Oklahoma basketball: How Sooners can come away with win at TCU

Men's Oklahoma basketball plays its first true road game of the season when it faces TCU in Ft. Worth, Texas, on Wednesday night.

The ninth-ranked Sooners (13-1) are coming off a 71-63 home victory over Iowa State in their Big 12 opener on Saturday. The significance of that victory came to the forefront on Tuesday night when the Cyclones upset No. 2-ranked and undefeated Houston 57-53.

TCU (11-3) opened Big 12 play at No. 3-ranked Kansas on Saturday, where Oklahoma will be this Saturday, and came very close to defeating the Jayhawks on their home floor, something that rarely happend. The Horned Frogs led most of the second half before KU rallied late to escape with a two-point win.

The all-time series between these two teams spans just 35 games, mostly coming after TCU joined the Big 12 in 2012. Oklahoma leads the overall series 28-7 and is 11-3 in games played in Ft. Worth. Two of those road losses, however, have been in the Sooners last two visits.

Oklahoma is just 4-14 in Big 12 road games under third-year head coach Porter Moser, so Wednesday game will be a huge test against a good TCU team that plays even better at home.

The game is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. CT and will be televised on ESPN2. Chuckie Kempf and King McClure will be on the call.

What Oklahoma has to do get a big road win over TCU

• Porter Moser likes his team to play an uptempo game and create offense through defense. TCU likes to play fast as well, but the Horned Frogs play at breakneck speed and often put up a shot within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock. The Sooners will need to adapt to that pace, force the TCU shooters to make contested shots and not give up easy baskets at the rim.

• Like Iowa State (OU's previous opponent), TCU is at the top of the Big 12 in steals, which fuels its run-outs and quick-score transition offense. Ball security and limiting turnovers will be key if the Sooners are to pull off this road win.

• The Sooners need big scoring nights from its scoring leaders Javian McCollum (14.7 per game) and Otega Oweh (14.9 per game) and they need to shoot the ball well. OU is shooting right at 50 percent per game, which ranks 15th best in the nation. The Sooners also defend well, holding opponents to under 40 percent from the field, 24th best among Division I teams. TCU is 20-75 under head coach Jamie Dixon when it shoots a lower percentage than its opponent and 0-3 this season.