Men's Basketball: Back in Time #1

June 11, 2007

NORMAN, Okla. -- How loud did you cheer when the Oklahoma men's basketball team beat Arizona to go to the 1988 national championship game? Were you in attendance when Billy Tubbs took the microphone against Missouri in 1989? Do you remember when Hollis Price and the 2002 Sooners dealt No. 1 Kansas a convincing defeat in the Big 12 Tournament title game?

Each Monday in June, July and August, SoonerSports.com will take you back in time with the OU men's basketball program as we highlight some of the biggest games and biggest names from the 1970s, '80s, '90s and 2000s.

Be sure to check in each week to relive great Sooner moments involving such players as Mookie Blaylock, Jackie Jones, Darryl Kennedy, Harvey Grant, Skeeter Henry, Stacey King, Tim McCalister, John McCullough, Ryan Minor, Eduardo Najera, Brent Price, Wayman Tisdale and others.

The first installment features the 1989-90 Sooners, a squad that took on two No. 1 ranked opponents in the span of three days in Norman. The result? Two resounding OU victories and a No. 1 ranking for itself.

Feb. 25, 1990
No. 1 Missouri at No. 10 Oklahoma

Box Score

A Lloyd Noble Center record crowd of 12,157 was on hand to witness a top-10 matchup between No. 1 Missouri and No. 10 Oklahoma in a nationally televised Sunday afternoon contest.

The Sooners, in their attempt to avenge a 92-90 loss earlier in the season in Columbia, were also looking to enhance their NCAA Tournament seeding with a meaningful victory.

Mission accomplished. And with authority.

Behind 28 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots from Jackie Jones, 24 points and nine rebounds from Damon Patterson, and 20 points and 12 boards from William Davis, OU claimed a resounding 107-90 victory. It was Mizzou's worst loss in two years.

Ahead 49-45 at halftime, the Sooners took control with a 20-5 scoring spree to open the second half. Jones supplied 10 of those 20 points.

"I had a great feeling this morning," said Jones after the game. "Man, I was pumped. I even thought I was a little over-energetic. My coaches kept telling me to calm down. I kept going saying, 'No way.'"

Skeeter Henry added 18 points while freshman Terry Evans contributed 15 points and a career-high 12 assists for one of three OU double-doubles on the day. The Sooners were 12-for-22 from 3-point range with Jones going 4-for-6 and Evans 3-for-3.

Doug Smith paced the Tigers with 27 points before fouling out with 6:24 remaining.

The win improved Billy Tubbs' team to 21-4 while Missouri fell to 25-3.

Said Davis, a senior, "A couple of times, the crowd was so loud it made me nervous."

Added Evans, "We were determined to win this game, any way, any how."

Feb. 27, 1990
No. 1 Kansas at No. 5 Oklahoma

Box Score

Two days after disposing of No. 1 Missouri by 17 points, the No. 5 Sooners welcomed Kansas -- the nation's newly anointed No. 1 team -- to Lloyd Noble Center.

The Jayhawks fared worse than the Tigers: Oklahoma 100, Kansas 78.

A raucous record crowd of 12,166 watched OU's press fuel a jackrabbit start that had the Sooners ahead 41-17 with 5:17 left in the first half. Sixteen of KU's season-high 26 turnovers came in the opening 20 minutes. Many of the Jayhawks' miscues led to easy OU scoring opportunities.

The Sooners rode the hot hands of Skeeter Henry and William Davis to a 48-34 halftime cushion as the seniors, playing in their final home game, netted 15 and 14 points, respectively, on a combined 10-for-15 shooting.

"It looked like a track meet out there," said KU head coach Roy Williams following his team's 22-point defeat. "I thought we were in a fast break drill for Oklahoma to see how many dunks they could get. We couldn't get it down the dadgum court in the first half."

Like the opening period, the second half was all OU. The Sooners ripped the nets for 52 points after intermission, and Jackie Jones' finger roll with 24 seconds remaining got the Sooners to the century mark.

Five Sooners scored in double figures and three of them tallied more than 20. Henry finished with 23 points and six assists, Davis added 22 and six rebounds, and Terry Evans was 5-for-6 from 3-point range and finished with 22 points, five assists and five steals.

Damon Patterson contributed 14 points and jack-of-all-trades Jones had 12 points, eight boards, four assists, two blocks and three steals.

After they dropped Kansas to 27-3, OU players made a curtain call that lasted five minutes.

"This was the first time one of my teams has given an encore," said OU head coach Billy Tubbs. "That was in appreciation for the fans. I thought it was an outstanding performance."

The victory gave OU a 22-4 record and a 45th straight home triumph. And after it won at Oklahoma State the next game, the Sooners gave the nation a new No. 1 team.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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