On This Date: 1988 Sooners Open Historic Title Game Run by Crushing Chattanooga

This date in Oklahoma basketball history started an unforgettable stretch

Oklahoma’s 2020 college basketball season came to an unceremonious and premature end when the NCAA declared this year’s tournament would not be played due to measures intended to stop the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Sooners just might have assembled the kind of team — a Big Three scoring triumvirate and a collection of young, athletic talent — that could have possibly made a good postseason run.

This team’s resume will always be incomplete.

Instead of using three weeks this spring to witness OU basketball history, SI Sooners will relive it. From now until April 4 — the date that was supposed to be this year’s Final Four semifinals — we’ll look back on Oklahoma’s most memorable NCAA Tournament games from that date in history.

MARCH 17, 1988

(1) OU 94, (16) Tennessee-Chattanooga 66

On a Thursday in Atlanta, fourth-ranked Oklahoma flexed its muscle against the Moccasins — but needed a little time to do that.

The Sooners led just 34-29 at half, then rode Stacey King and Harvey Grant’s big day to a 60-point outburst in the second half.

King (12-of-19 shooting) and Grant (9-of-12) exploited their size advantage to each score 25 points as the Sooners rolled after halftime.

Before the game, Chattanooga coach Mack McCarthy said of the Sooners, “I don’t think they’re ordinary in any phase of the game.”

He was right. OU led the nation in scoring margin at 23 points per game and although the Sooners were renowned for their scoring (20 games over 100 points), they were actually keyed by a long, athletic and smart defense that converted turnovers into fast-break points.

The Mocs won the Southern Conference Tournament to finish 20-12, but were a 28-point underdog (check out that final score again) against the Southeast Region’s top seed, which cruised through the regular season and Big Eight Tournament with a 30-3 record.

Andre Wiley scored 16 points and led the Sooners with nine rebounds, while Ricky Grace had 13 points, 5 assists and four steals.

All-American guard Mookie Blaylock scored just four points for OU but also had nine assists and four steals. Sharp-shooter Dave Sieger had five points, five rebounds and eight assists as OU made just 3-of-13 from 3-point range but still shot 58 percent from the floor.

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