Sampson's Sooners Return Home to Host Missouri

GAME INFORMATION
Ranked No. 11 and No. 13 in the latest AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, respectively, Oklahoma (10-2 overall, 0-1 Big 12) opens its Big 12 home season when it plays host to unranked Missouri (6-6, 1-1) on Saturday at noon CST inside Lloyd Noble Center. The game will air on 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. It will be televised regionally by ABC with Ron Franklin (play-by-play) and Jon Sundvold (analyst) handling the call.

TICKET INFORMATION
Restricted admission tickets will be sold for $20 each at Lloyd Noble Center's north and east windows beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

MISSOURI PROJECTED STARTERS
F 5 Travon Bryant (6-9, 240, Sr., 11.3 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.6 apg)
C 50 Arthur Johnson (6-9, 255, Sr., 13.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 1.1 apg)
G 1 Jimmy McKinney (6-3, 205, So., 10.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.7 apg)
G 21 Randy Pulley (6-2, 218, Jr., 1.8 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 2.9 apg)
G 23 Rickey Paulding (6-5, 218, Sr., 15.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 2.8 apg)

OKLAHOMA PROJECTED STARTERS
F 34 Kevin Bookout (6-8, 265, So., 8.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 0.6 apg)
C 21 Jabahri Brown (6-10, 220, Sr., 6.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.5 apg)
G 3 Drew Lavender (5-7, 155, Fr., 12.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 4.4 apg)
G 5 Jason Detrick (6-6, 215, Sr., 10.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.9 apg)
G 15 De'Angelo Alexander (6-5, 215, So., 12.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 1.7 apg)

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
Following a 10-0 start that catapulted them to a No. 6 AP ranking, the Sooners have struggled mightily in their last two games with 86-59 and 77-56 road defeats against No.1 Connecticut and Oklahoma State, respectively. In both games, Oklahoma shot poorly while its foe didn't. OU turned in a .274 field goal mark at UConn and a .352 figure versus OSU. Meanwhile, the Huskies shot .523 and the Cowboys shot .564. The Sooners also committed a combined 35 turnovers (17.5 average) after averaging just 13.6 per game prior to the Connecticut contest.

One of the lone bright spots of late has been the offensive play of freshman point guard Drew Lavender. He tallied 22 points at Connecticut and 15 at Oklahoma State. In the last three halves, Lavender has scored 35 points (projects to 23.3 points per game). The Preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year has led the Sooners in scoring in five of the last seven games and paces the team with his 12.7 points and 4.4 assists per outing (he also ranks second with 1.8 steals per game). Lavender's 18 treys tie for the team lead and his .375 three-point percentage is tops on the squad. At just 5-7, he is averaging 15.3 points over the last seven outings and is on pace to challenge OU's freshman record for assists per contest (Terry Evans holds the freshman mark with 4.4 per game in 1989-90).

Sophomore wing De'Angelo Alexander ranks second in scoring and third in rebounding with his 12.0 and 5.3 respective averages. In two games since a career-high 22-point effort against Princeton on Jan. 3, Alexander has averaged 7.0 points and 5.0 boards. He registered his first career double-double Dec. 29 against Texas-Pan American with 16 points and 10 boards. Fellow wing Jason Detrick, who tallied 16 points at Connecticut, ranks third on the team with his 10.4 points per game and first with his 1.9 steals. The senior has struggled with his shot, however, going 9-for-34 (.265) over the last four games. Junior Jaison Williams, has been extremely valuable most of the season. Coming off the bench in each game, Williams is averaging 7.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 steals. The guard made five three-pointers against Texas-Pan American Dec. 29 and finished with a career-high 17 points and a team-high four assists. He is also shooting a team-high .913 from the foul line.

On the inside, sophomore forward Kevin Bookout averages 8.2 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds per game. Bookout has battled a shoulder injury all season and has been held to single-digit scoring outputs each of the last three games. He grabbed 11 rebounds at OSU on Wednesday, 10 of them in the first half. Senior center Jabahri Brown averages 6.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.0 blocked shot per game. Brown, who had his jaw wired shut for a couple of days after getting kicked in the Texas-Pan American contest, has been held to three points (all free throws) over the last two games. Junior forward Johnnie Gilbert has been solid off the bench. The lefty averages 4.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and a team-high 1.4 blocks per game on the season.

ABOUT MISSOURI
The Big 12 coaches' preseason No. 1 team, Missouri enters Saturday's game with 6-6 overall and 1-1 conference records. The Tigers have lost six of their last nine games, including an 82-68 decision in their last outing Monday against Syracuse. Mizzou lost at Iowa State (70-65) in its league opener before rebounding to knock off Texas A&M at home (82-77).

Considered by many as preseason All-Americans, seniors Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson lead the way for the Tigers. Paulding, a guard, averages 15.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. He has struggled from the field, shooting .366 on the year. Johnson ranks second in scoring and rebounding with his 13.2 and 7.8 averages. The center has also blocked a team-high 21 shots and is shooting .530 from the floor. Another senior, forward Travon Bryant averages 11.3 points and 6.6 boards per game while shooting a team-high .596. Freshman forward Linas Kleiza averages nearly a double-double with his 11.0 points and Big 12-high 9.1 boards per outing. Freshman guard Jimmy McKinney averages 10.8 points.

Missouri is shooting .440 from the field and owns .342 three-point and .695 free throw marks. Opponents have shot .427 from the field and .377 from beyond the arc. Mizzou outrebounds its foes by 8.4 caroms a game.

In his sixth season as Missouri's head coach, former Duke guard Quin Snyder is 90-55 (.621).

SERIES WITH MISSOURI
OU leads the overall series with Missouri, 109-89, and holds a 62-19 lead in Norman. Kelvin Sampson is 12-6 against the Tigers as OU's head coach and is 5-0 versus Missouri at Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners have won 10 of their last 11 against Missouri. The teams split their two meetings last year with Missouri claiming a 67-52 victory on Feb. 26 in Columbia and OU posting a 49-47 win on March 16 in the Big 12 Tournament title game in Dallas.

In last season's first meeting, OU set season lows for field goals (15), field goal percentage (.273) and steals (1) while no player reached double digits in scoring. OU's field goal percentage was its worst in 133 games. The Sooner backcourt turned in a 7-for-42 (.167) shooting performance while OU shot .436 as a team. Arthur Johnson led MU with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

The rollercoaster ride rematch finally yielded a third straight Big 12 Tourney crown for the Sooners. OU led 37-18 at halftime and pushed its advantage to 22 (46-24) at the 15:05 mark of the second half. But the Sooners failed to make another field goal and watched Missouri close to within one, 48-47, with 1:26 remaining. A Rickey Paulding shot fell off the mark in the waning seconds, though, and OU added a free throw. Hollis Price scored 14 points and was named MVP while Johnson paced MU with 21 points and 11 boards.

A WIN OVER MISSOURI WOULD...
Give OU 11 wins in its last 12 games against Missouri and a streak of six home wins versus the Tigers.
Give the Sooners 46 wins in their last 47 home games and 58 in their last 60.
Prevent a three-game losing streak for OU. The Sooners haven't lost three straight since January 1999.

OKLAHOMA STATE RECAP
For the second straight game the opponent sizzled from the field while Oklahoma struggled. The result on Wednesday was a 77-56 Oklahoma State victory in Stillwater in OU's Big 12 opener. The nation's top shooting team, OSU shot .564 while the Sooners posted a .352 mark. Oklahoma also committed a season-high 20 turnovers and was outboarded 35-29. The Cowboys rolled from the start, jumping out to a 12-2 lead. OU fell behind by 18 (31-13) at the 6:49 mark of the first half before closing the stanza on a 13-4 run to trail by nine at the break, 35-26. Kelvin Sampson's team got the opening possession of the second half but a turnover and OSU transition dunk ignited the crowd and eliminated any kind of OU momentum. The Cowboys scored the first eight points of the second half and led by at least 14 the rest of the way. John Lucas scored a game-high 22 points for OSU and was followed by Tony Allen's 20 and Ivan McFarlin's 17. Drew Lavender was the only Sooner in double figures with 15 points and he added three assists and four steals. Kevin Bookout scored just four points for OU but hauled in a game-high 11 rebounds, 10 of them in the first half.

OSU LEFTOVERS
OU outrebounded OSU 20-14 in the first half but was outboarded 21-9 in the second.
Larry Turner (3-for-4) and Jaison Williams (2-for-4) were the lone Sooners to shoot at least .500 from the field.
Oklahoma's 20 turnovers were its most since March 11, 2000, while OSU's 16 steals were the most by an OU opponent since Texas registered 17 on Jan. 22, 1997.

LAVENDER HONORED
Despite his 5-7, 155-pound frame, freshman point guard Drew Lavender was named one of Dick Vitale's five most influential “Diaper Dandies” this week along with Duke's Luol Deng, Minnesota's Kris Humphries, Wake Forest's Chris Paul and Texas' P.J. Tucker.

BIG 12 DOMINANCE
Oklahoma has had more than its fair share of success against Big 12 opponents recently, winning 24 of its last 29 games (.828) against Big 12 opponents. The Sooners won their final five regular season games in 2001-02, earned three victories at the Big 12 Tournament and knocked off Missouri to go to the Final Four. Last year, OU went 12-4 in league play before earning another conference tournament crown. OU's only five losses in the last 29 outings versus league foes came at Oklahoma State (twice), at Texas, at Missouri and versus Texas.

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 362-60 (.858) inside the building since it opened for the 1975-76 campaign. The Sooners are 127-17 (.882) at home under 10th-year head coach Kelvin Sampson and have won 45 of their last 46. OU had won 37 straight at home before losing to Texas in last year's regular season finale. 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 history (Kansas held the previous league record with 33 straight home wins).

LIFT THE LID
The Sooners have struggled making shots this year, especially the last two games. Oklahoma shot a combined .307 from the field against Connecticut and Oklahoma State and owns a .414 season mark. No OU team has shot as poorly for an entire season since the 1963-64 squad turned in a .398 figure. Kevin Bookout (.506) is the only Sooner who is shooting .500 or better this year.

A TOUGH ROW TO HOE
The first three weeks of January present a difficult challenge for OU. The Sooners beat Princeton 58-55 Jan. 3 in Oklahoma City and followed with road losses at No. 1 Connecticut Jan. 11 and Oklahoma State on Wednesday. OU hosts preseason Big 12 No. 1 Missouri on Saturday and then travels to face 13-2 Texas Tech two days later. The last four games of the stretch occur in a nine-day span.

STOUT SOONER “D” SOFTENS IN LAST TWO
Oklahoma's defense had been extremely solid the seven games prior to its Jan. 11 UConn affair. In those seven games, opponents averaged 51.4 points and shot a combined .336 from the field and .277 from three-point range. They also averaged 21.1 turnovers. Against UConn and Oklahoma State the last two contests, however, the Huskies and Cowboys combined to average 81.5 points and shoot .542 from the field and .407 from beyond the arc. On the season, OU is giving up 60.3 points per game (ranks third in the Big 12). Last year, the Sooners gave up 60.0 points per game, their fewest in 25 years.

NOT AFRAID OF REJECTION
Through 12 games, the Sooners have registered 68 blocked shots, an average of 5.7 per contest. The school record for rejections per game is 5.8 (1988-89) and last year's squad averaged just 3.6. Junior Johnnie Gilbert leads Oklahoma and ranks 11th in the Big 12 with his 1.4 blocks per game. Sophomore forward Kevin Bookout has 13 blocks this year while senior center Jabahri Brown has 12. Brown ranks sixth on the school's career list with 93 blocks while Gilbert ranks eighth with 81.

LOVING LAVENDER
Preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year Drew Lavender has led OU in scoring in five of the last seven games (with 14-, 13-, 23-, 22-, and 15-point efforts against Purdue, Prairie View A&M, Jackson State, Connecticut and Oklahoma State, respectively). Lavender became the first frosh and the shortest player to ever win Big 12 Player of the Week honors when he reeled in the award Dec. 16. Lavender, who hit the game-winning shot with 1.1 seconds left to give OU a 47-45 victory over Purdue, is leading the team with his 12.7 points and 4.7 assists per game, as well as his 18 treys and .375 three-point percentage. He also ranks second with 1.8 steals per contest. The last Oklahoma freshman to average as many points per game for an entire season was Jeff Webster (18.3 ppg in 1990-91). Since Oklahoma assist statistics were first kept during the 1976-77 season, Terry Evans is the only freshman to average 4.4 assists for an entire campaign (he did it in 1989-90).

FRESH FACES
Making their Oklahoma debuts in the season opener against Eastern Washington were freshmen Brandon Foust, Drew Lavender, Lawrence McKenzie and Jimmy Tobias, and junior Jaison Williams. Through 12 games, the group has accounted for 346 of OU's 851 points (41 percent), 100 of its 171 assists (58 percent) and 50 of its 65 three-pointers (77 percent). Redshirt freshman center Larry Turner has also seen action in 11 games and scored a career-high nine points Dec. 13 against Prairie View A&M. Five of OU's 11 roster players are freshmen (walk-on Kellen Sampson is the fifth) while seven are freshmen or sophomores.

STARTING FRESH(MEN)
Against Eastern Washington on Nov. 21, 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 23 points against Jackson State Dec. 20 represent the most by a freshman during the Sampson era while McKenzie's 19 points versus Oral Roberts Nov. 22 stand as the sixth most by an OU frosh under Sampson.

NOT QUITE AS FINE AT THE LINE
Oklahoma shot .739 from the free throw line over its first five games but has dipped significantly since. Over the last seven contests, the Sooners have posted a .615 mark (83-for-135). OU now owns a .681 season mark to rank eighth in the Big 12. OU has traditionally been a sound free throw shooting team under Kelvin Sampson as seven of his previous nine squads have finished first or second in the Big Eight/Big 12 in percentage. Last year's squad finished third in the Big 12 with a .693 figure.

AP POLL A FAMILIAR PLACE
Oklahoma's streak of 30 straight weeks in the AP poll's top 10 came to an end when the organization ranked the Sooners No. 14 in its preseason poll. But OU reappeared in the top 10 in the season's fifth poll and stayed there for four weeks before dropping to 11 this week. The Sooners have now been ranked in the last 42 AP polls and in 75 of the last 79. Kelvin Sampson's teams were ranked No. 3 in the past two seasons' final AP polls.

BREAKING 80
With its 83-56 win over Prairie View A&M Dec. 13, Oklahoma improved to 114-10 (.919) when scoring at least 80 points under 10th-year mentor Kelvin Sampson. OU was 7-0 last season under the circumstance and has won 53 of its last 55 games (.964) when scoring 80 or more.

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.

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.

SOONER MISCELLANY
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.
The Sooners have won at least 26 games each of the last four seasons.
The Sooners' scoring defense mark of 60.0 points per game last year marked their lowest in 25 years.
Oklahoma is 18-8 in overtime games under Sampson and has won 12 of its last 14. OU went 3-0 in overtime affairs last season (beat Texas Tech twice and Kansas State).
Sampson's .730 winning percentage is the best in OU history (Billy Tubbs ranks second at .716).

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.

UNDER KELVIN SAMPSON...
OU has a 121-28 record the last four-plus years for the NCAA's third-best winning percentage (.812).
OU has posted an 80-33 (.708) 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 127-17 (.879) record at Lloyd Noble Center and has won 45 of its last 46 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 29 games against Big 12 opponents (including Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sampson's Sooners Return Home to Host Missouri

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