Indiana State-Oklahoma Preview

March 14, 2001

GAME: No. 13 Indiana State (21-9) vs. No. 4 Oklahoma (26-6)
REGION: South, first round.
TIME: Friday, 2:40 p.m. EST.
SITE: The Pyramid, Memphis, Tenn.

Oklahoma tries to keep its momentum from the Big 12 Conference going Friday as it plays Indiana State at The Pyramid in a first-round game of the NCAA tournament's Midwest Region.

The fourth-seeded Sooners (26-6) captured the Big 12 tournament by defeating fellow NCAA tournament squads Missouri, Kansas and Texas in consecutive days and have won 14 of their last 16 games overall.

Kelvin Sampson has led the Sooners to the NCAA tournament all seven years he has been at Oklahoma, although this season there was some adversity to overcome. Sampson kicked leading scorer J.R. Raymond off the team for violating team rules in late February, but the Sooners came closer together after that, going 5-1 down the stretch and winning their first conference tournament title since 1990.

Indiana State (21-9) was the surprise winner of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, knocking off regular-season champion Butler in the process. The Sycamores are making their second straight NCAA tournament appearance since Larry Bird led them to the championship game in 1979.

"I'm just really happy for our team and staff," said Sycamores coach Royce Waltman. "We knew that we were going to be in the tournament, so there was no suspense like last season. We weren't concerned about our seed or who our opponent would be. We just wanted to go someplace close enough that our fans could travel to watch us play."

The Sycamores will need point guard Michael Menser to continue to show his sharp decision-making skills. Menser had the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the nation at 4-to-1.

The teams have met once in NCAA tournament play, with Bird's Sycamores rolling to a 93-72 victory in the 1979 Midwest Region semifinals.

PROBABLE STARTERS:
Indiana State - F Kelyn Block (14.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg), F Matt Renn (15.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg), C Djibiril Kante (9.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg), G Marcus Howard (4.4 ppg, 1.3 apg), G Menser (13.4 ppg, 5.4 apg).
Oklahoma - F Aaron McGhee (13.0 ppg, 4.6 rpg), F Jameel Heywood (3.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg), G Nolan Johnson (13.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg), G Hollis Price (11.8 ppg, 4.7 apg), G Kelley Newton (9.3 ppg, 1.3 apg).

HOW THEY GOT HERE: Indiana State -- Automatic Bid, Missouri Valley Conference tournament champion. Oklahoma - Automatic bid, Big 12 Conference tournament champion.

ALL-TIME TOURNAMENT RECORD: Indiana State - 4-2, 2 years. Oklahoma - 23-19, 19 years.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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