Oklahoma basketball: Road weary Sooners return home to LNC
By Chip Rouse
After a month playing away from Lloyd Noble Center, the men’s Oklahoma basketball team is back home for a Saturday afternoon nonconference game with Central Florida.
This will be the first meeting between the Sooners (7-3) and the Knights of UCF (8-3), members of the American Athletic Conference. Oklahoma is 5-3 under Lon Kruger against current AAC teams, and has already played one team from that conference this season, losing 80-75 on the road to Wichita State last Saturday.
The Sooners are 46-31 all-time against teams out of the American Athletic Conference.
Through 10 games, Oklahoma is the only Big 12 team with two players in the top five in the conference in scoring and three in the top 15. Wichita State transfer Austin Reaves leads the team, averaging 17.7 points per game. He has scored in double figures in all 10 games this season.
Kristian Doolittle, the lone senior on the OU roster, is averaging 15.5 points a game. with junior forward Brady Manek averaging 14.3.
Reaves led the AAC in three-point shooting percentage in 2017-18, shooting at a .451 clip behind the three-point line, but is averaging just .295 in three-balls so far this season.
Doolittle has scored 20 or more points in a career-high three consecutive games. He is the first Sooner to reach the 20-point level in three consecutive games since Trae Young did it 18 straight times two seasons ago.
Two areas where Oklahoma is excelling this season are protecting the ball and free-throw shooting. OU is averaging just 9.8 turnovers per game, third best in the nation and first in the Big 12, The Sooners are shooting 78.2 percent from the free-throw line this season. That ranks 13th nationally and is almost 10 percent better than a year ago.
The Sooners have played seven of their first 10 games away from home. Saturday’s game against UCF will be only their fourth home game of the season. OU has won 15 straight home games against nonconference opponents and is 47-4 at Lloyd Noble Center against nonconference in the nine seasons Kruger has been the head coach at Oklahoma.
Oklahoma plays its next three games at home, hosting the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Monday and opening up Big 12 play on Jan. 4 against Kansas State.