Sooners Start Big 12 Play at Nebraska

GAME INFORMATION
Ranked No. 12 in the AP poll and No.14 in the ESPN/USA Today version, Oklahoma (9-2) opens Big 12 Conference play on the road Saturday at unranked Nebraska (10-3) at 12:30 p.m. CST. The game 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 contest will be televised by ESPN Plus (KOCB 34/Cox 11 in OKC; KWBT 19/Cox 12 in Tulsa) with Fred White (play-by-play) and Reid Gettys (analyst) announcing.

BIG 12 ANNIVERSARY FAN VOTING
Fan voting for the Big 12 Men's and Women's Basketball 10th Anniversary Teams will be available beginning this Saturday, Jan. 7, and run through Thursday, Feb. 2, on the Big 12 Web site at www.big12sports.com. Ballots can be accessed through the “Vote” link on the left side of the www.big12sports.com front page. The Big 12 is naming anniversary teams for its sports during 2005-06 to celebrate its 10th anniversary season. The basketball anniversary teams will be selected by a combination of balloting of fans and a media panel.

Game Notes PDF | Season Stats

The Big 12 Women's Basketball 10th Anniversary Team will be released on Tuesday, Feb. 7, while the Big 12 Men's Basketball 10th Anniversary Team will be announced on the ESPN Regional Studio 66 show on Saturday, Feb. 11.

OKLAHOMA PROJECTED STARTERS
F 21 Taj Gray (6-9, 238, Sr., 15.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 0.8 apg)
F 24 Nate Carter (6-6, 220, Jr., 7.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 0.6 apg)
F 34 Kevin Bookout (6-8, 270, Sr., 13.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 0.1 apg)
G 20 Austin Johnson (6-3, 168, Fr., 3.4 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.3 apg)
G 3 Terrell Everett (6-4, 188, Sr., 10.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 6.3 apg)

NEBRASKA PROJECTED STARTERS
F 00 B.J. Walker (6-9, 240, Jr., 7.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.2 apg)
F 11 Wes Wilkinson (6-10, 220, Sr., 13.8 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 0.8 apg)
G 1 Jason Dourisseau (6-6, 200, Sr., 10.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 1.7 apg)
G 3 Charles Richardson (5-9, 160, Jr., 3.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.2 apg)
G 10 Marcus Walker (6-2, 165, Fr., 7.8 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 3.2 apg)

OU UPDATE
Winners of three straight and five of their last six, the Sooners are coming off a 50-47 road triumph over SMU on Tuesday in which they held the Mustangs to .327 field goal shooting. It was the lowest OU point total in a road victory since Dec. 2, 1968, when John MacLeod's Sooners won at Centenary 45-38. Oklahoma shot .390 from the field against SMU and committed a season-high 19 turnovers, but posted a 41-21 advantage on the boards. OU led 24-17 at halftime, fell behind after a 9-0 SMU run opened the second half and then regained the lead for good on consecutive 3-pointers by David Godbold with about seven minutes left.

Senior forward Taj Gray registered his third double-double of the year with 15 points and 10 rebounds. OU's other senior big man, Kevin Bookout contributed nine points and seven boards. The pair has been dominant over the last seven games with Gray averaging 19.0 points and 8.6 rebounds during the stretch and Bookout supplying 15.0 and 6.9. They have shot a combined .654 (87-for-133) from the field during those seven games and have scored 51 percent of the team's points during the period (238 of 466).

Senior guard Terrell Everett's up-and-down season continued Tuesday with just three points. The lefty, who averages 10.4 points and has scored as many as 26 in a game this year (at Tulsa), has totaled nine the past two games. He has led OU in assists in 10 of 11 games, though, and ranks second in the Big 12 with 6.3 per contest. Junior Michael Neal, who was just 1-for-6 from 3-point range at SMU, averages 10.7 points per contest and ranks second in the league with his 2.7 treys per outing.

Godbold came off the bench Tuesday to supply eight points (all in the second half), two rebounds, an assist, a block and a key steal in 13 minutes of play. He was 2-for-2 from the field after going 4-for-28 (.143) over the previous seven games. The 3-point makes were his first since Nov. 26 (he had missed his previous 16 tries).

TUESDAY'S LEFTOVERS
OU outboarded SMU 41-21 (17-8 on the offensive end). Over the last two games, the Sooners have outrebounded Alabama and SMU by a combined 81-39 count (33-9 offensive).
SMU's 17 first-half points were the second fewest surrendered in a half on the road during the 12-year Kelvin Sampson era (OU gave up 16 in the first half of a 54-43 win at Oklahoma State in 1999).
OU committed 19 turnovers after combining for 17 the previous two games.
The Sooners improved to 34-14 in the series against SMU (11-9 in Dallas).

ABOUT NEBRASKA
A winner of four of its last five games, Nebraska is 10-1 at home this year, 0-1 on the road and 0-1 in its neutral site contest. It has lost at home to UAB (73-72), at Creighton (70-44) and versus Florida State (74-60). The Huskers' marquee non-conference win as an 84-74 victory over Marquette on Nov. 30. NU is outscoring its opponents by 7.5 a game and outrebounding them by 5.4 a contest. It is shooting .430 from the field, .360 from 3-point range and .617 from the free throw line.

Senior forward Wes Wilkinson leads three Huskers who average double figures in points. The 6-10, 220-pounder averages 13.8 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds while leading the Big 12 in both 3-point field goal percentage (.569) and blocked shots (2.4 bpg). He is 29-for-51 from beyond the arc. Sophomore guard Joe McCray, another long range threat, supplies 10.8 points and 4.5 rebounds a contest. He has made 28 treys on the year (2.2 per game). Senior forward Jason Dourisseau averages 10.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists. He is shooting .505 from the field and has attempted a team-high 78 free throws (he is shooting .500 from the foul line). Freshman guard Marcus Walker and sophomore center Aleks Maric each average 7.8 points while junior forward B.J. Walker averages 7.5.

Head coach Barry Collier is 80-80 (.500) in his sixth year at Nebraska and owns a 276-212 (.566) overall record in his 17th season as a collegiate head coach.

SERIES WITH NEBRASKA
Oklahoma holds a 102-78 series lead against Nebraska, but the Huskers lead 44-37 in Lincoln. The Sooners have won seven straight in the series and the last three at the Bob Devaney Center. Under Kelvin Sampson, OU is 11-3 against the Huskers with a 4-2 record on the road. Nebraska's last win in the series (and lone win in Norman since Sampson became head coach in 1994-95) was in 1999 (96-81).

Last year in Norman, the Sooners snapped a three-game losing streak with an 83-60 triumph over NU on Feb. 16. OU recorded 17 steals in the game, the most against a conference opponent during the Sampson era. Terrell Everett had game highs of 18 points and six assists with no turnovers. Joe McCray led Nebraska with 21 points.

QUICK TIPS
Dating back to last year, Oklahoma has outboarded 17 of its last 19 opponents.
Kevin Bookout and Taj Gray rank second and fourth in the Big 12 with respective field goal marks of .636 and .625.
Gray is shooting .710 from the field (44-for-62) over the last six-and-a-half games. He has shot .500 or better in 10 of 11 games this year.
Bookout is shooting .646 from the field over the past seven games and owns the OU career record in field goal percentage with a .585 mark.
Gray has made 41 of his last 51 free throw attempts (.804) and owns a .771 season mark. He shot .646 last year.
Michael Neal ranks second the Big 12 in 3-pointers made per game (2.7) and ranks sixth in 3-point field goal percentage (.349). He has made at least two treys in nine of 11 games.
Neal is shooting .349 from 3-point range (30-for-86) and just .200 from 2-point range (6-for-30).
Opponents are shooting .396 from 3-point range through 11 games (OU ranks last in the Big 12 in the category). Last year, OU set a school record by allowing foes to shoot just .292 from beyond the arc.
In 33 games last year, OU logged 20 or more offensive rebounds twice. It has at least 20 offensive boards three times already in nine games this year, with other games of 19, 17, 15 and 15.
OU has posted double-digit offensive rebounds in all 11 games while foes have done it just four times.
Three Sooners rank in the top 15 of the Big 12 in offensive rebounding. Gray ranks third (3.4 per game), Bookout ranks seventh (2.9) and Nate Carter ranks 13th (2.4).
The Sooners have won 72 of their last 77 games at Lloyd Noble Center (.935).
Taj Gray is on preseason watch lists for both the John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith Trophy player-of-the-year awards.

AS DIFFERENT AS NIGHT AND GRAY
After a somewhat slow start in which he averaged 10.3 points over OU's first four games, Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year Taj Gray has more than come to life since. The 6-9, 238-pounder is averaging 19.0 points and shooting .662 from the field over the last seven contests. Gray, who averages 15.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks on the year, has played more than 30 minutes just five times in 11 outings.

First 4 games: 15-28 FGs (.536), 11-15 FTs (.733), 10.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg
Last 7 games: 45-68 FGs (.662), 43-55 FTs (.782), 19.0 ppg, 8.6 rpg

OU IN LEAGUE OPENERS
Oklahoma is 9-2 in conference openers under Kelvin Sampson and is 7-2 in Big 12 openers. Sampson has coached OU to a 6-5 record in its first conference road game of a season (5-4 in Big 12 play). The Sooners are 1-0 when playing their first road game of a conference campaign at Nebraska (78-51 in 2002).

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 227-79).

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.

VALUING THE BASKETBALL
Despite committing a season-high 19 turnovers at SMU on Tuesday, Oklahoma leads the Big 12 by averaging 14.0 turnovers per game (Nebraska averages 17.0). In its two games before Tuesday, OU combined for just 17 turnovers against Oral Roberts (five) and Alabama (12).

WINDOW WIPERS
Oklahoma ranks second in the nation in rebounding margin. The Sooners are outboarding their opponents 424-269 on the year for a per-game margin of +14.1. Only LSU (+16.3) averages a larger rebounding margin. Here are some more rebounding notes.

OU has outrebounded 10 of its 11 opponents. Included were margins of 28 against Samford, 22 against Belmont and Alabama, 20 versus SMU, 18 against Binghamton, 16 versus Tulsa and 13 against Southern.
Oklahoma has grabbed 187 offensive boards (17.0 per game) while its foes have secured just 78 (7.1).
Last year, OU registered 20 or more offensive rebounds twice in 33 games. This year's squad has already accomplished the feat three times with other games of 19, 17, 15 and 15 offensive boards.
Taj Gray averages a team-high 8.0 rebounds while Kevin Bookout averages 7.1. The last time two Sooners both averaged more than 7.0 rebounds a game was in 1998-99 (Eduardo Najera and Ryan Humphrey averaged 8.3 and 7.5 boards, respectively).
Bookout or Gray have led OU in rebounding in all 11 games (six times by Gray and five times by Bookout).
Pro-rated to 40 minutes, Taylor Griffin, a freshman, is averaging a team-high 12.5 boards per outing. He has averaged 11.5 minutes per game.

CHARITY CASE
After ranking sixth in the Big 12 last year in free throw percentage with a .690 season mark (and ranking 10th in league games with a .675 figure), the Sooners lead the conference so far this year by shooting .737. OU has shot better than .750 in seven of its 11 games and has posted a .783 mark (65-for-83 over the last four games). Nate Carter ranks fourth in the Big 12 with his .778 season mark while Taj Gray ranks sixth at .771. Gray is averaging 7.9 free throw attempts over the last six contests.

The best a Kelvin Sampson-coached OU team has shot from the foul line for an entire season is .767 in 2001-02.

GRAY, BOOKOUT POSTING GAUDY NUMBERS
Senior big men Taj Gray and Kevin Bookout are showing why they're regarded as one of the nation's top frontcourt tandems. Over the last seven games, the pair has scored 238 of the team's 466 points, or 51 percent (Gray is averaging 19.0 points while Bookout is averaging 15.0). During the same span, they have shot a combined .654 from the field (87-for-133).

Since halftime of the Villanova game on Dec. 3, Gray is shooting a stellar .710 from the field (44-for-62). Bookout has shot .500 or better in all 11 games while Gray has done it in 10.

3-POINT COLD SPELL
The Sooners went 17-for-37 (.459) from 3-point range over their first two games of the year but have struggled since. Over the last nine games, OU has gone 40-for-149 (.268) from beyond the arc to drop its season figure to .306 (ranks last in the Big 12). Junior guard Michael Neal is 30-for-86 (.349) from 3-point range on the year while the rest of the squad is only 27-for-100 (.270). Terrell Everett ranks second on the team with 10 3-pointers.

POLL VAULTING
Oklahoma has been ranked in the AP Top 25 poll 109 weeks since Kelvin Sampson became head coach in 1994. The Sooners made their top-10 debut under Sampson during their 2001-02 Final Four season and since then have been ranked in the top 10 in 41 of the polls. This marks just the second time in nine weeks this year that OU is not ranked in the top 10 (it is No. 12).

BOOKOUT PASSES TISDALE FOR FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE RECORD
For the moment, at least, Kevin Bookout holds the Oklahoma school record for career field goal percentage. The 6-8, 270-pound senior is 56-for-88 (.636) from the field this year and has upped his career mark to .585, bettering Wayman Tisdale's .578 figure that previously ranked No. 1 in school annals. Bookout, who has started 89 of his 90 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).

DIME DROPPER
Though he was not recruited to OU as a point guard, senior Terrell Everett ranks second in the Big 12 with his 6.3 assists per game (he trails only Iowa State's Will Blalock, who averages 7.2). Everett, a natural wing who played some point last year, is the Big 12's leading returning assists man from last season when he averaged 5.0. The slender 6-4 lefty has led the Sooners in assists 34 times in his 44 career games, including 10 times in 11 games this year.

WANTED: DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT
The Sooners have allowed 60.6 points per game sixth fewest in the Big 12 but the figure would be significantly lower if OU didn't rank last in the Big 12 in both field goal percentage defense and 3-point field goal percentage defense. Oklahoma is allowing foes to shoot .448 from the field and .396 from beyond the arc. Last year, opponents shot a mere .292 from 3-point territory when OU set a school record for 3-point field goal percentage defense.

LOOKING TO JOIN THE CLUB
Kevin Bookout (928 career points) and Taj Gray (655) have an excellent chance of increasing OU's 1,000-point club to 35 members. Bookout would have to average 3.3 points thre rest of the season 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 (he is averaging 15.8 this year).

VETERAN STAFF
Kelvin Sampson has compiled a staff that boasts 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.

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).

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 127-13 (.907) when reaching the 80-point plateau. OU has won 44 of its last 47 and 60 of its last 64 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 19 times in 75 games (25 percent of the time). OU finished 20-2 last year when committing fewer (or the same number of) turnovers than its foe.

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.”

2005-06 SIGNEES
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 154-21 (.880) record at Lloyd Noble Center and has won 72 of its last 77 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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