Men's Basketball Hosts No. 4 Tennessee Saturday Morning

NORMAN – The Oklahoma men's basketball team (16-6, 3-6 SEC) plays its second straight top-five opponent when it hosts No. 4/4 Tennessee (19-5, 6-4) on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT inside Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners are 10-2 at home while the Volunteers are 3-3 in true road games.

Saturday's game will be televised by ESPN with Kevin Brown (play-by-play) and Jon Crispin (analyst) announcing, and will be carried by ESPN Radio with Mike Couzens and Bob Valvano on the call. 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. 4 Tennessee
Date: Saturday, Feb. 8
Tip Time: 11 a.m. CT
Location: Norman, Okla.
Arena: Lloyd Noble Center

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Game Notes

OPENING TIP

• Through Wednesday, Oklahoma is one of three teams nationally (the only one from Power Four conference) to rank in the top 35 in FG percentage (32nd; .483), 3FG percentage (35th; .376) and FT percentage (6th; .800). Bradley and High Point are the others.

• This marks just the fifth time in program history that OU has faced top-five AP teams in consecutive games. The Sooners, who are coming off a loss at No. 1 Auburn on Tuesday, also faced top-five teams in back-to-back games in 1985-86 (lost both), 1988-89 (won both), 1989-90 (won both) and 2019-20 (lost both).

• Saturday's game will feature the nation's last two undefeated teams this season. Oklahoma started 13-0 before losing its SEC opener at Alabama on Jan. 4. Tennessee won its first 14 games before falling at Florida on Jan. 7.

• Oklahoma's Porter Moser and Tennessee's Rick Barnes are two of the six SEC head coaches who have coached in at least one Final Four. The others are Ole Miss' Chris Beard, Arkansas' John Calipari, Alabama's Nate Oats and Auburn's Bruce Pearl.

• Tennessee and Oklahoma are two of the premier teams nationally in 3-point field goal percentage defense, with the Volunteers holding opponents to a nation-low .267 figure and the Sooners limiting their foes to a combined .282 mark (sixth lowest in the country).

• On the season, Oklahoma is the only team with two players who rank in the top 12 in the SEC in scoring. Moore ranks fourth (17.9 ppg) and freshman guard Jeremiah Fears ranks 12th (15.9 ppg).

• Oklahoma has showcased its individual offensive depth this season, with a nation-leading four players who have scored at least 29 points in a game and an SEC-high six players who have scored 20-plus points.

• OU leads the SEC and ranks sixth nationally with its .800 season free throw percentage, which would smash the single-season school record of .767 set by the 2001-02 Final Four team. Tennessee ranks fourth in the SEC with its .751 season free throw mark.

• Senior forward Jalen Moore, who surpassed the 1,000-career-points mark last Saturday vs. No. 24 Vanderbilt, ranks second in SEC league play with his 18.2 points per game and .570 field goal percentage. He has shot better than 50% from the field in eight of the last 11 games and has a team-high 11 20-point efforts on the year.

• In SEC play, OU's Brycen Goodine has made 24 of 44 3-pointers for a league-leading .545 mark (for perspective, the player who ranks second is shooting .479). Goodine, who is shooting .511 from 3-point distance at home this season, is 13 for 21 from behind the arc over OU's last five games (.619).

THE OU-TENNESSEE SERIES

• Oklahoma and Tennessee have met just once, a 55-49 UT victory at Stokely Athletics Center in Knoxville on Dec. 13, 1968, as part of the Volunteer Classic. OU, which was under the direction of second-year head coach John MacLeod, finished 7-19 that season, while Tennessee, coached by Ray Mears, posted a 21-7 record.

• Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser is 1-0 against Barnes, as his 11th-seeded 2017-18 Loyola Chicago team beat No. 3 seed Tennessee 63-62 in an NCAA Tournament second-round game in Dallas to advance to the Sweet 16. Current OU assistant coach Clayton Custer accounted for the game's final points by hitting a jumper with 3.6 seconds remaining for a Ramblers squad that beat Nevada and Kansas State the next two games to reach the Final Four.

FAMILIAR FOE

• Oklahoma faced Rick Barnes-coached Texas teams 40 times from the 1998-99 through 2014-15 seasons and won 19 of the matchups. The Sooners went 10-7 in Norman against the Longhorns with Barnes on the sideline. The 40 meetings included six in the Big 12 Tournament, with both programs winning three times. The only Big 12 Tourney championship game featuring Oklahoma vs. Texas resulted in a 54-45 OU win in 2001 in Kansas City. It was the first of three straight Big 12 Tournament titles for the Sooners.

• OU also beat Barnes' 1990-91 Providence squad in a postseason NIT quarterfinals road game, 83-74. Billy Tubbs' Sooners went on to beat Colorado in the semifinals but lost to Stanford in the championship game.

SHOOTING LIGHTS OUT AT LNC

• Oklahoma, which is 10-2 at Lloyd Noble Center this season, has shot phenomenally well in the building with its .513 field goal, .381 3-point and .804 free throw marks.

• OU has shot over 50% from the field in all four of its SEC home games (.543 vs. No. 10 Texas A&M, .510 vs. Texas, .560 vs. South Carolina and .632 vs. No. 24 Vanderbilt), combining for a .564 figure. It also shot .494 from 3-point range in those contests (9.5 makes per game).

STACKED SEC

• The SEC leads the country with an impressive nine teams ranked in this week's AP Top 25 (including four in the top 6): No. 1 Auburn, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 6 Florida, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 14 Kentucky, No. 15 Missouri, No. 22 Mississippi State and No. 25 Ole Miss. Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Texas are receiving votes.

• The other three power conferences have a combined 12 teams ranked in the AP Top 25. The Big Ten has six, the Big 12 five and the ACC one.

• Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Vanderbilt have also been ranked in the AP Poll at some point this season.

THESE WINS LOOKING EVEN BETTER

• Oklahoma played four non-conference games against Power Four conference opponents and won all four (Arizona and Oklahoma State from the Big 12, Louisville from the ACC and Michigan from the Big Ten). Entering the weekend, No. 20 Arizona is tied for first place in the Big 12 (10-1), No. 24 Michigan is tied for second place in the Big Ten (9-2) and Louisville is tied for second place in the ACC (10-2).