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University of Oklahoma Athletics
OU Fires Up Big 12 Play vs. K-State
January 11, 2008 | Men's Basketball
| OU (12-3) vs. Kansas State (10-4) | |
| Date & Tip Time | Saturday, Jan. 12 at 5 p.m. CST |
| Location | Norman, Okla. | Lloyd Noble Center |
| Tickets | OU Athletics Ticket Office |
| TV | ESPN Plus (KAUT 43/Cox 16 in OKC; KJRH 2/Cox 9 in Tulsa; ESPN Full Court |
| Radio | Sooner Radio Network KRXO FM-107.7 in Oklahoma City KTBZ AM-1430 in Tulsa Sirius 143 |
| Webcast | None |
| Live Stats | SoonerSports.com / GameTracker |
| Game Info | Gameday Central | Game Notes (PDF) |
GAME PREVIEW
Off to its best start in three years, Oklahoma (12-3) begins Big 12 Conference play when its hosts Kansas State (10-4) Saturday at 5 p.m. CST inside Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners, who have won five straight games and are 8-1 at home this year, are coming off an 81-57 win over Mount St. Mary's on Monday. Kansas State defeated Savannah State the same night by an 85-25 score, and set an NCAA record for fewest points allowed in a half since the shot clock was introduced in 1986 (Savannah State scored four points after halftime).
Saturday's contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Sirius channel 143) with Bob Barry Sr. and Mike Houck announcing. The game will be televised by ESPN Plus (KAUT 43/Cox 16 in Oklahoma City; KJRH 2/Cox 9 or 709 in Tulsa) and ESPN Full Court with Bob Carpenter and Paul Splittorff calling the action.
TICKET INFORMATION
• Tickets for Saturday's game are available for as little as $10. They may be purchased online at SoonerSports.com or at the OU Athletics Ticket Office (800-456-4668). Lloyd Noble Center ticket windows will open Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
• Tickets for OU students are $10 at the door.
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OKLAHOMA UPDATE
The Sooners are slotted 26th in this week's AP poll, their highest ranking since the final poll of the 2005-06 season (24th).
• OU's 12 regular season non-conference wins are tied for its most since the 1994-95 season (it also won 12 in 1999-00 and 2004-05).
• Oklahoma's five-game winning streak is the longest of the Jeff Capel era (it won four in a row on two occasions last year).
• OU has scored at least 80 points seven times this season, after doing it four times all of last year.
• Through Wednesday's games, OU is ranked 31st in the CollegeRPI.com ratings percentage index.
• OU is averaging 74.6 points per game. Only once in the last five years has it averaged that many points per contest for a whole season (75.2 in 2004-05 when it shared the Big 12 regular season title).
• Oklahoma has held eight of its 15 opponents to fewer than 60 points this year. It entered the week ranked 34th nationally in scoring defense (60.6 ppg) and 14th in field goal percentage defense (.376).
• Freshman Blake Griffin was named the Dec. 31 Big 12 Player of the Week after registering 18 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in OU's 88-82 double-overtime win at West Virginia. He followed with 18 points and nine boards last Saturday against Rice and a career-high 26 points and seven boards two days later versus Mount St. Mary's.
• Griffin is assembling one of the best freshman campaigns in school history and leads the Sooners in scoring (14.7 ppg), rebounding (8.8 rpg), steals (1.3 spg) and field goal percentage (.589). Griffin has scored in double figures in 13 of 15 games, including each of the last eight. He ranks third in the league with five double-doubles.
• Griffin is averaging 17.6 points and 10.4 rebounds during OU's five-game winning streak. He has attempted 30 free throws over the last two outings. On the year, he is shooting almost as well from the field (.589) as he is from the foul line (.600).
• Senior center Longar Longar, who led OU in scoring in four straight games prior to last Saturday's Rice contest, played with a shoulder sprain the last two games (averaged 8.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in those two outings). Despite the lower totals the past two games, he is averaging 15.2 points over the last six contests.
• Longar scored a game-high 22 points against West Virginia (all after halftime) on Dec. 29.
• In each of the last seven games, Longar has scored more points after halftime than in the first 20 minutes. He is averaging 3.9 points in the first half of those six contests and 11.4 after the break. Over the last six games, Longar is shooting .758 from the field after halftime (25-for-33). He has amassed double-digit point totals after intermission in four of those six outings (17 against Stephen F. Austin, 10 against Arkansas, 11 versus Gonzaga and 22 at West Virginia).
• Sophomore guard Tony Crocker, OU's best 3-point shooter at .500 (29-for-58), is one make shy of qualifying in the Big 12 individual rankings (he would rank second). He has made at least three treys in a game six times and is 23-for-35 in those contests.
• Crocker, who scored a career-high 26 points at TCU on Dec. 2 (he netted 20 points in the first half with the help of 6-for-7 3-point shooting), ranks third on the team in scoring and rebounding (11.4 and 4.8 averages) and first in assists (3.0).
• Junior guard Austin Johnson is averaging 11.4 points over the last nine outings (he has scored at least nine points in eight of those nine games) while shooting .400 (16-for-40) from 3-point distance. Johnson is now averaging 9.1 points a game on the year and sports a 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• In OU's last three games, Johnson is averaging 9.7 points, 5.0 assists and 2.7 steals. He tied a career high with nine assists at West Virginia and set a career high with six steals last Saturday against Rice (he had 10 steals on the year entering the Rice game).
• Capel announced Thursday that sophomore forward Keith Clark is academically ineligible and will not be enrolled at OU for the spring semester. Clark averaged 5.4 points (eighth on the team) and 2.0 rebounds in his 14 games (15.3 minutes per contest).
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MOUNT ST. MARY'S LEFTOVERS
• Freshman guard Tony Neysmith, the No. 100 high school recruit in the country last year by Rivals.com, saw his first action since Dec. 5. He played 14 minutes and registered his first career field goal while also contributing two steals.
• After combining for 37 turnovers against West Virginia (20) and Rice (17), OU was back down to a more modest 12 on Monday.
• Oklahoma's 39 free throw attempts (it made 25) were its most since Dec. 2, 2003 (45 vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff).
• Blake Griffin recorded career highs of 12 free throw makes and 18 attempts, making him 18-for-30 over the last two games.
• OU shot .532 from the field, marking the eighth time this year and the fifth time in the last eight games that it has shot at least .500.
• The Sooners went 6-for-12 from 3-point range to give them five performances of .500 or better this year.
• OU finished the game on a 53-29 run (the score was tied at 28).
PREVIEWING KANSAS STATE
• Kansas State (10-4) is 8-1 at home this year and 2-3 at neutral sites. Saturday will mark its first true road game of the season.
• The Wildcats rank third in the Big 12 by averaging 81.2 points per game, second in rebounding margin at +10.2 and first in offensive rebounds per game at 17.4 (Kansas ranks second at 12.6).
• Despite holding Savannah State to 25 points on Monday, Kansas State ranks last in the Big 12 in scoring defense (67.0 ppg).
• K-State has won five of its last six games with the only loss during the stretch coming to Xavier (103-77) on Dec. 31 in Cincinnati.
• Freshman forward Michael Beasley ranks fifth in the nation in scoring (24.3 ppg) and first in rebounding (13.3 rpg). He is shooting .560 from the field and has registered 13 double-doubles in the team's 14 games. Beasley was held to five points two games ago against Xavier on 1-for-6 field goal shooting. He scored 40 points against Winston-Salem State on Dec. 22 and grabbed a Big 12-record 24 rebounds against Sacramento State on Nov. 9 in the season opener.
• Redshirt-freshman Bill Walker ranks second on the team in scoring and rebounding with his 12.7 and 6.1 respective averages. Over the last three games, he is averaging 23.3 points and 8.0 boards. He scored 31 points against Xavier.
• A third freshman, guard Jacob Pullen, ranks third on the Wildcats in scoring with a 9.6 average and first in assists (3.3 per outing) and steals (1.4). He scored in double figures in eight of the season's first 10 games, but has failed to do it in the last four.
• Senior guard Clent Stewart, a graduate of Union High School in Tulsa, is averaging 8.0 points and 3.2 assists per contest.
• Senior forward David Hoskins, who was a second-team All-Big 12 pick last year and ranked second on the Wildcats with his 14.5 points per game, underwent knee surgery on Nov. 8 and has not played this season.
• Frank Martin is in his first season as Kansas State's head coach. He was a K-State assistant under Bob Huggins last year when the Wildcats finished 23-12 overall, 10-6 in the Big 12 (fourth place) and advanced to the NIT second round.
SERIES WITH THE WILDCATS
Oklahoma owns a 101-88 all-time series lead against Kansas State and holds a 58-23 advantage in Norman. The Sooners, who are 9-3 versus the Wildcats since the inception of the Big 12 (5-1 in Norman), have won eight of the last nine in the series and seven of the last eight at Lloyd Noble Center. The last K-State win in Norman came during the 1995-96 season (75-60). Four of OU's last seven wins in the series have come by one or two points.
LAST YEAR AGAINST KANSAS STATE
In the teams' lone meeting last year, Kansas State won a 72-61 decision over Oklahoma in the March 3 regular season finale in Manhattan to snap an eight-game losing streak to the Sooners. Wildcats senior guard Cartier Martin scored a career-high 30 points on 10-for-16 field goal and 5-for-8 3-point shooting. OU outscored K-State 39-31 in the second half, but a 19-point halftime deficit (41-22) was too much to overcome. The Wildcats became just the second team on the year to shoot better than .500 from the field (.532) against the Sooners (OU shot .442). Nate Carter and Tony Crocker led Oklahoma with 14 points each, while David Godbold added 12.
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OPENING STATEMENT
Despite losing three of its last four conference-opening games, Oklahoma is 7-4 in Big 12 openers. The Sooners have opened Big 12 play at home four times in the league's previous 11 years and own a 4-0 record in those contests (two wins each against Colorado and Texas A&M). They are 8-3 in Big 12 home openers and have never begun Big 12 Conference action against Kansas State.
OU'S BIG 12 HISTORY
Oklahoma boasts a 117-59 (.665) record in Big 12 Conference regular season games, third best in the league (Kansas is 145-31 while Texas is 123-53). No other team has won more than 107 conference contests. The Sooners earned a regular season league title in 2005 and also won Big 12 Tournament crowns in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Last year, Oklahoma's strength under first-year head coach Jeff Capel was its defense. The Sooners held opponents to 59.6 points a game (the lowest average in 29 years) and to .406 field goal shooting (the second lowest figure over the past 46 seasons). With the offense much improved this year, the defense has been as good, if not better...
• OU is surrendering just 60.3 points per game (59.3 in regulation) and is allowing opponents to shoot .379 from the field and .294 from 3-point land (the school record is .292). The last time the Sooners held opponents to a worse field goal mark for an entire season was 47 years ago (.377 in 1960-61).
• Only one opponent (Arkansas scored 72) has scored more than 68 points in regulation this season, and eight of OU's 15 foes have been held under 60 points.
• Second-ranked Memphis, which averaged 78.9 points last year and is averaging 83.7 points this season, was held to 63 points Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden.
• Oklahoma has forced 12 of its 15 opponents into at least as many turnovers as it has committed. Foes are averaging 15.5 turnovers per contest (OU is averaging 13.6).
• All 15 opponents have shot under .500 from the field, 14 have shot under .460 and eight have finished with a mark less than .400. Gardner-Webb, which won at Kentucky by 16 points when it shot .531 from the field, was held to a .279 performance against OU in New York on Nov. 16 while Rice shot .291 last Saturday.
HOT HANDS
With the exception of the Memphis and USC games when they combined for a .362 field goal mark, the Sooners have displayed solid shooting this year. On the season, Oklahoma sports a .479 mark from the field (its highest since 1988-89) and a .376 figure from 3-point range (last year OU shot .435 and .326, respectively). It has shot .500 or better from the floor in eight of 15 games, including five of the last eight. OU's three leading scorers are shooting a combined .547 from the floor. Forward Blake Griffin owns a team-high .589 field goal mark and is followed by center Longar Longar (.553) and guard Tony Crocker (.487).
The guard trio of Crocker, Austin Johnson and Omar Leary has combined to shoot .435 from 3-point range. Crocker is shooting .500 from behind the arc (29-for-58), Leary is shooting .439 (18-for-41) and Johnson is shooting .364 (20-for-55). Taylor Griffin owns a .462 mark from long range but has attempted considerably fewer shots (he is 6-for-13).
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINNING AND LOSING
The following notes compare Oklahoma's stats in its 12 wins and three losses this year...
• In its 12 wins this year, OU is outrebounding its opponents by 6.5 a game. In its three losses, it is getting outboarded by 4.3.
• Oklahoma is shooting .505 from the field, .409 from 3-point range and .684 from the free throw line in its wins. In its losses, it is shooting .378, .250 and .653, respectively.
• OU's assist-to-turnover ratio in its victories is +1.3 (202 assists and 160 turnovers). The ratio in losses is -1.6 (27 and 44).
• Tony Crocker is averaging 13.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting .540 in the Sooners' wins. In losses, those numbers fall to 4.0 points, 3.7 boards, 1.3 assists and .176 (3-for-17), respectively. Crocker is also shooting .571 from 3-point range in OU's victories (28-for-49), but just .111 in defeats (1-for-9).
• Blake Griffin is averaging 16.5 points and shooting .621 in OU's victories, but just 7.3 points and .409 in its losses.
FOR STARTERS
Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel has used nine different starting lineups in the team's 15 games this year. Monday's lineup of Tony Crocker, David Godbold, Blake Griffin, Austin Johnson and Longar Longar has been used three times on the season, all within the last four games. The lineup that has been used the most often (four times) is Crocker, Griffin, Johnson, Omar Leary and Longar. Nine different Sooners have started this season, with Crocker and Griffin getting the nod a team-high 14 times each.
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