It’s not the Sugar Bowl, which will represent a much higher-level showdown between these two schools, but the Oklahoma basketball team will take on Auburn in a Basketball Hall of Fame Birthday of Basketball holiday special on Wednesday that will set the stage for the New Year’s day-after gridiron battle 10-days hence.
The Sooners and the Tigers are part of a basketball doubleheader at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. As in football, Oklahoma and Auburn is an extreme rarity on the basketball court. The two schools have played just twice previously, each team winning once.
The last time the two teams met was 29 seasons ago in the 1988 NCAA Tournament. That was a very memorable season for Sooner men’s basketball. Oklahoma defeated the Tigers, scoring 107 points in the process, on its way to the Final Four and the national championship game against the Kansas Jayhawks.
Here are 10 additional numbers to know in advance of Wednesday’s rematch after a 29-year absence:
.414 – Defense is not a particular strength of either Oklahoma or Auburn in 2016-17. Opponents of both teams are averaging 41 percent shooting through 10 games.
.615 – Lon Kruger’s winning percentage against current SEC teams while at Oklahoma. The Sooners’ are 8-5 in Kruger’s six OU seasons, including six consecutive wins.
4 – Consistent starting lineups have been a given for three straight seasons under Lon Kruger. Four players were in the starting lineup for OU for over 100 consecutive games over three seasons between 2013-16. Already this season, however, Kruger has gone with four different starting fives in 10 games.
6 – Number of games this season in which one or more OU freshman have reached double digits in scoring.
11 – Number of underclassmen on the Sooners’ 2016-17 roster. This is the most in the Lon Kruger era.
25.0 – Senior Jordan Woodard’s scoring average in OU’s last two games. He scored 28 points against Wichita State and 22 last Saturday against Memphis, the first time in his career he has back-to-back with 20-point efforts.
52 – Oklahoma has scored 52 points in the paint in two games this season. They exceeded 50 points in the paint just once all of last season. In 2016-17, the Sooners are averaging 32.9 points in the paint. Last season they averaged 28.2.
81/73 – The scoring offense and scoring defense stats, respectively, for both teams this season.
111 – Lon Kruger’s win total in his first five seasons at Oklahoma. That make him the second winningest Sooner basketball coach in his first five seasons. Billy Tubbs won 115 games in his first five seasons from 1980-81 through 1984-85.
1,324 – Jordan Woodard’s career point total at Oklahoma through 115 games, passing Blake Griffin among OU’s career scoring leaders. Griffin scored 1,278 points, but he did so in only 68 games.