University of Oklahoma Athletics
OU vs. Tulsa Men's Basketball Preview
November 25, 2003 | Men's Basketball
GAME INFORMATION
Ranked 14th and 13th in this week's AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, respectively, Oklahoma (2-0) plays the third of a four-game season-opening homestand against Tulsa (1-0) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (flagship KOMA 1520 AM in Oklahoma City) with Ed Murray (play-by-play) and Mike Houck (analyst) calling the action. The game will be televised by the Sooner Sports Network (KWTV Channel 9 in OKC) with Chuck Cooperstein (play-by-play) and Wayman Tisdale (analyst) handling the call.
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.)
TULSA'S PROJECTED STARTERS
F 34 Guilherme Teichmann (6-9, 205, Jr.)
F 50 Anthony Price (6-8, 225, So.)
G 11 Jarius Glenn (6-6, 220, Jr.)
G 14 Jason Parker (6-2, 180, Sr.)
G 24 Seneca Collins (6-4, 240, So.)
OKLAHOMA UPDATE
OU started its 10th season under head coach Kelvin Sampson by earning its fourth straight Sooner Invitational title after beating Eastern Washington (69-59) and Oral Roberts (84-68) on Friday and Saturday. Sophomore guard De'Angelo Alexander (17.5 points, 7.0 rebounds) was named tournament MVP while freshmen guards Drew Lavender (14.0 points, 5.0 assists) and Lawrence McKenzie (11.5 points, 2.5 assists) were named to the all-tournament squad. Junior college transfer Jaison Williams was impressive off the bench, averaging 8.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals per contest. Senior wing Jason Detrick did not play either night as he continued his recovery from an abdominal injury. Detrick is expected to see action Tuesday versus Tulsa.
On Friday, Eastern Washington jumped out to an early 13-2 lead and later led by 13 in the first half as it was 6-of-9 from three-point range in the opening 20 minutes. OU cut its deficit to three by halftime, 36-33, before the Eagles quickly pushed their lead to double digits again, 44-34, with 18:15 remaining. The teams traded points for much of the second half until Oklahoma made its run. Alexander scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. Lavender had 12 points and four assists while Williams came off the bench to contribute 10 points, four rebounds and two assists. After missing OU's two exhibition games with a shoulder injury, sophomore forward Kevin Bookout played 25 minutes and registered six points on 3-of-4 field goal shooting, four rebounds and a pair of blocks. Eastern Washington's Josh Barnard was 4-for-5 from three-point territory and finished with a team-high 17 points. The Eagles shot .524 from the field and .583 from long range while holding OU to .415 and .250 figures. The Sooners outboarded Eastern Washington by a 34-24 margin and forced 23 Eagle turnovers while committing 14.
In the championship game, McKenzie hit four of OU's 10 three-pointers and the Sooners never trailed as they won their eighth straight against Oral Roberts. With Oklahoma up 22-21 at the 9:29 mark of the first half, the Sooners used an 18-0 run over the next seven minutes to post a 40-21 lead. Alexander scored eight during the spurt. ORU opened the second half with a 16-7 run to cut its deficit to eight, but eight points by McKenzie in less than 90 seconds helped put the Sooners back up by 19 and they went ahead by as many as 14. McKenzie finished with 19 points while Alexander and Lavender added 17 and 16 each. Williams had eight rebounds in the first half and finished with nine. Oklahoma outboarded the Golden Eagles by a 46-34 count and shot .453 from the field, .417 from three-point range and .727 from the foul line.
ABOUT TULSA
Tulsa enters Tuesday's intrastate affair with a 1-0 record. The Golden Hurricane defeated Northwestern (La.) State at home on Friday, 78-49, behind senior guard Jason Parker's 23 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. Junior forward Guilherme Teichmann contributed 14 points and 10 boards. The Golden Hurricane held the Demons to .293 field goal and .167 three-point shooting marks. Tulsa also won its two exhibition games, 84-76 over Athletes First and 114-89 over Northwest Sports.
A winner of 20 or more games for the past five years, Tulsa was picked to finish fourth in the WAC's preseason media poll and fifth in the coaches version. Last year, TU recorded a 23-10 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament where it lost on a buzzer-beater to Wisconsin, 61-60. The Hurricane returns two starters from last year's squad, including leading scorer Parker (15.4 ppg) and junior guard/forward Jarius Glenn (9.4 ppg). Parker also led TU in assists (4.1 apg) and steals (1.9 spg) last season.
John Phillips is in his third season as Tulsa's head coach and sports a 51-17 (.750) mark. A Tulsa native, Phillips spent 17 years in the Oklahoma high school coaching ranks before joining the TU program in 1997 as an assistant coach.
SERIES WITH TULSA
Oklahoma holds a 22-11 series lead against Tulsa and is 1-1 versus the Golden Hurricane under Kelvin Sampson. Tulsa won the last meeting, 78-75, Dec. 28, 1996, in the All-College Tournament championship game in Oklahoma City. The Sooners won in Sampson's first year at OU, 76-61, on Jan. 7, 1995. Oklahoma is 8-4 against Tulsa in Norman but just 1-3 at Lloyd Noble Center.
SOONER INVITATIONAL LEFTOVERS
Oklahoma outrebounded its two opponents by an 80-58 margin.
The Sooners' four leading scorers were all guards. De'Angelo Alexander averaged 17.5 points and was followed by Drew Lavender (14.0), Lawrence McKenzie (11.5) and Jaison Williams (8.0)
Eastern Washington and Oral Roberts combined to make 14-of-26 three-pointers (.538).
The only two Sooners who did not play over the weekend were senior Jason Detrick (injured) and Kellen Sampson (walk-on).
YOUNG GUNS
Making their Oklahoma debuts in Friday's season opener were freshmen Brandon Foust, Drew Lavender, Lawrence McKenzie and Jimmy Tobias, and junior Jaison Williams. The fivesome accounted for 74 of OU's 153 points over the weekend (48 percent), 21 of 29 its assists (72 percent) and 11 of its 14 three-pointers (79 percent). Redshirt freshman center Larry Turner also saw his first action of the season on Saturday against Oral Roberts. Six of OU's 12 roster players are freshmen (walk-on Kellen Sampson is the sixth) while eight are freshmen or sophomores.
YOUNG GUNS PART II
On Friday, Drew Lavender and Lawrence McKenzie became the third and fourth freshmen under 10th-year head coach Kelvin Sampson to start the first game of a season. The others were Kevin Bookout last season and guard Prince Fowler in 1994-95, Sampson's first OU campaign. Lavender's 12 points against Eastern Washington were the second most by a Sooner freshman in a season-opening game under Sampson (forward Ryan Humphrey had 17 against Jackson State on Nov. 15, 1997). McKenzie's 19 points versus Oral Roberts on Saturday were the most by an OU freshman since Hollis Price tallied 20 against Texas Tech on Feb. 23, 2000. The 19 points represented the third most by a freshman under Sampson (center Bobby Joe Evans scored 20 at Oral Roberts on Dec. 21, 1995).
TOP-10 HIT NO MORE
OU's streak of 30 straight weeks in the AP poll's top 10 came to an end two weeks ago when the organization ranked the Sooners No. 14 in its preseason poll. Oklahoma has now been ranked in the last 35 AP polls and in 68 of the last 72. 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.
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).
BREAKING 80
Oklahoma improved to 110-10 (.917) in nine-plus years under Kelvin Sampson when scoring at least 80 points. OU was 7-0 last season under the circumstance and has won 49 of its last 51 games (.961) when scoring 80 or more.
SOONERS THIS CENTURY
Entering 2003-04, Oklahoma has posted the second-best winning percentage in NCAA Division I over the past four seasons (starting with 1999-2000)...
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 is 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 358-60 (.856) inside the building since it opened for the 1975-76 campaign. The Sooners are 121-17 (.877) 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
UNDER KELVIN SAMPSON...
OU has a 113-26 record the last 4-plus years for the NCAA's second-best winning percentage (.813).
OU has posted an 80-32 (.714) Big 12 Conference record.
OU has made nine consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
OU has advanced to the Sweet 16 (1999), Final Four (2002) and Elite Eight (2003).
OU has recorded a 121-17 (.877) record at Lloyd Noble Center and has won 48 of its last 49 home games.
OU has won at least 26 games each of the last four seasons and at least 22 games each of the last six years.
OU has won three straight Big 12 Tournaments and has made five title game appearances in the last six events.
OU has won 24 of its last 28 games against Big 12 opponents (including Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments).
RIM RATTLERS
Six of OU's 12 players are freshmen (five true and one redshirt) while eight 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.
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 .727 winning percentage is the best in OU history (Billy Tubbs ranks second at .716).
