Sooners Hit the Road to Face TCU

TCU (14-8)

21/21 OU (15-7)

February 7 | 2 p.m. CT | Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center | Fort Worth, Texas

QUICK PREVIEW
No. 21/21 Oklahoma (15-7, 6-4) tries for its fourth straight win when it travels to face TCU (14-8, 1-8) on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The game will be played at the off-campus Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center as TCU renovates Daniel-Meyer Coliseum this season. The Sooners, who have won their last three games over Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and No. 15/12 West Virginia by an average of 24.0 points, are 5-6 away from Norman this year. The Horned Frogs went 13-0 in non-conference play (earned a No. 25 ranking in the Dec. 22 AP Poll) but are 1-8 since. Four of their league losses have come by five points or fewer or in overtime. They are 10-4 at home.

ON THE AIR
Saturday's game will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM "The Franchise" in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa) with Toby Rowland and Mike Houck announcing. It will be televised by ESPNEWS with Brad Sham and Rich Zvosec calling the action.

FIVE TOP STORYLINES
• Oklahoma owns a 14-2 all-time record against TCU and is 6-1 in Fort Worth. The Sooners have won six of the last seven meetings, including a 97-67 contest in Fort Worth in last year's regular season finale that marked OU's most points in a conference game since 2005. Buddy Hield (5 for 8 from 3-point range) paced OU with 24 points while Isaiah Cousins and Cameron Clark scored 18 apiece. The Sooners also posted a 77-69 home win over the Horned Frogs last year (Hield scored a team-high 16).

• Oklahoma has held 19 of 22 opponents below their season average in points at the time of competition (only Tulsa, West Virginia [first meeting] and Kansas surpassed their average). On the year, the Sooners are holding foes to 60.9 points a game and limiting them to .373 field goal shooting (ranks ninth nationally out of 351 teams) and .290 3-point shooting (ranks 16th; leads Big 12). By comparison, opponents averaged 76.0 points on .437 field goal and .342 3-point shooting last season.

Oklahoma is the only Big 12 team that has started the same five players in every game this season.

• Oklahoma has played a nation-leading 10 games against AP Top-25 opponents (at the time of competition) this season. Entering the weekend, only OU (10), Kansas (nine), North Carolina (eight) and Oklahoma State (eight) have played more than seven AP Top-25 foes. OU has also played a nation-high 13 games against teams that have been ranked for at least one week this season. The Sooners are No. 18 in the NCAA RPI.

• Oklahoma is the only Big 12 team that has started the same five players in every game this season. Interestingly, OU was one of just seven teams nationally that used the same starting lineup in every game last year. Hield, Cousins, Ryan Spangler and Jordan Woodard have all started the last 55 games while TaShawn Thomas has started all 118 of his career contests (96 at Houston).

• Hield has been on a tear, scoring at least 20 points in six of the team's 10 Big 12 games and averaging 13.8 in the other four (he has scored in double figures in all 10). In conference play, the junior guard is averaging league highs of 20.1 points a game (next highest average is 17.2) and 2.8 3-pointers a contest. He also ranks second in field goal percentage (.511), eighth in free throw percentage (.786), eighth in steals (1.5 spg), ninth in 3-point field goal percentage (.412) and 12th in rebounding (5.8 rpg; second among guards). The Freeport, Bahamas, native has led OU in scoring in seven of the last nine games.

PREVIEWING TCU
• Picked by Big 12 coaches to finish ninth in the 10-team league, TCU won all 13 of its non-conference games but is in last place in league play with a 1-8 record (lone win was a 62-42 decision at Texas Tech on Jan. 17). The Horned Frogs, who rank eighth nationally with their .373 field goal percentage defense, have dropped several narrow outcomes in Big 12 play (58-53 at Kansas State, 66-59 in overtime vs. Baylor, 86-85 in overtime at West Virginia and 64-61 vs. Kansas). They are 10-4 at home (0-4 in Big 12 games). In conference play, TCU is averaging 62.0 points per game (ranks seventh in the league) on .391 field goal shooting (ninth), .261 3-point shooting (last) and .566 free throw shooting (last). They allow opponents to shoot .417 from the floor (fifth) and just .305 from long distance (first).

• Senior point guard Kyan Anderson is the lone Horned Frog who averages double figures in scoring. Anderson is averaging 13.4 points a game on .410 field goal, .318 3-point and a Big 12-best .880 free throw shooting. He has made a team-high 35 3-pointers and ranks sixth in the league in both assists (4.0) and steals (1.6) per game. Senior guard Trey Zeigler, who played two years at Central Michigan and one at Pitt, is a first-year Horned Frog who ranks second on the squad with his 9.2 points and 2.2 assists per contest. Zeigler is shooting .457 from the field but has not made a 3-pointer in six attempts. Sophomore forward Kenrich Williams averages 8.6 points and a team-high 6.7 rebounds in just 25.0 minutes a contest. He is shooting .511 from the floor. Senior forward Amric Fields, a high school classmate of former Sooner Tyler Neal at Putnam City West High School in Oklahoma City, contributes 6.9 points in 16.0 minutes a game with the help of a team-high .590 field goal shooting.

• Trent Johnson is in his third year as TCU's head coach and owns a 34-51 record. He is in his 16th year overall (also coached at Nevada, Stanford and LSU) and owns a 260-236 mark.

Buddy Hield

SOONER TIP-INS
• Three games ago, the Sooners set a Big 12 record for fewest points allowed in a conference game in their 81-36 win over Texas Tech. The Red Raiders' .212 field goal mark was the lowest by an OU opponent in any game in 11 years. The 45-point win was the team's second largest in the 19-year history of the Big 12 and tied for the eighth largest in the league.

• OU set an NCAA record (against a Division I opponent) Dec. 22 when it went on a 39-0 run against Weber State in an 85-51 home win. The former NCAA record of a 37-0 run was set by Utah State against Idaho on Feb. 15, 2006.

• OU has won its 15 games by an average of 20.8 points (all but one by double digits). Three of its losses have been by three points or less.

• Oklahoma has outscored its opponents off turnovers in 12 of the last 15 games and in 17 of 22 contests on the year. In their 11 home games, the Sooners have posted a 232-96 advantage in points off turnovers (21.1-8.7 per outing).

• OU has held its opponents to an average of 17.3 points below their season average (at the time of competition) this season. Only opponents in three of 22 games have surpassed their season average.

• The Sooners have held 15 of their 22 opponents to 40-percent-or-lower field goal shooting. They have held five foes to 30-percent-or-lower field goal marks. Only one opponent (Baylor on Jan. 24) has shot 50 percent or better this year (the Bears shot 50.0 percent).

• Each of OU's five starters has scored at least 20 points three or more times in their careers.

• OU led the Big 12 in free throw shooting each of the last two years (.749 last season and .756 in 2012-13) and is shooting .723 this year to rank second in the league. Woodard ranks fourth in the Big 12 (.826) while Hield ranks seventh (.792).

• Cousins has shot at least 50 percent from behind the arc in 11 of the 20 games this year in which he's attempted a 3-pointer, including in 10 of the last 16 such contests. He leads the Big 12 with his .455 season 3-point mark and ranks sixth with his 1.8 treys per game. Cousins shot .250 from 3-point range as a freshman and .404 last year.

• Woodard posted a 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio in OU's first seven games (29 assists and 23 turnovers), but over the last 15 outings owns a 2.3 ratio (66 assists and 29 turnovers).

• Hield (5.4) and Cousins (5.2), who both stand 6-foot-4, rank second and third among Big 12 guards in rebounds per game.

• OU returned 71 percent of its 3-point production from last season's team that averaged a school-record 8.6 treys per game. This year's Sooners rank third in the Big 12 by averaging 6.9 3-pointers a contest.

• 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 was picked third in this year's poll.

UP NEXT
OU hosts No. 11/14 Iowa State in an 8 p.m. CT ESPN Big Monday game at Lloyd Noble Center.

Players Mentioned

Cameron Clark

Isaiah Cousins

Buddy Hield

Tyler Neal

Ryan Spangler

TaShawn Thomas

Jordan Woodard

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics