Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus Auburn on February 24, 2026 , Win , 91, to, 79
Final
Men's Basketball
91
vs Auburn
79
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Sooners Open Tournament Play Thursday
March 14, 2018 | Men's Basketball
7 Rhode Island
10 Oklahoma
March 15 | 11:15 a.m. | Pittsburgh
THURSDAY'S GAME BASICS
It's time to go dancing. Oklahoma (18-13, 8-10 Big 12) heads to Pittsburgh for its 31st NCAA tournament appearance. The Sooners, selected as an at-large bid, have been assigned a No. 10 seed in the Midwest Region. OU will open the Big Dance with its first-ever meeting against Rhode Island (25-7, 15-3 Atlantic 10). The No. 7-seed Rams are coming off a regular-season Atlantic 10 title. If the Sooners win their tournament opener, they will play Saturday against the winner of Thursday's contest between No. 2 seed Duke and No. 15 seed Iona. Thursday's opening round matchup will tip at 11:15 a.m. CT inside PPG Paints Arena.
ON THE AIR
Thursday's showdown with Rhode Island 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 nationally on CBS with Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner and Dana Jacobson calling the action.
THREE POINTERS
• Oklahoma is on the hunt for its third trip to the Sweet 16 in the past four years as it travels to Pittsburgh for the NCAA Tournament's First and Second Rounds. The Sooners have stepped up to the plate for some of the biggest wins in college basketball this season. Oklahoma leads the nation in both wins against top-25 opponents (six) and top-10 foes (four). ESPN's College Basketball Power Index lists Oklahoma's schedule as the third toughest in the nation.
• Freshman guard Trae Young has been named the USBWA's Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year. The honor is the latest in national accolades for the local product, who is on pace to become the first Division I player to lead the country in both points (27.4) and assists (8.8) since the NCAA began tracking assists in 1983. He is already the first major-conference player to total 800 points and 250 assists in the same season. Young's 848 points and 272 dimes are both the fifth-most by a freshman in NCAA history. Young is 16 assists shy of the NCAA freshman assists record (288) set by Duke's Bobby Hurley in 1989-90. Hurley's brother, Dan Hurley, is the head coach of first-round opponent Rhode Island.
• Much of Oklahoma's success occurs when it sees strong shooting, especially form behind the arc. The Sooners are 13-1 when making at least 10 3-pointers and 11-2 when they sink more treys than their opponent. In OU's 18 wins, freshman forward Brady Manek shot 50.5 percent from deep with an average of 2.6 made 3-pointers per game. OU is also 6-2 when junior guard Christian James makes at least three 3-pointers.
Oklahoma has won four straight First and Second Round matchups in the NCAA Tournament, and is 4-2 in "opening weekend" games under head coach Lon Kruger.
DANCING SOONERS
• For the fifth time under head coach Lon Kruger, the Oklahoma men's basketball team is going dancing. The Sooners enter the 2018 NCAA Tournament as the No. 10 seed in the Midwest Region. The Sooners are 41-30 all-time in the NCAA Tournament (6-4 under Kruger) and have reached the Final Four five times (1939, 1947, 1988, 2002 and 2016). Oklahoma also boasts five Elite Eight showings and six Sweet 16 appearances.
• Oklahoma is hoping to win its way to the Midwest Regional's Sweet 16 in Omaha, Neb., and capture its third Sweet 16 appearance in the last four years. The Sooners have won four straight First and Second Round games and are 4-2 during opening weekend games under Kruger.
• Although the Sooners have made the tournament in 30 previous seasons, this will be just their sixth time participating as a double-digit seed. Oklahoma is 2-5 when seeded as a 10 or higher. The Sooners best run as a double-digit seed came in 1999, when the 13-seeded Sooners reached the Sweet 16.
• Oklahoma is playing an NCAA Tournament game in Pittsburgh for the first time. Pittsburgh is the 31st city the Sooners have ever competed in during the NCAA Tournament.
• Oklahoma has reached the Big Dance 26 times in the past 35 years. The Sooners' 26 NCAA Tournament appearances since 1984 are the 10th most in the nation during that span, behind only Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan State, Syracuse and UCLA.
• Kruger will be guiding a team to the NCAA Tournament for the 18th time in his career – the 10th most among active head coaches. Despite missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years last season, Kruger continued his track record of bouncing back. Since 1986 (his first season as head coach at Kansas State), Kruger has never missed the postseason in consecutive seasons. Of the past seven instances that Kruger failed to reach the postseason, six of his teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament the next year.
• A staple of the NCAA postseason, Kruger has taken five different schools to the Big Dance. His collegiate teams have made postseason appearances in 22 of the last 29 years. He has guided teams to 18 NCAA Tournaments, five Sweet 16s and two Final Fours. Kruger is the first Division I coach to ever take five different schools to the NCAA Tournament. In 2015 he became the first coach since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 to take four programs to the Sweet 16 or beyond.
• In their most recent NCAA Tournament appearance, the Sooners reached their fifth Final Four in program history. Oklahoma's run to the 2016 Final Four was led by national player of the year Buddy Hield along with then-seniors Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler. Five current Sooners remain from the 2015-16 squad - Matt Freeman, Christian James, Khadeem Lattin, Jamuni McNeace and Rashard Odomes.
SCOUTING RHODE ISLAND
• Oklahoma opens the 2018 NCAA Tournament with the first-ever meeting between the Sooners and the Rams of Rhode Island. Like the Sooners, the Rams earned their way into the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid. Rhode Island clinched the Atlantic 10's regular-season title with a 15-3 conference record, but fell to Davidson in Sunday's championship game. The Rams are making their 10th ever NCAA Tournament appearance, and their No. 7 seed is the best in program history.
• OU is 16-7 all-time against current members of the Atlantic 10, and is 3-1 against A10 current members in NCAA Tournament games. This is the third straight NCAA Tournament that the Sooners have faced an Atlantic 10 foe. The Sooners defeated a 10-seeded Dayton in 2015 and 10-seeded VCU in 2016.
PLAY FAST, SCORE BUCKETS
• Oklahoma owns a 18-12 record behind the fourth-highest-scoring offense in the nation. The Sooners enter the NCAA Tournament averaging 85.2 points per game and have scored at least 90 points in 12 contests - including six games in triple digits.
• The Sooners aren't just scoring in bunches - they're playing fast. Oklahoma is fourth in the nation and first among major conferences in KenPom.com's adjusted tempo rankings (possesions per 40 minutes adjusted to the opponenet) with 75.8. Oklahoma's average possession is 14.0 seconds long, the fastest among major conferences and second-fastest overall.
• Oklahoma is 9-1 when shooting above 50 percent, 13-1 when making at least 10 3-pointers and 7-0 when it hands out at least 20 assists.
• Oklahoma has scored 45 or more points in 22 of its 62 halves this season and has scored at least 40 points before halftime in all but 11 contests.
• The Sooners have scored at least 100 points in six games – their most in a season since the 1992-93 season, when Oklahoma reached the century mark in nine games. Oklahoma's six triple-digit games are the second-most in a season by an Big 12 team since the conference was formed in 1996. The 2001-02 Kansas squad (12 games) is the only team with more.
OH, TO BE YOUNG...
• Oklahoma's offensive efforts have been led by the scoring and passing of freshman guard Trae Young. A 6-2 guard from Norman, Young leads the nation in scoring (27.4 points per game) and assists (8.8). No player in recorded NCAA history has finished a season leading the country in both scoring and assists. If the season ended today, Young's averages for both points and assists would be the highest by any player in Big 12 history. The freshman earned the regular season's scoring title with plenty of distance between him and the rest of the conference. Young scored 281 more points than the league's second-highest scorer (Devonte' Graham of Kansas) and averaged at least 9.9 points more than any other player in the conference. The 9.9 points per game is the largest gap between a major conference's leading scorer and second-leading scorer in at least 20 years.
• In the weeks leading up to the NCAA Tournament, Young's list of accomplishments continued to grow through various national recognitions. Most notably, Young has earned the 2018 Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award. Named after OU legend Wayman Tisdale in 2011, the USBWA has been recognizing a national freshman of the year since 1989. By receiving the honor, Young joins a prestigious list of past winners that includes Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Jason Kidd and Chris Webber. Young was also chosen as the Big 12 Conference's Freshman of the Year and was a unanimous selection for the All-Big 12 First Team and Big 12 All-Newcomer Team. The Norman native is a finalist for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award, a Naismith Trophy semifinalist and selected for the national ballot for the Wooden Award.
• Young scored 826 points of 848 points during the regular season – the most ever in a regular season by a Big 12 player. He is just the second player from a major conference to reach 800 points during the regular season in the past 20 years, joining JJ Redick of Duke (833 in 2005-06). Young is also the only freshman in Division I basketball to score 800 points in a regular season during the Big 12 era.
• The freshman is putting up his scoring numbers while passing out a nation-leading 272 assists. He is the first major-conference player in NCAA Division I history to total 800 points and 250 assists in the same season and the second overall. Oakland's Key Felder (2015-16) is the only other Division I player to produce an 800-point, 250-assist season since the NCAA began tracking assists in 1983.
UP NEXT: DUKE OR IONA
• If the Sooners win their tournament opener, they will play Saturday against the winner of Thursday's contest between No. 2 seed Duke and No. 15 seed Iona.
• Boasting the Midwest Region's No. 2 seed, Duke is the only team grouped with Oklahoma in the First and Second Rounds that Oklahoma has previously faced. The Blue Devils have won all four previous meetings, but have only faced the Sooners once in the past 24 years. Oklahoma and Duke have never met in the postseason and have only one previous contest a neutral court.
• Duke, who finished second in the ACC, is making its 42nd all-time NCAA Tournament appearance and 34th under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils are 108-36 (.750) all-time in the NCAA Tournament, marking the best winning percentage in tournament history. Duke's 108 wins are also third-most in the event's history and Coach K holds the NCAA record with 91 NCAA Tournament wins.
• Oklahoma is an even 16-16 all time against current ACC schools, but is 2-5 when facing an ACC team in the Big Dance.
• A second potential second-round opponent for the Sooners is MAAC champion Iona, playing as a No. 15 seed. Located outside of New York City, Iona is making its third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and fifth overall. The Sooners and Gaels have never met.
• The Sooners are 3-1 all-time against current MAAC members, and are 1-1 when facing MAAC teams in the NCAA Tournament. Oklahoma defeated Niagara in the opening round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament, but was eliminated by Manhattan in the first round in 1995.
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