Lloyd Noble Center has been home to Golden Era of Oklahoma basketball

Lloyd Noble Center has been the home of Oklahoma Sooner basketball for the past 50 years. Over that time, it has been home to the greatest players and Sooner basketball teams of all-time.

Much like Yankee Stadium has been called the "House that (Babe) Ruth Built," Lloyd Noble Center has been known as the house Alvan Adams built and Wayman Tisdale filled. Otherwise, it is referred to simply as the LNC.

Lloyd Noble Center has been part of what will go down in history as the Golden Era of Oklahoma basketball. The era began with the arrival of Billy Tubbs as head coach in 1980. Tubbs' OU teams won 333 games in 15 seasons (1980-94), the most under any OU basketball coach. One hundred ninety-four of those wins were at home in Lloyd Noble Center, where the Sooners were a remarkable 194-28 under Tubbs, a home winning percentage of .874.

Over a seven-year stretch from the 1983-84 season through the 1989-90 campaign, the Sooners amassed an astounding 108-2 record on the LNC home court. That included five undefeated home seasons.

In 11 seasons as coach of the Oklahoma men, Kelvin Sampson's teams also did a superb job of protecting their home court. The Sooners were a combined 151-18 (.893) at home under Sampson.

For nearly a 30-year stretch, Lloyd Noble Center was one of the most difficult places to play in college basketball for visiting teams. A home loss to Duke in December 1990 snapped a program record 51-game home winning streak, and a loss to archrival Texas in the final game of the 2002-03 regular season ended a Big 12 record 37-game win streak at Lloyd Noble Center.

The Sooners have gone 136-38 (.782) at the LNC in the last nine years, including a 7-2 mark this season. Porter Moser is 42-8 at home in three-plus seasons.

Built between 1973-75 at a cost of $6 million, Lloyd Noble Center opened in Dec. 1975. It is the sixth-oldest basketball facility in the SEC and the 11th largest with a capacity of 10,967.

For nearly 50 years before that, Sooner basketball games were held on campus, just across the street from the football stadium at what is now known as McCasland Field House. For a long time that facility was known just as OU Field House. McCasland is still operational, holding women's volleyball and men's wrestling events.

Within the next three years, the Oklahoma basketball venue is expected to move again. Last fall, the Norman City Council approved plans for the early stages of the Rock Creek Entertainment District that will include a new 8,000-seat arena for OU basketball and gymnastics.

The Lloyd Noble Center is named after Samuel Lloyd Noble, a Houston oilman and philanthropist and OU alum who died in 1950. Noble also served on the OU Board of Regents.

The LNC is affectionately called the house that Alvan Adams built, but Adams' career at Oklahoma ended the season before the new facility opened, so he never got to play a game there. Wayman Tisdale christened the LNC, scoring 2,661 points in three seasons, which still stands as an LNC career record.

Here are several more notable records in 50 years of Oklahoma basketball at the Lloyd Noble Center:

• Most points by a team: 173 by Oklahoma vs. U.S. International, Nov. 29, 1989.
• Most points by opposing team: 122 by Oral Roberts on Dec.10, 1988
• Most points in a game by an OU player: Brent Price, 56 points vs. Loyola Marymount on Dec.15, 1990
• Most points in a game by an opposing player: Steph Curry (Davidson), 44 on Nov.18, 2008