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View Full Version : Inside Scoop for Sooners' Dance ticket



Jay C. Upchurch
3/18/2008, 09:14 PM
NORMAN -- As the Oklahoma men's basketball team prepares for Saint Joseph's and the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament (the teams will meet Friday at 6:10 p.m. CDT in Birmingham, Ala.), here is a look at some of the elements surrounding OU and this year's event.

Haven't We Been Here Before?
The NCAA Tournament is certainly not foreign to the Oklahoma men's basketball program. The Sooners are making their 25th NCAA Tournament appearance this year and 12th in the last 14 seasons. This also marks OU's 21st showing over the past 26 seasons. Only Arizona, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina (24 each), Indiana (23) and Kentucky (22) have made more appearances in the Big Dance over the last 26 years than Oklahoma.

Lucky Number 6?
The Sooners appeared very happy on Selection Sunday with the announcement of their No. 6 seeding in the East Regional. Maybe they knew something. Since the NCAA Tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, No. 6 seeds have posted a 63-29 (.685) record in first-round play. Thirty-five of the 63 No. 6 seeds who won their first-round matchups (56 percent) have advanced to the Sweet 16 thanks to a second-round victory.

More on the 6 Seed
The last current Big 12 team to win a national title -- Kansas in 1988 -- did so as the No. 6 seed from the Midwest Regional. The Jayhawks (who defeated OU 83-79 in the national championship game) beat Xavier in the first round that year. Xavier, like Saint Joseph's, is a current member of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The only other No. 6 seed to ever win a national title (NCAA Tournament seeds were first issued in 1979) was North Carolina State in 1983.

Sweet Home Alabama
If "experienced" OU fans feel good about the team's placement in Birmingham for this year's first and second rounds but can't quite seem to figure out why, they should try the following refresher. The last time the Sooners played in Birmingham was in the 1988 NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed. In the Southeast Regional semifinals, Harvey Grant registered 34 points and seven rebounds and Stacey King finished with 24 points and 14 boards in a 108-98 win over No. 5 seed Louisville. Two days later in the regional final, Oklahoma trailed No. 6 seed Villanova 38-31 at halftime before outscoring the Wildcats 47-21 after intermission in a 78-59 victory that catapulted Billy Tubbs' squad to the Final Four.

Stellar 23s
Twenty-five years and three days after Wayman Tisdale -- the best player in OU history -- participated in his initial NCAA Tournament game, current Oklahoma freshman Blake Griffin will be competing in his first NCAA Tournament contest. Tisdale, who wore No. 23, led his seventh-seeded Sooners to a 71-63 first-round win over, ironically enough, Alabama-Birmingham. Tisdale finished with 17 points and eight rebounds. Griffin, OU's first freshman first-team all-conference selection since Tisdale, also wears No. 23.

Still?
Former Oklahoma guard Mookie Blaylock still holds the record for most steals in an NCAA Tournament. Blaylock made 23 thefts in the 1988 tourney, at least four more than any player before or since. Also that year, Dave Sieger made seven 3-pointers in the national championship game. The seven treys are still tied as the most in a national title contest.

Get Ready for The Hawk
The Saint Joseph's mascot, The Hawk, has existed for 50 years and is one of the most unique mascots in college athletics. According to the Saint Joseph's media guide, The Hawk is "best known for staying in constant motion by flapping its 'wings' from tip-off to the final buzzer of every game, as well as for 'flying' in figure eights around the court during timeouts." Talk about dedication.

"Bracketology"
ESPN "bracketologist" Joe Lunardi serves as the color analyst on Saint Joseph's radio broadcasts. A 1982 SJU graduate, Lunardi is in his 18th year as a member of the Hawks' radio team. He is also the school's assistant vice president of marketing communications.

OU Sports Info Report