OU Travels to Kentucky for First Time as SEC Member

Wednesday, February 4

Rupp Arena • Lexington, Ky.

8 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

Kentucky

Tae Davis goes up for a dunk in a game against Arkansas

OU Travels to Kentucky for First Time as SEC Member

February 03, 2026 | Men's Basketball

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NORMAN — The Oklahoma men's basketball team (11-11, 1-8 SEC) looks for its first-ever win against Kentucky (12-9, 3-5) when it meets the Wildcats on Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.

Wednesday's game will be televised by ESPN2 with Tom Hart (play-by-play) and Dane Bradshaw (analyst) announcing. It will air on the Sooner Sports Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Varsity Radio App) with Toby Rowland and Kevin Henry on the call.

Oklahoma is 3-7 away from home and 1-5 in true road games (lone true road win was at Wake Forest). In its four SEC road contests, OU is shooting 41% from the field and 30% (31 for 105) from 3-point range while opponents are shooting 44% and 30% (27 for 89). Kentucky is 11-2 at home on the season (3-1 in SEC play).

OU's Nijel Pack is one of just three active players nationally with 2,000 career points (2,103). Over the last three games, he is averaging 23.3 points and has made 14 3-pointers on 27 attempts (52%). He ranks third in the SEC with his 3.2 3-pointers per contest on the season.

Backcourt mate Xzayvier Brown has scored at least 13 points in 12 of the last 13 games, and has four outings of at least 20 points (23 vs. Ole Miss, 24 vs. Florida, 21 vs. Alabama, 22 at South Carolina). He is averaging 18.4 points a game over the last 13.

Oklahoma vs. Kentucky
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 4
Tip Time: 8 p.m.
Location: Lexington, Ky.
Arena: Rupp Arena

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SCENE SETTERS

• Oklahoma has lost its last eight games but has held a halftime lead in four of the last five. In fact, it has held a double-digit first-half lead in three of the last five outings. In each of the last three contests, the Sooners have led with less than six minutes remaining, including with one second left in regulation and overtime at Missouri (the Tigers hit buzzer-beating 3-pointers in both instances) and with 22 seconds to go against Arkansas.

• OU is the only SEC team and one of just seven out of 361 nationally to start the same lineup every game this season. Its starters have been guards Xzayvier Brown and Nijel Pack, forwards Tae Davis and Derrion Reid and center Mohamed Wague. Kentucky has started nine different lineups.

• In OU's four SEC road games, Reid is averaging 13.8 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds. He is shooting 57% from the field and 55% (6 for 11) from 3-point range in those contests, and has attempted a team-high 23 free throws. At Texas A&M on Jan. 10, he logged 19 points and a career-high 11 boards.

• Kentucky is in its second year under head coach Mark Pope, who is in his 11th year overall. Pope, who is 39-19 with the Wildcats and 226-127 overall, owns a 2-1 record against Oklahoma. UK won both meetings last year by one point, while the Sooners beat his BYU team 82-66 in Norman in 2023-24, which was the Cougars' first year and OU's last in the Big 12 Conference.

• Pope played his last two seasons at Kentucky under head coach Rick Pitino and was a senior on UK's 1995-96 national championship team. He averaged 7.6 points and 5.2 rebounds in 20 minutes per game that year.

SERIES HISTORY

• Oklahoma has faced Kentucky five times but has yet to beat the Wildcats. OU is 0-2 in the series in Lexington, 0-1 in Norman and 0-2 at neutral sites.

• Prior to last season's two meetings, the most recent matchup came in a Maui Invitational first-round contest in 2010-11 in Lahaina, Hawai'i, which the Wildcats won 76-64.

• In a rare non-conference regular season finale in 1986-87, unranked Kentucky edged No. 12 OU 75-74 in Lexington. Guards Ed Davender (21) and Rex Chapman (20) combined for 41 points for the Wildcats, who were coached by Eddie Sutton. Harvey Grant led four Sooners in double figures with 20 points while Darryl "Choo" Kennedy added 18. Billy Tubbs' OU squad finished 24-10 on the year and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.

• The other matchup in Lexington came in the 1945-46 season at UK's Alumni Gymnasium and marked the first series meeting. Adolph Rupp's Wildcats beat Bruce Drake's OU squad 43-33.

LAST YEAR VS. WILDCATS

• OU lost a pair of one-point games to Kentucky last season, falling 83-82 in Norman and 85-84 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals in Nashville. UK's Otega Oweh, a former Sooner, hit game-winners in the waning seconds in both contests.

• In the Feb. 26 game, which was UK's first-ever trip to Norman, Oklahoma led 82-81 but Oweh hit a twisting runner in the lane with six seconds left to put the Wildcats up by one. OU's Jeremiah Fears, who hit a buzzer-beating layup at the end of the first half after driving the length of the court, attempted to replicate the play at the end of regulation but his shot was blocked just before the buzzer. Senior forward Jalon Moore scored a team-high 20 points for OU while Fears registered 18 points and game highs of eight rebounds and six assists. Oweh scored 23 of his career-high 28 points in the second half, including UK's last 18.

• In the SEC Tournament meeting, No. 6 seed Kentucky used an 11-0 run to take a 77-65 lead with 4:31 left, but the 14th-seeded Sooners responded with a 19-6 run and went up 84-83 with five seconds remaining on a Fears driving lay-in. After a timeout, Oweh dribbled 75 feet along the right sideline and hit the game-winning five-foot baseline runner with half a second to go. OU trailed 83-77 but in the span of less than 30 seconds hit a 3-pointer, got two steals and a pair of two-point baskets to take the lead in the final seconds. Fears tallied 28 points, including 10 in the last 1:19, four rebounds and game highs of five assists and three steals. Moore recorded 12 points and seven rebounds. Center Mohamed Wague made his third straight start and recorded nine points and six boards in 17 minutes.

OU'S 'X' FACTOR

• Junior guard Xzayvier Brown has scored at least 13 points in 12 of the last 13 games and at least 18 points in nine of those 13 outings. He is averaging 18.4 in the 13 contests on 48% field goal, 39% (27-for-70) 3-point and 92% (48-for-52) free throw shooting. Included were four 20-point games in SEC play (23 in a win over Ole Miss, a season-high 24 against No. 19 Florida, 21 vs. No. 18 Alabama and 22 at South Carolina).

• Brown leads the SEC by shooting 91% from the free throw line (72 for 79). His streak of 27 makes ended Jan. 13 vs. Florida but he has made 50 of his last 54 attempts (93%). He did not go to the line in either of the last two games.

• After scoring at least 20 points in 14 of 35 games last year at Saint Joseph's, Brown has a team-high nine games of 20-plus in 22 outings this season (Nijel Pack ranks second with six such efforts). Brown has 29 career games of at least 20.

PACK MENTALITY

• First-year Oklahoma guard Nijel Pack surpassed the 2,000-point mark Jan. 11 at Texas A&M and has 2,103 for his career to rank third nationally among active players.

• Pack's current three-game streak of at least 20 points is the third of his career (also in 2022-23 with Miami and 2021-22 with Kansas State). He has never scored 20-plus in four straight outings.

• Pack ranks third in the SEC with his 3.2 3-pointers per game and fourth with his .428 3FG percentage.

• Pack has made at least one 3-pointer in 20 of 22 games, at least three in 14 contests and at least four in 10 outings. He buried at least three treys in six consecutive games between Nov. 11 and Dec. 2, the first Sooner to accomplish the feat since consensus national player of the year Buddy Hield during OU's 2015-16 Final Four campaign.

• A sixth-year collegian, Pack spent his first two seasons at Kansas State (he was a first-team All-Big 12 pick as a sophomore when he averaged 17.4 points and made 95 3-pointers and shot a league-high .436 from behind the arc) and the last three at Miami, Fla. (he helped the Hurricanes to their first Final Four his junior season and was named the Midwest Region Most Outstanding Player). He has started 143 of his 144 career games.

ELATONTSEV MAKING AN IMPACT

• OU announced Dec. 28 the signing of 23-year-old Kirill Elatontsev (pronounced kee-REEL EE-el-uh-tahn-suv), a center from Russia who is averaging 5.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 16.6 minutes per contest over his 10 games. He is shooting 56% from the field, 44% (8 for 18) from 3-point range and 69% (11 for 16) from the free throw line. He has made at least one 3-pointer in five of the last six games.

• On Jan. 13 vs. No. 19 Florida, Elatontsev scored 17 points on 4-for-4 field goal shooting (all 3-pointers) after totaling two points over OU's first three league games. Over the last six contests he is averaging 7.8 points on 15-for-25 (60%) field goal and 8-for-17 (47%) 3-point shooting and has nine steals.

• From Krasnoyarsk, Russia, the 6-11, 240-pound Elatontsev has one semester of eligibility remaining. He most recently played for Lokomotiv Kuban in the VTB United League, which is regarded as the top tier of Russian professional club basketball. In February 2024 he was called up to the Russian National Team.

MORE OU NOTES AND NUGGETS

• Oklahoma has led for at least 22 minutes in four of the last five games, all losses. It led for over 30 minutes Saturday against Texas.

• The Sooners have scored at least 85 points in 11 of their 22 games (50%), already their most 85-point efforts in a season since 2017-18. For comparison, OU's last four teams scored 85-plus a combined 21 times in 133 games (16%; nine times last year, six in 2023-24, two in 2022-23 and four in 2021-22).

• OU's top four scorers are all transfers in their first year in the program. Nijel Pack averages a team-high 16.3 points per game, while Xzayvier Brown (16.2), Tae Davis (12.5) and Derrion Reid (11.9) also average double figures. Mohamed Wague rounds out the starting five with his 6.5 per contest.

• Reid has scored at least 12 points and shot at least 50% from the field in each of the last five games. He is averaging 13.6 points (56% field goal shooting) and 6.4 rebounds during the stretch.

• Wague (3.1) and Davis (2.5) rank third and eighth in the SEC in offensive rebounds per game. Davis had 11 offensive boards against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, OU's most in a contest since at least the 1995-96 season. He surpassed 1,000 career points and 500 rebounds this season (has 1,158 and 561).

• Davis went 41 for 66 (62%) from the free throw line over OU's first 17 games, but is 16 for 17 (94%) over the last five.

• Wague's three highest career point totals have come this season (16 in the opener vs. Saint Francis, 20 vs. Oral Roberts and 15 vs. Stetson), as have his two highest rebound totals (14 at Wake Forest and 15 vs. Ole Miss in the SEC opener).

• Long Beach State transfer Jadon Jones is averaging 5.7 points in 19.9 minutes per game over his 18 outings. He has also drawn 10 fouls while attempting a 3-pointer. The 2021-22 Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year has 10 steals and eight blocks over the past five games.

• Redshirt freshman forward Kuol Atak ranks third on the team with his 26 3-point makes (shooting 39%) despite averaging just 12.1 minutes over his 17 games. He is 19 for 39 (49%) from long distance in home contests, including 10 for 19 (53%) over his last three outings at Lloyd Noble Center. He has played in just one of the last five games (one minute at South Carolina).

• Nine of the 15 players on OU's roster are new in 2025-26, and three more were on last year's team but redshirted.