Oklahoma Basketball a Tough Out for Visitors to Lloyd Noble Center
By Chip Rouse
The Lloyd Noble Center, home of Oklahoma basketball, is not the largest arena in the Big 12, but if you ask opposing teams in the league to name the most difficult places to win on the road, the LNC ranks higher on the list than you might expect.
In the last four seasons alone, the Sooners are a combined 54-7 when playing at Lloyd Noble Center (14-1 in each of the past two seasons), 65-9 in Lon Kruger’s five years as the Oklahoma head coach.
The Lloyd Noble Center was opened in 1975. In its early years it was fondly referred to known as the house that Alvan (Adams) built and Wayman (Tisdale) filled. Both men were among the greatest players who ever played basketball at Oklahoma, and the retired jerseys are proudly displayed in house. In recent years, however, the names Blake Griffin and Buddy Hield have held court at the LNC in returning sellout crowds to the arena and reprising the great Sooner basketball tradition that was present when Adams and Tisdale ruled the hardwood at OU.
This will be the 42nd year the LNC has been in existence. The arena holds a little over 11,500 for basketball, which isn’t particularly large in comparison with other major schools around the country, yet the Sooners averaged over 10,000 a game last season, which was good enough to place Oklahoma 43rd in the country in men’s basketball attendance.
ESPN.com staff writer Myron Medcalf posted an article recently ranking the Big 12 venues according to the most difficult places to play for visiting teams. He ranked Lloyd Noble Center as the fourth toughest place to play in the Big 12, behind Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse, the WVU Coliseum at West Virginia and Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum.
The Sooners are 528-93 all-time at Lloyd Noble Center, with 432 of those victories coming in the last 497 games. In the seven-years from 1983-84 to 1989-90, under head coach Billy Tubbs, Oklahoma was virtually unbeatable on its home floor, posting an incredible home record of 108-2. The Sooners were undefeated at home in five of those seven seasons.
In the 41-year existence of Lloyd Noble Center, Oklahoma has won 85 percent of the games played there. Easy to understand why visiting teams are apprehensive about having to play the Sooners in Norman.