Sooners Arrive in Virgin Islands

Nov. 24, 2009


	Whitney Hand

No. 20 Oklahoma (2-1) at U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam
Dates & Times	Thursday, Nov. 26, 12 p.m., Friday, Nov. 27, and Saturday, Nov. 28, 2:15 p.m.
Location	U.S. Virgin Islands Sports and Fitness Center, St. Thomas, USVI
TV	None
Radio	Sooner Radio Network KOKC AM 1520 in Oklahoma City
Webcast	Fox College Sports Broadband
Live Stats	ParadiseJam.com
Game Info	Game Notes (PDF)

GAME PREVIEW
Oklahoma (No. 20 AP/No. 17 Coaches') plays a trio of tough games in a tropical location as the Sooners meet South Carolina, San Diego State and Notre Dame in consecutive days over Thanksgiving at the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam.

STREAMING LIVE
• Fox College Sports Broadband will stream each game of the Paradise Jam live online with Brenda VanLengen calling play-by-play. Single-game subscription links will open 10 minutes before tip-off and users will be prompted to enter credit card information to view.

Live Webcast

• The OU radio broadcast of Brian Brinkley and Kendra Wecker can be heard over the air on KOKC 1520 AM in Oklahoma City.

THE TEAMS
• Oklahoma is ranked No. 16 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll and No. 20 in the Associated Press Poll.
• South Carolina is not ranked in the polls, but was picked to finish sixth in the SEC behind Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Georgia. The Gamecocks are 2-1 this season, having lost only in double-overtime at Clemson.
• San Diego State is ranked No. 23 in the AP Poll and is 3-0 this season with decisive wins against UC-Irvine, San Diego and Arizona.
• Notre Dame is No. 5 in the AP Poll and is 3-0, including a one-point victory over Michigan State.

Oklahoma Projected Starters
No.	Name	Pos.	Ht.	Year	2009-10 Statistics
13	Danielle Robinson	G	5-9	Jr.	14.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 6.0 apg
1	Nyeshia Stevenson	F/G	5-10	Sr.	8.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 1.7 apg
25	Whitney Hand	G	6-1	So.	14.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 36.4 3FG%
21	Amanda Thompson	F	6-1	Sr.	11.0 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 2.7 steals
34	Abi Olajuwon	C	6-3	Sr.	16.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 61.1 FG%

THE SERIES
• South Carolina and Oklahoma have met twice, with OU taking both contests. OU won the last meeting, 95-63, in Norman on Dec. 30, 2007.
• San Diego State and OU have met once with the Aztecs taking a 68-65 win in San Diego on Jan. 6, 1982.
• Notre Dame and OU have a win each in the series. Notre Dame won a 79-75 overtime thriller in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. The Irish and the Sooners have only faced each other on neutral courts.

THE COACHES
• Sherri Coale is 287-133 (.683) in her 14th season at Oklahoma. She has been the Big 12 Coach of the Year four times.
• South Carolina's Dawn Staley is 184-99 (.650) in her 10th season overall and 12-19 in her second as the Gamecocks' head coach.
• San Diego State's Beth Burns is in the fifth year of her second stint as the Aztecs' head coach. Burns was 151-83 (.645) with SDSU from 1989-97 and is 60-61 at SDSU since her return in the 2005-06 season. Between, she was 81-65 (.555) in five seasons at Ohio State.
• Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw is 499-197 (.717) as the head coach and is aiming for her 500th victory.

PREVIEWING OKLAHOMA
The Sooners were picked by the league's coaches to finish fifth in the strong Big 12 Conference this season.

The Sooners enter 2009-10 following one of its best seasons in history. Oklahoma notched a program record 32 wins, won its sixth Big 12 regular season title and made its second trip to the Final Four. OU returns eight letterwinners from the squad, including three starters. Preseason Wooden Award candidate Danielle Robinson, the returning Big 12 Freshman of the Year Whitney Hand and senior co-captain Amanda Thompson will lead the charge.

Sooner to Watch
	Abi Olajuwon \| Sr. \| Center After three games, Olajuwon is certainly duplicating the presence of the player she replaced in Courtney Paris. The senior was just shy of a double-double in OU's first two games and then scored a career-high -- by halftime -- against TCU en route to a 23-point performance.

PREVIEWING TCU
Eight letterwinners who accounted for all but three starts from a season ago return for TCU this season.

Among the returnees are three players who earned All-Mountain West Conference honors as underclassmen in 2008-09--junior Helena Sverrisdottir (first team), senior TK LaFleur (second team; MWC Newcomer of the Year) and junior Emily Carter (second team). Former Lady Frog Michaela Younger (three starts at center) was the only player with starting experience lost.

Overall, TCU returns 91.1 percent of scoring (top five scorers), 79.1 percent of rebounding (top seven players) and 92.9 percent of its assist totals (top six players) from a year ago.

PREVIEWING SOUTH CAROLINA
Without a senior on the roster, the Gamecocks field a young team for 2009-10, despite returning four players who were in the starting lineup at the end of the 2008-09 campaign. This season's six returning letterwinners accounted for 51.5 percent of last season's points and 43.1 percent of 2008-09's rebounds.

South Carolina's top returning scorer is sophomore guard La'Keisha Sutton, who was a unanimous SEC All-Freshman Team selection after averaging 11.0 points per game and tying for the team lead with 68 assists.

Freshman center Kelsey Bone was a member of the United States' gold medal winning team at the FIBA U19 World Championships in Thailand this summer. Starting all nine games of the tournament, Bone averaged 12.3 points on 52.1 percent shooting and pulled down 4.7 rebounds per game for the Red, White and Blue.

PREVIEWING SAN DIEGO STATE
The Aztecs are coming off one of the program's most successful seasons ever in 2009, going 24-8 overall and advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament. SDSU earned a share of its first-ever Mountain West Conference regular season title, advanced to the league championship game for the second year in a row and posted its first postseason victory since 1994.

San Diego State returns four of five starters from that team and has already earned numerous preseason honors, including being picked No. 1 in the Mountain West Conference and receiving votes in both national top 25 polls.

A candidate for several national awards, senior Jené Morris leads the Aztecs. Baylor transfer Jessika Bradley will also see her first playing time for SDSU in 2009-10.

PREVIEWING NOTRE DAME
With all 12 players returning from a year ago, along with an incoming freshman class ranked as high as ninth in the land, Notre Dame looks to wash away the bitter taste left by a first-round loss in last year's NCAA tournament.

Setting the tone for the Irish will be a trio of senior captains, including returning All-BIG EAST Conference guards Lindsay Schrader and Ashley Barlow, both of whom also were tabbed for this year's preseason all-conference team. Schrader was a first-team All-BIG EAST pick last season after piling up career bests of 12.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. In addition, she registered seven double-doubles, setting a new single-season school record for guards, and now has 11 career double-doubles, one off the mark for guards set by current Irish assistant coach Niele Ivey from 1996-2001.

Meanwhile, Barlow led the team in scoring last season at 12.7 points per game, and also logged 70 steals (2.4 spg.), making her only the fourth player in school history to record 60+ steals in three consecutive seasons.

Completing this leadership triumverate is point guard Melissa Lechlitner. As a first-year starter in 2008-09, Lechlitner averaged personal bests of 10.6 points and 3.4 assists per game, driving the Irish offense with a steady hand.

NEXT UP
Oklahoma returns to the Lloyd Noble Center Thursday, Dec. 3, when it hosts UT-Arlington at 7 p.m.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors