAA and four NIT), the fourth-longest streak among Division I programs. Only North Carolina, Georgetown and Indiana own longer postseason streaks. The last time Oklahoma did not compete in the postseason was in 1980-81. The four longest current postseason streaks are as follows:

MODEL OF CONSISTENCY
Oklahoma has registered a winning record in 23 of its last 24 seasons. No other Big 12 team can boast as many winning campaigns since the 1975-76 season as the Sooners. OU has posted a 531-239 (.690) record over the past 24 years.

SAMPSON SIGNS PAIR OF RECRUITS
Head Coach Kelvin Sampson announced Nov. 7 that two recruits have signed National Letters of Intent to play basketball at OU next season. Expected to join the Sooners are center Jabahri Brown and wing player Matt Gipson.

"Jabahri and Matt are two young men who give us a great follow-up to last year's outstanding recruiting class," said Sampson. "We really wanted to get better inside and be more athletic. We accomplished both goals by signing these two talented players."

A native of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, the 6-11 Brown transferred to Rose State College in Midwest City, Okla., following his freshman year at Florida International University last season. Brown will transfer to OU at the end of the current semester and will be eligible to play for the Sooners following the conclusion of the fall 2001 semester when he will have sophomore status. He averaged 8.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 blocked shots and 1.6 steals in 24.3 minutes per game last season as a true freshman at Florida International. In his first college game, Brown scored 23 points on 11-of-14 field goal shooting and registered 17 rebounds, three blocks and five steals in a victory over Radford. He recorded double-doubles in two of his next three games, including a 15-point, 17-rebound effort versus Fresno State.

Gipson is a 6-9 wing player from Burkburnett High School in Burkburnett, Texas, who averaged 21.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game as a junior last year. Compared in style by some to former Utah standout Keith Van Horn, Gipson helped his squad to a 24-11 record while earning unanimous all-district and all-region honors. Fastbreak Recruiting rates him as the fifth-best senior in the Midwest.

HEAD COACH KELVIN SAMPSON
Now in his 18th year as a collegiate head coach, Kelvin Sampson is in his seventh year at the Oklahoma helm. He has averaged 21.7 wins per season at OU and is one of two Big 12 coaches -- Kansas' Roy Williams is the other -- to lead his team to the NCAA Tournament each of the last six seasons.

Sampson began his head coaching career in 1980 at Montana Tech when he was hired as the program's interim head coach. He recorded a 73-45 mark in four seasons and was inducted into the school's sports hall of fame three years ago.

In 1988, Sampson was named head coach at Washington State and compiled an even 103-103 record over seven years, including two 20-win campaigns.

Hired by Oklahoma on April 25, 1994, he has guided the Sooners to a 130-62 (.677) record and a 75-15 (.833) home mark. Two of his OU squads (1997-98 and 1999-00) have played in the Big 12 Tournament championship game. In 1998-99, he directed OU to an NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance.

Sampson was named the 1995 national coach of the year by the Associated Press, the USBWA and Basketball Times.