EXHIBITION SPECIFICS
Teams: No.
17/16 Oklahoma (0-0) vs. British Columbia (1-0)
Date: Tuesday,
Nov. 3
Tip: 7:07 p.m.
CST
Site: Norman,
Okla. (Lloyd Noble Center)
Radio: Sooner
Radio Network (KOKC 1520 AM in OKC; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa)
TV: None
Internet Video
Webcast: SoonerSports.com
Series: OU
leads 1-0
TUESDAY’S GAME BASICS
Fourth-year
Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel will watch his team play outside competition for
the first time since last year’s NCAA Tournament South Regional Final when the
Sooners host the University of British Columbia in an exhibition game Tuesday
night at Lloyd Noble Center. The contest is scheduled to tip at 7:07 p.m. CST
and will air on the Sooner Radio Network (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. However, a free, live Webcast of the game will be available for
viewing on OU’s official athletics site, SoonerSports.com.
TICKET INFORMATION
• OU students
who present a valid school I.D. will be admitted to Tuesday’s game free of
charge (north entrance).
• Upper-level
reserved seats are available for $10 (north and south) and $15 (east and west)
at the OU Athletics Ticket Office. Lloyd Noble Center’s north and east ticket
windows will open at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
UBC'S
PROJECTED STARTERS
F 10 Kyle Watson (6-5, 200, Sr., 9.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg)
F 13 Graham
Bath (6-5, 230, Jr., 3.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg)
G 4 Josh
Whyte (6-2, 205, Sr., 2.9 ppg, 4.9 apg)
G 5 Blain
LaBranche (6-4, 185, Sr., 11.3 ppg, 2.1 rpg)
G 15 Kamar
Burke (6-5, 220, Jr., first year at UBC)
OKLAHOMA'S PROJECTED STARTERS
F 1 Ryan Wright (6-9, 241, Sr., 1.8 ppg, 2.1 rpg)
F 24 Tiny
Gallon (6-9, 290, Fr., first year at OU)
G 5 Tony Crocker (6-6, 209, Sr., 9.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg)
G 11 Tommy Mason-Griffin (5-11, 203, Fr., first year at OU)
G 13 Willie Warren (6-4, 203, So., 14.6 ppg, 3.1 apg)
PREVIEWING OKLAHOMA
Picked by Big
12 Conference coaches to finish in third place in the league race, Oklahoma
enters the 2009-10 season ranked No. 16 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll and
No. 17 in the AP poll.
The Sooners
are coming off a 30-6 season (their fifth 30-win campaign in school history)
that saw them finish in second place in the Big 12 (13-3) and advance to the
NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight round where they lost to eventual national
champion North Carolina. OU returns eight letterwinners from that squad,
including two starters. Among those gone from last year’s team are consensus
National Player of the Year Blake Griffin and fellow starters Taylor Griffin and
Austin Johnson. The Sooners welcome back just 42 percent of their scoring, 29
percent of their rebounding and 40 percent of their assists. They do return 72
percent of their 3-point field goals, however.
On paper,
Oklahoma’s strength in 2009-10 will be its backcourt. Leading the guard charge
will be sophomore preseason All-American Willie Warren and senior Tony Crocker.
The pair, who combined for 70 starts last year, has shown an ability to score in
bunches. Warren recorded seven games of at least 20 points last season
(including two of at least 30 points) en route to being unanimously named Big 12
Freshman of the Year. He averaged 14.6 points and set an OU freshman record
with his 67 3-pointers. Crocker, meanwhile, has scored at least 20 points nine
times over the past two seasons. He enters his final campaign already ranked
34th in OU career scoring (1,008 points) and seventh in 3-point field goals
(158). Other returnees are junior guard Cade Davis (4.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg),
sophomore guard Ray Willis (3.3 ppg, 1.4 rpg), senior forward Ryan Wright (1.8
ppg, 2.1 rpg), junior center Orlando Allen (1.8 ppg), senior forward Beau Gerber
(0.6 ppg) and sophomore guard T.J. Franklin (0.3 ppg).
Headlining a
heralded recruiting class are McDonald’s High School All-Americans Tiny Gallon
and Tommy Mason-Griffin. Gallon, a 6-9, 290-pound forward, was the McDonald’s
game’s leading scorer last spring (20 points in 21 minutes) and is one of the
most highly touted high school signees in OU history (ranked No. 9 overall by
Rivals.com). Mason-Griffin, a 5-11 point guard, was the Gatorade Texas High
School Player of the Year last season and was rated by ESPN.com as the country’s
No. 24 overall player (No. 4 point guard). The pair is joined by freshman
forward Andrew Fitzgerald (ranked No. 68 by ESPN.com), freshman guard Steven Pledger (ranked No. 84 by ESPN.com) and freshman forward Kyle Hardrick. Ryan Randolph is a freshman walk-on guard who won three state titles in basketball
and one in football as starting quarterback at Oklahoma City’s Bishop McGuinness
High School. The 15th player on OU’s roster is junior forward Barry Honoré, a
transfer from Southern University who will sit out the 2009-10 season. Honoré
was the Southwestern Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year two seasons ago.
PREVIEWING BRITISH COLUMBIA
Located in
Vancouver, B.C., the University of British Columbia (UBC) competes in the Canada
West conference of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) national athletics
organization. UBC boasts a strong men’s basketball tradition and last year
finished 31-4 overall and 21-2 in Canada West play under the direction of head
coach Kevin Hanson. It advanced all the way to the CIS championship game where
it lost 87-77 to Carleton.
The
Thunderbirds return nine letterwinners from last year’s team, including three of
their top four scorers. Senior point guard Josh Whyte was a second-team Canada
West all-star last year after ranking fourth in the conference in assists. He
averaged 13.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.9 steals in league play.
Another senior guard, Blain LaBranche averaged 11.3 points in conference action,
and shot .385 from 3-point range (40-for-104) and .829 from the free throw line
(63-for-76). Senior forward Brent Malish averaged 8.7 points in Canada West
games last year, as well as a team-high 5.9 rebounds. He made 25 treys on the
year and shot .379 from deep.
UBC opened its
regular season Friday at home with a 71-44 win over rival Trinity Western. The
Thunderbirds were dominant defensively in the first half and used a 24-2 run to
take a 34-13 lead at intermission. Trinity Western shot just .300 from the
field and .200 from 3-point range (4-for-20) on the evening. Whyte and
LaBranche paced UBC with 16 points apiece. Whyte also had five boards and five
steals.
Tuesday’s game
will mark UBC’s second in Oklahoma in two nights, as the Thunderbirds play an
exhibition contest at Oral Roberts on Monday.
OU-UBC SERIES HISTORY
Oklahoma beat
UBC in the teams’ lone previous meeting during the Sooners’ Labor Day exhibition
trip to the Vancouver area two years ago. OU posted an 81-62 victory on Sept.
1, 2007, behind game highs of 21 points and 11 rebounds from Blake Griffin (it
was his first time in an OU uniform) and 17 points and six blocks from Longar
Longar. The Sooners shot .449 from the field and held the Thunderbirds to a
.323 mark. OU led 63-39 through three quarters before being outscored 23-18 in
the final stanza. Cade Davis (11 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks in
30 minutes) and Beau Gerber (1 minute) were the only two current Sooners who
played in the game. UBC was led by Chris Dyck’s 15 points. Current
Thunderbirds to play in the game included Kyle Watson (7 points, 7 rebounds),
Graham Bath, Alex Murphy, Nathan Yu (4 points each), Brent Malish (3 points) and
Balraj Bains (2 points).
EXHIBITING SUCCESS
The Sooners
have compiled an impressive 41-2 exhibition record over the last 21 years. Last
season, OU beat Oklahoma Panhandle State, 90-43, and Cameron, 94-39, in Norman.
Tuesday’s game against British Columbia is OU’s only exhibition contest this
season.
NEXT UP
Oklahoma
begins its regular season Saturday, Nov. 14, against Mount St. Mary’s at Lloyd
Noble Center. The Sooners have won 70 of their last 72 home non-conference
games and need just two regular season victories to reach 1,500 in the history
of the program.