Oklahoma basketball: OU’s 2023-24 nonconference slate includes North Carolina
By Chip Rouse
The men’s Oklahoma basketball program has announced its 2023-24 nonconference schedule, including nine home games out of 13 in the months of November December.
The Sooners will open the season on Monday, Nov. 6 at Lloyd Noble Center against Central Michigan. They will play eight nonconference games at the LNC plus one home date against Arkansas Pine-Bluff on Nov. 30 at historic McCasland Field House.
McCasland Field House served as the home of OU basketball from 1928 until 1975, when the LNC opened. The Sooners played their last game at McCasland, previously known simply as OU Field House, in 2012-13, defeating Texas A&M Corpus Christi 72-42. The facility is still used to host men’s wrestling, women’s volleyball and men’s gymnastics programs.
OU’s first four games of the 2023-24 season are at home. After Central Michigan on Nov. 6 to tip off the new season, the Sooners will host Mississippi Valley State (Nov. 10), Texas State (Nov. 14) and the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley (Nov. 17). The OU men are a combined 8-0 in previous meetings with MVSU and UTRGV.
The Sooners take their first road trip of the season on Nov. 23-24, when they will take part in the Rady Children’s Invitational Invitational in San Diego. OU will play two games against a combination of Iowa, Seton Hall or USC. Oklahoma is a combined 12-9 all-time against those three opponents.
Two notable games on the Sooners’ nonconference schedule in the coming season are a home game against Providence on Dec. 5 as part of the newly established Big 12/Big East Battle. Four days later OU hits the road, traveling to Tulsa for the annual Crimson & Cardinal Classic against future SEC foe Arkansas. The two teams have split the previous two games in the Classic series with OU winning 88-66 in 2021 and the Razorbacks returning the favor last year with an 88-77 victory last season.
Perhaps the biggest name on Oklahoma’s upcoming nonconference schedule will be a showdown against North Carolina in the Jumpman Invitational to be played at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on Dec. 20.
Rounding out the nonconference slate of games are home contests against Green Bay on Dec. 16 (the first meeting ever between these two teams), Central Arkansas (Dec.28) and Monmouth (Dec. 31).
Porter Moser’s 2022-23 Oklahoma men’s team finished with a disappointing 15-17 overall record and a 5-13 mark in conference play.