OU Hosts No. 2 Maryland Friday Night

Dec. 20, 2001

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GAME INFORMATION
Ranked 22nd and 21st in the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, respectively, Oklahoma (8-1) plays host to Maryland (8-1) on Friday at 8 p.m. CST inside Lloyd Noble Center. Maryland is ranked No. 2 in both major polls. 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 also be nationally televised on ESPN with Dan Shulman (play-by-play) and Jon Sundvold (analyst) announcing.

MARYLAND PROJECTED STARTERS
F  1   Byron Mouton (6-6, 215, Sr.)
F  45  Tahj Holden (6-10, 245, Jr.)
C  35  Lonny Baxter (6-8, 260, Sr.)
G  3   Juan Dixon (6-3, 165, Sr.)
G  25  Steve Blake (6-3, 160, Jr.)

OKLAHOMA PROJECTED STARTERS
F  13  Aaron McGhee (6-8, 250, Sr.)
C  21  Jabahri Brown (6-10, 210, 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.)

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
Oklahoma, which will play its fourth game in seven days when it takes on second-ranked Maryland on Friday, has won seven straight contests and is coming off a trio of 100-point performances. The Sooners scored 107, 102 and 109 points on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday against High Point, Bethune-Cookman and Eastern Illinois, respectively. OU's 109-50 win over Eastern Illinois marked the largest margin of victory (59 points) for the Sooners under Kelvin Sampson and stopped the Panthers' six-game winning streak. Oklahoma is shooting .521 from the field during its seven-game skein.

OU's last three games marked the first three for sophomore center Jabahri Brown in a Sooners uniform. The slender 6-10, 210-pound U.S. Virgin Islands product is averaging 5.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 2.3 blocks and 2.0 steals in 24.0 minutes per game.

Junior guard Hollis Price scored a season-high 26 points against High Point and produced 18 in just 16 minutes versus Eastern Illinois. He is averaging 21.0 over the last four games. Price now leads the team and ranks fifth in the Big 12 with his 18.1 points per contest. He also averages 2.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and a team-high 1.8 steals per outing. Price has drained a team-high 24 three-pointers and is shooting a sizzling .511 from long range. He also ranks seventh in the Big 12 with his .875 free throw mark.

Ebi Ere, the Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year, ranks second on the team by averaging 15.1 points per game. The junior guard is coming off a season-low-tying seven-point effort but is still averaging 17.0 points over the team's last six outings. Ere is also averaging 6.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists. He owns an .871 (27-for-31) free throw percentage.

Over the last seven games, senior forward Aaron McGhee is averaging 16.9 points and 7.0 rebounds. He is coming off 22- and 20-point games and has scored in double figures in each of the last seven outings.

Oklahoma ranks fifth in the nation in free throw percentage (.780), sixth in rebounding margin (+11.3) and 11th in scoring margin (+21.3). OU also tops the Big 12 Conference in turnover margin (+4.7) and ranks second in field goal percentage (.484) and scoring defense (60.9 ppg).

ABOUT MARYLAND
No. 2 Maryland lost its opening game of the year to Arizona by four points but has reeled off eight straight wins since. Saturday's game will mark the first true road contest of the season for the Terrapins, who are 5-0 at home and 3-1 at neutral sites. The Terps haven't played since Dec. 11 when they upended Monmouth 91-55 for head coach Gary Williams' 250th win at the school.

Maryland boasts two of the country's top players in seniors Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter. Dixon, a guard, averages 18.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 3.1 steals per outing. He's made a team-high 21 three-pointers and is shooting .912 from the foul line. Baxter averages 15.4 points and is the team's leading rebounder with 8.8 per game. The forward/center is also shooting a team-high .526 from the floor.

Junior point guard Steve Blake averages 7.1 points and 7.0 assists per contest while sophomore forward/center Chris Wilcox averages 9.4 points and 7.9 boards off the bench.

The Terps are shooting .460 from the field, .329 from long range and .625 from the foul line, and are outrebounding opponents by a 43.1-to-38.2 count per game.

Williams has compiled a 250-140 (.641) record in 12-plus years at Maryland and is the school's second-winningest head coach. He's in his 24th year as a collegiate mentor and owns a 457-268 (.630) career mark. Last year he guided the Terps to a 25-11 record and the program's first Final Four.

SERIES WITH MARYLAND
Oklahoma and Maryland have met three previous times with the Terrapins winning two of those contests. Maryland won the first meeting Jan. 19, 1993, in Baltimore, 89-78, as five Terps scored in double figures. A year later on Dec. 7, the Sooners posted a narrow 88-85 victory at The Myriad in Oklahoma City. Ryan Minor, who didn't score in the teams' first meeting, scored 30 points to pace OU. Maryland's Joe Smith also registered 30 points and hauled in 16 boards. A recap of last year's Maryland victory in College Park appears below.

LAST YEAR VS. MARYLAND
After a slow start in which it scored just two points in the game's first nine-and-a-half minutes, 16th-ranked Oklahoma turned in a strong effort before falling short against the 20th-ranked Terrapins at Cole Field House, 68-60. The Sooners went eight-and-a-half minutes without scoring early in the contest, but a three-pointer by Hollis Price two minutes into the second half gave the Sooners their first lead at 30-29. OU posted a pair of two-point leads, but Maryland used a 14-3 run to take a 45-36 advantage. The Terrapins never led by fewer than six points the rest of the way. Juan Dixon scored all 23 of his points after halftime when he hit 4-of-5 three-pointers while Lonny Baxter added 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds. OU's Kelley Newton drained 4-of-8 three-pointers and led the squad with 14 points. Daryan Selvy was 6-for-8 from the field and contributed 12 points. Nolan Johnson and Aaron McGhee both added 10 for the Sooners, who lost for just the second time in their last seven road games.

Price started at point guard for the first time in 11 games and played the entire contest. He replaced J.R. Raymond, who was suspended right before the trip for violating team rules. Raymond had averaged 18.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.9 three-pointers over OU's previous 10 games and helped the Sooners to a 9-1 record during the stretch.

EASTERN ILLINOIS RECAP
Playing their third game in four days, Oklahoma showed no signs of weariness as it broke Eastern Illinois' six-game winning streak in incredible fashion. OU's 109-50 triumph Tuesday night at Lloyd Noble Center marked the Sooners' largest margin of victory (59 points) under eighth-year head coach Kelvin Sampson. Oklahoma shot a staggering .719 in the first half and led 60-26 at intermission. OU finished the game with a .574 field goal shooting mark and outrebounded the Panthers by an amazing 57-22 margin. Aaron McGhee led four Sooners in double figures with 22 points thanks to 8-for-9 field goal and 6-for-6 foul shooting. Hollis Price scored 18 points in 16 minutes of action while Daryan Selvy's 18 points (8-for-11 from the field) were a career high. Jason Detrick contributed 15 points and a career-high 10 boards for his first double-double and Jozsef Szendrei recorded career bests with seven points and 11 rebounds. In addition to OU's .574 field goal mark, the team shot .353 from three-point land and .781 from the foul line. Eastern Illinois, meanwhile, shot just .300 from the field, .280 from long range and .438 from the free throw line. Henry Domercant paced the Panthers with 20 points, his lowest total in five games.

EASTERN ILLINOIS LEFTOVERS

Remarkably, Oklahoma was 39-for-68 (.574) from the field for the third straight game.

Oklahoma's 109 points were its most since scoring 119 in the 1995-96 season (Kelvin Sampson's second at OU) at Colorado (a span of 178 games).

The Sooners made 21 of their first 26 field goal attempts (.808).

Walk-on freshman forward Michael Liggett scored his first points as a Sooner with a late bucket.

QUICK TIPS

The Sooners are 22-26 versus ranked teams under Kelvin Sampson and are 2-3 against top-five teams at Lloyd Noble Center under the head coach. OU beat No. 1 Kansas in 1995 and No. 3 Kansas in 1996 in Norman.

OU rejected 91 shots in 33 games last year. Through nine contests this year, the Sooners have already blocked 40 shots. That's 147 blocks when projected to a 33-game schedule.

Over the last three games, Hollis Price has totaled 59 points in 61 minutes of play. Projected to 40 minutes of court time per game, that's an average of 38.7 points.

Similarly, Aaron McGhee has scored 42 points in his last 43 minutes (over the last two games).

Price shot a combined .439 from the field and .354 from three-point land his first two seasons. So far this year, he owns .546 and .511 respective marks.

In seven-plus years under Kelvin Sampson, the Sooners sport a 91-10 (.901) record when scoring at least 80 points. OU is 30-2 under the circumstance since the beginning of the 1999-2000 season.

HIGH-OCTANE OFFENSE
Oklahoma has cracked the 100-point barrier in three straight games -- a first for the Sooners under Kelvin Sampson. Here are a few notes regarding the team's performance over the last three outings.

OU has scored more than 50 points in four of the last six halves. In the two halves it did not reach 50, it scored 49.

Oklahoma is averaging 106.0 points during the three-game span and has outscored its opponents by an average of 46.6 points.

Prior to the three-game outburst, OU owned a .433 field goal mark. It is now shooting .484 on the year.

The Sooners have outrebounded their last three foes by an average of 21.0 per game (136-73).

A CHARITY CASE
In the latest NCAA stats (games through Dec. 17), the Sooners rank fifth nationally in free throw percentage at .780. OU's top eight scorers are all shooting at least .750 from the charity stripe and its top two scorers (Hollis Price and Ebi Ere) own respective .875 and .871 season marks. Oklahoma has traditionally been a sound free throw shooting team under Kelvin Sampson as six of his first seven squads finished first or second in the league in the category. Last year, the Sooners paced the Big 12 with a .740 mark.

FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE BALLOONS
Oklahoma turned in a substandard shooting effort (.355) in its first two regular season contests, but over the last seven games is shooting a terrific .521 from the field (228-for-438). The Sooners recorded identical .574 marks in the last three games and have surpassed the .500 figure five times in the last seven contests. OU is now shooting .484 on the season to rank second in the Big 12.

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 a team-high 18.1 points per game to go along with his 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals through nine games. Price scored a season-high 26 points in just 18 minutes of play against High Point on Saturday and is averaging 21.0 in OU's last four games. He is shooting .511 (24-for-47) from three-point range and is 11-for-17 (.647) from long distance over the last four outings.

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 HEATS UP
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 has performed very well in OU's last seven contests. McGhee, who averaged 12.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game last season, averaged just 6.5 points and 3.0 boards in the Sooners' first two games this year. In OU's seven games since, however, McGhee is averaging 16.9 points and 7.0 rebounds. He posted his first career double-doubles against Central Michigan (19 points and 11 rebounds) and St. Bonaventure (19 points and a career-high 19 boards).

McGhee, who has scored 42 points in 43 minutes over the last two games, has upped his season averages to 13.6 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds per outing. He is shooting .451 from the field, .286 (6-for-21) from long range and .778 from the foul line.

ERE CONTINUES PRODUCTION
Junior college transfer Ebi Ere, the Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, ranks second on the team with his 15.1 points per game and is averaging 17.0 points over the last six contests. Ere has posted double-digit point totals in seven of nine games and also averages 6.2 rebounds per game to rank second on the squad. Ere was named the conference's rookie of the week Dec. 3 for his performances against Central Michigan and Arkansas. The 6-5 junior guard averaged 18.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in OU's wins that week. Against Arkansas, Ere was 10-for-14 from the field and 8-for-8 from the free throw line to finish with 29 points. Ere was a second-team junior college All-American last year at Barton County (Kan.) Community College when he averaged 25.5 points and 7.6 rebounds.

SELVY REAPPEARS
Senior forward Daryan Selvy has been more aggressive the past two games than he had been the previous several, and it's paid off statistically. In OU's first seven games, Selvy averaged 5.7 points and 0.7 assists, and was shooting .391 from the field. Over the last two games, though, he has averaged 16.0 points, 3.5 assists, and has shot .750 (12-for-16) from the floor. Against Easten Illinois on Tuesday, Selvy was 8-for-11 from the field and finished with career highs in points (18) and assists (5). He is now averaging 8.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.7 steals.

GILBERT LIKELY DONE FOR SEASON
Sophomore Johnnie Gilbert has likely played his last game of the season for the Sooners. The forward played in the team's first six games (started in five) and averaged 4.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots, but injuries have forced him to the sideline. Gilbert has a rotator cuff injury in his left (shooting) shoulder and he is also battling bursitis in his right hip.

SAMPSON NAMED USA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ASSISTANT COACH
OU head coach Kelvin Sampson was announced Dec. 13 as one of three assistant coaches of USA Basketball's 2002 World Championship Team that will compete in the 2002 FIBA World Basketball Championship for Men that is being held in Indianapolis, Ind., Aug. 29-Sept. 8, 2002. Sampson, San Antonio Spurs head coach Greg Popovich and Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery will serve as assistants for head coach George Karl (Milwaukee Bucks). The U.S. team is comprised of seven players thus far. They are Ray Allen (Milwaukee Bucks), Antonio Davis (Toronto Raptors), Michael Finley (Dallas Mavericks), Jason Kidd (New Jersey Nets), Shawn Marion (Phoenix Suns), Reggie Miller (Indiana Pacers) and Jermaine O'Neal (Indiana Pacers). Five more players will be named to the team at a later date.

YOUTH IS SERVED
Of Oklahoma's 10 regular players who have seen action in the team's first nine 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. Sophomore Jabahri Brown is in his first year at Oklahoma after playing his freshman year at Florida International.

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 was picked as high as 16th (Blue Ribbon Yearbook and Dick Vitale) in preseason print and online publications. The Sooners were also 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 $17.8 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 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 95-16 (.856) in seven-plus seasons inside the building under Kelvin Sampson.

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.

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

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.

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