Oklahoma basketball: Sooners begin tough two-game road test

Three other times this season Oklahoma basketball has bounced back from a previous loss to return to the win column.

Saturday night will be the first time this season that the Sooners have followed a loss with a true road game. And to ramp up the degree of difficulty, the opponent happens to be the Crimson and Cream’s biggest rival.

Any time Oklahoma and Texas get together in an athletic competition, all bets are off. Anyone who knows any thing about the Red River rivalry knows that anything can and often does happen when these two longtime bitter rivals tip off, kick off or go at each other in any form or fashion. Season records and statistics mean very little.

While football takes center stage in this century-old rivalry, there is no less love lost when the two border neighbors go against each other on the hardwood. That will happen for the first time this season when the Longhorns (10-7, 2-3) host 20th-ranked (Associated Press) Oklahoma (13-4, 2-3) at Frank Erwin Center in Austin on Saturday night.

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The Sooners stay on the road for a mid-week contest against in-state rival Oklahoma State in Stillwater on Wednesday.

Here are some scene-setting, quick-hitters to get Sooner fans ready for round one of the hardwood version of the Red River Showdown:

• Oklahoma is 3-2 in true road games, the two losses coming in the Big 12 against seventh-ranked Kansas and at eighth-ranked Texas Tech. The Sooners’ are tied with Iowa State for the most road wins in the Big 12 this season.
• OU is 18-22 all-time against Texas in Austin and 7-7 in all games against the Longhorns in the seven seasons Lon Kruger has been at Oklahoma.
• Oklahoma’s opponents are shooting 38.3 percent from the floor. That is the second-best field-goal percentage defense in the Big 12 and ranks 12th nationally.
• In Oklahoma’s three previous bounce-back games this season, the Sooners limited their opponent to 33.7 percent shooting and won by a margin of 7.7 points.
• OU leads the Big 12 in rebounding offense and ranks third in rebounding margin (+4.7). The Sooners are the third best team in the nation in defensive rebounding (31.2 defensive boards per game).
• The Sooners are 11-1 this season when they outrebound their opponent.
• Texas has lost its last three games (Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Kansas).
• Two seasons ago, as a freshman, Kristian Doolittle scored a career-high 29 points and hauled down 10 rebounds in an 84-83 loss at Texas.
• With a team-high 20 points against Kansas State on Wednesday, the Sooners’ leading scorer, Christian James, became the 45th Oklahoma player to go over 1,000 point in his career.
• Oklahoma is averaging 33.8 points in the paint in 17 games this season. The Sooners are 11-2 when they outscore their opponents in the paint.

Some of the statistical information that appears in this article was sourced from the Oklahoma basketball primer prepared by the OU athletic department.