Basketball & Other Sports

(OU Sports Information)

NCAA Second Round: Oklahoma (21-12) vs. St. John's (23-9)

Date & Tip Time
Tuesday, March 20, 8:45 p.m.

Location
Norman, Okla. | Lloyd Noble Center | Seating Views

Tickets
$26 adult/$16 ages 3-18 Single-Session, $6 OU Students
OU Athletics Ticket Office

TV
ESPN2
Marc Kestecher and Kayte Christensen

Radio
Sooner Sports Network
Oklahoma City: KOKC 1520 AM and KREF 1400 AM

Webcast
ESPN3.com

Live Stats
SoonerSports.com GameTracker

Game Info

THE GAME PLAN
The No. 6 seed in the Fresno Region of the NCAA Championship, Oklahoma hosts 3-seed St. John's with a chance to advance to its fourth straight Sweet 16 on the line. The second-round game tips off Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla.

Broadcast Information
ESPN2 will have television coverage of the game with Marc Kestecher and Kayte Christensen calling the action. The Sooner Sports Network radio broadcast with Brian Brinkley airs on KOKC 1520 AM in Oklahoma City and Norman.

NCAA Second Round Tickets
• Single-session tickets are $26 for adults, $13 for youths (ages 3-18) and $6 for OU students with valid ID; and are available at the OU Athletics Ticket Office online at SoonerSports.com or by calling 1-800-456-GoOU.

The Teams
• Oklahoma is 21-12 and tied for second in the Big 12 standings with an 11-7 record. The Sooners defeated 11-seed Michigan, 88-67, in the first round.
• Oklahoma is 28-14 in the NCAA tournament, 12-2 in the first round and 9-3 in the second round.
• It is the Sooners' 13th consecutive NCAA appearance, the seventh longest active streak and longest among all Big 12 teams. OU advanced to the NCAA Regional Semifinal in each of the past three seasons and reached back-to-back Final Fours in 2009 and 2010.
• St. John's is 23-9 and tied for second in the Big East with a 13-3 league record. The Red Storm slipped by Creighton, 69-67, with a layup with 0.1 seconds remaining.
• It is the first meeting between Oklahoma and St. John's.

The Coaches
• Sherri Coale is 357-167 (.681) in her 16th season at Oklahoma. She has been named the Big 12 Coach of the Year four times.
• Kim Barnes Arico is 175-133 (.568) in her 10th season at St. John's and 269-205 (.568) in her 16th overall.

St. John's Projected Starters

No.
Name
Pos.
Ht.
Year
2011-12 Statistics

5
Nadirah McKenith
G
5-7
Jr.
12.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg

22
Eugenia McPherson
G
5-8
Jr.
11.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg

35
Shenneika Smith
G
6-1
Jr.
12.6 ppg, 6.6 rpg

2
Amber Thompson
F
6-2
Fr.
6.2 ppg, 5.9 rpg

3
Da'Shena Stevens
F
6-1
Sr.
11.0 ppg, 6.1 rpg

Oklahoma Projected Starters

No.
Name
Pos.
Ht.
Year
2011-12 Statistics

10
Morgan Hook
G
5-10
So.
11.0 ppg, 3.5 apg

3
Aaryn Ellenberg
G
5-7
So.
15.8 ppg, 3.4 rpg

25
Whitney Hand
G
6-1
RS-Jr.
13.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg

42
Kaylon Williams
F
6-3
Fr.
4.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg

4
Nicole Griffin
C
6-6
So.
5.5 ppg, 3.8 rpg

OKLAHOMA'S SEASON AT A GLANCE
Oklahoma entered 2011-12 needing to replace one of its most successful senior classes after the graduations of two-time All-American point guard Danielle Robinson, Carlee Roethlisberger and Lauren Willis. That trio claimed 54 wins inside the Lloyd Noble Center, the most by Oklahoma in a four-year span.

Fortunately, redshirt-junior Whitney Hand was finally back to 100 percent health after suffering an ACL tear in November 2009 and returning to action in January 2011.

The Sooners were picked by the league's coaches to finish fourth in the Big 12 and ended the year tied for second, the seventh straight year OU ended at or above its preseason pick.

The media voted Oklahoma 15th in the Preseason Associated Press Poll and the Preseason USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll had Oklahoma at No. 16. However, the Sooners fell out of the AP after 118 consecutive weeks of listings, since the 2004-05 season, following a loss to Fresno State in November.

The Sooners lost two of their three team captains, senior Jasmine Hartman and junior Lyndsey Cloman, in the preseason; survived a seven-game shooting slump from its leading scorer Aaryn Ellenberg, losing to only Baylor and Connecticut during the span; and went 5-1 while junior forward Joanna McFarland was out of the lineup with a broken jaw.

Oklahoma's 13 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances is the longest streak among Big 12 Conference teams and the NCAA's seventh longest active streak.

The Sooners are a No. 6 seed for just the second time in the NCAA tournament, but for the second consecutive year. In 2011, Oklahoma upset 3-seed Miami, 88-83, in the second round before losing to 2-seed Notre Dame, 78-53, in the Sweet 16.

Nicole Griffin | So. | Center
The Sooners' 6-foot-6 sophomore center has a four-inch height advantage over any St. John's starter. Griffin came alive in the postseason her freshman year and have a career average of 10.0 points in four NCAA tournament games. She scored exactly 10, and added seven rebounds and two blocks Sunday in the first round win versus Michigan.

Three Earn Big 12 Honors
Sophomore Aaryn Ellenberg and redshirt-junior Whitney Hand were named to the All-Big 12 First Team and freshman Sharane Campbell was the recipient of the Big 12's Sixth Man Award and member of the All-Big 12 Freshman Team.

The honors were voted on by the league's head coaches who are not allowed to vote for their own players.

Ellenberg averaged 15.6 points and shot 38 percent from 3-point range in the regular season. Hand scored 13.0 points per game and averaged a team-high 7.0 rebounds.

Campbell joins Nyeshia Stevenson in 2009 as Oklahoma's second Sixth Man Award winner. The Star Spencer product was Oklahoma's fourth-leading scorer, contributing 8.7 points per game while coming off the bench in 28 of 30 contests.

Campbell was honored four times this season as the conference's freshman of the week.

They Might Be Giants
Oklahoma's 2011-12 women's basketball team gets in the record books before a minute of ball is even played. The team averages to 6-feet, 1-inch in height, the tallest team in OU's history. Led by the tallest player in the program's history, 6-foot-6 Nicole Griffin is among the eight of 13 Sooners who are 6-0 or taller.

OU's first team was its shortest. The 1974-75 squad averaged 5-5 with its tallest member, freshman center Julie Arrington, towering over her teammates at 5-10. Freshman guard Alice Roach measured at 5-1, the shortest player in OU history.

Just three seasons later, OU cracked 5-9 as an average height for the first time and would reach 5-11 after the following five years. It would take almost two decades to grow another inch, though, as the Sooners averaged to 6-0 for the first time last season.

Sooners in the NCAA Tournament
OU has hosted the first and second rounds in Norman on five previous occasions (1986, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2010). The Sooners have an 8-1 record at the Lloyd Noble Center in the NCAA tournament with their lone loss to George Washington in 2003. Additionally, the Sooners swept the 2009 Oklahoma City Regional en route to a Final Four, increasing their NCAA tournament record in their home state to 10-1.

Against a worse seed, Oklahoma is 24-7. Against a better seed OU is 3-6. Versus the same seed, the Sooners are 1-1; both of those matchups happened in the 2002 Final Four when Oklahoma met fellow No. 1 seeds Duke and Connecticut.

OU's only other 6- seed was last year. The Sooners beat James Madison and upset 3-seed Miami in Charlottesville, Va., before losing in the Dayton Regional Semifinal to 2-seed Notre Dame.

Oklahoma's Record by Round
First Round: 12-2
Second Round: 9-3
Regional Semifinal: 3-6
Regional Final: 3-0
National Semifinal: 1-2
National Championship: 0-1
All Rounds: 27-14 (.659)