Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma basketball: Sooners host 2nd straight ranked opponent

By Chip Rouse

Xavier Musketeers forward Bryan Griffin (13) and Oklahoma Sooners forward Brady Manek (35) chase after a rebound in the second half of a men's NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, at Cintas Center in Cincinnati. Xavier won 99-77.Oklahoma Sooners At Xavier Musketeers Dec 9
Xavier Musketeers forward Bryan Griffin (13) and Oklahoma Sooners forward Brady Manek (35) chase after a rebound in the second half of a men's NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, at Cintas Center in Cincinnati. Xavier won 99-77.Oklahoma Sooners At Xavier Musketeers Dec 9 /
facebooktwitterreddit

Men’s Oklahoma basketball is getting an early dose of what playing in the Big 12 is going to be like this season.

Two of the Sooners’ first three conference games in the 2020-21 season are against ranked among the top-15 teams. On Saturday, Oklahoma will host No. 9 West Virginia.

The Mountaineers are 8-2 this season. Their two losses were by five points to No. 1 Gonzaga and by 14 to third-ranked Kansas.

Oklahoma has a 12-9 record all-time against West Virginia, and the Sooners have won three of the last four meetings between the two teams. The Sooners are 6-2 against the Mountaineers in games played at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, including a 69-59 win last season.

The Sooners (5-2, 1-1) have not played in 11 days. They last played on Dec. 22, losing at home, 69-67, to No. 13 Texas Tech.

The Mountaineers will be without 6-foot, 9-inch sophomore forward Oscar Tshiebwe, who announced on Friday that he is stepping away from basketball for personal reasons.

Oklahoma, second in the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 82.7 points a game, is led by seniors Austin Reaves and Brady Manek, averaging 15.9 and 14.6 points, respectively.

West Virginia is led offensively by sophomore Miles McBride, who is scoring 14.8 points a game, and 6-foot, 10-inch big man Derek Culver, who averages 14.1 points and is second in the Big 12 with 9.9 rebounds per game.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Lon Kruger’s Sooners. After next week, Oklahoma will have played four straight games, all in the Big 12, against ranked teams. The Sooners play at No. 2 Baylor on Wednesday and at No. 3 Kansas on Saturday.

Over the next eight days, Oklahoma will have played three consecutive games against teams ranked in the top-10 in the country. It doesn’t get more difficult that that.

Fast-break points

  • Oklahoma has won three of its last six games against ranked opponents and is 21-15 at home against top-25 teams in Lon Kruger’s previous eight seasons as head coach of the Sooners.
  • The Sooners rank in the top four in the Big 12 in field-goal shooting (47.0 percent) and three-point shooting (36.5 percent). They lead the Big 12 in free-throw shooting (78.5 percent).
  • Sooner sophomore guard De’Vion Harmon leads the Big 12 in free-throw accuracy, hitting 90.5 percent of his foul shots.
  • Oklahoma is 21-1 over the last two seasons when it shoots a higher field-foal percentage than it opponent.
  • The Sooners lead the conference in committing the fewest personal fouls per game (13.0). That is also the third-best in the country.
  • Oklahoma ranks second in the Big 12 with just 11.3 turnovers per game.
  • Austin Reaves’ 32 points in OU’s come-from-behind win over TCU on Dec. 6 are the most by a Big 12 player this season.
Home/OU Basketball