OU Basketball: Despite National Attention, Oklahoma Focused on 'Outstanding' Arkansas
Porter Moser’s Sooners have enjoyed a dream start to the season.
Ranked at No. 19 in the AP Poll, Oklahoma has dispatched Iowa, USC and Providence en route to am 8-0 start.
Saturday, OU can take another step.
For the third year in a row, the Sooners will meet the Arkansas Razorbacks at the BOK Center in Tulsa.
Though the teams have split the series the past two years, the crowd generally favors the Razorbacks, presenting OU with its first trip into a hostile atmosphere of the year.
“It honestly just reminds me of like an away game in the Big 12,” Oklahoma center Sam Godwin said on Thursday. “Going down to Texas or any of those teams down there. It’s just going to be a packed crowd kind of cheering against you and that’s what it’s going to feel like.”
And Arkansas plays a style that’s easy to get behind.
Eric Musselman’s team is 6-3 to start the year, but the Razorbacks flashed their potential in an 80-75 upset of then-No. 7 Duke in Fayetteville on Nov. 29.
“Arkansas, what you think of is extreme length and athleticism playing really hard,” Moser said on Thursday. “That’s what they do. They play really hard. They get their athleticism into the game. They’re long. Athletic. They’ve got multiple scorers. But you’ve got to match their effort with their athleticism.”
Led by guard Tramon Mark, Arkansas ranks 47th in the country averaging 82.4 points per game.
And the Razorbacks can frustrate teams on the other end of the floor as well.
Holding opponents to 76.1 points per game, Arkansas is second in the country with 7.1 blocked shots per game.
Despite the size on the interior, Moser said his team can’t be afraid to attack the paint to score.
“We’ve got to match aggression with aggression,” Moser said. “You’re gonna get your shot blocked. They’re gonna block our shot. You’ve got to continue to be aggressive and not be passive because they have elite shot blockers. They do. They have elite shot blockers. And we know they’re coming. But you can’t be passive.”
When the Sooners have gotten shots up, they’ve been lethal through eight games.
Oklahoma has knocked down 50.1 percent of its field goal attempts per game, which ranks 12th nationally.
Sophomore Otega Oweh leads the team in scoring, putting up 15.4 points per game, with Javian McCollum right behind him adding 14.3 points per game.
Pittsburgh transfer John Hugley IV has also chipped in 11.3 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and Georgia Tech transfer Jalon Moore averages 9.4 points per game.
For McCollum, Hugley, Moore, Le’Tre Darthard and Rivaldo Soares, this week is a little preview of what life in the Big 12 will be like.
Providence played a physical brand of basketball in the Lloyd Noble Center on Tuesday night, and now the Sooners turn around and hit the road to play Arkansas on the weekend, mirroring how the schedule falls in conference play.
“Everybody in the Big 12 is going to be just as tall as us, just as athletic as us,” Godwin said. “And I think the Providence and then Arkansas coming up, yeah they could be Big 12 caliber teams. So it’s a good adjustment for them to get a little taste of it before we start the real thing.”
But Moser isn’t worried about any of that.
He just wants his team to stay focused on the task ahead, taking opponents one game at a time.
“Two high-level teams playing this week,” Moser said. “That’s the way the grind is going to be… But that’s the way it is. It’s back-to-back. Physical, athletic teams. That’s what we’re in. But we just look at it as another opportunity come Saturday.”
To push the pace on the Razorbacks, the Sooners will have to continue to generate offense off of turnovers.
OU is forcing 7.9 steals per game, while Arkansas turns the ball over 12.0 times per contest.
The Sooners convert those chances into 14.5 fast break points per game, banking easy points before the defense can get set.
Tip-off in from the BOK Center is set for 3 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
“It’s another great game. We look at opportunities,” Moser said. “For us it’s another great game against another great team. I know Arkansas, they do it every year. They’re gonna be there at the end. They’re gonna be playing really, really good. And they’re an outstanding team.”
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