- Joined
- Oct 22, 2008
- Messages
- 9,345
- Reaction score
- 0
Source: SoonerSports.com
Date and Tip Time: Saturday, Nov. 14 at 1:07 p.m. CST
TV: None
Tickets: OU Athletics Ticket Office
Radio: Sooner Radio Network, KOKC AM 1520 in Oklahoma City, KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa
Webcast: SoonerSports.com All-Access
GAME PREVIEW
Ranked No. 16 in ESPN/USA Today top-25 poll and No. 17 in the AP version, Oklahoma (30-6 last year) begins its 103rd season of varsity basketball (fourth under head coach Jeff Capel) when it hosts the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers (19-14 last year) Saturday at 1 p.m. CST at Lloyd Noble Center. The contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (flagship KOKC AM 1520 in Oklahoma City; KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa) with Bob Barry Sr. and Mike Houck announcing. The game will not be televised, but a live Webcast will be available for viewing on the "All-Access" portion of OU's official athletics site, SoonerSports.com.
TICKET INFORMATION
Reserved seats are available for $10, $20 and $30 at the OU Athletics Ticket Office. Lloyd Noble Center's north and east ticket windows will open at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
PREVIEWING MOUNT ST. MARY'S
Mount St. Mary's, located in Emmitsburg, Md., returns its top four scorers from a 2008-09 team that finished 19-14 overall and 12-6 in the Northeast Conference (second place). The Mountaineers are picked by conference coaches, as well as several preseason publications, to win this year's league race.
The squad is led by consensus preseason Northeast Conference player of the year Jeremy Goode, a 5-9, 170-pound senior point guard who averaged 14.9 points and 4.1 assists a game last year and earned first-team all-league honors. Also back are junior guard Jean Cajou (12.6 ppg, 2.2 apg, team-high 51 3-pointers), senior forward Kelly Beidler (10.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.1 apg) and junior forward Shawn Atupem (9.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg, .536 FG%).
Seventh-year head coach Milan Brown has directed the Mountaineers to a 79-105 (.429) record, but is 38-29 (.567) over the past two seasons. Mount St. Mary's participated in the 2008 NCAA Tournament after winning the Northeast Conference postseason tournament. Brown served as an assistant coach under OU head coach Jeff Capel's father (also named Jeff Capel) at Old Dominion in the mid 1990's.
OU-MOUNT ST. MARY'S SERIES HISTORY
Oklahoma owns a 3-0 series lead against Mount St. Mary's, with wins in 1994-95 (91-67 in Norman), 1999-00 (94-41 in Oklahoma City) and 2007-08 (81-57 in Norman). The most recent meeting came in Jeff Capel's second year as OU head coach. Tony Crocker (10 points, 6 rebounds in 27 minutes), Cade Davis (6 points, 4 rebounds in 17 minutes) and Beau Gerber (scoreless in 3 minutes) were the only current Sooners to play in the contest. Blake Griffin paced OU with 26 points and seven boards. Current Mountaineers Jeremy Goode (12 points in 30 minutes), Will Holland (11 points in 25 minutes) and Kelly Beidler (9 points in 23 minutes) paced Mount St. Mary's offensively. Oklahoma was 25-for-39 from the free throw line (Griffin was 12-for-18) while The Mount was 3-for-7.
OPENING STATEMENT
The Sooners have won 22 of their last 24 season-opening games, with the only losses coming to Alabama (68-62 in New York City) in 2002-03 and Massachusetts (84-83 in Norman) in 1993-94. OU has won 29 of its last 30 home openers.
HOME NON-CONFERENCE DOMINATION
The Sooners have dominated home non-conference games over the last decade, winning 70 of their last 72 non-league contests inside Lloyd Noble Center going back to Jan. 3, 2000 (good for a .972 winning percentage). Included was a streak of 49 non-conference home victories that was snapped by Villanova on Dec. 6, 2006. The current string stands at 12 games.
