Oklahoma Men Earn NCAA No. 3 Seed

NORMAN, Okla. -- Big 12 men's basketball co-champion Oklahoma earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and is being sent to Tucson, Ariz., for its first and second-round games. The Sooners (24-7 overall, 12-4 Big 12) will take on No. 14 seed Niagara (20-9 overall, 13-5 Metro Atlantic Athletic) on Thursday at 11:45 a.m. CST.

If they advance to the second round they will meet the winner of Thursday's Utah (No. 6 seed) vs. UTEP (No. 11 seed) game on Saturday. Saturday's contest will be played at 12:10 or 2:40 p.m. CST. If Oklahoma wins in the second round it will advance to Austin, Texas, for regional play. Duke is the No. 1 seed in the region.

The Sooners, who own the nation's longest Division I postseason streak at 24 years (19 NCAA and five NIT appearances), are making their 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance and 10th under 11th-year head coach Kelvin Sampson. OU has gone 7-2 over its last two NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the Final Four in 2002 and the Elite Eight in 2003. Oklahoma is 31-22 all-time in the Big Dance with Final Four appearances in 1939, 1947, 1988 and 2002.

Niagara is making its second NCAA Tournament showing. It advanced to the regional semifinals of the 1970 event.

CBS will televise the entire NCAA Tournament. Announcers for the Tucson site will be Kevin Harlan (play-by-play) and Dan Bonner (analyst).

Head Coach Kelvin Sampson Quotes

On the NCAA Tournament pairings: "I saw the brackets going up and saw a lot of great matchups. I hate to throw coach speak out there, but good night, there is so much parity. You see so many matchups. I think we were rewarded for having a great season. Having won seven out of our last eight games and winning some tremendous road games helped us out. You look at the No. 4 seeds and there are some great teams, as well as the five and the six seeds. I think you are going to see a lot of Cinderella stories. There are a lot of teams that have a chance to go to St. Louis.

"I always go back to getting in the tournament. This is our 10th year in the tournament and you look at some of the schools like Maryland and Indiana, so many tradition-rich programs that didn't even make it. To be a three seed and this being our 10th year to be in the tournament, I think it speaks volumes about the tradition of Oklahoma basketball. We are proud to be a three seed and proud to represent our university and conference. We look forward to going to Tucson and advancing."

On being a favorite in the first and second rounds: "I'm looking forward to getting into practice tomorrow. I felt like we got a little loose in the game on Saturday, but I like the way we are playing right now. This team is very capable. You see Utah, UTEP and Niagara in our pod and those are three quality teams. Clark Kellogg talked about Niagara all day and I was thinking how I didn't want to play them. When I think of Niagara, the first thing I think of is Calvin Murphy. My two favorite players growing up were Pete Maravich and Calvin Murphy, so maybe I'll get to meet Calvin on this trip."

On being in the Austin bracket: "I think the committee rewarded us with a three seed. Oklahoma State is a two seed and Kansas is a three seed - I think it speaks volumes for our league. Look at Louisville. They won their league and they got a four seed. There are a lot of teams out there that you could question, but I would have hated to be the committee having to seed this year's tournament. I think in this year's tournament there a lot of teams that can beat anybody."

On missing last year's tournament: "For me it was a personal thing. We have so many kids on this team that are new. I think that's the great story - we kind of started over this year with a really young team and over the course of six months when the smoke cleared, the journey said that we are a three seed. That is a great story what these kids have accomplished. We have Terrell Everett, Taj Gray, David Godbold and Longar Longar, a lot of new guys and they didn't miss out on the tournament last year because they were at somebody else's school. I see a lot of positives about this team and we'll be excited to play on Thursday."

On bouncing back from Saturday's loss to Texas Tech: "We have to get going again. We felt like we could have played better on Saturday. It's the Big 12 Tournament - anybody could have won it. I don't think there is a dominant team in our conference. I didn't think there was much difference between the top four teams in the conference."

On what it will take to be successful in the NCAA Tournament: "I think the key to playing in the NCAA Tournament has always been guard play. You always have to have great guard play on both ends of the floor, not making mistakes, hitting your free throws and knocking down the three. But the number one key is defense. The teams that advance the farthest usually have great defense and great guard play."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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