OU Renews Rivalry With Missouri, Faces Fifth Straight Ranked Team

NORMAN — The Oklahoma men's basketball squad (16-7, 3-7 SEC) plays its fifth consecutive ranked opponent when it travels to take on No. 21/22 Missouri (17-6, 6-4) on Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT inside Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo.

Wednesday's game will be televised by the SEC Network with Mike Morgan (play-by-play) and Mark Wise (analyst) announcing. It will air on the Sooner Sports Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM The Franchise in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Varsity Radio App) with Toby Rowland (play-by-play) and Kevin Henry (analyst) announcing.

Oklahoma vs. No. 21 Missouri
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 12
Tip Time: 8 p.m. CT
Location: Columbia, Mo.
Arena: Mizzou Arena

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Game Notes

OPENING TIP

• Wednesday will mark just the second time in OU history the Sooners will face a fifth consecutive AP-ranked opponent. The other occasion came in the 1994-95 season, Kelvin Sampson's first as head coach, vs. No. 9 Missouri (OU won), vs. No. 1 Kansas (OU won), vs. No. 18 Oklahoma State (OU won in OT), at No. 24 Iowa State (OU won) and at No. 19 Missouri (OU lost in OT). Interestingly, after this Saturday's game against unranked LSU, OU will play another five straight games against teams ranked in this week's AP poll.

• In SEC play, Oklahoma is the only team to rank in the top six in field goal percentage, 3-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage, and it ranks in the top three of each. The Sooners are shooting .463 from the field (third), .377 from 3-point range (third) and .784 from the free throw line (second).

• OU leads the SEC and ranks seventh nationally with its .805 season free throw percentage, which would smash the single-season school record of .767 set by the 2001-02 Final Four team. The Sooners are 39 for 41 (.951) from the stripe over the last two games. Missouri ranks 10th in the SEC with its .719 season free throw mark.

• Oklahoma and San Jose State are the only teams nationally with four players to each score at least 29 points in at least one game this season, and OU is the only team to have all four players do it in non-overtime games. The four Sooners to do it are Jeremiah Fears vs. Michigan (30), Duke Miles vs. Central Arkansas (29), Brycen Goodine vs. Texas A&M (34) and Jalon Moore vs. Texas (29). Eight programs have had three different players score at least 29 points in a game this season and Missouri is one of them.

• Moore, a senior forward who last week was named a top-10 national candidate for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award, enters the week ranked fourth in SEC play with his 17.6 points per game and second with his .545 field goal percentage. The 6-7, 215-pounder has scored at least 20 points a team-high 11 times this season and has paced the Sooners in points on a team-high 10 occasions.

• On the season, Oklahoma is the only team with two players who rank in the top 12 in the SEC in scoring. Moore ranks fifth (17.7 ppg) and Fears ranks 12th (15.5 ppg).

• Fears leads SEC freshmen in free throws made (110; next most is 74) and free throws attempted (130; next most is 85) and ranks second in scoring (15.5 ppg), assists (4.0 apg), steals (1.8 spg) and free throw percentage (.844) and fourth in rebounds (3.7 rpg).

• Wednesday's game will feature two of the SEC's premier 3-point shooters in OU's Goodine, who leads the league in conference play with his .521 3-point field goal percentage, and Missouri's Caleb Grill, who ranks third with a .452 mark. Grill is shooting a league-best .477 in all games. Goodine made a league-high nine treys on 11 attempts against Texas A&M on Jan. 8 (the most by an SEC player in five seasons) while Grill drained eight 3's against Eastern Washington on Nov. 11. Grill, who transferred from Iowa State, is shooting .429 from behind the arc (9 for 21) in six career games against the Sooners.

OU-MIZZOU: RIVALRY RENEWED

• Oklahoma and Missouri were members of the same conferences for 93 years, from 1919-20 through 2011-12. Shared league membership started with the Missouri Valley Conference in 1919-20, the Big Six Conference in 1928-29, the Big Seven Conference in 1947-48, the Big Eight Conference in 1957-58 and the Big 12 Conference in 1996-97. Missouri left the Big 12 in July 2012, and Oklahoma joined the SEC on July 1, 2024.

• The Sooners hold a 115-97 series advantage and have won 16 of the last 25 meetings. That includes a nine-game winning streak from 1998-2002. OU is 65-22 against MU in Norman, but the Tigers hold a 61-29 lead in Columbia. The Sooners have lost six straight in Columbia and are 0-5 at Mizzou Arena, which opened in 2004. OU's last win at MU came at the Hearnes Center in 2001 when forward Jameel Heywood hit a buzzer-beating follow shot in the lane for a 63-61 victory.

• Wednesday's game will mark the 213th in the series, making Missouri the fourth-most-played opponent in OU history, trailing Oklahoma State (250 games), Kansas (227) and Kansas State (218). The Sooners have played Iowa State 212 times.

• OU and Missouri have met in some significant matchups, including 14 times in Big Eight/Big 12 Tournament play and twice in the NCAA Tournament. The programs each won four meetings in Big Eight Tournament action, with Mizzou winning title-game contests in 1982 (68-63) and 1989 (98-86) in Kansas City, Mo. The Sooners posted a 5-1 head-to-head record in the Big 12 Tournament, which included a 49-47 win in the 2003 championship game in Dallas.

• In 2002, OU and Missouri met in an Elite Eight game in San Jose, Calif. Kelvin Sampson's second-seeded Sooners pulled out an 81-75 win over Quin Snyder's 12th-seeded Tigers for OU's first Final Four appearance since 1988. Hollis Price scored 18 points while Ebi Ere added 17 and Aaron McGhee 15.

• The programs last met in the 2021 NCAA Tournament first round, another tight contest that went to the Sooners, 72-68, in Indianapolis. Lon Kruger's No. 8-seeded OU squad got 23 points from Austin Reaves and 19 from Brady Manek to down Cuonzo Martin's ninth-seeded Tigers.

OH, BROTHER

• Second-year Oklahoma assistant coach Armon Gates and third-year Missouri head coach Dennis Gates are brothers. The Chicago natives are three years apart, as Dennis is 45 and Armon 42.

• Armon Gates played collegiately at Kent State from 2002-03 through 2006-07 while Dennis played at California from 1998-99 through 2001-02.

• Wednesday's game will mark the third time the Gates brothers have coached against each other collegiately. In 2008-09, when both were assistant coaches, Armon's Kent State team went 2-0 against Dennis' Northern Illinois squad, winning 86-83 on the road in double-overtime and 64-61 in the MAC Tournament.