University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Looking For First Big 12 Victory

January 08, 2001 | Men's Basketball

By: Athletics Communications

Jan. 8, 2001

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GAME INFORMATION
Ranked 22nd in the AP and 19th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches polls, Oklahoma (11-2 overall, 0-1 Big 12) hosts Texas A&M (6-7, 0-1) Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. 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 by the Sooner Sports Network (KWTV Channel 9 in OKC and KWBT Channel 19 in Tulsa). Dean Blevins (play-by-play) and Charlie Spoonhour (analyst) will announce.

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
The Sooners' six-game winning streak was snapped Saturday in a 100-80 conference-opening loss at Iowa State. Twenty-five and 22-point efforts from Hollis Price and Aaron McGhee were not nearly enough to overcome 12-of-18 three-point shooting by the Cyclones. The fact that Iowa State outrebounded OU by a 39-21 count did not help the Sooners' cause either. The Cyclones outscored Oklahoma 59-31 in the second half.

Aaron McGhee leads four Sooners who average double figures in scoring with his 15.8 points per game. The junior forward has posted totals of 22, 26, 27, 28 and 32 so far this year. Sophomore point guard Hollis Price averages 13.5 points and team highs in assists (5.8 apg) and steals (2.2 spg). Price, who has led the team in assists in 12 of 13 games, ranks second in the Big 12 with a 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio. Senior guard Nolan Johnson averages 12.4 points per outing and has scored in double digits in eight of the last nine games. Kelley Newton, another senior guard, averages 11.3 points per outing and ranks second in the league in three-point percentage (.529) and third in three-pointers per game (2.8). Junior forward Daryan Selvy made his first career start Saturday and averages 9.3 points and a team-high 5.8 rebounds per contest.

Oklahoma has shot .500 or better from the field in seven of its 13 games this year and is shooting .494 on the season. In six previous campaigns under Head Coach Kelvin Sampson, OU's best field goal percentage was .471 (in 1994-95).

TEXAS A&M UPDATE
Texas A&M also dropped its Big 12 opener Saturday, losing 53-48 to Kansas State in College Station. The Aggies posted the sixth-worst field goal performance in school history (.286) and were outrebounded 40-29. It marked just the third time in 13 games, however, that A&M was outboarded. Sophomore guard Bernard King was the only Aggie to reach double figures in points (17) while sophomore forward Keith Bean grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.

King, last year's Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, is averaging 20.3 points over the last four games and has scored in double figures in 11 of 13 contests. He averages team highs in points (18.0 ppg to rank third in the Big 12), assists (4.7 apg) and steals (1.4 spg) on the year. Senior forward Carlton Brown ranks second in scoring (14.5 ppg) and leads the team with his 7.5 rebounds per outing. Freshman forward Nick Anderson is averaging 8.7 points and 6.3 boards per game.

In his third year as the Aggies' head coach, Melvin Watkins has posted a 26-42 (.382) record. Last season he guided his squad to 8-20 overall and 4-12 Big 12 marks. The former UNC Charlotte mentor is in his fifth year as a collegiate head coach and owns a 68-62 (.523) career record.

SERIES WITH TEXAS A&M
Oklahoma owns a 13-1 all-time series advantage over Texas A&M with its lone loss coming on a last-second basket in 1998-99 in College Station. The Sooners are 6-0 against the Aggies in Norman and Kelvin Sampson boasts an 8-1 mark against A&M as OU's head coach.

The Sooners swept the Aggies last year, winning 78-53 in Norman and 77-59 in College Station. In the first contest, Kelley Newton poured in a then-career-high 19 points with the help of 5-for-6 three-point shooting, and Jameel Heywood recorded eight points and 12 rebounds in 17 minutes. Bernard King led the Aggies with 18 points. In College Station, Eduardo Najera registered 20 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals for the Sooners. Hollis Price added 15 points, seven assists and five steals for OU while King's 15 points led Texas A&M.

RECAPPING THE IOWA STATE CONTEST
In a tale of two completely different halves, Iowa State ran its home court winning streak to 29 games with a 100-80 win over Oklahoma Saturday in Ames. The Sooners appeared to be in good shape after shooting their way to a 14-point lead with 3:24 left in the first half. OU, which shot .643 (18-for-28) in the opening 20 minutes, took a 49-41 lead to the halftime locker room, but a remarkable second-half effort by the Cyclones erased Oklahoma's lead and any hopes of starting the Big 12 season with a road victory. Iowa State made eight three-point baskets in the second half, seven in the first 7:20 of the period, and outscored the Sooners 59-31 after the break. Senior guards Jamaal Tinsley (5-for-7) and Kantrail Horton (4-for-6) combined to make nine treys and freshman Jake Sullivan canned three of his four long-range attempts on the day. Horton, who scored 21 of his game-high 27 points after halftime, led five Cyclones in double figures in scoring. Tinsley and Sullivan contributed 17 points each while Paul Shirley and Richard Evans added 15 and 14, respectively. Hollis Price paced OU with 25 points while Aaron McGhee scored 22 and Nolan Johnson 14. Iowa State outrebounded the Sooners by 18 and OU's 21 boards tied for the fewest by Oklahoma in seven seasons under Sampson.

IOWA STATE LEFTOVERS

  • OU's loss was its first in a conference opener under Kelvin Sampson. The Sooners won their previous six league-opening games.
  • Iowa State's 100 points tied for the most surrendered by a Sampson-coached OU team (the Sooners beat Nebraska 117-100 in triple overtime in the 1995-96 season).

    OKLAHOMA'S BIG 12 HISTORY
    The Sooners boast a 43-22 (.662) 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 24-8 league record at home and a 19-14 mark on the road.

    NOLAN IS ROLLIN'
    After a slower-than-anticipated start to the season, senior guard Nolan Johnson has elevated his play lately. Johnson reached double figures in scoring just once in the team's first four games (8.3 points) but has done it in eight of the last nine. Over OU's last four outings he is averaging 16.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 steals. 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 12.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game on the year.

    NEWTON SHUT OUT FROM LONG RANGE
    Senior guard Kelley Newton, who ranks second in the Big 12 in three-point percentage (.529) and third in three-pointers per game (2.8), failed to make a three-pointer for the first time this season against Iowa State on Saturday (he was 0-for-3). Newton has made at least two three-pointers in all but two games this year and has raised his career three-point percentage to .445 (85-for-191). 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.

    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 three games, however, Heskett has gone 6-for-10 from long range. He is now shooting .305 from beyond the arc on the season. Heskett ranks second in OU history in both three-point makes (201) and three-point attempts (495).

    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 .733 season mark. Under Kelvin Sampson, the Sooners have finished first or second in the conference in free throw shooting every season except 1998-99. Here's the year-by-year breakdown:

    SeasonFT%Rank
    1994-95.7442nd
    1995-96.7081st
    1996-97.7242nd
    1997-98.7012nd
    1998-99.6519th
    1999-00.7102nd
    2000-01.7331st

    WHO WILL IT BE?
    Six different Sooners have led the team in scoring in OU's 13 games this season. Aaron McGhee has done it four 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 .588 from the field (144-for-245), has accounted for 34 percent of the team's points and 38 percent of its rebounds through 13 games. Aaron McGhee leads the team with his 15.8 points per game and also averages 4.7 rebounds. Daryan Selvy is averaging 9.3 points and a team-high 5.8 boards per game. And in his 10 games (six have been starts), Ronnie Griffin is averaging 5.6 points and 3.3 rebounds.

    PRICE IS RIGHT
    Sophomore point guard Hollis Price is coming off a 25-point performance against Iowa State and ranks second on the squad in scoring (13.5 ppg). Price leads the team in assists (5.8 apg) and steals (2.2 spg). He also boasts a 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio to rank second in the Big 12 and has been OU's leading assist man in 12 of 13 games.

    Price, who ranks fifth in the conference with a .837 free throw mark, 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.

    BALANCED ATTACK
    Aaron McGhee leads four Sooners who average double digits in points per game. McGhee, who averages 15.8 per outing, is joined by Hollis Price (13.5), Nolan Johnson (12.4) and Kelley Newton (11.3). Daryan Selvy and J.R. Raymond are not far behind with their respective 9.3 and 7.7 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.

    BACK ON TRACK
    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 11 games, OU has gone 86-for-210 from beyond the arc for a strong .410 percentage.

    The Sooners now own a .390 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 .305 percentage (18-for-59) through 13 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

  • Four of OU's top five scorers are shooting better than .500 from the field (second-leading scorer Hollis Price owns a .480 field goal mark).
  • Eight Sooners average at least 15.0 minutes per game.
  • In five games versus Alcorn State, Montana State, North Texas, Southwest Texas and Iowa State, Aaron McGhee averaged 27.0 points. In OU's other eight games this year, he is averaging 8.9 points.
  • The Sooners are averaging 13.2 more field goal attempts per game than their opponents.
  • Nolan Johnson sports a team-high .889 free throw percentage (40-for-45).
  • Saturday's game versus Iowa State snapped a six-game streak in which Johnson had recorded at least one steal.
  • After starting the season by missing four of his first six free throws attempts, Daryan Selvy has made 17-of-20 from the charity stripe (.850).
  • Oklahoma has shot .500 or better from the field in seven of its last 12 games and owns a .494 season mark.
  • OU opponents are averaging 7.8 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 six 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 141-64 (.688) record and an 81-15 (.844) 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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