For the second time in the same week, the Oklahoma men's basketball team is hosting an opponent, like the Sooners, in search of its first SEC win of the season.
South Carolina (10-7, 0-4) visits Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday. It will mark just the sixth game all-time between Oklahoma and the Gamecocks, and the first meeting since 1992. Sooner Nation is hoping the first SEC battle in basketball isn't anything like what happened when South Carolina traveled to OU in the fall for football.
In last fall's football matchup, Oklahoma turnovers in each of the first three Sooner possessions enabled South Carolina to take a 21-0 lead before the game had barely gotten underway. The Gamecocks went on to win the game 35-9. That game was the first ever in football between the two schools.
Oklahoma is 4-1 all-time in basketball vs. South Carolina, including each of the last three meetings. The Sooners are 2-0 against the Gamecocks in Norman, winning 90-84 in 1974 in the first-ever meeting and 92-76 in the most recent contest in 1992.
Saturday's game will be televised on ESPNU with a scheduled tip time of 3 p.m. CT. The announce crew will be Dave Neal (play by play) and Perry Clark (analysis).
What fans need to know
Oklahoma
Senior Jalon Moore has averaged a team-best 19.8 points and 6.8 rebounds over his last five games while shooting at an impressive .614 clip in field-goal percentage. He scored a career-high 29 point in OU's 77-73 loss to Texas on Wednesday.
The Sooners are one of only three SEC teams that rank in the top five of the conference in field-goal, 3-point and free-throw percentage. OU ranks fifth in field-goal percentage (.483), third in 3-point percentage (.366) and leads the SEC in free throw shooting (.800).
Oklahoma is the only SEC team with six players who have scored at least 20 points in a game this season: Jalon Moore (nine times), Jeremiah Fears (five times), Elvis Kobe (twice), Brycen Goodine, Sam Godwin and Duke Miles (once each).
OU is the worst rebounding team in the SEC, and that has cost it dearly in several conference games already. Through four games, the Sooners rank 16th out of 16 in both defensive rebounding (23.7 per game) and offensive rebounding (9.1).
South Carolina
Preseason All-SEC selection Collin Murray-Boyles leads South Carolina in both scoring (15.6 points per game) and rebounding (9.1). Three Gamecock starters (Boyles, Jamari Thomas and Nick Pringle) average double digits in scoring and a fourth (Jacob Wright) averages nine.
Sophomore Morris Ugusuk is the Gamecock's best 3-point shooter. He shoots 43.1% from deep and has made a career-best 25 3-balls this season.
South Carolina is 10-2 this season when it outrebounds its opponent. This may not be good news for Oklahoma, which has been outrebounded in three of its four conference games.
The trip to Oklahoma will be South Carolina's second consecutive road game. The Gamecocks lost a close game at Vanderbilt, 66-63, earlier this week.
Prediction
These two teams are comparable statistically in multiple areas, which indicates it could be a closely contested games. Porter Moser obviously was not at all happy the way his team performed in the opening 25 minutes against Texas. He stressed the absence of toughness and effort.
I believe we will see more of that from the Sooners on Saturday. Oklahoma wins the game before hitting the road for a two-game swing to Arkansas and Texas A&M.