Men's Hoops Exhibition Preview

Oct. 30, 2007

NORMAN, Okla. -- Second-year Oklahoma men's basketball head coach Jeff Capel will watch his team play outside competition at Lloyd Noble Center for the first time this season when the Sooners host Division II foe Rockhurst in an exhibition game at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (flagship KOKC AM-1520 in Oklahoma City) with Bob Barry Sr. and Mike Houck announcing. A live webcast of the game will be available for viewing on the "All-Access" section of OU's official athletics site, SoonerSports.com (a subscription is required).

GAME SPECIFICS
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 31
Site: Norman, Okla. (Lloyd Noble Center)
Tip: 7:08 p.m. CT
Radio: Sooner Radio Network (Flagship KOKC 1520 AM in OKC)
TV: None
Webcast: SoonerSports.com "All-Access" (subscription required)
Series: First meeting

TICKET INFORMATION
• OU students who present a valid school I.D. will be admitted to Wednesday's game free of charge (west entrance).
• Upper-level reserved seats are available for $10 (north and south) and $15 (east and west) through the OU Athletics Ticket Office. Lloyd Noble Center ticket windows will open at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

HALLOWEEN PROMOTIONS
• Halloween trick-or-treating activities will be held on Lloyd Noble Center's upper concourse. Costume contests will be held for children and for OU students. First prize for the children's contest is an OU bike, while OU students will be eligible for $100 in prizes.

Game Notes PDF | Media Day Coverage | Ticket Information

"NOTE" WORTHY
• Rockhurst University has been the practice home of the Oklahoma basketball team during the Big 12 Championship for the last decade when the event has been held in Kansas City.
• Oklahoma is 37-2 in exhibition games over the past 19 seasons.
• The Sooners return 61 percent of their scoring, 70 percent of their rebounding and 66 percent of their assists from last year.
• The Sooners' Nov. 8 regular season opener against San Francisco will mark the earliest ever by a Big 12 Conference team.
• OU has recorded 26 consecutive winning seasons, more than any other Big 12 program. Kansas ranks second (24) and Oklahoma State ranks third (19).
• OU held opponents to 59.6 points a game last year, the lowest figure since the 1977-78 season (a span of 29 years).
• Oklahoma has won 98 of its last 109 games inside Lloyd Noble Center (not including exhibition contests).

ROCKHURST PROJECTED STARTERS (stats from last year)
F 34 Alden Smith (6-5, 195, Jr.)
F 50 Drew Martin (6-7, 225, Jr., 1.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg)
C 42 John Torson (6-10, 210, Sr., 12.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg)
G 10 Joey Deas (5-10, 180, Sr., 12.1 ppg, 1.6 rpg)
G 12 Aaron Hill (6-1, 175, Jr., 13.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg)

OKLAHOMA PROJECTED STARTERS (stats from last year)
F 23 Blake Griffin (6-10, 243, Fr.)
C 30 Longar Longar (6-11, 234, Sr., 10.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg)
G 5 Tony Crocker (6-6, 193, So., 8.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg)
G 15 David Godbold (6-5, 221, Sr., 7.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg)
G 20 Austin Johnson (6-3, 165, Jr., 7.0 ppg, 1.8 rpg)

PREVIEWING OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma returns seven letterwinners from a 16-15 team that finished in a four-way tie for seventh place in the Big 12 with an 6-10 record. The Sooners started the year 15-8 and stood at 6-4 in league play but lost seven of their last eight games. The lack of an NCAA Tournament or NIT berth halted Division I's longest postseason streak -- 25 years. A talented crop of newcomers has bolstered hopes of a strong second season for head coach Jeff Capel, and the Big 12 coaches think OU is headed for a bounceback year as they picked the Sooners to finish in fifth place.

Senior center Longar Longar, who led the Sooners in scoring for most of the 2006-07 campaign, is OU's leading returning scorer and rebounder. He averaged 10.4 points and a team-high 7.1 rebounds while shooting a team-high .553 from the field. The squad's other senior, guard David Godbold, averaged 7.4 points and 4.6 boards last year while ranking second on the team with 43 3-pointers. A pair of juniors return in guard Austin Johnson and forward Taylor Griffin. Johnson started 23 games at point guard and averaged 7.0 points and a team-high 2.8 assists. Griffin made 22 starts and averaged 6.3 points, as well as 5.2 boards to rank second on the team. Sophomore guard Tony Crocker scored at least 14 points on nine occasions during a freshman year that saw him average 8.6 points and 3.7 rebounds. Keith Clark, a sophomore forward, played in only 11 games last year before tearing the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee. He averaged 3.8 points and 2.3 rebounds. Another sophomore, walk-on forward Beau Gerber, played in 11 games and totaled 12 points.

Headlining a highly regarded recruiting class is freshman forward Blake Griffin. A McDonald's All-America honoree last year, Griffin averaged 26.8 points, 15.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.9 blocks for 2A state champion Oklahoma Christian School while shooting .718 from the field. He led the Sooners in scoring (18.8) and rebounding (9.0) during their four-game Labor Day weekend exhibition trip to Canada despite playing just 19.8 minutes an outing. Two more freshmen, Cade Davis and Tony Neysmith, will play in the backcourt. Davis, a wing who was regarded as the state's second-best high school player last year behind Blake Griffin, averaged 23.4 points, 10.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists. Neysmith is a combo guard from Georgia who was ranked as the country's No. 100 high school prospect by Rivals.com. He averaged 10.7 points, 5.1 boards and 3.6 assists for a Norcross High School team that finished the year as the No. 12 team in USA Today's Super 25 rankings.

Junior Omar Leary was a first-team junior college All-American last year who will contend with Johnson for time at point guard. The left-handed Leary averaged 14.0 points and 6.3 assists while shooting .439 from beyond the 3-point arc. Two more newcomers are junior forward Ryan Wright and sophomore walk-on guard Dau Jok. Wright played on a pair of Final Four teams at UCLA and will sit out the 2007-08 season due to NCAA transfer rules. Jok, the first cousin of Longar Longar, was born in Sudan and spent most of his youth in Olathe, Kan.

PREVIEWING THE ROCKHURST HAWKS
Rockhurst, an NCAA Division II program in Kansas City, Mo., posted a 17-12 record last year and finished 11-8 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Hawks, who welcome back eight letterwinners, including their top three scorers, return 64 percent of their scoring and 53 percent of their rebounding. They shot .469 from the field last year, .385 from 3-point range and .734 from the free throw line.

Junior guard Aaron Hill led Rockhurst last year by averaging 13.2 points. A long-distance threat, Hill made 2.9 3-pointers per game and shot .469 from beyond the arc. Senior center John Thorson averaged 12.8 points and team highs of 6.7 rebounds and 2.4 blocks while shooting .511 from the floor. Senior point guard Joey Deas averaged 12.1 points, a team-high 2.7 assists and 1.7 treys. He shot .402 from 3-point range and .880 from the free throw line (95-for-108).

Bill O'Connor is in his 14th season as a collegiate head coach, all at Rockhurst. He owns a 193-179 (.519) record.

OKLAHOMA-ROCKHURST SERIES HISTORY
Wednesday's game will mark the first between OU and Rockhurst.

EXHIBITING SUCCESS
The Sooners have compiled an impressive 37-2 exhibition record over the last 19 years. Last year, the Sooners beat Oklahoma Christian, 79-51, and Central Missouri, 74-69. Keith Clark led OU with 18 points against Oklahoma Christian while Tony Crocker scored a team-high 14 points versus Central Missouri.

EARLY START
Oklahoma's Nov. 8 season opener against San Francisco in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic will mark the earliest game in school history. In fact, with the 2K Sports Classic second round scheduled for the following day, the Sooners will get two games under their belt earlier in the calendar than they've ever played one.

Additionally, the contest will mark the earliest ever played by a Big 12 Conference men's basketball team.

Last year's Nov. 10 OU opener against Norfolk State had been the earliest game played by the Sooners, while Texas (last season) and Kansas (in 2000-01) both started a campaign on Nov. 9.

FOUR AND OH, CANADA
The Sooners got an early jump on the 2007-08 season by virtue of their three-day, four-game tour of the Vancouver, B.C., area over Labor Day weekend (Sept 1-3). OU posted a 4-0 record, winning at the University of British Columbia (81-62), Simon Fraser (86-57), Trinity Western (107-58) and Douglas College (90-61) by an average of 31.5 points.

Four Sooners averaged double figures in points, paced by true freshman Blake Griffin's 18.8 scoring average (in just 19.8 minutes per game). Senior Longar Longar, (14.5 ppg), freshman Cade Davis (11.3) and sophomore Keith Clark (10.0) also averaged double figures in scoring. Griffin, who is the younger brother of OU junior Taylor Griffin, also averaged a team-high 9.0 rebounds per contest and shot a team-best .609 from the field. Full cumulative stats are on page 5 of these game notes.

A pair of guards who started the majority of OU's games last year did not make the trip. Junior Austin Johnson and sophomore Tony Crocker stayed in Oklahoma due to injuries. Their absence meant more playing time for newcomer guards Davis, Omar Leary and Tony Neysmith. Leary, a junior college All-American, averaged 7.3 points and 3.0 assists while Neysmith, a freshman, contributed 7.0 points and 3.0 assists per outing.

OU OPENS REGULAR SEASON WITH 2K SPORTS COLLEGE HOOPS CLASSIC
Oklahoma begins the regular season Nov. 8-9 in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer as one of the event's four regional hosts. The Nov. 8 first round will see Denver take on East Central (Okla.) at 4:30 p.m. and the Sooners meet San Francisco at 7 p.m. First-round losers will face each other Nov. 9 at 4:30 while first-round winners will play at 7.

If OU wins its two regional games, it will travel to New York City for Nov. 15 and 16 championship round games inside Madison Square Garden. Other regional hosts (and potential opponents in New York) include Memphis (ranked No. 3 in the preseason coaches poll), Kentucky (No. 22) and Connecticut. The New York games will be televised by ESPN2.

THE MOOSE IS LOOSE
Sophomore forward Keith Clark is back for his sophomore season after torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee on Dec. 28, 2006, against SMU prematurely ended his freshman campaign. Clark averaged 3.8 points and 2.3 rebounds in 12.2 minutes a game prior to his injury and, according to head coach Jeff Capel, was starting to come into his own when he got hurt.

The 6-8, 242-pound Oklahoma City product, who was ranked as the nation's No. 57 overall player by Rivals.com his senior year in high school, was cleared for full activity the first week of July and showed no ill-effects from the injury during the team's Labor Day weekend trip to Canada. According to OU athletics trainer Alex Brown, Clark will wear a brace on his knee until OU's regular season begins.

ALL IN THE FAMILY
For the first time since the 2004-05 school year, brothers Taylor and Blake Griffin will play on the same competitive team this year. Separated by two years, the pair prepped together under their father (Tommy Griffin) at Oklahoma Christian School during the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons and won two state titles together.

Taylor, a junior forward, averaged 6.3 points and 5.2 rebounds a game last year for the Sooners, while Blake, a freshman forward who won four state high school championships at OCS, was a McDonald's All-American last year and is regarded as one of the top collegiate newcomers in the country.

TALIAFERRO JOINS STAFF
Oronde Taliaferro, who spent the past four years as an assistant coach at Arkansas, was hired in May to replace Rod Barnes. Barnes left the program last spring to become the head coach at Georgia State.

The 35-year-old Taliaferro, who grew up in Detroit, Mich., but was always an Oklahoma basketball and football fan in part because of trips to visit family in Oklahoma City, said it was great to get on the OU practice court when the team began preparations for its Labor Day Weekend trip to Canada.

"It was a great feeling. Growing up, I didn't expect I'd wind up here. It's kind of like a homecoming, so to speak, considering I grew up watching so many OU games and having family here. It's a weird feeling, but it's a good feeling. It probably means more to me because of my attachment to the city and to some of the history."

Taliaferro, who was an assistant coach at Kent State when it reached the NCAA Tournament's 2002 Elite Eight, was labeled by Rivals.com in 2006 as one of the nation's top 25 recruiters.

HOME IS WHERE THE "W" IS
Lloyd Noble Center has been overly kind to the Sooners, as they have won 43 of the last 49 games and 98 of the last 109 in the building. OU is 410-69 (.856) in the building since it opened for 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 (the league's first year was in 1996-97).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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