Oklahoma basketball: Numbers to know from the KO of mighty KU
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma basketball made a statement to the NCAA Tournament selection committee in its 2018-19 home finale at Lloyd Noble Center, taking no prisoners in a 13-point win over once-invincible Kansas.
In what was easily the Sooners’ best win of the season, and undeniably its most important, the main headline from OU’s 81-68 victory on Tuesday night wasn’t about how OU totally dominated a Jayhawk team that showed little fight, but rather how Kansas’ 14-year reign as Big 12 champions ended in a whimper.
Kansas (22-8, 11-6) came into the game ranked 13th in the latest Associated Press Poll. Oklahoma improved to 19-11 overall, one more win than a year ago.
This game was over before it had barely begun, which is something that has to go down as an extremely rare occurrence in the Bill Self coaching era at Kansas.
The Sooners made seven of their first eight shots, and by the midway mark of the first half had opened up a 26-9 advantage. With under five minutes to go in the game, OU had widened its lead to 24 points, 75-51. A 17-6 Kansas run to the final buzzer cut into the Sooner advantage, but it was far too little, too late.
Blair Kerkhoff, in his commentary on the game in the Kansas City Star, wrote:
“A KU victory Tuesday may have delayed the inevitable.”
He was referring to the fact that the Jayhawks still would have had to beat Baylor at home on Saturday, and still hope that either Kansas State or Texas Tech would lose in their games on Saturday. Kansas State hosts the Sooners, while Texas Tech has to go to Iowa State.
The Star columnist could just as easily have written that the Sooners escalated the inevitable by putting the Jayhawks out of their misery.
The double-digit victory marked the first time Oklahoma has beaten the Jayhawks by 10 or more points since the 1989-90 season.
Here some other telltale numbers from the highly satisfying Oklahoma victory over Kansas:
0 — Time in the game in which Kansas held the lead; OU led for a total of 38:08.
3-6 — Kansas’ record in the Big 12 this season away from Allen Fieldhouse.
5:30 — Kansas went 10 possessions over a span of nearly five and a half minutes in the first half without scoring a point.
21 — The Sooners converted 15 Kansas turnovers into 21 points.
22 — Oklahoma shot twice as many free throws as Kansas, making 16 of 22.
24/21 — Points totals by Kristian Doolittle and Brady Manek, respectively, in the game.
32 to 26 — Points by which Oklahoma outscored Kansas in the paint.
53.8 –– Oklahoma’s shooting percentage in the first half against Kansas (they finished the game at 49.1 percent.