25/24 Oklahoma
Iowa State
Wednesday, March 10 / 8:30 p.m. CT / T-Mobile Center / Kansas City, Mo.
NORMAN – The second season begins Wednesday. After losing three rivalry games in a six-day span, No. 25/24 Oklahoma (14-9, 9-8) will be given a reset when its postseason run starts at the Big 12 Championship. The Sooners open the tournament in a first-round matchup with Iowa State (2-21, 0-18).
The well-rested Sooners have gone almost a week between games and boast a 6-0 record this season when they have at least four days between matchups.
The Sooners swept the Cyclones during the regular season, but Iowa State has found a way to play many close games with ranked teams despite ISU's record.
ON THE AIR
• The first round matchup will air on the Sooner Radio Network (107.7 FM The Franchise in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Tune In Radio App) with Toby Rowland and Kevin Henry announcing.• ESPN will carry the television broadcast with Bob Wischusen, Fran Fraschilla and Holly Rowe on the call. Fans with proper cable verification can stream the game using the Watch ESPN app.
THREE POINTERS
• Two Sooners earned All-Big 12 honors on Monday when the conference announced Austin Reaves as an All-Big 12 First Team selection and De'Vion Harmon as an honorable mention. Reaves – the third Sooner in four years to make the five-player First Team (joining Trae Young and Kristian Doolittle) – enters the postseason ranked second in the league in scoring (17.5 points), third in assists (4.9), 12th in rebounds (5.7) and first in free throw percentage (87.1%). He is the only player in Big 12 history to average at least 18.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists during league play.• One of the most improved players in the league, Harmon has nearly doubled his scoring average from last season by producing 13.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.1 steals and shooting 47.1% from the field. He scored 7.4 points per game and shot 36.4% as a freshman. Harmon has scored in double figures in 12 of his last 13 games and boasts four games of at least 20 points this season.
• The Sooners enter the postseason on a four-game losing streak, falling in each of those four games by five or fewer points. In order to find success in Kansas City, OU will need to find ways to be more aggressive on the glass. During OU's four-game losing streak, the Sooners were outrebounded an average of 36.3 to 26.8. Prior to the streak, the Sooners were averaging 37.8 rebounds per game on the season. Oklahoma is 13-0 this season when it grabs at least 31 rebounds and 1-9 when it pulls down 30 or fewer.
SERIES HISTORY: IOWA STATE
• OU leads the overall series against Iowa State, 119-91 and has won the last three meetings.• During the regular season, Oklahoma collected its first season sweep of the Cyclones since 1995 (the teams only played once a year from 1997-2011) by defeating ISU 79-72 in Norman and 66-56 in Ames.
• Oklahoma is 6-4 against Iowa State in conference tournament play (2-3 in the Big 12 Championship, 4-1 in Big Eight Tournament). The Sooners and Cyclones last faced each other in the Big 12 Championship during the quartefinals of 2016. Oklahoma won 79-76 in what is also its last conference tournament victory.
• Should the Sooners top the Cyclones, it will be the first time the Sooners have gone 3-0 in a season against one opponent since 2015 (versus Oklahoma State).
OU'S BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
• The Sooners are looking for their first win at the Big 12 Championship since 2016. Oklahoma defeated Iowa State in the quarterfinals before falling to West Virginia after a called-off buzzer-beater by Buddy Hield was ruled as no good. The Sooners have lost four straight in the conference tournament beginning with that game.• OU won postseason Big 12 Championship titles in 2001, 2002 and 2003. OU's three titles rank third in the conference behind Kansas' 10 and Iowa State's four. The Sooners have made five Big 12 Championship title game appearances in the event's 22 years. OU's 10 consecutive league tournament game victories (2001-04) are tied with Kansas for the most in event history.
• The Sooners are 22-20 all-time in the Big 12 Championship.
QUICK HITS
• Oklahoma enters the Big 12 Championship as the No. 25 team in the country. The Sooners finished the regular season in sixth place in the league and will compete as the No. 7 seed after losing the seeding tiebreaker to Texas Tech.• The Big 12 Championship may be the most entertaining postseason conference tournament, with 70% of the league currently ranked in the Top 25.
• OU is in the AP Top-25 for the seventh straight week, and saw a historic rise when first arriving in the poll. Oklahoma jumped into the top-10 for the first time this season on Feb. 1 after being ranked No. 24 the previous week. The 15-spot increase is tied for the largest single-week jump by an already ranked team since the poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989 (Arizona jumped from 19 to 4 in 1995-96). Oklahoma's No. 7 ranking on Feb. 22 is its highest position in the AP Top-25 since being ranked No. 4 in January 2018.
• One of the main factors to OU's historic rise in the polls is from a stretch in late January where the Sooners beat three top-10 teams in eight days. By defeating No. 9 Kansas, No. 5 Texas and No. 9 Alabama, Oklahoma became just the third team in NCAA history to beat top-10 teams in back-to-back games, joining Michigan (2014) and Iowa (1987).
• The Sooners didn't receive a single vote in the Associated Press Preseason Poll. In fact, the Sooners didn't receive a single vote in the weekly poll on Jan. 18 – two weeks before OU first cracked the top-10.
• In the month of January, Oklahoma became the first college basketball team since 1974 to beat four top-10 teams in one calendar month.
• The Sooners are 9-1 when scoring at least 78 points. OU is averaging 80.4 points per game in victories and 67.0 in losses.
• Sometimes the key to victory is as simple as making shots. Over the last two seasons, the Sooners are 27-3 when they have a better field goal percentage than their opponents.
• Oklahoma is committing only 10.6 turnovers per game - the fewest in the Big 12 and 16th best in Division I.
• The Sooners lead the league in fewest fouls committed per game, fouling an average of 14.7 times - the 20th-fewest in the country. This continues a trend that Oklahoma showed a lot of discipline in last season, commiting only 14.4 personal fouls per game in 2019-20 – the third fewest in the country. This year, OU opponents are shooting an average of 14.3 foul shots per game, compared to OU's 17.9 free throw attempts. OU is making the most of its trips to the line, ranking second in the Big 12 in free throw percentage with a 74.2% rate.
UP NEXT: BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERFINALS
• Should the Sooners advance, they will face Kansas in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The two teams split the regular-season series with the home team winning each matchup. Oklahoma and Kansas haven't met in the postseason since 2007."open" - Google News
March 10, 2021 at 07:59AM
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Sooners Open Big 12 Championship Wednesday - University of Oklahoma - Soonersports.com
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