Sooner Men's BB: Back on the Floor - Central Ark - 6 PM @ LNC!

[OUBeliever56A]

The No. 12/13 Oklahoma men's basketball team hosts Central Arkansas on Thursday, Dec. 28. Tip is at 6:01 p.m. CT inside Lloyd Noble Center. The non-conference contest will air on the Sooner Sports Radio Network (1520 AM, 95.3 FM KOKC; Varsity Radio App) with Chad McKee and Kevin Henry announcing and be broadcast by ESPN+ with John Rooney (PxP) and Bryndon Manzer (analyst) on the call.

It has been 8 days since the Sooners dropped their only game of the season to North Carolina in Charlotte, NC 69-81. The Sooners are 10-1 on the season and ranked in the Top 12/13 teams in the country and currently holds the 20th Spot in the NET rankings. The Sooners have to games left before they start Big 12 conference play. The first is tonight against Central Arkansas with the next opponent Monmouth on Dec 31st at 5 PM in LNC.

Here is the Sooner sports writers article about the game tonight against the Bears.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/2 ... n-thursday

Last season, Central Arkansas traveled to Norman to play the Sooners on Dec 17th. Oklahoma won the game 87-66. The Sooners only have 4 players on the team this year that played in that game. (Uzan, started, Oweh, Godwin and Moser). Central Arkansas returns 3 starters to the game this season from last year. Central Arkansas is 3-10 on the season but they have slot their last 4 games with a 2-2 record.

Central Arkansas starts three 6'9" player along with two guards at 6'5" and 6'2". The three 6'9" players score 30 points a game while their two starting guards score 15 points a game. Anderson, a freshman, and Cato are the scores for the Bears and Etim and Cato are the rebounders for Central Arkansas. The Bears score 69.2 points a game and pull down 35.8 rebounds per game and they take care of the ball with a modest 13 turnovers a game.

The Sooners are averaging 83 points per game and 40 rebounds a game. On defense the Sooners allow 63 points a game. Oweh and McCollum lead the team in scoring at 15.6 and 14.3 points per game. The next six Sooners score between 9.8 and 7.5 points per game. Eight Sooners play at least 17.5 minutes a game.

The versatility and athleticism of the Sooners on defense and offense is their 'secret sauce' this season. If they shoot well, they Sooners can be very hard to beat. But it does seem that the offense runs off of the defensive effort for the Sooners. In the open court, the Sooners can pass, shoot and go to the rim which are all good things for an offense.

Good luck tonight to the Sooners and the opportunity to pick up win #11 this season against the Bears.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Men's BB Game fairly easy against the Central Arkansas Bears 88-72 on Friday evening at the LNC. The Sooners won the first half 50-42 and the second half 38-20. but that does not tell the full story. Ou played very well in 25 minutes of the game. In those 25 minutes the Sooners outscored the Bears 70 to 40 for a 30 point differential. In the other 15 minutes of the game the Central Arkansas Bears came out on top 32-18 over the Sooners. The 'Good 25 Minutes' were the last 15 minutes of the 1st half and the second and fourth 5 minutes of the 2nd half.

First Half:
first 5 minutes: OU 8 - Cen Arkansas 12
second 5 minutes: OU 15 - Cen Ark 11 = * Good
third 5 minutes: OU 10 - Cen Ark 7 = * Good
fourth 5 minutes: OU 17 - Cen Ark 12 = * Good
1st Half: OU 50 - Cen Ark 42

Second Half:
first 5 minutes: OU 4 - Cen Ark 9
second 5 minutes: OU 17 - Cen Ark 4 = * Good
third 5 minutes: OU 6 - Cen Ark 11
fourth 5 minutes: OU 11 - Cen Ark 6 = * Good
2nd Half: OU 38 - Cen Ark 30

Going forward the Sooners need to eliminate those bad 15 minutes playing against the tough Big 12 opponents. For the Sooners to be beaten by Central Arkansas 32-18 in 75% of a half of play is tough to understand. At least, the Sooners need to be able to play nearly EVEN with an opponent in their bad minutes. But being nearly doubled by Cen Ark is not playing very well. Central Arkansas was also playing without one of the better inside players in Cato. With him in the lineup, the game could have been closer for the Bears.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the win over Central Arkansas.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/2 ... l-arkansas

The Sooners were led by McCollum once again with 23 points on 9 of 17 shooting from the field (5 of 9 on 3's). He does make the game look easy at times on his quick step-back shot or his controlled drives to the rim. Oweh added 16 quiet points on 6 of 10 shots. Inside, Godwin and Moore had good games as Godwin worked his way to 14 points as he was 6 of 8 from the free throw line and 4 of 6 shots from the field and 7 rebounds. Godwin looked comfortable last night. Moore added 12 points with 4 for 4 from the free throw line and 4 of 7 from the field and added 9 rebounds. The three Sooner subs, Hugley IV, Darthard and Soares added 9, 8 and 3 points with 4, 3, 1 rebounds. I thought Hugley IV played under control and Darthard had a very good 2nd half as a offensive/defensive player. Uzan was very quiet last night with 3 points with only 4 shots on the night. But he had 2 assists, 3 steals and 0 turnovers.

In fact the Sooners had only 10 turnovers in the game which might have been a key to the fairly easy win. The Sooners also had 12 assists and 8 steals for a 2-to-1 ratio of 2-to-1 in the game of positive vs negative stats. Ou won the rebound battle by two 33-31.

OU shot very well as they were 21 of 38 from inside the arc for 55.3% and 10 of 22 for 45.5% from beyond the 3-point line. The Sooners were average from the free throw line 16 of 22 for 72.7%.

The Sooners are 11-1 after the win and have one pre-conference game left with the Monmouth Hawks who are 7-5 on the season. That game is on Sunday, Jan 31st at 2 PM in Lloyd Noble Center. Good luck to the Sooners.

Boomer Sooner!