QUICK PREVIEW
Oklahoma (5-1) plays its second of three straight home games when it hosts Mercer (5-3) on Monday at 8 p.m. CT inside Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners, who are averaging 87.5 points a game, are coming off a 101-81 win over UALR on Friday. Mercer, coached by former OU assistant Bob Hoffman, has won three of its last four games, including Friday's 117-108 triple-overtime outcome at Valparaiso.
PREVIEWING MERCER
Atlantic Sun Conference member Mercer (located in Macon, Ga.) posted a 24-12 record last year and won the regular season league title with a 14-4 record before losing to Florida Gulf Coast in the conference tournament title game. The Bears posted wins at Alabama, Florida State and Tennessee a season ago, the last of which came in the first round of the NIT. They are off to a 5-3 start this year with two of those contests going well past 40 minutes. Mercer beat Seton Hall 77-74 in double overtime at home on Nov. 16 and is coming off a 117-108 triple-overtime win at Valparaiso on Friday.
The Bears boast a balanced scoring attack with five players averaging between 10.0 and 16.0 points. Senior point guard Langston Hall averages a team-high 16.0 points and leads the squad with his 17 3-pointers (shooting .386) and 49 free throw makes (.886). He played 54 of 55 minutes Friday against Valparaiso and had eight points (2-for-16 shooting) and nine assists. Senior forward Daniel Coursey averages 11.1 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds while shooting .603 from the field. Sophomore guard Ike Nwamu averages 11.0 points and is followed by senior forwards Jakob Gollon (10.3) and Bud Thomas (10.0). Gollon registered 37 points on 11-for-17 field goal and 12-for-13 free throw shooting on Friday, and added seven rebounds and seven assists. He was averaging 6.4 points on the season entering the contest. Gollon is shooting a team-high .609 from the field and also averages 4.1 boards and 3.1 assists.
Mercer is coached by Bob Hoffman, who owns a 104-74 (.584) record in his sixth year with the Bears. The reigning Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year is in his 20th year as a head coach and holds a 416-229 (.645) career record. Hoffman, who grew up in Oklahoma City, also coached at Oklahoma Baptist and Texas-Pan American, and was an OU assistant coach during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.
