OU Hosts Northwestern State on Sunday

Northwestern State (2-1)

18/18 Oklahoma (1-1)

November 23 | 2 p.m. | Lloyd Noble Center | Norman

QUICK PREVIEW
No. 18/18 Oklahoma (1-1) returns home to host Northwestern State (2-1) on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT inside Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners are coming off a 65-63 loss at Creighton on Wednesday, a game which OU held an 18-point lead early in the second half. The Demons have won two straight games following a 109-68 season-opening loss at Texas A&M.

ON THE AIR
Sunday's contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM "The Franchise" in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Sirius 102; XM 199) with Toby Rowland and Mike Houck calling the action. The game will be televised by FS Oklahoma with Chad McKee, Renzi Stone and Jessica Coody announcing.

TICKETS
• Tickets for Sunday's game are available for $10, $20 and $30 online at SoonerSports.com. Lloyd Noble Center's north and east ticket windows will open Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

• OU student tickets cost $10.

FIVE TOP STORYLINES
• OU's Buddy Hield leads the Big 12 in scoring (23.0 ppg) and 3-pointers per game (5.0), and ranks 10th in assists (3.0) and 15th in rebounding (7.0 rpg). The junior guard made his first eight 3-point attempts of the year (set a school record and tied the Big 12 standard by going 7 for 7 against Southeastern Louisiana) and is shooting .714 from behind the arc (10 for 14). Hield, who scored game highs of 25 and 21 points in OU's two outings, is the reigning Big 12 Player of the Week. He was a preseason third-team All-American by The Sporting News and earlier this week was named to the Wooden Award watch list.

• OU's win over Northwestern State in the teams' last meeting (Nov. 30, 2012) marked the 500th victory in the head coaching career of Lon Kruger. Kruger, who spent four years coaching in the NBA, entered this season ranked 15th among active collegiate coaches in wins with 537.

• Junior forward Ryan Spangler worked extensively in the offseason on his shooting range, and his efforts apparently have paid off. At Creighton on Wednesday, Spangler hit his first three 3-point attempts and finished the game 3 for 4. The three makes matched his total number from all of last year on 11 attempts (.273). Spangler led the Big 12 in rebounding last year (9.3 rpg) and is atop the conference again this season (has pulled down 11 boards in each of his first two games).

Through two games, OU is holding opponents to combined .350 field goal and .239 3-point shooting. Foes are averaging just 59.0 points.

• Senior forward TaShawn Thomas found out he'd be eligible to play this season 17 hours prior to last 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, Thomas was granted a waiver by the NCAA to play this year. He was limited to four points and three rebounds while committing four turnovers in the opener against Southeastern Louisiana, but bounced back for 14 points, six boards and three assists at Creighton on Wednesday.

• Through two games, OU is holding opponents to combined .350 field goal and .239 3-point shooting. Foes are averaging just 59.0 points. The Sooners limited their two exhibition opponents to an average of 42.5 points on .273 field goal and .179 3-point shooting.

OU-NORTHWESTERN STATE SERIES HISTORY
Oklahoma owns a 4-0 series lead over Northwestern State, with home wins over the Demons during the 1984-85, 1998-99, 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. In the first meeting, Wayman Tisdale scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to pace the Sooners to a 98-62 win. With 11:29 left in the first half, Tisdale notched his fifth and sixth points of the game to pass Kansas State's Mike Evans as the Big Eight Conference's career scoring leader. It was just the 15th game of Tisdale's junior season. OU posted 75-55 and 83-63 wins in the second and third meetings, respectively. The Sooners' 69-65 victory two years ago marked the 500th career collegiate win for Lon Kruger. All 10 Sooners who played in the game scored, although Romero Osby was the only one in double figures (11 points). Then-freshman Jalan West led the Northwestern State with 13 points.

PREVIEWING NORTHWESTERN STATE
• Located in Natchitoches, La., Northwestern State is a school of 9,002 students that competes in the Southland Conference. The Demons posted a 17-12 record last year (12-6 Southland; fourth place). Picked second out of 13 teams in this year's preseason Southland coaches poll, Northwestern State enters Sunday's game with a 2-1 record. NSU lost a 109-68 season-opening contest at Texas A&M before responding with home wins over Lyon College (75-64) and LSU-Alexandria (89-79). The Demons are shooting .408 from the field, .220 from 3-point range and .716 from the free throw line. Opponents are shooting .474 overall and .362 from deep.

• One of three Demons averaging double figures in scoring, 6-2 sophomore guard Zeek Woodley pours in 19.0 points a game with the help of .564 field goal shooting while also pulling down an average of 5.0 rebounds. Junior point guard Jalan West is averaging 16.7 points and a team-high 7.3 assists per contest, as well as a team-high 10.0 free throw attempts (shooting .833). Senior center Marvin Frazier contributes 11.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks a game. He has made a team-high six 3-pointers on 10 attempts.

• Head coach Mike McConathy is 241-229 in his 16th year at Northwestern State. He led the Demons to regular season Southland titles in 2005 and 2006, and to conference tournament crowns (and NCAA Tournament appearances) in 2001, 2006 and 2013. As a player, McConathy starred four years at Louisiana Tech and finished his career with a 20.7 scoring average. He was the Southland Conference Player of the Year as a junior in 1976.

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

• Oklahoma has won 102 of its last 106 home games against non-conference opponents.

• OU returned 68 percent of its scoring, 70 percent of its rebounding and 73 percent of its assists from last season's 23-10 squad that finished in sole possession of second place in the Big 12 (12-6). The Sooners welcomed back four starters (each started all 33 games) in juniors Buddy Hield, Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler, and sophomore Jordan Woodard. Senior TaShawn Thomas started all 33 games last year at the University of Houston.

• Oklahoma 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 returned 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
OU heads to the Bahamas for the three-day, eight-team Battle 4 Atlantis tournament (Nov. 26-28). The Sooners open Wednesday against UCLA at 1:30 p.m. CT (ESPN2) and will face Butler or North Carolina in the second round. Possible third-round opponents are Florida, Georgetown, UAB and Wisconsin.