Oklahoma basketball: Sooners and Florida agree to home-and-home series
By Chip Rouse
Men’s Oklahoma basketball already plays an SEC opponent every season as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge series, but in recent weeks the Sooners have announced a pair of games, this year and next, with two other SEC teams.
The Sooners will host Florida at the Lloyd Noble Center on Dec. 2 this coming season, and the venue will shift to Gainesville, Florida, in 2021.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Oklahoma announced a multi-game agreement with Arkansas, another SEC member. The Sooners and Razorbacks will play at neutral sites, beginning this season on Dec. 12 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, and on Dec. 11 in 2021.
Oklahoma and Florida have met on the basketball court three times previously, with the Gators owning a 2-1 advantage. Florida handed OU one of the worst defeats in coach Lon Kruger’s nine seasons at Oklahoma, hammering the Sooners 84-52 in Norman in the 2016-17 season as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
The Sooners were victorious against the Gators in their most recent matchup, winning 65-60 in 2018 in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Christian James led Oklahoma with 18 points in that game and the Sooners held Florida without a basketball in three straight possessions late in the game to preserve the victory.
Kruger was head coach at Florida for six seasons between 1990 and 1996 and took the Gators to the Final Four in 1994.
Oklahoma is 13-9 all-time against SEC opponents during Kruger’s time at OU, including five consecutive wins.
When the Sooners travel to Gainesville in December 2021, it will be Oklahoma’s first trip ever there in basketball and will mark Kruger’s first time back since the 1995-96 season.