GAME INFORMATION
Ranked 14th and 15th in the preseason AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, respectively, and picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 Conference by the league's coaches and media, Oklahoma plays its second and final exhibition game of the 2003-04 season when it hosts EA Sports Saturday at 7 p.m. at Lloyd Noble Center. The contest will not be televised, but can be heard across the Sooner Radio Network (flagship KOMA 1520 AM in Oklahoma City) with Bob Barry, Sr. (play-by-play) and Mike Houck (analyst) calling the action. EA Sports is a traveling all-star squad that sports a 2-7 record heading into Friday. OU is coming off an 89-82 home loss to Athletes First on Monday.
TICKET INFORMATION
OU students will be admitted free with a valid student I.D. General public ticket prices are $10 and $15.
OKLAHOMA
UPDATE
Kelvin Sampson, in his 10th year as OU's head coach, will lead a young 12-player squad that is comprised of eight freshmen and sophomores. The Sooners return just five letterwinners and two starters from last year's 27-7 squad that finished third in the Big 12 Conference, won the Big 12 Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. Gone from that squad are three starting senior guards (Big 12 Player of the Year Hollis Price, Ebi Ere and Quannas White) who accounted for 56 percent of the team's points, 62 percent of its assists and 76 percent of its three-pointers a year ago.
Despite the roster's youthful appearance, Sampson's squad is loaded with talent. Senior center Jabahri Brown and sophomore forward Kevin Bookout are the only full-time starters back from last season, although junior forward Johnnie Gilbert (13 starts) and sophomore guard De'Angelo Alexander (11) earned their share of starting assignments late in the year. Alexander led the team by averaging 11.8 points per game in the NCAA Tournament while Gilbert may be the team's most improved player. Also returning is senior guard Jason Detrick and freshman center Larry Turner, both redshirts last year. A key reserve on OU's 2002 Final Four team, Detrick claims he is a much improved player after sitting out. Turner has improved leaps and bounds from this time a year ago and his 6-11 frame carries a world of potential.
Leading one of the top recruiting classes in school history is freshman point guard Drew Lavender. The 5-7 McDonald's All-American will become the third OU true freshman to start the first game of a season under Sampson (Bookout last year and Prince Fowler in 1994-95 are the others). Lavender dazzled during the Sooners' Labor Day Weekend trip, averaging 14.5 points, 8.3 assists, 2.0 steals and just 1.0 turnover in four games. He OU's shortest player since the mid 1940s when Harold “Scooter” Hines played the point for head coach Bruce Drake. Jaison Williams is expected to see a lot of minutes off the bench at the wing and backup point guard positions. Williams, considered the team's top three-point shooter, is a junior college transfer who played his freshman season (2001-02) at Xavier.
Jimmy Tobias is an extremely athletic freshman wing who impressed in Costa Rica. Tobias averaged 13.0 points and reached double figures in all four games. He shot .556 from the field and was 7-for-16 (.438) from long range. Lawrence McKenzie is another freshman guard vying for playing time. A consensus top-75 national recruit, McKenzie played on four state championship teams in Minnesota. Freshman forward Brandon Foust, who teamed in high school with Lavender, was expected to redshirt this season. But Sampson has indicated recently that Foust's play in practice has changed the coach's mind. The team's sixth newcomer is freshman walk-on Kellen Sampson, a Norman High product who is Coach Sampson's son.
OU'S SATURDAY PROJECTED STARTERS
F 32 Johnnie Gilbert (6-8, 230, Jr.)
C 21 Jabahri Brown (6-10, 220, Sr.)
G 1 Lawrence McKenzie (6-2, 170, Fr.)
G 3 Drew Lavender (5-7, 155, Fr.)
G 15 De'Angelo Alexander (6-5, 215, So.)
RESERVES
G 2 Jaison Williams (6-3, 185, Jr.)
G 4 Jimmy Tobias (6-4, 185, Fr.)
G 5 Jason Detrick (6-6, 215, Sr.)
G 11 Kellen Sampson (6-1, 180, Fr.)
F 22 Brandon Foust (6-6, 205, Fr.)
F 34 Kevin Bookout (6-8, 265, So.)
C 44 Larry Turner (6-11, 235, Fr.-RS)
ABOUT EA SPORTS
EA Sports is a nine-member traveling all-star squad that is scheduled to play 13 games against teams in the Midwest and Southwest. The team enters its Friday game versus Arkansas with a 2-7 record. It has posted wins over Kansas State (79-67) and Illinois State (78-71) and has lost at Wyoming (97-87), Kansas (91-87), Texas Tech (100-61), Wisconsin (103-81), Pittsburgh (82-56), Iowa (99-85) and Texas (110-80). EA Sports is scheduled to play at Arkansas on Friday evening before heading to Norman.
SERIES WITH EA SPORTS
Oklahoma has won its only previous meeting with EA Sports, an 85-56 contest on Nov. 9, 2001, in Norman. Jason Detrick and Daryan Selvy scored 16 points each to lead five Sooners in double figures. Hollis Price had 15 points, Ebi Ere netted 13 (to go along with 13 rebounds) and Aaron McGhee added 12. OU shot just .375 from the field but turned in a commanding 56-40 rebound advantage and forced 22 EA Sports turnovers while committing only eight. The 2001-02 Sooner team finished the season 31-5 and advanced to the Final Four.
ATHLETES FIRST RECAP
Kelvin Sampson's Sooners ushered in a new era of Oklahoma basketball on Monday night at Lloyd Noble Center, but it was Athletes First that walked out with an 89-82 victory. OU watched as the Athletes First all-star squad shot .508 from the field and .778 (7-for-9) from three-point range to earn its first victory in five contests. Athletes First outrebounded the young Sooners, 50-28, and rode the hot hand of former Missouri guard John Woods. Woods was 6-of-6 from beyond the arc and made his first nine field goal attempts of the evening en route to a game-high 30 points. He finished 11-for-13 from the floor. Frontcourt players Louis Truscott (19 points and 10 rebounds) and Patrick Okafor (17 points and 14 rebounds) posted double-doubles for the visitors. Five Sooners saw their first Lloyd Noble Center action, and starting freshman point guard Drew Lavender was among them. Lavender was 10-for-20 from the field and had a team-high 21 points while also racking up five assists and three rebounds in 36 minutes of action. Jabahri Brown registered a double-double with 16 points (his most ever in an OU uniform) and 10 rebounds while De'Angelo Alexander also scored 16 points. Six of Jason Detrick's 10 points came at the free throw line. Preseason Wooden Award candidate Kevin Bookout was held out of the game due to a shoulder injury.
EXHIBITING SUCCESS
Despite their 89-82 loss to Athletes First on Monday, the Sooners have compiled an impressive exhibition record over the last 15 years. Oklahoma has been the victor in 30 of its last 32 exhibition affairs. Under Kelvin Sampson, OU is 17-2 in exhibition games. Sampson's other loss at OU came against Global Sports in 2000-01, 80-78.
TOP-10 HIT NO MORE
OU's streak of 30 straight weeks in the AP poll's top 10 came to an end on Monday when the organization ranked the Sooners No. 14 in its preseason poll. Oklahoma has now been ranked in the last 34 AP polls and in 67 of the last 71. Kelvin Sampson's teams were ranked No. 3 in the past two seasons' final AP polls.
OU SIGNS JUCO ALL-AMERICAN
Taj Gray, one of the nation's best junior college basketball players, signed a national letter of intent on Wednesday to play for Oklahoma next season. Gray, a 6-9, 240-pound forward, hails from Wichita, Kan., and attends Redlands Community College in El Reno, Okla. The preseason first-team All-American led Redlands to a 32-3 record and National Junior College Athletic Association Tournament berth last year when he averaged 15.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots per game. He also shot 68 percent from the field. Gray was the NJCAA's Region 2 Player of the Year and earned second-team All-America acclaim. A Wichita East High School product, Gray was Kansas' Class 6A Player of the Year as a senior in 2001-02. He led his 24-3 team to the state title and was named the state tournament's MVP.
“Taj fits Sooner Basketball,” said OU head coach Kelvin Sampson. “Our program is built around a warrior mentality. Taj is a warrior. He's a relentless rebounder. Aaron McGhee had the highest ceiling of any frontline junior college player we've ever signed, and Taj is the same type of player. He'll have an immediate impact on our program. His greatest strengths are his relentlessness, his toughness, his rebounding and his ability to score. Taj has the total package and he's as good a junior college player as there is in the country.”
BOOKOUT PART OF ACADEMIC AWARD CEREMONIES
Oklahoma sophomore forward Kevin Bookout and OU Associate Athletics Director for Academic Affairs Dr. Gerald Gurney traveled to McLean, Va., last week to receive an academic award on behalf of the OU athletics department. The USA Today and NCAA Academic Achievement Awards Recognition Luncheon on Friday, Nov. 7, honored OU as the Division I-A institution with the greatest increase in percentage of graduating student-athletes over the previous year's rate (with a 40 percent rate of improvement). Oklahoma's current student-athlete graduation rate of 74 percent (best in the Big 12) applies to student-athletes who began school as freshmen in the fall of 1996. Fourteen other NCAA member colleges and universities were also recognized for various academic achievements at the event at USA Today headquarters. Dr. Myles Brand, president of the NCAA, and Craig Moon, president and publisher of USA Today, presented the awards.
COSTA RICA RECAP
Oklahoma traveled to Costa Rica over Labor Day Weekend (Aug. 30-31) and came away with four victories in four games against club and semi-professional teams. The Sooners rolled in their first three games, beating Panama (94-58), Limon (103-43) and Barva de Heredia (100-34). OU was tested in the fourth contest by Liceo de Costa Rica but still won by double digits, 79-69.
Sophomore Kevin Bookout led the team in scoring and rebounding with his 18.5 and 10.8 respective averages, and shot .643 from the field. Senior wing Jason Detrick returned to the court following a redshirt season to average 15.3 points, 7.0 boards and 5.0 assists in the four games. Detrick had games of 26 and 24 points. Drew Lavender was nothing short of impressive at point guard. The freshman averaged 14.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 2.0 steals while shooting .529 (9-for-17) from three-point range and 1.000 (9-for-9) from the foul line. Fellow freshman Jimmy Tobias averaged 13.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest while junior forward Johnnie Gilbert played solid throughout the event. Gilbert averaged 11.5 points and 8.0 boards per game.
Rounding out the scoring averages were Jaison Williams (8.3 ppg), Lawrence McKenzie (6.8), Larry Turner (4.3) and Jabahri Brown (2.0). Brown was limited due to an ankle injury.
LAST YEAR REVISITED
Oklahoma turned in yet another fine season under head coach Kelvin Sampson last year. The Sooners recorded an impressive 27-7 overall record and 12-4 (third place) Big 12 mark. OU also won its third straight Big 12 Tournament and made its ninth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The Elite Eight appearance was its seventh overall. Following is a list of team notes and accomplishments from the 2002-03 season:
Oklahoma finished 27-7 overall, tying the second-best winning percentage (.794) under Sampson.
The 27 wins tied for the sixth most in school history.
OU's Elite Eight appearance marked its seventh ever and second consecutive.
The team's Big 12 Tournament title was its third straight. The championship game appearance was OU's fifth in the last six years.
The Sooners made their 22nd consecutive postseason appearance (18 NCAA and four NIT). Only Indiana (26) owns a longer current postseason streak. The NCAA Tournament appearance was OU's ninth consecutive.
Oklahoma finished the year ranked No. 3 in the AP poll and No. 7 in the ESPN/USA Today version. The AP finish tied as its best since 1989-90 when OU ended up No. 1 in both the media and coaches' polls (OU also finished No. 3 in 2002).
OU's No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed was its fifth ever and first since 1990.
The Sooners upped their nation's-best home winning streak to 37 games before losing the regular season finale to Texas, 76-71.
Oklahoma led the Big 12 (all games) in scoring defense (60.0 ppg), three-point field goal percentage (.392) and opponent rebounds (32.3 rpg). It ranked second in scoring margin (+10.3), three-point field goal percentage defense (.321), turnovers (12.1) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.17).
SOONERS THIS CENTURY
Over the past four seasons (starting with 1999-2000), Oklahoma has posted the second-best winning percentage in NCAA Division I ...
Duke 121-20 (.858)
Oklahoma 111-26 (.810)
Stanford 102-26 (.797)
Kansas 113-29 (.796)
Arizona 107-29 (.787)
SIX STRAIGHT 20-WIN SEASONS
The Sooners have compiled six straight seasons of at least 22 wins under head coach Kelvin Sampson. Last year marked the 21st 20-win season in school history and seventh under Sampson (this will be his 10th year).
HOME IS WHERE THE “W” IS
Lloyd Noble Center has always been extremely kind to the Sooners. Oklahoma, which posted a perfect 16-0 mark at home in 2001-02 and finished 15-1 last season, is 356-60 (.856) inside the building since it opened for the 1975-76 campaign. The Sooners are 119-17 (.875) at home under 10th-year head coach Kelvin Sampson and had won 37 straight before losing to Texas in the regular season finale last March. The 37-game home winning streak was OU's longest since winning 51 in a row in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was the nation's longest streak at the time. It also stands as the longest streak in Big 12 Conference history (Kansas held the previous league record with 33 straight home wins).
NINE STRAIGHT...AND COUNTING
Oklahoma has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of Kelvin Sampson's nine years in Norman. Only seven other schools have made the “Big Dance” each of the past nine seasons (Arizona, Cincinnati, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland and Stanford).
KELVIN'S SCHOOL OF DANCE
Last year's NCAA Tournament appearance marked Kelvin Sampson's 10th straight as a head coach (nine with Oklahoma and one with Washington State). That string ranks fourth among current coaches. Only Arizona's Lute Olson (19 straight), North Carolina's Roy Williams (14) and Cincinnati's Bob Huggins (12) have taken teams to more consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Kentucky's Tubby Smith and Maryland's Gary Williams have also been to 10 straight “Big Dances” while Stanford's Mike Montgomery has been to nine.
OU OWNS NATION'S SECOND-LONGEST POSTSEASON STREAK
Oklahoma has made 22 consecutive postseason appearances (18 NCAA and four NIT), the second-longest streak among Division I programs. Only Indiana owns a longer postseason streak. The last time OU did not compete in the postseason was in 1980-81. Here are the two longest postseason streaks:
Team Streak NCAA NIT Started
Indiana 26 24 2 1977-78
Oklahoma 22 18 4 1981-82
RIM RATTLERS
Six of Oklahoma's 12 players are freshmen (five true and one redshirt) while eight of the 12 are freshmen or sophomores.
The Sooners made their ninth straight NCAA Tournament appearance last year and 18th in the last 21 years.
Oklahoma is 16-3 over the last three postseasons (9-0 in Big 12 and 7-3 in NCAA Tournaments).
The Sooners have won more NCAA Tournament games the past two years (seven) than they did in their previous 10 appearances combined.
Fifteen of OU's opponents scored less than 60 points last season and only two scored more than 70.
Only five of Oklahoma's 34 opponents last year recorded more assists than turnovers.
OU shot .439 from three-point range over last season's final 17 games (136-for-310).
The Sooners have won at least 26 games each of the last four seasons.
OU ranked 10th nationally in scoring defense (60.0 ppg), 12th in three-point field goal percentage (.392) and 16th in turnovers per game (12.1) a year ago.
The Sooners' scoring defense mark of 60.0 points per game last year marked their lowest in 25 years.
Oklahoma is 16-8 in overtime games under Sampson and has won 10 of its last 12. OU went 3-0 in overtime affairs last season (beat Texas Tech twice and Kansas State).
Sampson's .725 winning percentage is the best in OU history (Billy Tubbs ranks second at .716).
