Men's Hoops On Road At Arkansas Friday

Nov. 29, 2001

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GAME INFORMATION Unranked Oklahoma travels to Fayetteville, Ark., Friday to face the Arkansas Razorbacks at 7 p.m. CST inside Bud Walton Arena. 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 Mike Houck (analyst) calling the action. The contest will be televised nationally by ESPN2 with Dave Strader (play-by-play) and Larry Conley (analyst) announcing.

OKLAHOMA PROBABLE STARTERS

F  13  Aaron McGhee (6-8, 250, Sr.)

F  32  Johnnie Gilbert (6-8, 230, So.)

G  2   Ebi Ere (6-5, 215, Jr.)

G  4   Quannas White (6-1, 190, Jr.)

G  10  Hollis Price (6-1, 165, Jr.)

ARKANSAS PROBABLE STARTERS

F  33  Dionisio Gomez (6-8, 218, Sr.)

F  50  Larry Satchell (6-9, 227, Jr.)

G  0   J.J. Sullinger (6-5, 202, Fr.)

G  12  Jannero Pargo (6-2, 164, Sr.)

G  13  Brandon Dean (6-1, 199, Sr.)

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
Playing its first game in two weeks, Oklahoma used a 19-point, 11-rebound performance from senior forward Aaron McGhee to help dispose of a strong Central Michigan squad, 81-64, Wednesday at Lloyd Noble Center. The Chippewas were picked to finish ahead of Ball State in the Mid-American Conference's West Division. McGhee was 5-for-11 from the field and 8-for-9 from the foul line as he posted his first career double-double to help improve the Sooners' record to 2-1. Junior guards Hollis Price and Jason Detrick scored 17 points apiece while Quannas White contributed eight points and 10 assists.

Price leads the team with his 18.3 points per game and is averaging a team-high 2.3 steals per outing. He has also made 9-of-21 three-point attempts for a team-best .429 mark. Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Ebi Ere is averaging 11.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. McGhee, who averaged 6.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in OU's first two games, is now averaging 10.7 points and 5.7 boards per contest. Detrick, like McGhee is averaging 10.7 points per outing.

The Sooners posted a .509 field goal mark Wednesday after shooting .387 and .323 against Central Connecticut and Michigan State, respectively. OU now owns a .403 field goal mark for the season and is shooting .315 (23-for-73) from three-point range and a stellar .846 (33-for-39) from the free throw line. Oklahoma's 17 turnovers versus Central Michigan were by far a season high, but the team has still committed 18 fewer miscues than its foes through three games.

ABOUT ARKANSAS
The Razorbacks posted their best win of the young season Wednesday night by defeating Tulsa on the road, 79-75, to improve to 3-1. Arkansas has also beaten Maine (64-57 Nov. 12) and Oral Roberts (71-57 Nov. 18) while losing to Wake Forest (76-71 Nov. 16). All three of those contests were at home.

Leading the way against Tulsa were seniors Dionisio Gomez and Brandon Dean. Gomez, a forward, recorded 18 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two steals while Dean, a guard, made 3-of-5 three-point attempts and finished with 18 points and three steals. Guard Jannero Pargo, another senior, added 13 points and three assists. The Razorbacks shot .517 from the field and permitted just a .379 performance by the Golden Hurricane.

Arkansas, which is shooting .433 from the floor, .273 from three-point range and .588 at the foul line, averages 36.0 rebounds per outing to its opponents' 38.5. Foes are also averaging 19.0 turnovers.

Pargo leads the squad in scoring and assists with his 11.0 points and 2.8 assists per game. He has made a team-high six three-pointers, although he is shooting just .261 from long range. Freshman guard J.J. Sullinger is averaging 10.5 points and 2.5 assists per outing while senior guard Teddy Gipson is averaging 10.2 points per contest. Gomez and Dean average 9.8 points each while Gomez sports a team-leading 8.5 rebounds-per-game average.

Nolan Richardson is in his 17th year as Arkansas' head coach and is 379-156 (.708) at the school. He is in his 22nd year as a college head coach and needs just two more victories to reach 500 in his career (he is 498-193 overall). Richardson coached five years at Tulsa before moving on to Arkansas. The Razorbacks have made the postseason in all but Richardson's first year (1985-86 season).

SERIES WITH ARKANSAS
Friday's game will mark the 21st meeting between the two schools and the ninth in Fayetteville. Despite OU victories in each of the last three seasons, Arkansas leads the overall series by a 12-8 count and also holds a 6-2 advantage at home. Oklahoma head coach Kelvin Sampson is 3-1 against the Razorbacks. Besides an 88-79 overtime win in Norman last year, a 66-52 win in Fayetteville two years ago and an 87-57 home triumph in 1998-99, Sampson's Sooners faced Arkansas during the 1994-95 campaign in the first round of the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Razorbacks won that contest, 86-84.

LAST YEAR VERSUS THE RAZORBACKS
In a game that will be remembered as one of the greatest comebacks in Oklahoma history, the Sooners rallied from nine points down with less than two minutes remaining in regulation to force overtime and eventually beat 25th-ranked Arkansas, 88-79, last year in Norman. Kelley Newton, who missed his first four three-point attempts of the night, buried two treys at the 1:08 and 0:34 marks of regulation to cut the margin to two at 72-70. T.J. Cleveland put Arkansas up by three with a free throw with 30 seconds left before Hollis Price nailed two from the line to cut the Razorbacks' lead to one with 24 seconds remaining. Arkansas' Carl Baker made the first of two foul shots a second later to make the score 74-72 and then OU's Daryan Selvy rebounded an Aaron McGhee miss and made a 10-foot putback to force overtime.

Price paced the Sooners with nine points in the extra frame and OU held the Razorbacks without a field goal as all five of their overtime points came at the foul line. Price scored all 21 of his points after halftime with the help of a 13-for-15 free throw effort. Nolan Johnson scored 18 points and McGhee added 15 for OU, while Selvy recorded his first career double-double with 13 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. Arkansas was led by Jannero Pargo's 14 points.

LAST TIME IN FAYETTEVILLE
Oklahoma was 11-for-22 from three-point range for the contest and outscored Arkansas 34-20 in the second half to snap the Razorbacks' 22-game non-conference home winning streak on Dec. 7, 1999. Eduardo Najera led OU in points (18), rebounds (10) and assists (5) while J.R. Raymond scored 17 and Tim Heskett added 15 (Heskett was 5-for-8 from long range). Then a freshman, Hollis Price played 31 minutes, scored 10 points and committed just one turnover against the Hogs' pressure defense. Oklahoma shot .489 from the field while Arkansas posted a .368 mark. The Razorbacks entered the game with a 90-10 record inside Bud Walton Arena.

CENTRAL MICHIGAN RECAP
Oklahoma registered a .509 field goal percentage, by far its best of the early season, and made 18-of-20 free throws in an 81-64 home win over Central Michigan Wednesday. The Sooners led by just two at halftime, 38-36, but outscored the Chippewas 43-28 in the final 20 minutes. OU shot .533 in the second half while limiting Central Michigan to a .375 figure. Aaron McGhee posted his first career double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, and also added a pair of blocked shots on the night as the Sooners upped their season mark to 2-1. Hollis Price was 7-for-14 from the floor and scored 15 of his 17 points after intermission. Jason Detrick also pitched in with 17 points, and tallied a team-high three steals, while fellow junior college transfer Quannas White recorded eight points and 10 assists. The Sooners outrebounded the Chippewas by a healthy 37-25 count and produced a .900 (18-for-20) free throw mark. Point guard Whitney Robinson led Central Michigan with 17 points while Mike Manciel added 15 points and a game-high four steals.

CENTRAL MICHIGAN LEFTOVERS

Quannas White's 10 assists were the most by a Sooner since the season opener last year when Hollis Price also registered 10 handouts against Alcorn State. White also committed just two turnovers.

After grabbing 51 rebounds in its last game against Georgia State, Central Michigan gathered just 25 boards versus the Sooners.

SOONERS DROP OUT OF POLLS...BARELY
Oklahoma began the season ranked 23rd in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll and 25th in the AP poll, but has dropped out of the top 25 in both. In the current ESPN/USA Today poll, OU is in the 27th slot. In the newest AP version, the Sooners are 26th.

ODD COUPLE
Entering play Thursday, Oklahoma ranks first in the Big 12 in scoring defense as it allows just 58.3 points per game. Strangely, though, the Sooners rank last in the conference in field goal percentage defense. Opponents are shooting .466 from the field.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Seven Sooners are averaging more than 20 minutes per game, but Hollis Price is the only one above 30 minutes per outing (36.7 mpg).

OU has committed fewer turnovers than all three of its opponents and is averaging 6.0 fewer turnovers than its foes. Last year the Sooners led the Big 12 with just 12.7 miscues per contest.

Sophomore forward Johnnie Gilbert leads OU and ranks second in the Big 12 with eight blocked shots (2.7 per game). Last year he led the squad with 23 blocks (0.9 per game). Gilbert is also shooting .800 from the field (8-for-10).

PRICE IS RIGHT
Junior guard Hollis Price has shown no ill-effects from a severed triceps tendon sustained in his right (shooting) arm last March as he is averaging 18.3 points, 2.7 assists and 2.3 steals through three games. Price is shooting .429 (9-for-21) from three-point range and made a career-high six three-pointers in 10 tries in the season opener against Central Connecticut. The six treys doubled his previous career high while the 10 attempts also established a career most. The New Orleans, La., native did not commit a turnover in his first 83 minutes of play this year. Price spent most of the offseason rehabilitating his arm after an injury during OU's NCAA Tournament game against Indiana State last spring. He collided with ISU's Kelyn Block and had a piece of Block's tooth embedded in the arm. Price underwent three surgeries within the span of a week to irrigate the wound, remove the tooth and repair the severed tendon.

McGHEE RETURNS TO FORM
Aaron McGhee, OU's 6-8, 250-pound senior forward who was a first-team junior college All-American in 1999-2000, struggled in the Sooners' first two games but bounced back nicely Wednesday against Central Michigan. McGhee averaged 12.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game last season and is the team's leading returning scorer. In OU's first two games this year he produced just 6.5 points and 3.0 rebounds per outing and failed to produce a blocked shot or a steal. Against Central Michigan, however, McGhee posted his first career double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. He also had two blocked shots and an assist. The left-hander has been terrific at the foul line with 11 makes in 12 tries (.917).

GILBERT STEPS UP
Sophomore Johnnie Gilbert has made the most of early season opportunities. The 6-8 forward played well off the bench in the season opener against Central Connecticut and was rewarded with starts the next two contests. Gilbert is averaging 5.7 points per game and team highs in rebounds (6.0 rpg) and blocked shots (2.7 bpg). Versus Central Connecticut, the Minneapolis, Minn., product recorded four blocked shots in 18 minutes. He rejected three more shots Wednesday against Central Michigan. Gilbert is also the only Sooner shooting better than .500 from the field through three games (he has made 8-of-10 field goal tries for a .800 mark).

BROWN BECOMES ELIGIBLE DEC. 15
Jabahri Brown, OU's 6-10, 210-pound sophomore center who is practicing with the team but ineligible to play in games due to transfer rules, will see his first action of the season Dec. 15 against High Point. A native of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Brown began his playing career at Florida International in 1999-2000 before transferring to Rose State College in Midwest City where he attended classes during the fall semester last year. He signed with OU last November and practiced with the Sooners during last year's spring semester. The athletic Brown will give Oklahoma a defensive presence Coach Sampson has been seeking in the middle for several years. Brown averaged 8.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots per game as a freshman at Florida International. He also competed this summer in the World University Games for the U.S. Virgin Islands and averaged 7.6 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocked shots.

YOUTH IS SERVED
Of Oklahoma's nine players who have seen action in the team's first three games, only one has multiple years of Division I experience at Oklahoma - junior guard Hollis Price. Seniors Aaron McGhee and Daryan Selvy are in their second seasons at OU after transferring from junior college, as is true sophomore Johnnie Gilbert. Junior Jozsef Szendrei and freshman Blake Johnston redshirted last year and are in their first full season of Division I competition. Juniors Jason Detrick, Ebi Ere and Quannas White are all in their first season at OU after spending two years at the junior college level.

COURT IS IN SESSION
Wednesday's game against Central Michigan marked the first played on Lloyd Noble Center's new court by the Oklahoma men's team. The new $87,000 floor was supposed to be ready for the Sooners' season opener Nov. 12 but was shipped back to the manufacturer to correct the paint shade.

SOONERS SIGN ALEXANDER
The Sooners signed DeAngelo Alexander, a consensus top-50 national recruit from Midwest City High School, to a national letter of intent Nov. 16. Alexander is ranked by respected recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons as the country's 19th-best high school senior. The 6-5, 210-pound Alexander averaged 19.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.9 steals as a junior for Midwest City's Class 6A state champs last year. He shot .560 from the field, .400 from three-point land and .700 from the free throw line for the 26-2 Bombers. Alexander helped his team to a 26-2 mark and Class 6A state title as a sophomore as well.

"He's one of the best guards I've seen," said OU coach Kelvin Sampson of Alexander. "He combines, size, scoring ability and basketball I.Q. He's been extremely well coached and he possesses a great passion for the game - I've always been impressed with how much DeAngelo loves basketball. He's one of the few players in high school who can truly play all five positions. In college, he'll be a terrific wing guard or combo guard. He's a kid who will have the chance to step in his freshman year and be a major contributor."

PRESEASON PICKS
The Sooners were picked to finish in fourth place in the Big 12 in both the media and coaches' preseason polls behind Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma State. Texas, Iowa State and Colorado were predicted to finish fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, in both polls.

Nationally, Oklahoma is picked as high as 16th (Blue Ribbon Yearbook and Dick Vitale) in preseason print and online publications. The Sooners have also been tabbed 19th (ESPN.com), 21st (Basketball News) and 24th (Athlon and Street & Smith's). OU was ranked 23rd in the initial ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Poll and 25th in the AP version.

BACK TO THE FUTURE
The 26-year-old Lloyd Noble Center is in the midst of a $17.1 million renovation and expansion project with the majority of the facelift to the existing arena recently completed. The renovation included a new ceiling, new and brighter "sports lighting" and the addition of retractable floor seating that has moved fans closer to the playing surface.

The expansion portion of the project will result in arguably the top collegiate basketball practice, training and office facility in the country. The OU men's and women's teams have each begun working out in brand new practice gyms and will soon have at their disposal new locker rooms, player lounges, film rooms, training rooms, meeting rooms, a hydrotherapy room, an X-ray and examination room, a weight room and coaching offices. The new 70,000-square-foot facility will also include a banquet room and a legacy lobby.

Oklahoma posted a 13-1 record at Lloyd Noble Center last season and is 90-16 (.849) in seven-plus seasons inside the building under Kelvin Sampson.

BOOK IT
Kelvin Sampson: The OU Basketball Story is now in bookstores. Written by Dallas Morning News' Steve Richardson and released in October, the book chronicles the Oklahoma head coach's journey from his childhood days in North Carolina to coaching stints at Michigan State, Montana Tech and Washington State, and to his current position at OU. The 269-page book is filled with interviews and accounts of former players, coaches and associates. Retail price is $18.95.

SOONER SUCCESS UNDER SAMPSON

Kelvin Sampson guided Oklahoma to a .791 combined winning percentage the past two seasons (53-14), the seventh best in NCAA Division I. Only Stanford, Duke, Michigan State, Iowa State, Tulsa and Cincinnati posted higher winning percentages over the span.

Last season's NCAA Tournament appearance marked Sampson's eighth straight as a head coach (seven with Oklahoma and one with Washington State). That streak ranks fifth among current coaches.

Oklahoma has finished 12th (2000) and 13th (2001) in the final AP poll the past two years.

The Sooners boast a 55-25 (.688) Big 12 regular season record in the league's five years, second only to Kansas' 64-16 (.800) mark.

OU BOASTS NATION'S FOURTH-LONGEST POSTSEASON STREAK
Oklahoma has made 20 consecutive postseason appearances (16 NCAA and four NIT), the fourth-longest streak among Division I programs. Only North Carolina (35 years), Georgetown (27) and Indiana (24) own longer postseason streaks. The last time Oklahoma did not compete in the postseason was in 1980-81.

MODEL OF CONSISTENCY
Oklahoma has registered a winning record in 24 of its last 25 seasons. No other Big 12 team can boast as many winning campaigns since the 1975-76 season as the Sooners. Entering the current campaign, OU had posted a 557-246 (.694) record over the past 25 years.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Men's Hoops On Road At Arkansas Friday

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