Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus Auburn on February 24, 2026 , Win , 91, to, 79
Final
Men's Basketball
91
vs Auburn
79
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Men's Basketball Tips Off Season Saturday at 1 p.m.
November 13, 2009 | Men's Basketball
 |
|
| Freshman Steven Pledger |
| No. 17/16 Oklahoma (0-0) vs. Mount St. Mary's (0-0) | |
| Date & Tip Time | Saturday, Nov. 14 at 1:07 p.m. CST |
| Location | Norman, Okla. | Lloyd Noble Center | Seating Views |
| Tickets | OU Athletics Ticket Office |
| TV | None |
| Radio | Sooner Radio Network KOKC AM 1520 in Oklahoma City KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa |
| Webcast | None |
| Live Stats | SoonerSports.com GameTracker |
| Game Info | Game Notes (PDF) |
GAME PREVIEW
Ranked No. 16 in ESPN/USA Today top-25 poll and No. 17 in the AP version, Oklahoma (30-6 last year) begins its 103rd season of varsity basketball (fourth under head coach Jeff Capel) when it hosts the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers (19-14 last year) Saturday at 1 p.m. CST at Lloyd Noble Center. The contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (flagship KOKC AM 1520 in Oklahoma City; KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa) with Bob Barry Sr. and Mike Houck announcing. The game will not be televised, but a live Webcast will be available for viewing on the "All-Access" portion of OU's official athletics site, SoonerSports.com.
TICKET INFORMATION
Reserved seats are available for $10, $20 and $30 at the OU Athletics Ticket Office. Lloyd Noble Center's north and east ticket windows will open at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
| Mount St. Mary's Projected Starters | ||||||
|
Pos.
|
No.
|
Name |
Ht.
|
Wt.
|
Year
|
2008-09 Stats / Notes |
|
F
|
4
|
Kelly Beidler |
6-5
|
205
|
Sr.
|
10.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.1 apg |
|
F
|
10
|
Shawn Atupem |
6-7
|
220
|
Jr.
|
9.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg |
|
F
|
13
|
Kristijan Krajina |
6-9
|
230
|
Fr.
|
First year at Mount St. Mary's |
|
G
|
0
|
Jean Cajou |
6-3
|
180
|
Jr.
|
12.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.2 apg |
|
G
|
1
|
Jeremy Goode |
5-9
|
170
|
Sr.
|
14.9 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 4.1 apg |
| Oklahoma's Projected Starters | ||||||
|
Pos.
|
No.
|
Name |
Ht.
|
Wt.
|
Year
|
2008-09 Stats / Notes |
|
F
|
1
|
Ryan Wright |
6-9
|
241
|
Sr.
|
1.8 ppg, 2.1 rpg |
|
F
|
24
|
Tiny Gallon |
6-9
|
290
|
Fr.
|
McDonald's All-American |
|
G
|
5
|
Tony Crocker |
6-6
|
209
|
Sr.
|
9.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 34.9 3FG% |
|
G
|
11
|
Tommy Mason-Griffin |
5-11
|
203
|
Fr.
|
McDonald's All-American |
|
G
|
13
|
Willie Warren |
6-4
|
203
|
So.
|
14.6 ppg, 3.1 apg, 37.2 3FG% |
PREVIEWING OKLAHOMA
Picked by Big 12 Conference coaches to finish in third place in the league race, Oklahoma is coming off a 30-6 season (its fifth 30-win campaign in school history) that saw it finish in second place in the Big 12 (13-3) and advance to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight round where it lost to eventual national champion North Carolina. OU returns eight letterwinners from that squad, including two starters.
On paper, Oklahoma's strength in 2009-10 will be its backcourt. Leading the guard charge will be sophomore preseason All-American Willie Warren and senior Tony Crocker. The pair, who combined for 70 starts last year, has shown an ability to score in bunches. Warren recorded seven games of at least 20 points last season (including two of at least 30 points) en route to being unanimously named Big 12 Freshman of the Year. He averaged 14.6 points and set an OU freshman record with his 67 3-pointers. Crocker, meanwhile, has scored at least 20 points nine times over the past two seasons. He enters his final campaign ranked 34th in OU career scoring (1,008 points) and seventh in 3-point field goals (158). Other returnees are junior guard Cade Davis (4.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg), sophomore guard Ray Willis (3.3 ppg, 1.4 rpg), senior forward Ryan Wright (1.8 ppg, 2.1 rpg), junior center Orlando Allen (1.8 ppg), senior forward Beau Gerber (0.6 ppg) and sophomore guard T.J. Franklin (0.3 ppg).
Headlining a heralded recruiting class are McDonald's High School All-Americans Tiny Gallon and Tommy Mason-Griffin. Gallon, a 6-9, 290-pound forward, was the McDonald's game's leading scorer last spring (20 points in 21 minutes) and is one of the most highly touted high school signees in OU history (ranked No. 9 overall by Rivals.com). Mason-Griffin, a 5-11 point guard, was the Gatorade Texas High School Player of the Year last season and was rated by ESPN.com as the country's No. 24 overall player (No. 4 point guard). The pair is joined by freshman forward Andrew Fitzgerald (ranked No. 68 by ESPN.com), freshman guard Steven Pledger (ranked No. 84 by ESPN.com) and freshman forward Kyle Hardrick. Ryan Randolph is a freshman walk-on guard who won three state titles in basketball and one in football as starting quarterback at Oklahoma City's Bishop McGuinness High School. The 15th player on OU's roster is junior forward Barry Honoré, a transfer from Southern University who will sit out the 2009-10 season. Honoré was the Southwestern Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year two seasons ago.
|
||||||
PREVIEWING MOUNT ST. MARY'S
Mount St. Mary's, located in Emmitsburg, Md., returns its top four scorers from a 2008-09 team that finished 19-14 overall and 12-6 in the Northeast Conference (second place). The Mountaineers are picked by conference coaches, as well as several preseason publications, to win this year's league race.
The squad is led by consensus preseason Northeast Conference player of the year Jeremy Goode, a 5-9, 170-pound senior point guard who averaged 14.9 points and 4.1 assists a game last year and earned first-team all-league honors. Also back are junior guard Jean Cajou (12.6 ppg, 2.2 apg, team-high 51 3-pointers), senior forward Kelly Beidler (10.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.1 apg) and junior forward Shawn Atupem (9.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg, .536 FG%).
Seventh-year head coach Milan Brown has directed the Mountaineers to a 79-105 (.429) record, but is 38-29 (.567) over the past two seasons. Mount St. Mary's participated in the 2008 NCAA Tournament after winning the Northeast Conference postseason tournament. Brown served as an assistant coach under OU head coach Jeff Capel's father (also named Jeff Capel) at Old Dominion in the mid 1990's.
OU-MOUNT ST. MARY'S SERIES HISTORY
Oklahoma owns a 3-0 series lead against Mount St. Mary's, with wins in 1994-95 (91-67 in Norman), 1999-00 (94-41 in Oklahoma City) and 2007-08 (81-57 in Norman). The most recent meeting came in Jeff Capel's second year as OU head coach. Tony Crocker (10 points, 6 rebounds in 27 minutes), Cade Davis (6 points, 4 rebounds in 17 minutes) and Beau Gerber (scoreless in 3 minutes) were the only current Sooners to play in the contest. Blake Griffin paced OU with 26 points and seven boards. Current Mountaineers Jeremy Goode (12 points in 30 minutes), Will Holland (11 points in 25 minutes) and Kelly Beidler (9 points in 23 minutes) paced Mount St. Mary's offensively. Oklahoma was 25-for-39 from the free throw line (Griffin was 12-for-18) while The Mount was 3-for-7.
NOV. 3 EXHIBITION RECAP
• Oklahoma used 13-of-23 (.565) shooting from behind the arc to post a 93-53 exhibition win over British Columbia Nov. 14 in Norman.
• Willie Warren led six Sooners in double figures with a game-high 23 points. He registered five assists and no turnovers in 28 minutes.
• The freshman foursome of Steven Pledger (14), Tommy Mason-Griffin (12), Andrew Fitzgerald (10) and Tiny Gallon (10) combined for 46 of OU's 93 points (49 percent) on 17-for-27 (.630) field goal and 8-for-12 (.667) 3-point shooting.
• Pledger and Mason-Griffin each went 4-for-6 from 3-point range, while Cade Davis went 2-for-2.
• Gallon finished one rebound shy of a double-double in his 23 minutes. He was 5-for-6 from the field.
• The Sooners held British Columbia to .356 field goal and .176 (3-for-17) 3-point shooting.
• OU led 38-26 at the half and outscored the Thunderbirds 55-27 after the break.
OPENING STATEMENT
The Sooners have won 22 of their last 24 season-opening games, with the only losses coming to Alabama (68-62 in New York City) in 2002-03 and Massachusetts (84-83 in Norman) in 1993-94. OU has won 29 of its last 30 home openers.
HOME NON-CONFERENCE DOMINATION
The Sooners have dominated home non-conference games over the last decade, winning 70 of their last 72 non-league contests inside Lloyd Noble Center going back to Jan. 3, 2000 (good for a .972 winning percentage). Included was a streak of 49 non-conference home victories that was snapped by Villanova on Dec. 6, 2006. The current string stands at 12 games.
TSN NAMES WARREN PRESEASON NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Oklahoma sophomore guard Willie Warren is not only on The Sporting News' five-man preseason All-America team, he is the publication's choice as preseason national player of the year. If TSN's prediction holds true, Oklahoma would become the first program to record back-to-back national players of the year since Duke in 2000 (Shane Battier) and 2001 (Jason Williams). Sooner Blake Griffin was last year's consensus honoree. Joining Warren on the magazine's preseason All-America team are Kansas' Sherron Collins, West Virginia's Devin Ebanks, Notre Dame's Luke Harangody and Kentucky's Patrick Patterson.
OU RANKS FOURTH NATIONALLY IN McDONALD'S ALL-AMERICANS
Oklahoma boasts three McDonald's High School All-Americans on its 2009-10 roster, fourth most nationally and most ever at OU on one team. The trio consists of sophomore guard Willie Warren, freshman guard Tommy Mason-Griffin and freshman forward Tiny Gallon. Only North Carolina (seven), Duke (six) and Villanova (five) have more. Georgetown, Georgia Tech and Kansas also claim three each, while Connecticut, Florida State, Kentucky, Louisville, Texas and UCLA claim two each.
Head coach Jeff Capel has signed four McDonald's All-Americans over his first three years at Oklahoma, as 2009 national player of the year Blake Griffin was also one in 2007. Prior to Capel's arrival, four Sooners were McDonald's All-Americans: Wayman Tisdale in 1982, Jeff Webster in 1989, Ryan Humphrey in 1997 and Drew Lavender in 2003.
SOONERS APPROACHING WIN NO. 1,500
Oklahoma enters the 2009-10 season just two victories shy of 1,500 in its history. OU ranks 29th in NCAA Division I history in wins.
CAPEL'S QUICK START
When Jeff Capel was named OU head coach in May 2006, he inherited a thin roster and recruiting restrictions from the previous staff. After a 16-15 initial season, Capel directed seven-win improvements in both 2007-08 (23-12 record) and 2008-09 (30-6). His 69-33 mark as Sooners' boss ranks him No. 1 in school history in wins and winning percentage (.676) through the first three years of tenure. Kelvin Sampson ranks second through three years in both categories (59 wins; .641) while Billy Tubbs ranks third (55 wins; .591).
NEXT UP
Oklahoma has a relatively quick turnaround as it plays host to UL-Monroe on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Warhawks return all five starters from last year's 10-20 squad. The programs have never met. One thousand T-shirts will be given to OU students at the game.
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