SATURDAY'S GAME BASICS
The Sooners head to Madison, Wis., with a 5-1 record as they prepare for both their first true road game and first game against a ranked opponent this season. Oklahoma and No. 17/17 Wisconsin (6-2) will face off for the third consecutive season. After splitting the past two meetings (4-4 all time), Saturday’s “rubber match” will be Oklahoma’s first trip to Madison since 1954. The Sooners and Badgers have both shown recent success, as the two programs combine to have appeared in the past three Final Fours (Wisconsin in 2014 and 2015, Oklahoma in 2016).
OU is 5-3 in non-conference road games during the Kruger era and has won 21 of its last 37 games against AP Top 25 teams.
ON THE AIR
Due to Oklahoma football kicking off against Oklahoma State at 11:30 a.m. CT, Saturday’s contest will air on KOKC 1520 AM in Oklahoma City and KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa with Tom Dore and Kevin Henry announcing. The game will be televised nationally on Big Ten Network with Brian Anderson and Seth Davis calling the action.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
• Oklahoma faces its first road test of the season as it heads north to face Wisconsin. With a young roster that features 11 underclassmen (the most of any OU roster under head coach Lon Kruger), many Sooners will be receiving significant minutes in a road game for the first time. Saturday will be the first Division I road game for four of Oklahoma’s top eight players in minutes played.
• The Badgers enter Saturday’s game ranked No. 17 in both the AP and Coaches polls. Due to historically facing most of its top non-conference opponents at neutral sites, Saturday will be the first true road game Oklahoma has played against a non-conference AP Top 25 opponent since 2007 (at No. 22 USC). The Sooners’ last win over a ranked non-conference team in a true road contest came in 1989 against No. 13 UNLV. OU has won three of its last four games away from home against ranked non-conference opponents (all neutral site).
• Senior guard Jordan Woodard has racked up three or more steals in each of his last five games. Woodard is the first Sooner to put together such a streak since Eduardo Najera in 1998-99. Should Woodard grab three or more steals on Saturday against the Badgers, he would be the first Sooner to do so in six straight games since Angelo Hamilton strung together an eight-game streak in 1992.
• After five games of using the same starting lineup, head coach Lon Kruger swapped Kristian Doolittle for Matt Freeman at the forward position against Northern Colorado. It was the first time since February of 2013 that Kruger has adjusted a starting lineup during the season.
• After putting together a 5-1 record in November, the Sooners enter a challenging December schedule. Oklahoma will face ranked opponents No. 17/17 Wisconsin (Dec. 3) and no. 9/11 Baylor (Dec. 30) along with competitive programs Oral Roberts (Dec. 7), Wichita State (Dec. 10), Memphis (Dec. 17) and Auburn (Dec. 21). Over the past decade, OU’s six December opponents combine to boast 30 NCAA Tournament appearances, 14 trips to the Sweet 16 and four Final Fours.
SERIES HISTORY
• Saturday’s contest will mark the third-consecutive year the Sooners and Badgers have met in early-season play. OU defeated UW, 65-48, last season in Norman while the Badgers claimed a 69-56 victory in 2014 at the Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas. The two programs have split the all-time series 4-4.
• OU owns a 2-1 record over the Badgers in Madison. All three previous meetings in Madison took place between 1942 and 1954.
• The Sooners are 137-126 against current members of the Big Ten (they have never played Rutgers or Northwestern). Oklahoma is 1-3 against Big Ten schools under head coach Lon Kruger, splitting a pair of games with Wisconsin and falling to Michigan State in the 2013 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic and in the 2015 NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.
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