Buddy Hield Raising His Game to New Heights; Go Figure!
By Chip Rouse
Buddy Hield is nearing the end of his sensational college career, but he and Sooner fans are hopeful the Oklahoma superstar will have four more chances to strut his stuff and add to his already incredible career numbers.
With a pair of wins this past weekend in the NCAA Tournament, the No. 2-seeded Sooners, fueled by plenty of home-cooked “Buddy Love,” are moving on to the Sweet 16 and a date on Thursday with former Big 12 school Texas A&M.
Hield was a bona fide college star before this season, but in 2015-16, his fourth season at Oklahoma, his performance has risen to an even higher level, and records are falling as a result of it.
Here is a rundown, by the numbers, of Hield’s postseason performance through just two NCAA Tournament games:
2 – Position of Buddy Hield on the all-time Oklahoma scoring list for points scored in a single NCAA Tournament game. His 36-point performance on Sunday vs. Virginia Commonwealth ties him with Wayman Tisdale, who scored 36 in an NCAA Tournament game his sophomore season in 1984. Stacey King holds the OU single-game tournament record with a 37-point game in 1988.
16 – At the half in the Sooners’ opening-round win over Cal-State Bakersfield, the Big 12 leading scorer the past two seasons was held to 11 points. He scored 16 of his game-high 27 points in the final 13:23 of the game.
19 – Points scored by Buddy Hield in the final eight minutes of OU’s victory over Virginia Commonwealth.
26 – Points scored by “Buddy Buckets” of the Sooners final 31 points on Sunday against VCU.
29 – Second-half points by Buddy Hield after being held to seven in the opening 20 minutes of the Sooners’ win on Sunday over No. 10-seed VCU. Only five players have scored that many points in a single game through two games in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
31.5 – Buddy Hield’s scoring average through Oklahoma’s first two tournament games, which leads all scorers.
36 – Points scored by Buddy Hield in the Sooners’ 85-81 victory over Virginia Commonwealth in the round of 32. That ties Jeremy Morgan of Northern Iowa for the most points in a single game in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
36 – Hield’s 36 points against VCU is the second-most by a Big 12 player in NCAA Tournament history.
63 – Buddy Hield’s points total through Oklahoma’s two NCAA Tournament wins, which leads all players in the tournament after the first weekend.
75 – Buddy’s second-half shooting percentage against VCU on 9 of 12 from the floor, including five three-pointers.