Oklahoma vs. Texas: Standout Stat to Watch for in Red River Battle of Basement Dwellers
By Chip Rouse
If you hail from the state of Oklahoma or are a nonresident Sooner fan, such as yours truly, Oklahoma vs. Texas in anything is a big deal.
This may be Valentine’s Day across the fruited plains and all of the U.S., but I can assure you there is no love loss between these two schools – in any sport or any kind of competition.
If you doubt me, attend an Oklahoma-Texas Red River football game on OU-Texas weekend every second Saturday in October. You’ll get the drift and feel the pent-up emotion before you even reach the flash mob that descends on the Cotton Bowl right before game time.
Enough about the football rivalry, though, on Tuesday night at Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center, the focus will be on Big 12 men’s basketball as the ninth-place Longhorns come calling on the conference cellar-dwellers, the Oklahoma Sooners.
The 8-16 Sooners are not exactly suffering through a first-to-worst season of basketball, but it’s been almost as bad. Oklahoma finished third in the Big 12 standings a year ago behind then-12-time defending league champion Kansas and Iowa State, but the Sooners went further in the postseason than any other Big 12 school, advancing all the way to the NCAA Final Four for the fifth time in their history.
This season, however, has been an entirely different story. About the only thing this OU team is playing for now is individual and school pride.
This is rivalry week in Oklahoma men’s basketball. On Tuesday night, the Sooners host Texas, and on Saturday they go up Interstate 35 for a Bedlam bash with in-state rival Oklahoma State. The Sooners will be trying to avenge losses they suffered to both teams in the first meeting of the Big 12’s home-and-away, round-robin schedule.
If you are the analytical type, there is one key stat you should keep a watchful eye on in tonight’s game: home-court advantage. Texas is 0-11 this season in games played away from Austin. All 10 of the Longhorns’ 2016-17 victories have come at home, including a final-second 84-83 win over Oklahoma on Jan. 23.
Ordinarily that would stand out as pretty clear advantage in favor of the Sooners. Only, this is far from a typical basketball season for the Crimson and Cream. The Sooners have beaten just one Big 12 team in six who have played this season at Lloyd Noble Center.
And for the first time since 1977-78, Oklahoma has lost more games at home than they’ve won. So far this season, the OU men are just 5-7 in home games, including consecutive home losses to Iowa State. Florida, Oklahoma State and West Virginia.
Two other stats of note that could have an impact on the outcome of Tuesday night’s Red River hoedown: Texas is 1-10 this season when its opponent shoots a higher field-goal percentage, and the Longhorns are 2-8 when their opponent scores 70 or more points.