QUICK PREVIEW
Making its 29th NCAA Tournament appearance and third straight under fourth-year head coach Lon Kruger, No. 13/15 Oklahoma (22-10 overall, 12-6 Big 12) enters Friday's second-round game against Albany (24-8 overall, 15-1 America East) as the East Region's No. 3 seed. The contest will be played at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, and will start at 7:27 p.m. ET. Albany is the region's No. 14 seed.
Should it advance to the round of 32, Oklahoma will play Sunday against Providence (No. 6 seed), Boise State or Dayton. Boise State and Dayton will participate in a Wednesday "First Four" play-in game in Dayton, Ohio, with the winner meeting Providence as a No. 11 seed on Friday. Providence sports a 22-11 record while Boise State and Dayton are 25-8. Also in Columbus as participants in the Midwest Region are No. 4 seed Maryland, No. 5 seed West Virginia, No. 12 seed Buffalo and No. 13 seed Valparaiso.
ON THE AIR
All of OU's NCAA Tournament games will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM in Oklahoma City; KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa) with Toby Rowland (play-by-play) and Mike Houck (analyst) calling the action. Friday's game will be televised nationally by truTV with Ian Eagle, Doug Gottlieb and Evan Washburn announcing. It will also air on the Westwood One Network (Sirius 157, XM 204) with Dave Sims and Jim Jackson on the call.
OKLAHOMA AND THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• OU is making its 29th NCAA Tournament appearance (36-28 record), 16th in the last 21 years and 25th in the last 33 seasons.
• The Sooners have made four Final Four appearances (1939, 1947, 1988 and 2002). They played in the 1947 and 1988 national championship games.
• Oklahoma is 12-8 in its last eight NCAA Tournaments, with a Final Four showing in 2002 and Elite Eight appearances in 2003 and 2009.
• The Sooners are 5-4 as participants in the East Region (4-2 the last two times with an Elite Eight showing in 2003 and an appearance in the round of 32 in 2008).
• OU is 2-2 all-time as a No. 3 seed (went 1-1 in 2000 and 2005 under Kelvin Sampson).
KRUGER AND THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• Two years ago, Lon Kruger became the first head coach in history to take five Division I programs to the NCAA Tournament (Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV and Oklahoma). He is still the only coach to accomplish the feat. In fact, he has taken each of those five schools to at least two NCAA Tournaments and has now guided four of them to at least three appearances. Coaches who have taken four programs to the Big Dance are current mentors John Beilein, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith, and former head men Gene Bartow, Lefty Driesell, Jim Harrick, Tom Penders and Eddie Sutton.
• This marks Kruger's 16th NCAA Tournament appearance as a head coach and seventh in the last nine seasons. He owns a 14-15 record and is 8-7 in opening-round games. In his last coaching stop at UNLV, Kruger took the Runnin' Rebels to the NCAA Tournament in four of his final five seasons.
It's been fun. Enjoy the game and when you are finished wiping the floor, most likely, with the Great Danes, go win the whole thing will ya. I'll be rooting for you all.
