Lon Kruger’s Oklahoma Sooners hoped Saturday’s regular-season finale at home against perennial power Kansas would decide the 2015 Big 12 championship.
However, two road losses in OU’s previous five games destroyed the Sooners’ chances of becoming the team that ended KU’s run of regular-season dominance.
Oklahoma lost at Kansas State by 3 on Valentine’s Day, and fell victim to a massive Iowa State comeback on Big Monday earlier this week.
Now, it’s not as if the No. 15 Sooners (20-9 overall, 11-6 Big 12) have nothing left to play for against the No. 9 Jayhawks (24-6, 13-4). There is the matter of closing down Lloyd Noble Center for the season in style, not to mention the feather in the cap a win over KU brings to a team’s résumé just before the start of the NCAA Tournament.
Frankly, OU should feel pretty good about winning this rematch with Kansas. [The Sooners recovered from a 20-point deficit at Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 19][1] and took a four-point lead in the second half before Kansas won, 85-78.
KU is 5-5 in true road games. Plus, the Jayhawks, have neither Allen Fieldhouse, Perry Ellis nor Cliff Alexander to help them this time.
At home this season, OU has defeated Baylor, Iowa State, West Virginia and Oklahoma State (all ranked at the time).
OU visitors this season have been out-shot:
– 48.3% to 36.6%, from the field
– 40.6% to 29.2%, from 3-point land
With that in mind, here is a refresher on the Sooners KU will have to hold back to have a shot at entering the postseason on a three-game winning streak.
SOONERS STARTERS
—————-
**No. 24 — Buddy Hield, 6-4, junior G**
> — Jan. 19 at KU: 26 points, 7/19 FGs,
> 4/13 3s, 8/9 FTs, 5 rebounds, 2
> assists, 3 TOs, 2 steals in 37 minutes
The Big 12’s leading scorer — his 18.5 points per game in conference are even better than his 17.3 average for the season — is a gunner. Hield already has taken 206 3-pointers, and has made 79 (2.7 makes a game).
In the league, the dynamic junior shoots 44.9% from the floor and 38.3% from 3-point land.
Hield and fellow starting guards, Jordan Woodard and Isaiah Cousins, are active defenders, too. Hield has 26 steals in the Big 12, and the trio of guards all rank in the top eight in the conference in that category.
A strong candidate to be named conference player of the year, Hield torched KU in the first meeting, and now has two fewer interior defenders to worry about when he attacks off the dribble.
In eight league games, he has scored 20 points or more, and did so in each of his last two outings — 21 vs. TCU, 26 at Iowa State.
*– [hoop-math.com][2] update: Good luck coaxing Hield into taking 2-point jump shots, a range at which he only makes 32.9% of his attempts. He takes 2.5 of those a game and only 18.4% of his 397 shots this season have been 2-point jumpers. Hield basically lives downtown (51.9% of his shots are taken there), and at the rim. … Oh, yeah. Hield also has 20 put-backs on the offensive glass this year.*
**No. 11 — Isaiah Cousins, 6-4, junior G**
> — Jan. 19 at KU: 18 points, 7/15 FGs,
> 3/8 3s, 1/1 FTs, 6 rebounds, 3
> assists, 2 TOs, 2 steals in 38 minutes
KU didn’t have much success checking Cousins in the first game, either.
On the season, Cousins is the conference’s top 3-point shooter at 44.7%. Wouldn’t you know it, he’s even better in the Big 12: 30-for-65, 46.2%.
Basically, never leave that guy open. Especially at home, where he makes 51% of his 3-pointers.
Cousins averages 11.4 points and 3.9 boards in the conference, and he has 24 steals so far.
He has made 3 or more 3-pointers in 7 Big 12 games this season.
*– hoop-math.com update: When he’s not taking 3-pointers, 38.2% of Cousins’ shots have been 2-point jumpers. He has made 39 of 113 (34.5%), and they primarily come one-on-one. Only 9 of his 2-point jumpers have been assisted.*
**No. 35 — Tashawn Thomas, 6-8, senior F**
> — Jan. 19 at KU: 4 points, 1/7 FGs,
> 2/2 FTs, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 6 TOs,
> 3 blocks in 25 minutes
The only OU starter who failed to reach double figures in the first meeting with KU, Thomas might not have a problem doing so this time around, what with the Jayhawks’ frontcourt looking so thin right now.
The big man averages 11.2 points and 7.0 rebounds in the league, and makes 47.5% of his shot attempts.
While Thomas has swatted away 24 shots in the Big 12, he also has drawn 8 charges in his last 9 games.
He had 4 offensive rebounds, and 8 total, in each of his last 2 games.
Thomas’s 24 points vs. BU and 22 vs. ISU this season keyed big home wins.
*– hoop-math.com update: As you likely know by now, Thomas mostly operates inside, with 51.8% of his shots coming at the rim. He shoots 35.3% (41-for-116) on 2-point jumpers.*
**No. 00 — Ryan Spangler, 6-8, junior F**
> — Jan. 19 at KU: 13 points, 6/10 FGs,
> 0/1 3s, 1/1 FTs, 10 rebounds (4
> offensive), 3 assists, 1 TO, 1 block
> in 37 minutes
Just about every KU opponent this season has had at least one guy hurt the Jayhawks on the offensive glass. For Oklahoma, that man was Spangler.
Thanks in part to his work on the boards when OU puts up a shot, he shoots 57.6% from the floor in the Big 12 — which easily makes him the league leader. Only ISU’s Monté Morris (51%) and Ellis (50%) are in the same neighborhood.
In league games, he averages 10.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and has denied 24 shots.
For some reason, Spangler has taken 18 3-pointers this season in the league. He has made just 3 — 16.7%.
*– hoop-math.com update: Even though most of Spangler’s boards come on defense, he averages 2.3 a game on offense, and has a team-leading 25 put-backs this season. 19% of his shots at the rim have been on the offensive glass. Spangler shoots 71.9% at the rim (87 of 121).*
**No. 10 — Jordan Woodard, 6-0, sophomore G**
> — Jan. 19 at KU: 10 points, 2/5 FGs,
> 6/7 FTs, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 TO,
> 1 block, 1 steal in 38 minutes
OU’s point guard averages 3.6 assists in the Big 12, to go with his 9.6 points and 2.9 rebounds.
Woodard isn’t quite the shooter — 11-for-32 from 3-point distance in the league — that Hield and Cousins are but he gets easy points at the free-throw line, where he connects 84.9% of the time (62 makes on team-leading 73 attempts).
His 1.59 steals a game also lead OU, and rank him tied for fourth in the league.
*– hoop-math.com update: The point guard can get to the rim on his own. Of his 31 field goals at the rim this season, only six came via a teammate’s assist.*
SOONERS BENCH
————-
**No. 1 — Frank Booker, 6-4, sophomore G**
> — Jan. 19 at KU: 3 points, 1/1 FGs,
> 1/1 3s, 0 TOs in 3 minutes
Booker’s role has increased significantly since the first matchup with Kansas.
He barely played back in January at the fieldhouse, but since then he has registered 15 minutes or more in 9 of the last 11 games (including each of the last 6). Booker now averages 14.4 minutes in Big 12 games, contributing 5.6 points off the bench.
Outside of Hield and Cousins, he is OU’s best 3-point shooter. In conference games, Booker has made 20 of 58 3-pointers (34.5%).
Though he went 0-for-5 at ISU on Monday, he made 4 of 8 recently — Feb. 21 at Texas Tech.
*– hoop-math.com nugget: Some players take a lot of 3-pointers. And then there is Booker. This season, 79% of his shots have come behind the arc. (For comparison’s sake: Brannen Greene takes 71.8% of his shots from downtown.) Look for him to catch and shoot. 24 of his 28 makes from 3-point land have been assisted.*
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2015/jan/19/just-time-jayhawks-come-through-clutch-beat-ou/
[2]: http://hoop-math.com/Oklahoma2015.php