The 2015-16 college basketball season will be one to remember for fans of Oklahoma basketball.
Several single-season and career records have been set and another is on the verge of being
Buddy Hield’s 23 points in the Sooners’ win over Baylor on Wednesday moved him past Darryl “Choo” Kennedy into fourth place on the Oklahoma career scoring list with 2,099 career points. Chances are that’s where the Sooner All-American and probable two-time Big 12 Player of the Year where end his incredible OU career. He began his senior season at Oklahoma 15th on the career scoring list.
No. 3 on the Oklahoma career scoring list is Tim McCalister (1984-87), who is 176 points ahead of Hield with 2,275 career points. Jeff Webster (1991-94) is No. 2 with 2,281 points, and sitting safely at No. 1 is the late Wayman Tisdale (1983-85) with 2,661 points over a sensational three-year collegiate career.
Hield will not become the all-time scoring leader in OU basketball history, but his name is at the top of the Sooner career leaderboard in three-point shooting. The man from the Bahamas passed former Sooner Terry Evans (1990-93) this season for the most career made three-pointers (323 and still counting). The previous mark was 259 by Evans.
The Sooner sharpshooter Hield also shattered the single-season mark by an Oklahoma player for made three-balls in a season. The previous career leader in that category was Nate Erdmann, who in 1993 made 105 of 257 attempts for 40.9 percent. Hield has connected on 121 of 254 so far this season for an average of 47.6 percent.
Interestingly, the career leader at Oklahoma in three-point percentage (minimum of 150 made three-pointers) is not Hield, Evans or Erdmann. It is Isaiah Cousins, who has made 164 of 399 attempts, an average of 41 percent.
On the subject of three-point field goals, the Sooners as a team are on a pace to set a new school three-point-percentage record. Through 29 games, Oklahoma owns an accuracy rate of 43 percent for the season, with Hield (47 percent) and Jordan Woodard (44 percent) both ahead of the team average. The previous high-water mark for three-point percentage in a single season was the 1986-87 Sooner team that averaged .414 in three-point shooting.
For a time this season, Woodard and Hield ranked one and two in the nation in three-point percentage.
One final bit of OU basketball trivia: Four members of the current Oklahoma starting five (Hield, Cousins, Woodard and Ryan Spangler) have started 97 consecutive games for the Sooners over three seasons. The all-time record at OU for games started is owned by Tim McCalister with 123 career starts. Woodard is just a junior. If he starts every game next season, he will easily break McCalister’s career record.