WEDNESDAY'S GAME BASICS
Before the Sooners and Tigers take the field in New Orleans to determine a Sugar Bowl champion, Oklahoma (6-4) and Auburn (8-2) will square off in men’s basketball in the Birthday of Basketball at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. Wednesday's neutral site contest tips at 7:30 p.m. CT on the 125th anniversary of basketball. Dec. 21, 1891 is the date James Naismith first introduced the game of basketball to a class of young men at the YMCA International Training School in nearby Springfield, Mass.
ON THE AIR
The matchup will tip off at 7:30 p.m. CT and air on the Sooner Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM “The Franchise” in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa) with Toby Rowland and Kevin Henry announcing. The game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network with Rich Waltz, Doug Gottlieb and Jamie Erdahl calling the action.
SERIES HISTORY
• The Sooners are 1-1 all-time against Auburn, with both meetings occuring at neutral sites. Oklahoma and Auburn last met on the hardwood in the opening round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament. The Sooners defeated the Tigers, 107-87, on their road to the 1988 Final Four before falling to Kansas in the national title game.
• Oklahoma is 8-5 against current SEC teams in the Lon Kruger era, including 6-1 against schools which were SEC members at the time of competition. OU has won six consecutive games against SEC teams. The Sooners have faced Arkansas (1-1), Alabama (1-0), LSU (1-0), Missouri (1-2, 1-0 as a member of SEC) and Texas A&M (4-2, 3-0 as a member of SEC) under Kruger and are slated to face Florida on Jan. 28 as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
• Head Coach Lon Kruger has used four different starting lineups throughout the first 10 games of the 2016-17 season. In Oklahoma’s last game (Dec. 17 vs. Memphis), Kruger started freshman Jordan Shepherd at the point guard, shifting senior Jordan Woodard over to the shooting guard position he played last season. Shepherd entered the day averaging just 2.7 points and 8.8 minutes in his first nine games and had seen just one minute of action in the previous contest (Dec. 10 vs. Wichita State), but responded to the shake-up by scoring a career-high 18 points in his first career start. Woodard adjusted to the change as well, scoring 22 points and shooting 4-of-9 from 3-point range.
• Coming off of a 28-point performance against Wichita State, Woodard’s 22 points in OU’s most recent outing against Memphis marked the first back-to-back games of 20-plus points in his career and the largest point total (50) in a two-game stretch.
• The Sooners suffered their fourth loss of the season on Saturday in an overtime thriller to Memphis, 99-94, and now looks to continue its trend of bouncing back. Since 2013, the Sooners are 24-6 in games after a loss, including 2-1 in such scenarios this season.
• Oklahoma has won six consecutive games against SEC opponents and looks to continue its trend of success against the conference under Kruger.
•After shooting 95-of-147 (.646) from the free throw line in the first six games of the season, Oklahomas has shot 68-of-84 (.810) in its last four outings. Jordan Woodard (.818) and Khadeem Lattin (.789) both rank in the Big 12’s top five in free throw percentage.
