OU Preps For Fourth-Ranked Villanova

GAME INFORMATION
In one of the country's marquee non-conference matchups this year, Oklahoma plays at Villanova on Saturday at 5 p.m. EST. Played inside The Pavilion, the game will pit the No. 5 Sooners against the No. 4 Wildcats. The 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) calling the action. The game will be televised by ESPN (Cox Cable 29 in OKC and Cox Cable 25 in Tulsa) with Dan Shulman (play-by-play), Dick Vitale (analyst) and Doris Burke (courtside reporter) announcing.

OKLAHOMA UPDATE
The Sooners raced to a 37-18 halftime lead in their first road game of the season Wednesday at Tulsa and won by a 62-53 score behind a career-high 26 points by senior guard Terrell Everett. OU shot .538 from the field, .375 from 3-point range and .857 from the free throw line in the first half, but posted respective marks of .267, .083 and .571 after the break. Twenty Tulsa turnovers (16 in the first half) and a 40-24 rebounding advantage helped the Sooners to their sixth 4-0 start under 12th-year head coach Kelvin Sampson. Nineteen of OU's rebounds were offensive while TU produced just four offensive boards.

Game Notes PDF | Schedule | Stats | Gameday Central

Everett, whose previous career high was 20 points, was 10-for-19 from the field and 5-for-6 at the foul line. He is averaging 21.5 points over the last two games after averaging 8.0 over the first two. The lefty now leads the team with his 14.8 points, 5.8 assists and 2.3 steals per contest. Junior Michael Neal scored 14 points off the bench at Tulsa and averages 14.3 per game on the year. The guard, who has scored at least 14 points in each game, leads the Big 12 with his 3.5 treys per outing. OU's starting big men, Kevin Bookout (six) and Taj Gray (four) were held to a combined 10 points on five field goal attempts. Bookout grabbed 10 rebounds while Gray fouled out after 19 minutes played. UC Riverside transfer Nate Carter came off the bench to supply eight points and six boards Wednesday and now averages 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds. Freshman Taylor Griffin was held scoreless but registered nine boards and three steals against the Golden Hurricane. He is averaging 7.0 rebounds in 15.3 minutes per game.

For the year, OU is shooting .443 from the field, .338 from 3-point range and .753 from the free throw line. Opponents are shooting .409, .385 and .661.

OU PROJECTED STARTERS
F 21 Taj Gray (6-9, 238, Sr., 10.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 0.8 apg)
F 34 Kevin Bookout (6-8, 270, Sr., 9.8 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 0.0 apg)
G 1   Chris Walker (6-3, 188, Jr., 3.3 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 2.5 apg)
G 3   Terrell Everett (6-4, 188, Sr., 14.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 5.8 apg)
G 5   David Godbold (6-5, 217, So., 8.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.3 apg)

VILLANOVA PROJECTED STARTERS
F 50 Will Sheridan (6-8, 238, Jr., 2.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 0.7 apg)
G 1 Kyle Lowry (6-1, 175, So., 13.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 4.7 apg)
G 2 Randy Foye (6-4, 205, Sr., 17.0 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 5.3 apg)
G 12 Mike Nardi (6-2, 170, Jr., 15.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 3.7 apg)
G 14 Allan Ray (6-2, 195, Sr., 21.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 2.0 apg)

WEDNESDAY'S LEFTOVERS
OU's 15 steals were a season high by five and its nine assists were a season low by five.
Taj Gray's four points marked his second lowest career output. He was held scoreless in a 16-point win at Texas A&M last year and then proceeded to average 19.8 points over the next five games.
Michael Neal played with his right thumb taped due to a sprain he sustained near the end of the Belmont game last Saturday. Wednesday's game marked his worst shooting performance of the season (he was 4-for-12 overall and 2-for-9 from 3-point range).
Freshman forward Taylor Griffin pulled down eight rebounds in only 16 minutes of action off the bench.
Freshman guard Austin Johnson made his collegiate debut after missing the first three games with a second-degree sprained ankle. He played seven minutes and had two steals.

ABOUT VILLANOVA
Ranked No. 4 in both major polls, Villanova enters Satuday's game with a 3-0 record. The Big East Conference member has defeated Stony Brook (78-35), Lehigh (84-47) and Rider (86-57) in home games. The Wildcats return 11 letterwinners and five starters from last year's 24-8 squad that advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16. One of those starters, senior forward Curtis Sumpter, sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in October and might be out for the year.

Villanova is shooting .473 from the field, .444 from 3-point range and .738 from the free throw line. It has made 40 3-pointers on 90 attempts (an average of 13-for-30 per game). The Wildcats have also outrebounded their opponents by 13 a contest (41.7 to 28.3).

Head coach Jay Wright has started four guards in each game and those four lead the team in scoring. Six-foot-two senior Allan Ray, who played in Argentina over the summer with OU's Taj Gray on the USA U21 World Championship Team (it finished 7-1), is averaging a team-high 21.0 points per outing and has made 14 treys on 35 attempts (.400). Randy Foye, a 6-4 senior, is averaging 17.0 points and a team-high 5.3 assists per game. He is 11-for-22 from beyond the arc. Mike Nardi, a 6-2 junior who, like Foye, is shooting .500 from long range (12-for-24), averages 15.0 points and 3.7 assists. Sophomore Kyle Lowry, at 6-1, averages 13.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists. He has made just one 3-pointer (on three tries) but is 20-for-25 from the free throw line. The fifth starter, 6-8 junior forward Will Sheridan, averages 2.3 points and 5.7 boards per game.

Wright is in his fifth year as Villanova's head coach and sports a 79-54 (.594) record there. He is in his 12th year as a collegiate head coach (he was 122-85 in seven years at Hofstra) and owns a 201-139 (.591) career mark. Wright's teams have advanced to three NCAA Tournaments and four NITs.

SERIES WITH VILLANOVA
Oklahoma's lone meeting with Villanova was in the 1988 NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight in Birmingham, Ala. Billy Tubbs' Sooners defeated Rollie Massimino's Wildcats by a 78-59 score to advance to the Final Four (OU beat Arizona in Kansas City before losing to Kansas in the national title game). Villanova led 38-31 at halftime but the Sooners dominated after the break, 47-21. Junior Stacey King scored 28 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for OU en route to being named the Southeast Regional's MVP. Junior Mookie Blaylock added 14 points and four steals while senior Harvey Grant contributed 12 points and nine boards. Doug West paced Villanova with 18 points while Kenny Wilson netted 15. Current Wildcats head coach Jay Wright was in his first year as a Villanova assistant coach that season.

The Sooners are 3-2 under Kelvin Sampson against Big East Conference members (at the time of competition). OU is 3-1 against Connecticut and 0-1 against Syracuse. Including first-year member Cincinnati, Oklahoma is 3-4 against current Big East schools.

SOONER TIP INS
Saturday's game at Villanova will feature the highest combined rankings by two teams so far this year (OU is ranked No. 5 and Villanova is No. 4).
Villanova is the Sooners' highest ranked opponent since they lost at No. 1 Connecticut, 86-59, on Jan. 11, 2004.
Oklahoma has made just two previous trips to Philadelphia for men's basketball. The Sooners lost at Temple in 1939-40 (42-36) and in 1940-41 (32-26) under Hall-of-Fame coach Bruce Drake.
Michael Neal leads the Big 12 in 3-point field goals made per game (3.5) and ranks sixth in 3-point field goal percentage (.389).
Through four games, four Sooners have led OU in scoring (15 points by Michael Neal vs. Samford, 14 by Neal, David Godbold and Taj Gray vs. Binghamton, 17 by Terrell Everett vs. Belmont and 26 by Everett at Tulsa).
OU has outrebounded its opponents by no fewer than 16 in each game this year.
Terrell Everett is averaging 17.3 points, 6.0 assists and 2.3 steals over the last three games.
Opponents are shooting .385 from 3-point range through four games. Last year, OU set a school record by allowing foes to shoot just .292 from beyond the arc.
Nate Carter has averaged a team-high 5.3 free throw attempts per game despite averaging only 18.0 minutes played.
In 33 games last year, OU logged 20 or more offensive rebounds twice. It has at least 20 offensive boards twice already in four games this year, and 19 in another.
The Sooners have won 68 of their last 73 games at Lloyd Noble Center.
Taj Gray is on preseason watch lists for both the John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith Trophy player-of-the-year awards.

SCHEDULE SLOWS AFTER VILLANOVA
After Saturday's game at Villanova, OU has a week off before hosting Coppin State on Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. CST. Then the Sooners have another week between games (they host Southern University Dec. 17 at 7 p.m.). Things heat up again around the holidays with a Dec. 22 game against West Virginia in Oklahoma City and home contests versus Oral Roberts and Alabama on Dec. 28 and 31, respectively.

WINDOW WIPERS
OU has outrebounded Samford, Binghamton, Belmont and Tulsa by 28, 18, 22 and 16 boards, respectively.
The Sooners are outrebounding their opponents by 21.0 per game (43.5-22.5). It is the the Big 12's best rebounding margin (Texas ranks second at +14.8).
Oklahoma has 73 offensive rebounds (18.3 per game) to its opponents' 22 (5.5).
Three Sooners average at least 7.0 boards per game (7.8 by Kevin Bookout and 7.0 by Taj Gray and Taylor Griffin).
Griffin, a freshman, is averaging 7.0 rebounds in 15.3 minutes per game. Pro-rated to 40 minutes, his average is 18.4 boards per outing. He is averaging 8.0 rebounds in 18.0 minutes over the last three games.

BOOKOUT PASSES TISDALE
For the moment, at least, Kevin Bookout holds the Oklahoma school record for career field goal percentage. The 6-8, 270-pound senior is 14-for-23 from the field this year and has upped his career mark to .579, bettering Wayman Tisdale's .578 figure that previously ranked No. 1 in school annals. Bookout, who has started 82 of his 83 games at OU (he yielded as a freshman on Senior Day), shot .587 from the field as a frosh, .516 in 13 games as a sophomore and .592 last year as a junior. Tisdale, regarded as the best player in school history, played the 1982-83 through 1984-85 seasons and was an All-American all three years. He holds six OU career records, including points (2,661), points per game (25.6) and rebounds (1,048).

GRAY'S LOW NUMBERS MISLEADING
Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year Taj Gray is admittedly off to a slower start than he'd like this season. The 6-9, 238-pound senior averaged 14.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots in 27.7 minutes per game last year when he was a first-team all-conference selection. Through four games this year, the subject of frequent double-teams is averaging 10.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocks, but in five fewer minutes per game. If he was averaging the same amount of court time this season as he did last, the Wichita, Kan., product would own season averages of 12.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.7 rejections. Gray is shooting nearly as well from the field this year (.536) as he did last (.557) and is much better from the free throw line this season (.733) than he was as a junior (.646). He fouled out of Wednesday's game at Tulsa with four points and two rebounds in 19 minutes.

EVERETT A STATS WONDER
Terrell Everett continues to post all-around solid stats. So far this year, the senior has recorded games of 26 points, nine assists and four steals. He leads the team in all three categories on the season (14.8 ppg, 5.8 apg and 2.3 spg). Only one player in OU history (since assists and steals were first logged in 1976-77) has ever led the Sooners in scoring, assists and steals in a season John McCullough in 1977-78. McCullough averaged 13.8 points, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals, all below Everett's current marks.

Last year, Everett averaged 12.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Over the team's final 10 outings his averages were 14.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.7 steals.

CONSISTENT CARTER
Nate Carter, a 6-6, 220-pound junior transfer from UC Riverside, has provided solid play in all four games. The lefty, who averages 18.0 minutes off the bench, has scored at least seven points and grabbed at least four rebounds in every contest. He is averaging 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds, and has attempted 21 free throws (most on the team). Carter averaged 15.8 points and 6.1 rebounds over the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons at Riverside. He was the Big West Freshman of the Year and earned second-team all-league accolades as a sophomore.

SOONERS STAY AT NO. 5 IN POLLS
Oklahoma maintained its No. 5 position in both major polls this week. It is the highest ranking for the Sooners in the AP version since the final poll of the 2002-03 season when they were No. 3. That OU team, led by seniors Ebi Ere, Hollis Price and Quannas White, finished 27-7 overall, won the Big 12 Tournament, earned a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed and advanced to the Elite Eight where it lost to eventual national champion Syracuse.

The Sooners' highest AP ranking under Sampson is No. 3 (they've acquired the ranking four times).

LOOKING TO JOIN THE CLUB
Kevin Bookout (823 career points) and Taj Gray (522) have an excellent chance of increasing OU's 1,000-point club to 35 members. Bookout would have to average 6.1 points from here on out over a 33-game schedule (the number of games OU played last year) to reach 1,000 points while Gray would have to average 16.5 points.

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).

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.

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.

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 last year, Kelvin Sampson has now coached OU to eight consecutive 20-win seasons. Only seven other coaches have 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).

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 222-77).

BREAKING 80
The Sooners have been tough to beat under Kelvin Sampson when they score at least 80 points. During the 12-year Sampson era, Oklahoma is 126-13 (.906) when reaching the 80-point plateau. OU has won 43 of its last 46 (.935) and 59 of its last 63 (.937) when scoring 80 or more.

PREACHING PROTECTION
Dating back to the start of the 2003-04 season, Oklahoma has committed more turnovers than its opponent just 16 times in 68 games (24 percent of the time). OU finished 20-2 last year when committing fewer (or the same number of) turnovers than its foe.

HOME IS WHERE THE “W” IS
Lloyd Noble Center has been overly kind to the Sooners, as they have won 68 of their last 73 games (.932) in the building dating back to January 2001. Oklahoma posted a 14-1 home mark in 2004-05 and is now 150-21 (.877) at Lloyd Noble in Kelvin Sampson's 11-plus years as head coach. OU is 387-64 (.858) in the building since it opened prior to the 1975-76 campaign. The Sooners have posted home winning streaks of 51 games (1987-90) and 37 games (2001-03). The 37-game streak is a Big 12 Conference record.

RECRUITING HAUL
Kelvin Sampson announced the signing of five prep players on Nov. 9, 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

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 150-21 (.877) record at Lloyd Noble Center and has won 68 of its last 73 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

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