Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus Auburn on February 24, 2026 , Win , 91, to, 79
Final
Men's Basketball
91
vs Auburn
79
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Men's Basketball Goes For Fourth Straight Win Saturday
December 07, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2001
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GAME INFORMATION
The Oklahoma men's basketball team plays host to Louisiana Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. CST inside Lloyd Noble Center. The game, which follows the 1 p.m. OU-Montana State women's basketball 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.
LOUISIANA TECH PROBABLE STARTERS F 25 Zach Johnson (6-10, 245, Jr.) F 34 Antonio Meeking (6-8, 245, Jr.) G 1 Lavelle Felton (6-4, 200, Jr.) G 3 Gerrod Henderson (6-4, 208, Sr.) G 24 Darrian Brown (6-5, 205, Jr.)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.)
OKLAHOMA UPDATE
The Sooners enter weekend play riding a three-game winning streak. OU is coming off a home win over St. Bonaventure on Wednesday (80-74), a road win at Arkansas on Nov. 30 (69-54) and a home victory against Central Michigan on Nov. 28 (81-64).
Senior forward Aaron McGhee has been the story of late for Oklahoma. The 6-8 lefty is averaging 16.3 points and 12.3 rebounds during OU's current win streak. He is coming off a 19-point, 19-rebound performance against St. Bonaventure. His 19 boards were a career high and tied as the most by a Big 12 player this season (Kansas' Nick Collison had 19 against Seton Hall). The 19 caroms also fell four short of the Lloyd Noble Center record shared by Sooner greats Stacey King and Harvey Grant.
Ebi Ere, the Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year, leads the team with his 16.0 points per game and is also averaging 5.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.2 blocks. The reigning Big 12 Rookie of the Week is averaging 23.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.0 blocks the past two games. Ere is also shooting .667 (18-for-27) from the field over the last two outings.
Junior guard Hollis Price averages 15.8 points, 2.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game. An honorable mention all-conference pick last year, Price is shooting a team-high .433 (13-for-30) from long range and is a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line.
The Sooners lead the Big 12 in free throw percentage (.818) while ranking third in scoring defense (60.6 ppg) and offensive rebounds (15.2 rpg).
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH
Louisiana Tech sports a 4-1 record and comes to Norman fresh off a 67-66 win at Auburn on Tuesday. The Bulldogs have also won at Jackson State (99-96 in OT) and at home against Arkansas-Monticello (83-66) and Harding (102-86) since starting the season with a 75-67 loss at nationally ranked Iowa.
The Bulldogs boast a quartet of double-digit scorers, including two-game starter Marco Cole. Cole, a senior guard, is averaging a team-high 17.0 points a game and is shooting .542 from the field. Gerrod Henderson, another senior guard, is averaging 15.4 points and 4.2 assists per outing while junior guard Darrian Brown is averaging 14.4 points and a team-high 8.0 rebounds. Junior forward Antonio Meeking is averaging 14.3 points and 7.3 boards while shooting .583 from the field.
Louisiana Tech owns a .484 field goal percentage while limiting opponents to a .422 mark. Four Bulldog regulars shoot better than .500 from the floor. The first-year member of the Western Athletic Conference has also done a tremendous job in the rebounding department, pulling down 44.8 boards to foes' 32.2.
Keith Richard is in his fourth season as a collegiate head coach, all at Louisiana Tech. Richard owns a 61-30 mark as the Bulldogs' mentor and guided his 2000-01 squad to a 17-12 record and second-place Sun Belt Conference East finish.
SERIES WITH LOUISIANA TECH
Oklahoma is a perfect 7-0 against Louisiana Tech all-time. The last time the two teams met was in the 1989 NCAA Tournament Southeast Regional as OU posted a convincing 124-81 second-round win in Nashville, Tenn. The Sooners set still-existing postseason school records for points, field goals (48), field goal attempts (98), rebounds (62) and steals (16) in that contest. Oklahoma recorded another NCAA Tournament win against the Bulldogs and Karl Malone in the 1985 event, an 86-84 overtime triumph in Sweet 16 action in Dallas. The Sooners are 3-0 against Tech in Norman, 2-0 in Oklahoma City and 2-0 in the postseason.
ST. BONAVENTURE RECAP
Oklahoma used what was maybe Aaron McGhee's best performance in an OU uniform to overcome a six-point second-half deficit as it downed St. Bonaventure Wednesday, 80-74, in Norman. McGhee was 8-for-11 from the field, scored 19 points and pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds (his previous career high was 12). The Sooners took a 36-35 lead to halftime but quickly fell behind by six to start the second half, 44-38. Trailing later by a 48-42 count, OU went on a 13-2 run to go up by five, 55-50. The Bonnies responded with an 8-0 spurt to go back ahead by three but McGhee threw in 11 of his points in the final eight minutes to boost the Sooners to victory. Ebi Ere contributed 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks while Quannas White was 3-for-4 from three-point range en route to an 11-point, four-assist effort. St. Bonaventure, which fell to 3-2, was led by guard J.R. Bremer and forward Vidal Massiah who scored 23 and 21 points, respectively. The Sooners shot .532 from the field, .375 from three-point land and .727 from the free throw line. OU also outboarded the Bonnies, 45-28.
ST. BONAVENTURE LEFTOVERS
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 AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, OU is in the 26th slot.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARDS
Over the last three games, the Sooners have outrebounded their foes by a collective 124-77 count. That's an average of 41.3 rebounds to 25.7 (+15.7) per contest. Granted, OU hasn't faced anyone named Bill Russell, Charles Barkley or Dennis Rodman in the last three outings, but the effort on the glass sure beats the -1.5 margin the Sooners sported in their first two games.
A CHARITY CASE
The Sooners lead the Big 12 Conference with a terrific .818 free throw mark. Ebi Ere (10-for-10) and Hollis Price (8-for-8) have not missed while Aaron McGhee (16-for-18) and Jason Detrick (13-for-18) are also performing well. Opponents are shooting .657 from the line versus the Sooners.
FIELD GOAL SHOOTING ON THE RISE
Oklahoma turned in a substandard shooting effort (.382) in its two exhibition games and posted a combined .355 field goal mark in its first two regular season contests. Over the last three games, however, the Sooners are shooting a healthy .494 from the floor. They recorded a season-best .532 mark Wednesday against St. Bonaventure and a .509 figure Nov. 28 against Central Michigan. OU now owns a .437 season field goal mark.
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 rebounded (literally) very well in OU's last three 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 three games since, however, McGhee is averaging 16.3 points and 12.3 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) and had 11 points and seven rebounds at Arkansas.
McGhee has upped his season averages to 12.4 points and a team-high 8.6 rebounds per outing. He is shooting .423 from the field, .167 (2-for-12) from long range and .889 (16-for-18) from the foul line.
ERE HONORED
Junior college transfer Ebi Ere, the Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, was named the conference's rookie of the week 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. Against Arkansas, Ere was 10-for-14 from the field and 8-for-8 from the free throw line and recorded an assist, two blocks and a steal. 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 per game. He now leads the Sooners in scoring with his 16.0 points per game and also averages 5.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.2 blocks per outing.
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 15.8 points, 2.8 assists and 1.6 steals through five games. Price is shooting .433 (13-for-30) 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.
SELVY REAPPEARS
Senior forward Daryan Selvy averaged 6.9 points and a team-high 5.2 rebounds per outing last year but was quiet in OU's first three games as he produced just 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 21.0 minutes per contest. However, Selvy was all over the place at Arkansas Nov. 30 and registered eight points, a career-high 13 rebounds and 3 steals in 29 minutes of action. He had six points and eight more boards against St. Bonaventure to up his season averages to 6.0 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
THE JABAHRI BROWN COUNTDOWN
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 five 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
The Nov. 28 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 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 $17.1 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 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 91-16 (.850) 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
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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