Sooners Square Off with Northern Colorado

NORTHERN COLORADO

Oklahoma

November 29 | 7 p.m. CT | Lloyd Noble Center

TUESDAY'S GAME BASICS

Oklahoma (4-1) hosts a midweek non-conference matchup against Northern Colorado (2-4) on Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. The Sooners have won 14 straight non-conference games at Lloyd Noble Center and own a 2-0 all-time record against the Bears.

ON THE AIR

Tuesday's contest 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 Kevin Henry announcing. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Oklahoma with Chad McKee and Bryndon Manzer calling the action.

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW

• The Sooners enter Tuesday's matchup against Northern Colorado with a 4-1 record. OU has started all six seasons under head coach Lon Kruger with a record of 4-1 or better. Kruger is the only coach in OU history to start his first six seasons with a 4-1 record or better. In fact, no other Oklahoma coach has begun a year 4-1 more than four times within his first six campaigns.

• Oklahoma has won 124 of its last 129 non-conference games at Lloyd Noble Center, including 58 of its last 60. The Sooners are 32-2 at home and 61-15 overall against non-conference opponents under Kruger. Since the start of the 2013 season, OU has gone 21-1 at the LNC in out-of-conference play and has won 14 straight home non-conference games.

• Khadeem Lattin and Jamuni McNeace are tied for third in the Big 12 in blocks per game with 2.0 rejections. Oklahoma is the only Big 12 team and one of just four teams nationally to boast two players averaging 2.0 blocks or more. McNeace has already rejected more shots this season (10) than all of last year (eight). Lattin ranks fifth in program history with 118 career blocks.

• Oklahoma is limiting its opponents to 37.2 percent field goal shooting (third in Big 12, 27th in NCAA). The Sooners are averaging 9.2 steals and 5.2 blocks per game.

• Tuesday's contest will serve as the Sooners' final November game before entering a challenging December schedule. In December, Oklahoma will face ranked opponents No. 17/17 Wisconsin (Dec. 3) and No. 9/11 Baylor (Dec. 30) along with competitive programs Wichita State (Dec. 10), Memphis (Dec. 17) and Auburn (Dec. 21). With the exception of Oral Roberts (Dec. 7), OU's five other December opponents combine to boast a record of 25-6 (.806).

LOOKING BACK AT FRIDAY'S WIN OVER ACU

• OU improved to 4-1 by defeating Abilene Christian, 72-64, at Lloyd Noble Center.

• The Sooners trailed at half, 30-26, in their first halftime deficit of the season. Oklahoma outscored ACU 46-34 in the second half behind 11 second-half points from sophomore guard Rashard Odomes to make the comeback. OU limited ACU to 6-of-16 (.375) shooting in the final 10 minutes.

• Oklahoma's defense nabbed 14 steals – the second most during the Kruger era and the highest steal total since swiping 16 against Sacramento State on Dec. 2, 2012. Eight Sooners recorded at least one steal, including three each by Khadeem Lattin and Jordan Woodard. The Wildcats committed 22 turnovers – the most by a Sooner opponent this season.

• OU shot 29-of-46 from the foul line, recording its most free throws made and attempted since going 34-of-48 against Tulsa on Dec. 14, 2013. Free throws played a major role in the Sooner victory as OU shot 18-of-23 (.783) from the charity stripe in the second half.

• Woodard led the Sooners in scoring for the fourth time this season and recorded his fifth-straight game of double-digit scoring by collecting 16 points, four rebounds and three steals.

Jamuni McNeace has already produced more blocks this season (10) than all of 2015-16 (eight).

BULLDOGS BACK TOGETHER

• Oklahoma's starting lineup in the first five games included freshman forward Kristian Doolittle, the first freshman to start for the Sooners since Jordan Woodard in the 2013-14 season. Doolittle finished his debut with five points and three rebounds in 19 minutes. Doolittle and Woodard played together for one season at Edmond Memorial High School (Edmond, Okla.), winning the Oklahoma 6A title with the Bulldogs. The duo is the first pair of former high school teammates to start in a game for the Sooners since Blake and Taylor Griffin (Oklahoma Christian School in Edmond, Okla.) in 2008-09.

•Woodard enters Tuesday's game with 110 consecutive collegiate starts, the second-longest current streak in the NCAA. Woodard is one of just four players in NCAA Division I to hold a current starting streak of at least 106 games. A 2015-16 All-Big 12 honorable mention selection, Woodard was the team's second-leading scorer last season with averages of 13.0 points (10th in Big 12), 3.4 assists (ninth), 3.0 rebounds and 1.6 steals (fifth) in 29.8 minutes. The Big 12 coaches voted Woodard a preseason All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection ahead of the 2016-17 season. Through four games, the guard is averaging 18.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.5 steals.

• Doolittle has already produced one game of double-digit scoring and an outing of double-digit rebounding. He is averaging 7.4 points (fifth on team) and 6.4 boards (second on team) per contest. He is the first freshman to start for OU since Woodard was a freshman in 2013-14.

SERIES HISTORY

• The Sooners own a 2-0 all-time record against the Bears. Tuesday's game will be the first meeting between Oklahoma and Northern Colorado since 2009 when UNC fell to the Sooners by just one point (80-79).

• Oklahoma is 14-0 against current members of the Big Sky Conference, including 4-0 during the Lon Kruger era.

UP NEXT

• The Sooners play in their first true road game of the season, traveling to Madison to face Wisconsin on Saturday, Dec.. 3, at noon CT on Big Ten Network.

• Saturday's contest will mark the third-consecutive year the Sooners and Badgers have met in early-season play. OU defeated UW, 65-48, last season in Norman while the Badgers claimed a 69-56 victory in 2014 at the Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas. The two programs have split the all-time series 4-4.

• OU owns a 2-1 record over the Badgers in Madison. All three previous meetings in Madison took place between 1942 and 1954.

• Wisconsin enters Saturday's game ranked No. 17 in both the AP and Coaches polls. The Sooners have not faced a ranked non-conference opponent in a true road game since losing at No. 8 Alabama in 2006. Oklahoma's last win over a ranked non-conference team in a road contest came in 1989 against No. 13 UNLV.