OU Faces No. 5 Kansas Saturday At Noon

Jan. 11, 2001

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GAME INFORMATION
Ranked 22nd in the AP and 19th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches polls, Oklahoma (12-2 overall, 1-1 Big 12) hosts Kansas (12-1, 1-0) Saturday at noon CST inside Lloyd Noble Center. The game will air live on the Sooner Basketball Radio Network (flagship KOMA 1520 AM in Oklahoma City) with Bob Barry, Sr. (play-by-play) and Mark Mathew (analyst) calling the action. The contest will also be televised regionally by ABC (KOCO Channel 5 in OKC and KTUL Channel 8 in Tulsa). Ron Franklin (play-by-play) and Jon Sundvold (analyst) will announce.

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
The Sooners returned to their winning ways Tuesday with a 78-65 defeat of Texas A&M at Lloyd Noble Center. Junior forward Aaron McGhee converted 10-of-12 free throw attempts and tallied a game-high 24 points to go along with five rebounds and two assists. Sophomore point guard Hollis Price added 17 points, four rebounds and a game-high five assists.

McGhee leads four Sooners who average double figures in scoring with his 16.4 points per game. In two league games, he is averaging 23.0 points. McGhee has posted totals of 22, 24, 26, 27, 28 and 32 points so far this year. Price averages 13.7 points (21.0 in Big 12 play) and team highs in assists (5.8 apg) and steals (2.1 spg). Price, who has led the team in assists in 13 of 14 games, ranks second in the Big 12 with a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. Senior guard Nolan Johnson played just 10 minutes against Texas A&M due to a knee sprain sustained earlier in the week and did not score. He still ranks third on the team with his 11.5 points per outing and had scored in double digits in eight of the last nine games prior to Tuesday. Kelley Newton, another senior guard, averages 11.1 points per outing and ranks second in the league in three-point percentage (.528) and third in three-pointers per game (2.7). Junior forward Daryan Selvy has started the last two games and averages 9.3 points and a team-high 5.9 rebounds per contest.

Oklahoma has shot .500 or better from the field in seven of its 14 games this year and is shooting .490 on the season. In six previous campaigns under Head Coach Kelvin Sampson, OU's best field goal percentage was .471 (in 1994-95).

KANSAS UPDATE
Winners of five straight contests, the Jayhawks are off to their best 13-game start since the 1997-98 campaign. Kansas enters Saturday's game ranked second in the Big 12 in points per game (85.0) and leads the league in field goal percentage (.525) and assists (21.4 apg). KU opponents are shooting just .377 from the field on the year and the Jayhawks are outrebounding foes by a substantial 11.0 boards per contest. The team has posted quality wins over UCLA (99-98), St. John's (82-74), DePaul (75-69) and Ohio State (69-68). The team's only loss came Dec. 7 at Wake Forest (84-53).

Senior guard/forward Kenny Gregory paces the squad with his 17.2 points per game, and also averages 7.1 points and 2.4 assists per outing. He owns impressive .630 field goal and .412 three-point marks. Interestingly, though, he sports just a .484 free throw mark (15-for-31). Sophomore forward Drew Gooden averages 16.4 points and 8.5 rebounds off the bench while Nick Collison, another sophomore forward, averages 12.9 points and 5.9 boards per game. Senior center Eric Chenowith is averaging 11.7 points and a team-best 9.0 rebounds, while sophomore point guard Kirk Hinrich averages 10.7 points and a team-high 6.8 assists per game. Hinrich leads the Big 12 with his .583 three-point mark (21-for-36).

Head Coach Roy Williams, in his 13th season, is 341-83 (.804) at Kansas. He is 15-8 against the Sooners. Assistant Coach Joe Holladay is an OU graduate and was a guard on the Sooner basketball team from 1967-69. He averaged 7.2 points per game as a senior when OU went 7-19.

SERIES WITH KANSAS
Kansas, the only Big 12 program that owns a winning record against Oklahoma, is 126-60 all-time versus the Sooners and has won the last five meetings. The Jayhawks also boast a winning mark in Norman (42-38), but OU leads in games played at Lloyd Noble Center (the building opened in 1975-76), 13-10. Oklahoma is 2-7 against Kansas under Head Coach Kelvin Sampson, 2-2 at Lloyd Noble.

In the teams' only meeting last year, Kansas held OU scoreless over the game's final 3:55 and came away with a 53-50 win in Lawrence. The Jayhawks held eventual third-team All-American Eduardo Najera to a season-low eight points and J.R. Raymond, the team's second-leading scorer, to a then-season-low five points. The Sooners shot just .328 from the field and were outrebounded 50-36. Nolan Johnson led OU with 14 points and Najera pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds. Kenny Gregory (11), Ashante Johnson (10) and Drew Gooden (10) all scored in double figures for Kansas.

The last time OU and KU played in Norman was two seasons ago. The Sooners suffered through one of their worst offensive performances under Sampson, recording just .265 field goal and .219 three-point percentages. OU registered just a .161 field goal mark in the first half, yet trailed by only six at the break (20-14). Kansas, which shot just .392 from the field itself, was led by Eric Chenowith. The sophomore was 9-for-13 from the field and finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds. He was the only player on either team to shoot better than .500 from the floor. Michael Johnson scored 16 points to lead the Sooners and Najera grabbed 12 boards.

RECAPPING THE TEXAS A&M CONTEST
Oklahoma overcame a sluggish start and fended off Texas A&M Tuesday in Norman, 78-65. The Sooners trailed much of the first half and found themselves down by as many as eight near the midway point of the period before rallying to take a 38-31 halftime lead. OU made six three-pointers after halftime and watched its lead hover around the 10-point mark much of the half. Aaron McGhee scored 13 of his game-high 24 points following intermission. The junior made 10-of-12 free throw attempts and was 2-for-3 from three-point range while adding five rebounds and two assists. Hollis Price contributed 17 points, five assists and four rebounds while Daryan Selvy added 10 points, a game-high eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals. OU's third-leading scorer, Nolan Johnson played 10 first-half minutes before sitting out the remainder of the game. The senior guard sprained his right knee in practice Sunday and did not attempt a field goal in the contest. Bernard King scored 17 points, all after halftime, to pace the Aggies. King did not attempt a field goal in the first half.

TEXAS A&M LEFTOVERS

The Sooners committed 11 first-half turnovers but just four after the break.
After playing a bench role the previous seven contests, junior guard J.R. Raymond started in place of senior Kelley Newton.
Hollis Price was 7-for-13 from the field. He is 16-for-30 (.533) in two league games after shooting .345 over OU's previous seven games.
OU upped its Big 12-leading season free throw mark to .735 with a 25-for-33 performance (.758).

OKLAHOMA'S BIG 12 HISTORY
The Sooners boast a 44-22 (.667) Big 12 regular season record in the league's four-plus years, second only to Kansas' 53-12 (.815) mark. OU finished 9-7 (fifth place) in 1997, 11-5 (tied for second) in both 1998 and 1999, and 12-4 (tied for third) last year. Kelvin Sampson's Big 12 squads have posted a 25-8 league record at home and a 19-14 mark on the road.

UP AND DOWN SEASON FOR McGHEE IS UP OF LATE
OU's leading scorer and second-leading rebounder, Aaron McGhee has experienced a solid season, for sure. However, the junior forward has had a few dips this year, as well. McGhee has scored 22 more more points six times on the season, but failed to reach double digits in five games. In OU's final two December games, McGhee averaged just 7.0 points in wins over Oral Roberts and SMU in the All-College Tournament. In the team's two January games, though, the former Cincinnati Bearcat is averaging 23.0 points. McGhee scored 22 points on 7-for-8 shooting in a loss to Iowa State and netted 24 in a win versus Texas A&M.

McGhee, whose season high was 32 points against Montana State in the third game of the year, was a first-team junior college All-American last year at Vincennes (Ind.) University. He was named the MVP of the national junior college tournament when he averaged 34.5 points.

JOHNSON HOBBLED BUT EXPECTED TO PLAY
Senior Nolan Johnson sustained a medial collateral ligament sprain in his right knee in practice Sunday but started and played 10 minutes against Texas A&M Tuesday. Johnson, who wore a knee brace in the game, did not attempt a field goal versus the Aggies and watched the entire second half from the bench. The guard is expected to play Saturday against Kansas. He led the Sooners with 14 points last year versus the Jayhawks in Lawrence.

Johnson reached double figures in points just once in the team's first four games of the year but did it in eight of the next nine. Prior to Tuesday's outing against Texas A&M, Johnson averaged 16.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 steals over a four-game stretch. The former Brooklyn (N.Y.) Player of the Year as a high school senior, Johnson is shooting .509 from the field and a team-high .889 (40-45) from the free throw line on the season. He is now averaging 11.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game on the year.

NEWTON IS OU'S MAD BOMBER
Senior guard Kelley Newton is enjoying a stellar season from beyond the three-point arc. Newton who ranks second in the Big 12 in three-point percentage (.528) and third in three-pointers per game (2.7), failed to make a three-pointer for the first time this season against Iowa State last Saturday (he was 0-for-3). He rebounded with a 2-for-4 effort Tuesday against Texas A&M. Newton has made at least two three-pointers in all but two games this year and has raised his career three-point percentage to .446 (87-for-195). The Kansas City, Kan., native drained eight treys (tying Texas A&M's Bernard King for the most by a Big 12 player this year) on 11 tries versus Coppin State Dec. 16 en route to a career-high 26 points. He was also 6-for-9 from downtown while scoring 20 points Dec. 30 versus SMU in the All-College Tournament final.

PRICE IS RIGHT
Sophomore point guard Hollis Price is coming off 25- and 17-point performances against Iowa State and Texas A&M, respectively, and ranks second on the squad in scoring (13.5 ppg). Price leads the team in assists (5.8 apg) and steals (2.1 spg). He also boasts a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio to rank second in the Big 12 and has been OU's leading assist man in 13 of 14 games.

A member of last year's Big 12 All-Freshman Team, Price has already earned MVP honors in two tournaments this year. He won the Sooner Invitational MVP trophy after averaging 11.0 points, 8.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 3.5 steals and just 1.5 turnovers in wins over Alcorn State and La Salle. At the Big Island Invitational, Price took home another trophy after averaging 21.0 points, 5.7 assists and 1.7 steals while shooting .719 (23-for-32) from the field and .615 (8-for-13) from three-point land in victories against Montana State, Tulane and Oregon State. Versus the Green Wave, Price was 10-for-14 from the floor, 3-for-5 from beyond the arc and 7-for-9 from the foul line for a career-high 30 points. He also contributed six assists and four steals in that contest.

HESKETT RETURNING TO FORM
Tim Heskett, a fifth-year senior who was OU's career leader in three-point percentage entering the year with his .420 mark, has seen his season percentage rise recently after a dismal start to the year. The Lexington, S.C., product made just 12 of his first 49 three-point tries this year for a .245 mark. Over the last four games, however, Heskett has gone 7-for-11 from long range. He is now shooting .317 from beyond the arc on the season. Heskett ranks second in OU history in both three-point makes (202) and three-point attempts (496).

OU LEADS LEAGUE IN FREE THROW PERCENTAGE
It should come as no surprise that Oklahoma leads the Big 12 Conference in free throw percentage with its .735 season mark. Under Kelvin Sampson, the Sooners have finished first or second in the conference in free throw shooting every season except 1998-99.

WHO WILL IT BE?
Six different Sooners have led the team in scoring in OU's 14 games this season. Aaron McGhee has done it five times while Nolan Johnson and Hollis Price have done it three times. J.R. Raymond has done it twice while Kelley Newton and Daryan Selvy have paced the team once each. Seven different Sooners have also led the team in rebounding this year.

JUCO TRANSFERS CONTRIBUTING
OU signed four junior college recruits last year, and three of them have made significant contributions so far this season (the fourth, center Jozsef Szendrei, has battled injuries and has played in just two games). The trio, which is shooting a combined .565 from the field (152-for-269), has accounted for 35 percent of the team's points and 40 percent of its rebounds through 14 games. Aaron McGhee leads the team with his 16.4 points per game and also averages 4.7 rebounds. Daryan Selvy is averaging 9.3 points and a team-high 5.9 boards per game. And in his 11 games (six have been starts), Ronnie Griffin is averaging 5.4 points and 3.5 rebounds.

BALANCED ATTACK
Aaron McGhee leads four Sooners who average double digits in points per game. McGhee, who averages 16.4 per outing, is joined by Hollis Price (13.7), Nolan Johnson (11.5) and Kelley Newton (11.1). Daryan Selvy and J.R. Raymond are not far behind with their respective 9.3 and 7.5 points-per-game marks. No Kelvin Sampson-coached Oklahoma team has ever finished a season with five players averaging double figures in scoring. Four players averaged at least 10.0 points per game in both the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, however.

LONG-RANGE THREATS
Since shooting .295 from three-point land in its first two games of the season, Oklahoma has been extremely solid in the department. In its last 12 games, OU has gone 93-for-227 from beyond the arc for a strong .410 percentage.

The Sooners now own a .391 three-point mark for the season. Interestingly, the school's career leader in three-point percentage entering the year (.420), senior guard Tim Heskett sports just a .317 percentage (19-for-60) through 14 games.

Last year, the Sooners ranked second in the Big 12 with a .383 season three-point mark and two years ago finished second with a .388 percentage. The OU single-season record of .414 was set in 1986-87, the first year of the three-point line.

SEVEN STRAIGHT TOURNAMENT CROWNS
Oklahoma's tournament titles in the Sooner Invitational, the Big Island Invitational and the All-College Tournament this year marked its fifth, sixth and seventh in a row in the regular season. Last year the Sooners won the Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska, the Sooner Invitational in Norman and the All-College Tournament in Oklahoma City. OU also captured the All-College Tournament championship in the 1998-99 season. The Sooners' last loss in regular season tourney competition came to North Carolina State (62-58) in the final round of the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic in December 1998. Their regular-season tournament winning streak stands at 16 games.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Aaron McGhee has committed at least four fouls in nine of 14 games.
Four of OU's top five scorers are shooting better than .500 from the field (second-leading scorer Hollis Price owns a .486 field goal mark).
Tim Heskett has made five of his last six three-point attempts over the last three games.
Nine Sooners average at least 15.0 minutes per game.
In six games versus Alcorn State, Montana State, North Texas, Southwest Texas, Iowa State and Texas A&M, McGhee averaged 26.5 points. In OU's other eight games this year, he is averaging 8.9 points.
The Sooners are averaging 12.9 more field goal attempts per game than their opponents.
Nolan Johnson sports a team-high .889 free throw percentage (40-for-45).
Price is shooting .796 from the foul line on the year but is just 7-for-12 in the last two games (.583).
After starting the season by missing four of his first six free throws attempts, Daryan Selvy has made 25-of-30 from the charity stripe (.833).
Oklahoma has shot .500 or better from the field in half of its games and owns a .490 season mark.
OU opponents are averaging 7.6 more turnovers per game than the Sooners. Foes have committed more turnovers in all but two games (Oregon State and SMU).
Six different Sooners have led the team in scoring this year.
Entering this contest, Head Coach Kelvin Sampson has utilized seven different starting lineups.

PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
In the annual preseason Big 12 media poll released Nov. 2, Oklahoma was picked to finish second in the league 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.

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

"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.

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.

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 (34 years), Georgetown (26) and Indiana (23) 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.

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 142-64 (.689) record and an 82-15 (.845) 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.

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OU Faces No. 5 Kansas Saturday At Noon

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