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Next Opponent: Oklahoma:
UGA Sports.com: With No. 16 Sooners up next, Bulldogs eye consistency
https://uga.rivals.com/news/with-no-16-sooners-up-next-bulldogs-eye-consistency
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Nationally
PPG
UGA 67
OU 41
FG%
UGA 40
OU 34
3P%
UGA 179
OU 39
FT%
UGA 150
OU 6
REB
UGA 44
OU 310
A
UGA 121
OU 130
TO
UGA 306
OU 151
A/TO
UGA 219
OU 114
BS
UGA 8
OU 291
University of Oklahoma:
OPENING TIP
• Saturday's contest will mark Oklahoma's first-ever men's basketball game at Georgia, and just its fifth game in the state (the previous four were played in Atlanta). The top-seeded Sooners won first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games at the Omni in 1988 over No. 16 seed UT Chattanooga (94-66) and No. 8 seed Auburn (107-87) en route to an eventual national championship game appearance. They lost 83-72 to Georgia Tech in the Georgia Dome in the second game of the 1995-96 season, which was the second round of the Preseason NIT. And No. 2 seed OU lost 73-64 to No. 5 seed Indiana in the 2002 Final Four, also at the Georgia Dome.
Georgia was picked 12th out of 16 teams in the SEC preseason media poll while Oklahoma was picked 15th. The Sooners were one of two undefeated teams nationally when they tipped off at Alabama last Saturday.
• OU has already faced two of the best rebounding teams in the SEC (Alabama ranks fourth in the league with its +8.7 average rebounding margin while Texas A&M ranks second at +11.1), and Saturday will face a Georgia squad that ranks third in rebounding margin at +9.4. OU ranks last in the category at -1.0.
• After going 16-16 in 2022-23 under first-year head coach Mike White, Georgia finished 20-17 last season, its first 20-win campaign since 2015-16.
• The Sooners have used the same starting lineup in each of the last 12 games: guards
Kobe Elvis,
Jeremiah Fears and
Duke Miles, and forwards
Jalon Moore and
Sam Godwin. All five scored in double figures at No. 5/6 Alabama last weekend.
RECAPPING THE ONLY OU-GEORGIA MEETING
• Oklahoma won its only meeting against Georgia, a 93-90 affair in the Chaminade Christmas Classic championship game on Dec. 25, 1987, in Honolulu, Hawai'i. The 12th-ranked Sooners, coached by Billy Tubbs, finished that season 35-4 and advanced to the national championship game. The unranked Bulldogs were coached by Hugh Durham and finished 20-16.
• OU trailed by as many as eight points in the first half before taking a 46-43 halftime lead. With starting guards Ricky Grace and Dave Sieger battling foul trouble much of the game, fellow backcourt starter Mookie Blaylock, in his first year with the Sooners, scored a then-career-high 30 points and added six rebounds and seven assists to lead the charge. Senior forward Harvey Grant made 11 of 15 shots and finished with 26 points and 10 boards. Georgia was led in scoring by junior forward Toney Mack, who was 12 of 19 from the field and 3 for 4 from long distance for a game-high 32 points, while sophomore center Alec Kessler logged 20 points and eight caroms.
• Grant, Blaylock and junior center Stacey King were named to the all-tournament team, with Grant earning MVP honors. OU throttled Virginia 109-61 in the first round and dispatched Dayton 151-99 in the second.
GOODINE GREAT AGAINST AGGIES
• Oklahoma guard
Brycen Goodine turned in one of the best 3-point shooting performances in school history Wednesday against Texas A&M in Norman, going 9 for 11 from deep and finishing with 34 points. It marked the most points by a Sooner since Trae Young scored 44 vs. Baylor on Jan. 30, 2018. Goodine's previous season high was 12 points. His career high of 40 came last year with Fairfield, against Siena.
• Goodine's nine 3-pointers tied for the fourth most in OU history. Brent Price set the program record of 11 treys (on 19 attempts) vs. Loyola Marymount in a 172-112 win on Dec. 15, 1990. Trae Young made 10 in a game during the 2017-18 season, as did Calvin Curry during the 1993-94 campaign. Mookie Blaylock (1988-89) and Hollis Price (2002-03) made nine in a contest.
• Goodine's nine triples were the most by an SEC player since Alabama's John Petty Jr. went 10 for 13 against Samford on Dec. 18, 2019.
• Among Sooners since 1997-98 who made at least seven 3-pointers in a game, Goodine's .818 conversion percentage Wednesday ranks as the second best. Buddy Hield went 7 for 7 against Southeastern Louisiana in the 2014-15 season.
• Goodine scored his first 20 points in a span of 6:06, helping the Sooners make a 25-10 run from the 15:11 mark to the 9:05 mark (from down 6-5 to up 30-16). His first 11 points came in a span of 1:55 and his first 17 came in a span of 4:07.
PICK YOUR POISON
• Oklahoma leads the SEC with six players who have scored 20 or more points in at least one game this season:
Jalon Moore (eight times),
Jeremiah Fears (four times),
Kobe Elvis (twice) and
Sam Godwin,
Brycen Goodine and
Duke Miles(once each).
• OU is one of just three teams nationally that has had five players (Moore, Fears, Elvis, Goodine, Miles) each score at least 24 points in a game (Belmont and Prairie View A&M are the others), and one of three teams that has had at least three players (Fears, Goodine, Miles) score 29-plus points (Missouri and Texas).
SOONERS CAN SHOOT
• Oklahoma and No. 2/2 Auburn are the only teams what rank in the SEC's top five in field goal, 3-point and free throw shooting. OU ranks fifth in the league in field goal percentage (.488), third in 3-point percentage (.376) and first in free throw shooting (.810).
BREAKER, BREAKER
• Oklahoma has outscored 14 of its 15 opponents in fastbreak points on the season, with the only deficit coming by one point vs. Oklahoma State (8-7). The Sooners have outscored foes 228-96 on the break this season. They have racked up double-digit fastbreak points in 10 games while allowing 10 or more fastbreak points in just three outings (13 by Michigan, 10 by Alabama and 11 by Texas A&M).
THE 3 IS KEY
• Oklahoma ranks 16th nationally and third in the 16-team SEC in 3-point field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot just .281 from behind the arc. The OU single-season record for 3-point field goal percentage defense is .292 in 2004-05. The Sooners have held opponents to a sub-30% 3-point shooting mark in 10 of 15 contests this season.
• On the other side of the court, OU ranks third in the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage offense (.376) and has shot over 30% from 3-point range in 12 games. It is coming off a season-high .583 (14 for 24) effort against Texas A&M.”
The Oklahoman: OU vs. Georgia score prediction
Georgia 81, Oklahoma 77: The Sooners' SEC slate isn't getting any easier. The Bulldogs are undefeated at home this season and are coming off an 82-69 win over No. 6 Kentucky. OU freshman guard Jeremiah Fears improves but Georgia freshman forward Asa Newell outplays him in a Bulldogs win.
OU Daily: 'Couldn't really deliver a knockout punch': Sooners blow 18 point lead, struggle in conference play
Jalon Moore caught the Jeremiah Fears pass right in the shooter's pocket.
The Sooners were on the run after forcing a Texas A&M turnover. After a few passes around the horn, the freshman found his senior leader behind the arc.
Swish.
The moneyball capped a 12-3 Sooners run out of the locker room and ballooned the OU lead to 18 points at 51-33 with 17 minutes to go.
The party was officially on inside the Lloyd Noble Center. The 7,604 Sooner fans who braved the cold temperatures to witness the SEC home opener in person were in a frenzy as the Sooners appeared to be on their way to their first conference win after a disappointing 107-79 loss at the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide a mere four days ago.
Final score: Texas A&M 80, OU 78.
Rather than leaving with jubilation, Sooner fans left with the gut punch of a collapse that left everyone in the arena - with the exception of the Aggie players, coaches and fans - stunned.
After holding Texas A&M to only 33 points in the first 23 minutes of the game, the Aggies blitzed the Sooners for 47 points over the last 17 minutes and stormed all the way back to steal game number two in conference play away from OU. After starting the season a perfect 13-0, the Sooners have dropped their last two games and still search for their first conference win as a member of the SEC.
What happened? The crimson train was rolling. The Sooners had the Aggies locked up and as it appeared, overmatched. OU looked every bit the part of the team that went undefeated in the non-conference and garnered a top-12 national ranking. How did the wheels fall off the tracks?
“Turnovers. Plain and simple,” head coach Porter Moser said after the heartbreaking loss.
There’s no other way to put it. OU gave the ball away a whopping 18 times against the Aggies. Turnovers have not plagued the Sooners all season. However, on Wednesday night, OU caught a bad case of the turnover bug.
OU committed eight turnovers in the first half, which resulted in six Aggie points. But the real story with the turnovers came in the second half, where the Sooners coughed the ball up 10 times.
10 turnovers compared to eight might seem like a minor difference. However, those 10 turnovers in the second half led to 24 points for the Aggies and allowed them to mount their comeback victory.
“Whenever we had a chance to keep some momentum going, we gave the ball away,” Moser said. “I felt like we couldn’t really deliver a knockout punch doing that.”
Nine turnovers came during a stretch of 13 game-minutes, from the 16:30 mark to the 3:30 mark. During that span, the Aggies were able to completely flip the game, going from down 15 to taking a four point advantage.
“They’re (Texas A&M) an elite team defensively,” Moser said. “They got their hands in the passing lanes and were able to come away with a lot of those. They made it challenging for us.”
Fears led the way with four turnovers. Guards Kobe Elvis and Duke Miles, as well as Moore all had three. Guard Brycen Goodine and center Mohamed Wague each had two. The giveaways allowed the Aggies to hang around with the Sooners and perpetually chip away at the OU lead until they ultimately found themselves on the high side of the scoreboard.
The A&M lead got to as high as five points with 2:49 to go. A quick 6-0 Sooner run punctuated by a Sam Godwin layup gave the lead back to OU at 78-77 with 1:05 remaining. After a couple of empty possessions both ways, A&M guard Zhuric Phelps hit a go-ahead three to put the Aggies in front 80-78, and that’s where the score finished.
A night that showed incredible promise through 23 minutes ended in defeat. The Sooners are still looking for their first conference win and a reason to prove their 13-0 start wasn’t a fluke.
“It’s disappointing to have a guy put up the performance that he does and be overshadowed by a loss,” Moser said after the game.
That “guy” Moser is referring to is Goodine, who came off the bench and lit the scoreboard up for 34 points for the Sooners, a new season-high. Goodine was 10 of 14 from the field and nine of 11 from beyond the three point arc. 21 of Goodine’s 34 points came in the first half.
The transfer guard came six points shy of tying his career-high, but lapped his fellow Sooners in the box score. Fears was the next leading scorer with 13 followed by Moore with 11. Despite the loss, Goodine put on full display what he can bring to this Sooners squad moving forward, which is lights-out shooting.
“It was nice to see the first few go down for me,” Goodine said after the game. “I just wanted to come in and help my team in any way that I could. I was happy to get it going early.”
Unlike football, basketball schedules don’t allow for teams to sit and stew over a loss for long. In the gauntlet that is the SEC, having short-term memory is even more paramount. The Sooners have to quickly shift their focus to their next opponent, the Georgia Bulldogs, who just knocked off No. 6 Kentucky on Tuesday night.
An unranked team knocking off the number six team in the country is a prime example of how unpredictable college basketball can be. More specifically, an example of the unpredictability of SEC basketball. The grind doesn’t stop in this league, and the Sooners are right in the middle of it.
The Sooners have been handed two gut-punches in a row by their new conference mates. One via a blowout and the other via a collapse that left fans stunned and others thinking “Oh boy. Here we go again.”
This loss will sting, but it can’t afford to linger. The SEC doesn’t throw pity parties, so the Sooners shouldn’t either. The gauntlet continues in three days.
Oklahoma will look to pick up its first conference win when it takes on the Georgia Bulldogs at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 11 in Athens, GA.”
http://oudaily.com/sports/sooners-blow-18-point-lead-struggle-in-conference-play
2026 Recruiting
Four-star Bishop McNamara guard Prince-Alexander Moody updates recruitment
Georgia: “(Assistant coach) Anthony Goins, that’s my guy for sure. I met him in person recently at DeMatha. They want me to come in and be a point guard too. They want me to be one of the main guys. I haven’t set up a visit yet. We are in the process of talking about when I am going to set it up. I definitely like the way the way they play. They definitely fit my style of play. It is a really fast-paced attack. I like to play at my own speed. As long as I’m controlling the game and I’m being held accountable, I got nothing to complain about.”
https://www.zagsblog.com/2025/01/10...ce-alexander-moody-guard-updates-recruitment/
