Who: Oklahoma (1-0) Vs. Mississippi Valley State (0-2)
When: Monday 7:00pm
Where: Lloyd Noble Center (Norman, Okla.)
Tickets AVAILABLE: OU Ticket
Sales
NIT Bracket: Printable Bracket (PDF)
Projected Starters:
Oklahoma
|
Miss. Valley State
|
|
F Blake Griffin (6-10, 250, So.) |
F Amos Studivant (6-8, 230, Fr.) |
|
F Taylor Griffin (6-7, 238, Sr.) |
F Shannon Behling (6-7, 200, Jr.) |
|
G Tony Crocker (6-6, 206, Jr.) |
F Eric Petty (6-6, 220, Sr.) |
|
G Willie Warren (6-4, 207, Fr.) |
G Dwayne Harmason (5-10, 180, Sr.) |
|
G Austin Johnson (6-3, 176, Sr.) |
G Michael Clark (6-2, 180, Sr.) |
The Sooners will kick off the first round of the pre-season NIT with a home game against MVSU, who is 0-2 after losing to PAC 10 foes Arizona State and Washington State. If the Sooners win they will advance to the second round of the tournament and face either Davidson or James Madison.
MVSU Key Player(s): Michael Clark, Shannon Behling, Dwayne Harmason
Clark, a senior, was the second leading scorer in the Delta Devil’s opening contest against Arizona State with 16 points and most of the offense will roll through him. He has a good perimeter shot and was able to hit 4-of-8 against ASU. It is not quite exactly clear who their got to guy is at this point, so Sooner fans should also keep a close eye on forward Shannon Behling who leads MVSU with 18 points against ASU. Through two game Harmanson has averaged 10 points and five boards.
MVSU Head Coach Sean Woods
Woods is in his first year as the head coach of the Delta Devils.
Woods, a former college basketball standout at Kentucky, came to Valley after serving two seasons at TCU as director of basketball operations and then assistant coach.
Prior to his time at TCU Woods spent one year serving as an assistant coach at Texas A&M Corpus Christi and before that at High Point where he began his college coaching career assisting in game and practice preparation, player development and scouting.
Woods is known to college basketball fans as one of the “Unforgettables” (along with fellow seniors Richie Farmer, Deron Feldhaus, and John Pelphrey) on Kentucky’s 1992 East Regional final team that lost to Duke in what many experts consider the greatest college basketball game ever played.
Woods, who led the Wildcats in assists in each of his three seasons, ranks fifth on UK’s all-time assist list with 482, and his No. 11 jersey was retired by the school and hangs in the Rupp Arena rafters. Over his three-year career, he averaged 8.7 points and 5.3 assists per game. During his time, he was coached by Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith, Herb Sendek and Billy Donovan. Pitino, Smith and Donovan all have won national championships as head coaches.