No. 18 OU Set for First Road Contest

Creighton (2-0)

18/18 Oklahoma (1-0)

November 19 | 7 p.m. | CenturyLink Center | Omaha, Neb.

QUICK PREVIEW
No. 18/18 Oklahoma plays its first road game of the season when it takes on Creighton on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT inside the 18,320-seat CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb. OU, which went 23-10 last season (12-6 Big 12; second place) and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, opened the season Sunday with a 78-53 win over Southeastern Louisiana. Creighton enters the contest with a 2-0 record following 104-77 and 84-66 home wins over Central Arkansas and Chicago State, respectively.

ON THE AIR
Wednesday's contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM "The Franchise" in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Sirius 108; XM 199) with Toby Rowland and Mike Houck calling the action. The game will be televised by FOX Sports 1 with Kevin Kugler and Bill Raftery announcing.

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
• Oklahoma set a school record and led the Big 12 with its 8.6 3-pointers per game last year (9.2 in Big 12 play) and shot .379 from behind the arc, its best figure in 11 years. Creighton averaged 10.2 3-pointers per game last year and shot .414 from deep to rank second and first in the nation, respectively. While the Sooners welcome back their top three 3-point producers in Buddy Hield (90 makes), Frank Booker (42) and Isaiah Cousins (38), the Bluejays lost their top three 3-point producers from a year ago in Ethan Wragge (110 makes), national player of the year Doug McDermott (96) and Jahenns Manigat (60).

• Creighton head coach Greg McDermott spent four years (the 2006-07 through 2009-10 seasons) as Iowa State's head coach and posted a 1-4 record against the Sooners (Oklahoma won the final four meetings). OU went 1-1 in Ames, 2-0 in Norman and won a 2007 Big 12 Championship first round matchup in Oklahoma City.

Buddy Hield set a school record and tied the Big 12 standard for most 3-point makes in a game without a miss by going 7 for 7 in Sunday's opener.

• Junior guard Buddy Hield was named this season's first Big 12 Player of the Week on Monday, and later in the day was named to the Wooden Award's 50-man preseason watch list. Hield set a school record and tied the Big 12 standard for most 3-point makes in a game without a miss by going 7 for 7 in Sunday's opener. A preseason third-team All-American by The Sporting News, Hield averaged a team-high 16.5 points per game last year and shot .386 from behind the arc. His 90 treys were the sixth most in OU single-season history.

• Senior forward TaShawn Thomas found out he's eligible to play this season 17 hours prior to Sunday's season opener. A transfer from Houston who started all 96 of the Cougars' games the last three seasons and averaged 14.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.2 blocks while shooting .571 from the field during that time, was granted a waiver by the NCAA to play this year. Thomas won the opening tip and contributed four points and three rebounds in his 23 minutes against Southeastern Louisiana.

• OU held its exhibition opponents (NCAA Division II foes Washburn and Southwestern Oklahoma State) to combined .273 field goal and .179 3-point field goal shooting, and followed up by limiting Southeastern Louisiana to respective .328 and .150 marks in the regular season opener. The three opponents combined to go 10 for 59 (.169) from behind the arc.

OU-CREIGHTON SERIES HISTORY
Wednesday's game will mark the fourth meeting between Oklahoma and Creighton and the third in Omaha. The Sooners own a 2-1 series lead with wins in the 1973-74 season (73-70 in Omaha) and 1986-87 campaign (106-89 in Oklahoma City) seasons, and a loss in 1920-21 (27-16 in Omaha). In the most recent matchup, Harvey Grant (29) and Darryl "Choo" Kennedy (25) teamed for 54 points for Billy Tubbs' Sooners, while Gary Swain netted 34 for Tony Barone's Bluejays.

PREVIEWING CREIGHTON
• Located in Omaha, Neb., Creighton is a school of 7,736 students that is in its second season competing in the Big East Conference. The Bluejays posted a 27-8 record last year (14-4 Big East; second place) and advanced to the NCAA Tournament's round of 32 behind then-senior and consensus national player of the year Doug McDermott (nation-leading 26.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg, .449 3FG%). Picked ninth out of 10 teams in this year's preseason Big East coaches poll, Creighton is 2-0 with home wins over Central Arkansas (104-77) and Chicago State (84-66). CU is outshooting its opponents .469 to .459, and outrebounding them 40.5 to 29.5. The Bluejays have forced their foes into 20 turnovers a game. They have won 20 straight home games and last year ranked fifth nationally in average home attendance (17,896).

• Creighton returns one starter from last year in senior guard Austin Chatman. The 6-0, 175-pounder averaged 8.1 points and a team-high 4.4 assists last season, and through two games this year is averaging 7.5 points (ranks seventh on team) and 4.0 handouts. Sophomore guard Isaiah Zierden has come off the bench to average 17.0 points a game, tied for the team lead with senior center Will Artino. Zierden is 7-for-14 from 3-point range while Artino is shooting .619 from the field and averaging a team-high 9.0 rebounds. Senior guard Rick Kreklow, who also played at Missouri and Cal, averages 11.5 points a game while redshirt-freshman forward Toby Hegner contributes 10.5 an outing.

• Greg McDermott is in his fifth season as Creighton's head coach and owns a 109-38 (.741) record there. He has led CU to the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seasons. A 1988 graduate of Northern Iowa, he owns a 389-233 career record with additional stops at Iowa State, Northern Iowa, North Dakota State and Wayne State.

Isaiah Cousins

SOONER TIP-INS
• The Sooners posted a 3.06 cumulative GPA during the 2013-14 school year, a program record.

• OU was ranked No. 19 in this year's AP and USA Today Coaches top-25 preseason polls, the first time it has been ranked to start a season in five years. The Sooners finished last year at No. 21 in the AP poll and at No. 20 in the last regular season USA Today poll.

• Last year's Sooners averaged 81.9 points to rank seventh nationally out of 351 teams. It was OU's highest scoring average in 20 years. The Sooners scored at least 80 points 18 times last year after doing it 17 times the previous three seasons combined.

• OU returns 71 percent of its 3-point production from last season's team that averaged a school-record 8.6 treys per game.

• Oklahoma has led the Big 12 in free throw shooting each of the last two years (.749 last season and .756 in 2012-13).

• Each of head coach Lon Kruger's first three Oklahoma teams finished higher than where they were picked in the Big 12 preseason poll. Last year the Sooners were picked tied for fifth and finished second. In 2012-13 OU was slotted seventh and finished tied for fourth. In 2011-12 OU was picked ninth and wound up eighth. Kruger's squad is picked third in this year's poll.

• OU has made 24 NCAA Tournament appearances since 1983, tied with Illinois, Michigan State and UCLA for the ninth most nationally.

UP NEXT
Oklahoma returns home to host Northwestern State on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT. The game will be televised by Sooner Sports TV (FS Oklahoma).