Oklahoma basketball: Sooners’ home supremacy faces severe test vs. Kansas

Of all the teams the men’s Oklahoma basketball program has gone up against over the years, none has dominated the Sooners like the Kansas Jayhawks.

The funny thing is, the same can be said in reverse when the sport shifts to football.

On Tuesday, the Sooners will host No. 7 Kansas for the 97th time in Norman, where the Jayhawks own a 51-46 advantage against Oklahoma. In the overall series, which dates back to 1920, Kansas has a record of 152-69 in games with Oklahoma. That’s a 69 percent winning percentage in favor of the Jayhawks.

Despite this, the Sooners have won two of the last two games with Kansas played at the LLoyd Noble Center, including a 75-68 victory last season.

Kansas (14-2, 3-1) enters Tuesday’s night’s contest fresh off an 85-59 dismantling of West Virginia, while Oklahoma suffered it second consecutive loss in a heartbreaking 59-59 overtime loss at TCU this past weekend.

Kansas presents a difficult matchup for the Sooners (12-5, 2-3). The Jayhawks have the Big 12’s leading scorer in senior Ochai Agbachi (20.6) and as a team lead the Big 12 in scoring, two- and three-point field-goal percentage and in the top half of the conference in virtually every other statistical category.

Oklahoma is one of the more balanced scoring teams in the Big 12 with all five starters averaging nine of more points a game. Senior Tanner Groves leads the attack, averaging 13.1 points a game, but he has been held to just nine points total in his last two games.

Tuesday night’s game will be televised nationally on ESPN beginning at 6 p.m. CT. Jon Sciambi will do the play-by-play with Fran Fraschilla providing analysis. Kris Budden will be on the sidelines.

What you need to know about Oklahoma vs. Kansas

• Kansas ranks in the top-25 nationally in five statistical categories and leads the Big 12 in field-goal percentage, scoring average (81.9), field-goal percentage (50.2) and three-point field-goal percentage (37.0).
• Oklahoma averages 72.4 points a game, while holding opponents to 62.1 points a game.
• Tanner Groves and Jacob Groves combined for 58 points for Eastern Washington in an opening round loss to Kansas in last season’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. Tanner had 35 points in that game on 11 of 18 shooting and 5 of 11 from three-point range. Jacob added 23 on 8 of 11 from the floor and 4 of 5 from behind the three-point line.
• Kansas’ only two losses this season are a 74-73 loss to Dayton in November and a 75-67 loss at Texas Tech.
• A player to watch in this game is 6-foot, 10-inch Kansas senior center David McCormick. McCormick hasn’t been as big a factor in games this season as expected (averaging 8.8 points a game), but he broke out with 19 points and 15 rebounds in the Jayhawks win over West Virginia on Saturday.

Prediction

This is not a good matchup for Oklahoma. The fact that the Sooners are playing at home is about the only advantage the Sooners have going into this game, and the schedule provides absolutely no relief looking ahead, with an angry Baylor team coming to Norman over the weekend.

For the Sooners to have a realistic chance against what easily could be a Final Four Kansas team, they are going to have to shoot well and protect the ball considerably better than they have in the past few games. I see this as a problem against a Jayhawk team that features 10 players who could start for most any team in the country and plays sound defense. Second-chance points are also something the Sooners must be wary of.

Sorry Sooner fans, I don’t see an upset in this one. Kansas wins by +9.