Men's Basketball Schedule Announced

NORMAN, Okla. University of Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione and men's basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson announced the Sooners' 27-game 2005-06 regular season schedule today. The reigning Big 12 co-champs will play 15 home contests (including a New Year's Eve game versus Alabama), make a trip to preseason top-five pick Villanova and will take part in an All-College Classic matchup against 2005 Elite Eight performer West Virginia in Oklahoma City.

Other highlights on the non-conference portion of the schedule are games at Tulsa and SMU, and a home contest against defending Mid-Continent Conference champ Oral Roberts.

The 16-game Big 12 schedule will feature home games against Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. OU will hit the road for league games against Baylor, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

2005-06 Men's Basketball Schedule (PDF)

“We play a demanding schedule every year. This is just another great schedule,” said Sampson, who will be starting his 12th season at OU when the Sooners open the regular season Nov. 19 against Samford at 3 p.m. “The key to any schedule is always going to be balance. You balance your non-conference schedule and try to build some momentum going into conference play. This gives us an opportunity to do that.

“What's a little different about this schedule than some in previous years is how many road games we're playing outside of our league. We play at Tulsa, at Villanova, at SMU true road games. Then we play a neutral court game against West Virginia. Those games make the schedule tougher and I'm looking forward to challenging our team when practice starts in October, knowing that these games are down the road.”

Twelve of Oklahoma's games are scheduled to be televised by national networks. Four will be shown by ESPN (road games against Villanova and Texas Tech, and home games versus Alabama and Oklahoma State), four by ESPN2 (versus West Virginia, home versus Texas and road games against Texas A&M and Colorado), two by ABC (home games versus Texas Tech and Iowa State) and two by CBS (at Kansas and at Texas).

Six more games, all conference affairs, will be aired by ESPN Plus regional television. A number of other games will be televised in the state of Oklahoma on the Sooner Sports Network. Those contests will be announced at a later date.

Also on the 2005-06 schedule are a pair of home exhibition games in early November. OU will host Northeastern (Okla.) State on Nov. 5 and UNC Pembroke on Nov. 12. UNC Pembroke is Sampson's alma mater. A 1978 graduate, he played basketball and baseball there.

Oklahoma posted a 25-8 record last year and shared the Big 12 regular season title with Kansas after going 12-4. The Sooners earned the No. 1 seed in the league tournament and were a No. 3 NCAA Tournament seed.

Sampson's Sooners are ranked No. 2 this preseason by CBSsportsline.com and No. 6 by ESPN.com. They return their top three scorers and rebounders from last season in Taj Gray, Terrell Everett and Kevin Bookout.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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