Oklahoma Basketball: All-Time Sooners Men’s Basketball Team

Mar 27, 2015; Syracuse, NY, USA; Oklahoma Sooners forward

(12) reacts on the bench during the second half against the Michigan State Spartans in the semifinals of the east regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Carrier Dome. Michigan State won 62-58. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Paul Courty (1946-49), Third Team Forward

Paul Courty won’t show up on many Oklahoma basketball all-time lists, but he was as valuable a player at the time he played as any Sooner in any era.

His sophomore season, in 1946-47, Courty was the second leading scorer on a Sooner team that advanced to the NCAA national championship. where they lost to Holy Cross 58-47. To show the difference in the style of play then as compared with now, Courty averaged 7.9 points that season. That was second on the team, but not by much, to All-American Gerald Tucker, who averaged 10.5 points.

Courty was a two-time All-American (1948-49) and three times was a First Team All-Conference selection (one season in the Big Six Conference and his final two years in the Big Seven).

Courty played for head coach Bruce Drake, the third winningest coach in Sooner basketball history. He was the star in one of the more memorable games in the history of the old OU Field House (now named McCasland Field House). He scored a team-high 14 points in a 50-47 win over Kansas in the 1946-47 season.

The Sooners went on to win the conference championship in the 1946-47 season, the last year of the Big Six. OU also was co-champion of the Big Seven Conference in Courty’s senior season, in 1948-49.

Courty was the first Oklahoma player to be drafted by an NBA team. He was taken in the eighth round of the 1949 NBA Draft by the Providence Steamrollers.

Next: Ryan Minor (1992-96), Third Team Forward