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Oklahoma basketball: Sooners announce two-game series with Arkansas

By Chip Rouse

MORGANTOWN, WV - FEBRUARY 29: Alondes Williams #15 of the Oklahoma Sooners pulls up for a shot against Gabe Osabuohien #3 of the West Virginia Mountaineers at the WVU Coliseum on February 29, 2020 in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
MORGANTOWN, WV - FEBRUARY 29: Alondes Williams #15 of the Oklahoma Sooners pulls up for a shot against Gabe Osabuohien #3 of the West Virginia Mountaineers at the WVU Coliseum on February 29, 2020 in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /
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The men’s Oklahoma basketball program has scheduled a two-game series with its bordering neighbor to the east, Arkansas, to begin in the 2020-21 season.

The two games — both to be played in December 2020 and 2021 — will take place on a neutral floor at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That site was chosen because of its relative equidistance from both campuses (125 miles fron Norman and 116 from Fayetteville) and, according to officials in the OU athletic department, because Tulsa caters to alumni and fan bases from both universities.

Oklahoma and Arkansas last played in November 2017 as part of the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Oregon. The Razorbacks defeated Freshman sensation Trey Young and the Sooners 92-83 in that matchup. The two teams have met four other times over the past decade and 28 times overall.

Arkansas leads the overall series 16-12. but Oklahoma has won seven of the last 11 games between the two teams.

Oklahoma and Arkansas had similar overall records this past season that was shortened by the shutdown of all postseason activities because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Sooners were 19-12 and the Razorbacks finished with a 20-12 overall mark.

Chris Crutchfield, who was on Lon Kruger’s original OU coaching staff when Kruger took over as the Sooners’ head coach in 2011, is now an assistant on Eric Musselman’s staff at Arkansas.

Oklahoma’s 2020-21 nonconference schedule also will include a road game at Central Florida, which played at OU last season, a game with Washington in Las Vegas as part of the Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge, a game against another SEC foe other than Arkansas in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, and at Xavier as part of the Big East-Big 12 Battle.

The Sooners also will participate in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic Dec. 22-25 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Other teams taking part in that holiday tournament include Arizona State, Hawaii, Saint Marys, San Diego State, Seattle University, Temple and Western Michigan.

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