Oklahoma Basketball: Notable Numbers From Sooners’ Tech Setback
By Chip Rouse
A season loaded with growing pains and mounting disappointment continues for Oklahoma basketball on the men’s side.
The Sooners suffered their 14th loss of the season on Saturday and are now just one defeat away from tying their worst season in Lon Kruger’s six at Oklahoma. That comes one season after the Sooners made it all the way to the Final Four.
OU finished the 2011-12 season with 15 wins and 16 losses in Kruger’s first year. That followed a 14-18 season the year before Kruger arrived in Norman.
With eight games remaining in the regular season and only two Big 12 wins in 10 conference games so far, the Sooners are in real danger of posting their worst conference record since the 2009-10 season, when the won just four times to go with 12 losses in league play.
Once again on Saturday at Texas Tech, Oklahoma had opportunities to win the game, a position the Sooners have been in numerous times in what has become a very frustrating season, but they just weren’t able to finish it out.
Chalk it up to inexperience or the mental fragility that comes with ending up on the short end of the score in game after game. It’s hard to believe where Oklahoma sits presently that they were once at 6-2 before embarking on a string of 12 losses in their last 14 contests.
Another game, another loss. That’s been the pattern over the last four games. Next up: a West Virginia team against whom the Sooners recorded one of their two conference wins just ahead of
their current four-game losing skid.
Here are a few notable numbers from OU’s setback Saturday at Texas Tech:
4 – Twelve of Kameron McGusty’s team-high 16 points came on three-pointers. That represented a career high for the OU freshman for made three-pointers in a single game.
7 of 9 – Shots made by the Sooners to close out the first half. Despite that, Oklahoma still trailed by seven, 35-29, at the half.
10 – The Sooners missed 10 consecutive shots while Texas Tech was on a 10-0 run. That run by the Red Raiders erased a one-point Oklahoma lead and put the home team up 23-14 midway through the first half.
11 – Assists by Oklahoma in the Texas Tech game. The Sooners had just 14 combined assists in the last three games.
12 – Number of lead changes in the game. The score was tied five different times.
12 – Points scored in the paint by Texas Tech (OU had 20 points in the paint), the fewest by an Oklahoma opponents this season.
15 – Kameron McGusty has tallied at least 15 points in his last six games. He has reached double figures in 10 consecutive games.
15.8 – McGusty’s scoring average in conference play. Only Josh Jackson of Kansas and Jarrett Allen of Texas are averaging more (16.0) among freshmen in the conference.
16 – Total points by which Oklahoma has lost its last three conference games.
83.3 – Free-throw percentage by Texas Tech on 15 of 18, seven of which came in the critical final couple of minutes in the game.