Sooner Invitational Starts Friday at LNC

TOURNAMENT 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 opens the 2003-04 regular season when it hosts the Sooner Invitational on Friday and Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center.

Oral Roberts and South Carolina State will start the event Friday at 6 p.m. and will be followed by OU vs. Eastern Washington at approximately 8:15. Saturday's consolation and championship games will be played at 6 and 8:15 p.m., respectively.

The OU contests will not be televised, but will be broadcast live on the O-Zone. The games can be heard across the Sooner Radio Network (flagship KOMA 1520 AM in Oklahoma City) with Brian Brinkley (play-by-play) and Mike Houck (analyst) calling the action on Friday and Ed Murray and Houck handling the call on Saturday. The tournament will mark the first games of the season for all four participants.

TOURNAMENT TICKET INFORMATION
Upper-level tickets may be purchased at Lloyd Noble Center's north and east box offices for $15 apiece. One ticket gains admission to both games of an evening.

OKLAHOMA'S PROJECTED STARTERS
F        34     Kevin Bookout (6-8, 240, So.)
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.)

EASTERN WASHINGTON'S PROJECTED STARTERS
F        24     Marc Axton (6-7, 225, Jr.)
F/C    15     Jeremy McCulloch (6-11, 245, Jr.)
G       12     Danny Pariseau (5-11, 155, So.)
G       23     Josh Barnard (6-5, 205, Sr.)
G       52     Alvin Snow (6-2, 215, Sr.)

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
The Sooners start their 10th season under head coach Kelvin Sampson against Eastern Washington at the Sooner Invitational on Friday in Norman. Oklahoma split its two preseason games last week, losing 89-82 to Athletes First and beating EA Sports 90-53. OU's 12-player roster 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.

Leading the way during the team's exhibition contests was senior Jabahri Brown. The center was a combined 17-for-25 (.680) from the field and averaged 18.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 blocked shots. Freshman point guard Drew Lavender, who stands just 5-7, averaged 16.5 points and 5.5 assists per outing while sophomore wing De'Angelo Alexander scored 15.5 points per outing.

A visibly slowed Jason Detrick, who returns to the lineup following a redshirt campaign, scored 10 points against Athletes First but was held out of the second exhibition due to an abdominal injury first sustained in August. He is not expected to play this weekend. Sophomore forward Kevin Bookout missed both exhibition affairs due to a shoulder injury but is expected to see time in the regular season opener. Bookout was named to the Big 12's All-Freshman Team last season and led the league in field goal percentage (.587).

Besides Lavender, players making their debuts in OU uniforms during the exhibition schedule were junior guard Jaison Williams (8.5 points, 4.5 assists per game), freshman guard Jimmy Tobias (6.5 points), freshman foward Brandon Foust (6.0 points, 2.5 steals) and freshman guard Lawrence McKenzie (3.0 points, 2.0 assists). McKenzie started in Detrick's place on Saturday.

ABOUT EASTERN WASHINGTON
Eastern Washington will enter the Sooner Invitational with impressive credentials. The Eagles, who won their exhibition games by 100-79 and 83-55 scores, return three starters and six letterwinners from their 18-13 squad a year ago. EWU posted a 9-5 Big Sky record last season to finish in second place and lost in the conference tournament championship game to Weber State by three points (Weber State was 14-0 in regular season Big Sky play).

The league tourney loss was not enough to keep Eastern Washington from its first postseason berth in its 20 years as an NCAA Division I member, however, as it earned an NIT bid. The Eagles lost at Wyoming in the first round, 78-71.

Preseason Big Sky Player of the Year Alvin Snow averaged 24.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists in two exhibition games. The 6-2 senior guard/forward earned first-team All-Big Sky acclaim the last two years. Last season, he averaged 13.5 points, 3.5 boards, 3.8 assists and 2.2 steasls per contest.

Senior point guard Josh Barnard, a University of Washington transfer who played in all 29 games for the Huskies in 2001-02 but had to sit out last season, averaged 10.5 points and 7.0 assists in exhibition action for EWU. Junior forward Marc Axton, a former Big Sky Freshman of the Year and a first-team all-league performer last season, averaged 9.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists last year. In two exhibition games this month, he averaged 12.5 points and 4.5 rebounds.

Head coach Ray Giacoletti is in his fourth season at Eastern Washington and owns a 52-37 (.584) record there. He is in his seventh season as a collegiate head coach and is 100-70 (.588) in his career. Giacoletti also coached for three years at North Dakota State and compiled a 48-33 (.593) mark.

SERIES WITH EASTERN WASHINGTON
Friday's game will mark the first ever meeting between Oklahoma and Eastern Washington.

SERIES WITH ORAL ROBERTS
Oklahoma holds a 7-2 overall record against Oral Roberts (has won the series' last seven games) and is 3-1 versus the Golden Eagles at Lloyd Noble Center. Kelvin Sampson owns a 4-0 mark against ORU with wins coming in 1994-95 (87-53 in Norman), 1995-96 (87-53 in Tulsa), 1998-99 (83-72 in Oklahoma City) and 2000-01 (84-51 in Oklahoma City). The Golden Eagles' lone victory in Norman was on Jan. 3, 1976, when they dealt Dave Bliss' Sooners a 64-58 setback in the series' first game. OU has won its other three home games against ORU by an average of 35 points.

SERIES WITH SOUTH CAROLINA STATE
OU and South Carolina State met for the only time in last year's NCAA Tournament first round in Oklahoma City. The No. 1-seeded Sooners came away with a 71-54 win at the Ford Center as De'Angelo Alexander (16) and Blake Johnston (15) combined for 31 points on 7-for-9 three-point shooting. Jabahri Brown added 12 points and nine rebounds for Oklahoma. The Sooners went on to beat California (74-65) and Butler (65-54) before falling to Syracuse (63-47) in the Elite Eight.

OPENING STATEMENT
Last year's Nov. 14 season-opening loss to Alabama (68-62) in the AT&T Wireless Coaches vs. Cancer Classic inside New York's Madison Square Garden dropped OU to 8-1 in season openers under Kelvin Sampson. The Sooners have won 16 of their last 18 season-opening games with the only other loss during the span coming to Massachusetts (84-83) on Nov. 28, 1993.

EA SPORTS RECAP
With the help of 21 points (on 8-of-11 shooting) from senior center Jabahri Brown, Oklahoma easily disposed of EA Sports in the Sooners' second exhibition game, 90-53, on Saturday night. Brown's 21 points were a game high and represented his highest output in an OU uniform. He also registered six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal in 31 minutes. Joining Brown in double-digit scoring were De'Angelo Alexander (15), Drew Lavender (12) and Jimmy Tobias (10). The Sooners, who used a 14-0 run to go up by 12 midway through the first half, took a 46-22 lead to halftime and outscored EA Sports by another 13 after the break.

OU shot .480 from the field and .360 (9-for-25) from beyond the arc while holding the visiting all-stars to .368 field goal and .217 (5-for-23) three-point figures. Senior guard Jason Detrick and sophomore forward Kevin Bookout were held out of the games because of injuries. Freshman Lawrence McKenzie started in place of Detrick and made a pair of three-pointers for six total points. McKenzie also had five rebounds and four assists. Junior forward Johnnie Gilbert started for Bookout and recorded three points, a game-high-tying seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. OU finished its exhibition season 1-1 while EA Sports, which beat Arkansas the night before, fell to 3-8.

ATHLETES FIRST RECAP
Kelvin Sampson's Sooners ushered in a new era of Oklahoma basketball on Nov. 10 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.

TOP-10 HIT NO MORE
OU's streak of 30 straight weeks in the AP poll's top 10 came to an end last week 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 A PAIR OF STANDOUTS
Sooners head coach Kelvin Sampson inked two recruits to national letters of intent during the early signing period. Post players Taj Gray and Longar Longar will join Oklahoma for the 2004-05 season.

Gray, a 6-9, 240-pound forward who is regarded as one of the nation's top junior college players, 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 NJCAA 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 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.”

A Sudan native who moved to the United States as a high schooler, Longar stands 6-11 and weighs 210 pounds. He attended John Marshall High School in Rochester, Minn., and is now at Laurinburg (N.C.) Institute, the nation's No. 1-ranked preparatory school. Longar, who originally signed with Oklahoma in November 2002, was a consensus top-75 recruit as a senior last year and led his 24-4 John Marshall squad to the Elite Eight of the state tournament, the school's best-ever finish. He averaged 18.0 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.7 blocks en route to earning first-team All-State honors.

Sampson said, “I'm not sure you can ever have enough quality post players. The thing I love about Longar is that he has an unbelievably high ceiling. His potential is tremendous and one of the things that excites us it that his offensive skills are improving by the day. With post guys like Taj Gray, Kevin Bookout, Johnnie Gilbert and Larry Turner already in the fold, Longar gives us a great young big man to develop and that's something we're excited about.”

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., two weeks ago 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 held 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, 2.0 steals and just 1.0 turnover 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).

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).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooner Invitational Starts Friday at LNC

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