Friday's Game Basics
Oklahoma begins its 105th season of varsity basketball when its hosts Idaho State on Friday at 7 p.m. CT at Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners, under the direc- tion of new head coach Lon Kruger, posted 85-51 and 85-59 exhibition wins over NCAA Division II opponents Northeastern State and Washburn last week, respectively. Idaho State, which finished 9-20 last season, won its lone preseason exhibition game, 86-69, over Rocky Mountain College on Saturday. Friday’s con- test will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KOKC AM 1520 in Oklahoma City; KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa) with Toby Rowland and Mike Houck announcing. The game willbetelevisedbytheSoonerSportsNetwork(KAUTCh.43inOKC;CoxCable 3/703 in Tulsa) with Bob Carpenter and Billy Tubbs calling the action.
PREVIEWING IDAHO STATE
Located in Pocatello, Idaho, Big Sky Conference member Idaho State posted a 9-20 record last year and tied for eighth in league play with a 4-12 mark. The Bengals return six players who saw action last year, but lost three of their top four scorers. Senior guard Kenny McGowen,who hails from McKinney,Texas,is the team’s leading returning scorer at 9.3 points per game. He made 10 starts on the season and also averaged 1.5 assists in 22.0 minutes a game. Other returning regulars are senior guard Chase Grabau (6.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.0 apg) and senior big man Abner Moreira (5.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg).
In its lone exhibition game Nov. 5 against Rocky Mountain College, Idaho State shot .448 from the field and hit 22 of its 25 free throw attempts (.880) in an 86-69 win. Junior center Jakub Kusmieruk scored a team-high 20 points and grabbed five rebounds in 25 minutes. Kusmieruk, a 7-4, 265-pound transfer from Central Florida who is originally from Lodz, Poland, was 9-for-11 from the field. Sophomore guard André Hatchett contributed 13 points and eight rebounds while Moreira added seven points and 11 boards.
The Bengals are under the direction of sixth-year head coach Joe O’Brien. A three-time junior college national champion (2000, 2003 and 2004) as head coach at Southeastern Community College in West Burlington, Iowa, O’Brien owns a 54-97 record with the Bengals.
OU-IDAHO STATE SERIES HISTORY
Friday’s game will mark the third between Oklahoma and Idaho State, with the other two also being played in Norman. In the 1982- 83 season, Billy Tubbs’ third year as OU head coach, the Sooners posted a 99-75 win behind Wayman Tisdale’s 25 points and 10 rebounds. In the third game of the 1992-93 campaign,Tubbs directed his squad to a 112-59 victory. Jeff Webster led six Sooners in double figures with 19 points, and Bryan Sallier, Bryatt Vann and Ken Conley each recorded double-doubles.
OPENING STATEMENT
The Sooners have won 24 of their last 26 season-opening games, with the only losses during those 26 years coming to Alabama (68-62 in New York City) in 2002-03 and Massachusetts (84-83 in Norman) in 1993-94. OU has won 31 of its last 32 home openers.
