OU Men Conclude Exhibition Season Saturday

GAME INFORMATION
Ranked No. 6 in the ESPN/USA Today poll and picked to finish second in the Big 12 by the league's coaches, Oklahoma plays its second and final exhibition game of the 2005-06 season on Saturday when it hosts UNC Pembroke, Kelvin Sampson's alma mater, at 7 p.m. at Lloyd Noble Center. The game is UNC Pembroke's first exhibition of the season. Saturday's contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (flagship KOKC 1520 AM in Oklahoma City) with Bob Barry, Sr. (play-by-play) and Mike Houck (analyst) announcing. It will also be available for viewing on the “O-Zone” section of SoonerSports.com (a subscription is required).

TICKET AVAILABILITY
Tickets for the game are still available, starting as low as $10, and can be purchased Friday at the Athletics Ticket Office (800-456-4668) and on Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center's north and east ticket windows beginning at 5:30 p.m.

OU students who present a valid school I.D. will be admitted to the game free of charge. Students should enter on the arena's west side.

Watch Live (O-Zone)

PROJECTED STARTERS
F 21 Taj Gray (6-9, 238, Sr.)
F 24 Nate Carter (6-6, 220, Jr.)
F 34 Kevin Bookout (6-8, 270, Sr.)
G   1 Chris Walker (6-3, 188, Jr.)
G   3 Terrell Everett (6-4, 188, Sr.)

OFF THE BENCH
G   2 Michael Neal (6-3, 191, Jr.)
G   5 Michael Ott (6-4, 197, So.)
G 11 Kellen Sampson (6-1, 190, So.)
G 15 David Godbold (6-5, 217, So.)
G 20 Austin Johnson (6-3, 168, Fr.)
C 30 Longar Longar (6-11, 225, Fr.)
F 32 Taylor Griffin (6-7, 232, Fr.)

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
The Sooners are coming off a 70-35 win over Division II Northeastern State last Saturday, their 34th victory in their last 36 exhibition games. Senior Taj Gray, the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, scored the contest's first 11 points and finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Fellow senior post Kevin Bookout had 13 points and 16 rebounds (his most in an OU uniform). The pair combined to go 17-for-24 from the field. Senior guard Terrell Everett contributed 10 points (all in the second half), five assists and four steals.

OU, which last year turned in its best season shooting effort (.482) since 1988-89, shot .462 from the field while holding NSU to a .271 mark. The Sooners struggled from 3-point range and at the free throw line, however, going 0-for-11 from beyond the arc and 10-for-20 at the charity stripe. Oklahoma outrebounded the Redmen 47-36 and forced 23 turnovers while committing 12. Guard Sid Melvin was Northeastern State's leading scorer with eight points.

FRESH FACES
Four of OU's five newcomers saw action in the exhibition opener while the fifth, Nate Carter, sat out with a foot injury. Junior Chris Walker got the starting nod at point guard and played 27 minutes. Though he did not score (he was 0-for-4 from the field), the 6-3 lefty showed promise on both ends of the floor and came away with four steals on the night.

Michael Neal played 23 minutes off the bench and logged two points, five boards and one assist. The 6-3 shooter had a tough night from the field, going 1-for-9 overall and 0-for-4 from 3-point range. Austin Johnson, a freshman guard, played 14 minutes before leaving the game in the second half with a second-degree ankle sprain. Johnson had two points, one rebound, one assist and one steal. He will not play Saturday.

Taylor Griffin, the 2005 Gatorade Oklahoma Player of the Year, played 15 minutes and scored six points while adding two rebounds and a steal.

Carter will play Saturday against UNC Pembroke. He is a 6-6 lefty who transferred from UC Riverside after being named a second-team All-Big West selection in 2003.

ABOUT UNC PEMBROKE
UNC Pembroke, the alma mater of Oklahoma head coach Kelvin Sampson, is an NCAA Division II member that competes in the Peach Belt Conference. The Braves return seven letterwinners from a 2004-05 squad that posted a 3-25 record and a 1-15 conference mark. Saturday's game marks their first of the season.

Sophomore guard Jarrell Hunter is the lone returnee among last year's top four scorers, averaging 10.9 points a game. He made a team-high 52 3-pointers and posted a .391 figure from beyond the arc while also averaging 3.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals. Senior guard/forward Jabarr Adams averaged 6.6 points and 3.9 boards per contest last season and led the Braves with 50 offensive rebounds. Arne Danielson, a junior forward, averaged 4.7 points a game and canned 25 treys.

Jason Tinsley is in his second season at UNCP and is 55-60 (.478) as a collegiate head coach.

OLD SCHOOL
OU head coach Kelvin Sampson is a 1978 graduate of UNC Pembroke (then Pembroke State). He earned degrees in health and physical education and political science while starring on the basketball court (point guard) and baseball diamond (catcher). Sampson was enshrined into the UNC Pembroke Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998, joining his father, John (Ned) Sampson. The elder Sampson starred in basketball, baseball and football at UNCP and was the first person inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame. It is the only father-son duo in the Braves' hall of fame.

Kelvin Sampson recently traveled to Pembroke, N.C., to help the university launch a captial campaign for the Braves' new football team that will take the field in 2007.

Ned Sampson and his wife, Eva, who live in Pembroke, will attend Saturday's game.

RECRUITING HAUL
Kelvin Sampson announced the signing of five prep players on Wednesday, a recruiting class that ranks as the nation's fourth best by Rivals.com and fifth best by Scout.com. Joining the Sooners as freshmen in 2006-07 will be Keith Clark (Oklahoma City/Putnam City HS), Tony Crocker (San Antonio, Texas/The Patterson School [N.C.], Damion James (Nacogdoches, Texas/Nacodoches HS), Jeremy Mayfield (Irving, Texas/Gulf Shores Academy [Houston]) and Scottie Reynolds (Herndon, Va./Herndon HS).

“This is as good a class as we've had since I've been here,” said Sampson, who is in his 12th year at OU. “Sure, all five players are rated high, but just as important is the fact that they're high-character kids. They love to play basketball and they're fun to be around. Our staff is very, very happy with this class.”

Keith Clark (F, 6-8, 220, Oklahoma City, Okla.)
Ranked No. 43 in nation by Hoopmasters

Tony Crocker (G, 6-5, 180, San Antonio, Texas)
Ranked No. 6 post grad prep by Scout.com

Damion James (F, 6-8, 225, Nacogdoches, Texas)
Ranked No. 16 in nation by Rivals.com

Jeremy Mayfield (F/C, 6-10, 234, Irving, Texas)
Ranked No. 4 post grad prep by Scout.com

Scottie Reynolds (G, 6-0, 170, Herndon, Va.)
Ranked No. 31 in nation by Scout.com

EXHIBITING SUCCESS
The Sooners have compiled an impressive exhibition record over the last 18 years, winning 34 of its last 36 exhibition affairs. Under 12th-year head coach Kelvin Sampson, OU is 21-2 in exhibition games. Last year, Oklahoma handled Cameron, 91-56, and Central Oklahoma, 95-71. Kevin Bookout averaged 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in the pair of victories, while Taj Gray averaged 13.5 points and 6.5 boards. Terrell Everett averaged 9.5 points and 6.5 assists.

OU BOASTS NATION'S LONGEST POSTSEASON STREAK
Oklahoma has made 24 consecutive postseason appearances (19 NCAA and five NIT), good for the longest current streak among Division I programs. The last time OU did not compete in the postseason was in 1980-81. The Sooners have competed in the NCAA Tournament 10 times in the last 11 seasons.

EIGHT STRAIGHT 20-WIN SEASONS
With a 25-8 record on the year, Kelvin Sampson has now coached Oklahoma to eight consecutive 20-win seasons. Only seven other coaches have also posted 20 victories each of the last eight years: Lute Olson (15 straight seasons), Tubby Smith (12), Mike Krzyzewski (9), Skip Prosser (9), Jim Boeheim (8), Jim Calhoun (8) and Eddie Sutton (8).

PRESEASON PUB
A consensus top-10 pick among preseason print and online publications, Oklahoma is ranked No. 6 in the initial ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll and the preseason AP Poll. It is OU's second highest ranking in the season-opening polls under 12th-year head coach Kelvin Sampson (the Sooners were No. 3 in the 2002-03 versions). OU's No. 6 preseason AP ranking is the fourth highest in the history of the program. The Sooners were No. 3 in the 2002-03 preseason poll and No. 5 in the 1984-85 and 1988-89 versions.

WELCOME BACK
The Sooners return their top three scorers and rebounders from last season in seniors Taj Gray (14.6 points, 8.2 rebounds), Terrell Everett (12.5, 4.8) and Kevin Bookout (11.5, 6.6). The last time OU returned its top three scorers from the previous year was in 1986-87 when Darryl Kennedy (21.0 ppg), Tim McCalister (18.2) and David Johnson (14.3) all averaged double figures as juniors in 1985-86. Everett is also the Big 12's leading returning assists man (he averaged 5.0 per game) and ranked sixth last year in steals (1.7). Gray is the league's leading returner in blocked shots (1.8).

BACK TO BACK?
Oklahoma, co-Big 12 champs last year with Kansas, will attempt to earn back-to-back regular season conference titles for the fourth time in school history. The Sooners won the 1928 Missouri Valley Conference crown and followed by claiming the 1929 Big Six title. Under head coach Billy Tubbs, OU won Big Eight championships in 1984, '85, '88 and '89.

VETERAN STAFF
Kelvin Sampson has compiled a staff that has a wealth of collegiate head coaching experience 68 years to be exact. Sampson has been a head coach for 22 seasons, while assistants Bob Hoffman and Ray McCallum have spent 17 and 11 years, respectively, guiding college programs. Jerry Green, the program's new director of basketball operations, returned to college basketball after four years of retirement. Green has 18 years of head coaching experience at UNC Asheville, Oregon and Tennessee.

BIG 12 KING
Kelvin Sampson has amassed 100 regular season Big 12 victories, most in league history. He is 100-44 (.695) in conference play since the formation of the Big 12 in 1996-97. Sampson also holds the Big 12 record for most combined regular season and conference tournament wins (he is 117-50) and holds the mark for most overall wins by a conference coach since the Big 12 was formed (he is 218-77).

LOOKING TO JOIN THE CLUB
Kevin Bookout (784 career points) and Taj Gray (481) have an excellent chance of increasing OU's 1,000-point club to 35 members. Bookout would have to average 6.5 points over a 33-game schedule (the number of games OU played last year) to reach 1,000 points while Gray would have to average 15.7 points.

NO SUMMER VACATION
Taj Gray's busy summer started as a Nike Camp counselor along with Terrell Everett, and concluded with a near-month-long stint with USA Basketball as a member of the U21 World Championship Team that went 7-1 in Argentina. Gray started in four contests and averaged 8.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in 14.9 minutes per game. He shot .538 from the field and .719 from the free throw line. The senior produced personal highs of 14 points and seven rebounds versus China and Puerto Rico, respectively. USA's overtime loss to Canada in the quarterfinals kept it from earning a medal.

Also in action over the summer was Longar Longar. The sophomore center participated in Pete Newell's Big Man Camp in Las Vegas, Nev.

2004-05 REVISITED
An OU team that was picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 Conference by league coaches and media last year churned out a 25-8 overall record and won the program's first regular season conference title since 1989 with a 12-4 mark. It was the eighth straight 20-win season for the Sooners, who earned No. 1 Big 12 Tournament and No. 3 NCAA Tournament seeds. Following is a list of team notes and accomplishments from the 2004-05 campaign.

Oklahoma finished with a 25-8 overall record, giving it an eighth consecutive 20-win season and ninth overall in Kelvin Sampson's 11 seasons as head coach.
The Sooners tied Kansas for first place in the Big 12 Conference, giving them their first regular season league crown in 16 years (they won the Big Eight in 1989).
By virtue of its victory over Kansas on Feb. 21, OU won the regular season tie-breaker with the Jayhawks and was the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament for the first time in the conference's nine years.
Oklahoma earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Tourney showing was OU's fifth this century and the Sooners have been seeded no lower than fourth in any of the five events.
OU ran its string of postseason appearances to 24 years (19 NCAAs and five NITs). It is the longest current streak by a Division I program.
OU participated in the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time in Sampson's 11 seasons. A No. 3 seed, the Sooners beat Niagara before losing to Utah.
The Sooners, unranked to start the season, climbed as high as No. 13 in the AP poll. They finished No. 17 in the AP poll and No. 20 in the ESPN/USA Today version.
Oklahoma set a single-game school record for field goal percentage by shooting .661 against Baylor in the final home game of the year.
The Sooners set a single-season school record for 3-point field goal percentage defense (the 3-point rule was instituted before the 1986-87 campaign). Opponents shot just .292 from beyond the arc on the year.
In Big 12 games, Taj Gray (.599) and Kevin Bookout (.594) paced the league in field goal percentage.
In conference play, OU ranked first in scoring margin (+9.3), scoring defense (64.0), 3-point field goal percentage defense (.309) and rebounding margin (+4.7).

UNDER KELVIN SAMPSON...
OU shared the 2005 Big 12 regular season title with Kansas (the Sooners won the only head-to-head meeting).
OU has made 11 straight postseason showings (10 NCAA and one NIT).
OU has advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 (1999), Final Four (2002) and Elite Eight (2003).
OU has posted a 100-44 (.694) regular season Big 12 Conference record.
OU has recorded a 147-21 (.875) record at Lloyd Noble Center and has won 65 of its last 70 home games.
OU has won at least 20 games each of the last eight years.
OU has averaged 26 victories over the past six seasons.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU Men Conclude Exhibition Season Saturday

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors