The 2019-20 college season marks the 113th year of men’s Oklahoma basketball, and on Saturday the Sooners will tip off their 24th Big 12 season, hosting the Kansas State Wildcats at 44-year-old Lloyd Noble Center.
Here are some other fun facts to fuel your interest fill you with information about Sooner hoops as college basketball enters the exciting second half of the 2019-20 campaign — the conference season.
- This is the second straight season Oklahoma has begun conference play against the reigning Big 12 champion. The Sooners opened conference season a year ago at Kansas. This year OU tips off Big 12 play at home against Kansas State, which shared the conference crown a year ago with Texas Tech, both finishing with 14-4 records.
- Oklahoma leads the all-time series against Kansas State 108-101 and is 63-28 when the game is played in Norman.
- Lon Kruger, a former player (1971-74) and head coach (1986-90) at Kansas State, is 22-27 coaching at Oklahoma against his alma mater. While a player at K-State, Kruger was two-time Big Eight Player of the Year (1973-74).
- The Sooners have won five of their last six Big 12 home openers.
- Despite being 5-0 at home this season, Oklahoma has led at halftime in only one of those games.. In fact, the Sooners have held a halftime lead in just three of their 12 games this season.
- Oklahoma is projected to finish eighth this season in the Big 12, according to the annual preseason poll by the league coaches. The Sooners have finished as well or better than their preseason projection in six of Lon Kruger’s eight seasons at OU. Oklahoma has also done better than its previous season’s win total in seven of Kruger’s eight seasons (OU’s 2018-19 overall win total was 20).