QUICK PREVIEW
Oklahoma (5-2) plays its second true road game of the season Saturday when it faces intrastate foe Tulsa (5-4) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m CT inside the 8,355-seat Donald W. Reynolds Center on the TU campus. The Sooners' No. 16/15 rankings are their highest in six seasons. Tulsa is coming off a 69-66 home loss to Southeastern Oklahoma State on Wednesday after winning two straight.
PREVIEWING TULSA
Tulsa dropped to 5-4 on the year after Wednesday's 69-66 home loss to NCAA Division II opponent Southeastern Oklahoma State. The Golden Hurricane, now 3-1 at home, is averaging 64.9 points a game on .416 field goal, .364 3-point and .636 free throw shooting. Opponents are averaging 62.0 points on .397 field goal and .348 3-point shooting. TU is outrebounding its foes by 3.7 a contest.
The Golden Hurricane returned four starters from last year's 21-13 team that made the NCAA Tournament. Its leading scorer the last two seasons, James Woodard again paces the squad in points with his 14.4 season average. The reigning American Conference Player of the Week is shooting .462 from the field and .389 from 3-point range (2.2 makes per game). Fellow junior guard Shaquille Harrison is coming off a 24-point game against Southeastern Oklahoma State (two shy of his career high) and is averaging 11.4 points and 3.3 assists. Marquel Curtis, another junior guard, averages 9.6 points on .534 shooting while junior forward D'Andre Wright contributes 9.3 points and 4.2 boards a game.
Frank Haith is in his first season as Tulsa's head coach after serving the last three years as Missouri's head coach and the seven previous seasons as Miami's head coach. He owns a 210-133 (.612) career record. Assistant coaches Tom Abatemarco, Dennis Felton and Dave Leitao have all served as Division I head coaches.
LAST YEAR VS. TULSA
Last year in Norman, Jordan Woodard scored a still-career-high 24 points and handed out eight assists in a 101-91 OU victory in mid-December. Woodard made 17 free throws on a school-record-tying 22 attempts, while Buddy Hield finished with 23 points and Cameron Clark 15. James Woodard paced Tulsa with 19 points while Shaquille Harrison and Pat Swilling registered 17 each. OU shot .483 from the field and .474 (9 for 19) from 3-point range, while Tulsa posted respective .476 and .444 (12 for 27) marks.
