Tigers Travel to Oklahoma to Take on Sooners on Saturday

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Memphis will look to rebound from a tough loss on Saturday morning when it travels to Norman, Oklahoma, to face off against the Oklahoma Sooners in the first game of a CBS National Tripleheader.

GAME INFORMATION
Memphis (7-3) vs. Oklahoma (6-3)
When: Saturday, December 17
Tip-Off: 11:30 a.m. (CT)
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Arena: Lloyd Noble Center
TV: CBS
Rich Waltz, play-by-play
Jim Spanarkel, analyst
Radio: Memphis Radio Network / 600 WREC / Rock 103
Dave Woloshin, play-by-play
Matt Dillon, analyst
Forrest Goodman, pregame / postgame host
Live Stats: Oklahoma StatBroadcast

SCOUTING THE SOONERS

Oklahoma comes into the game with a 6-3 overall record; however it has dropped two of its last three games with losses at Wisconsin and against Wichita State.
    In the team's last game against the Shockers, Jordan Woodard scored 28 points, hitting 7-of-17 shots form the field, 4-of-9 from long range, and all 10 of his charity stripe attempts. Christian James added 15 points, while Rashard Odomes chipped in 10. Khadeem Lattin led the team with eight rebounds and four blocked shots, while Darrion Strong-Moore dished out a team-best five assists while being held scoreless.
    For the season, the Sooners put four players into double-digit scoring, led by Woodard's 17.1 point per game average. James averages 12.3 while Odomes and Lattin are at an even 10.0 points per game, each.
    Lattin pulls down a team-best 6.6 rebounds per game - 21 total coming on the offensive end - while adding a team-best 21 blocked shots. Woodard also paces the team with 35 assists and 20 steals.

GETTING ON THE BOARD QUICKLY

Over Memphis' last six games, the first points of the game have come from graduate transfer senior forward Chad Rykhoek, including each of the last two games on a dunk. Dedric Lawson's free throw against Ole Miss was the only holdover of the stretch. Rykhoek has the first points of the game against Monmouth, UAB, Jackson State, Iowa, and Providence, while against McNeese he assisted on a Dedric Lawson lay-in.

FAMILIAR WITH THE STATE

Current University of Memphis assistant coach Pooh Williamson is familiar with the state of Oklahoma. Williamson grew up in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, which is located just south of Tulsa. He played collegiately at the University of Tulsa for current Memphis head coach Tubby Smith. After graduating, he later spent time as an assistant coach with the Golden Hurricane, and interim head coach for one half of a season.

TIE TO THE TIGERS

Oklahoma forward Khadeem Lattin, who ranks fifth in school history in career blocks, has a strong tie to the University of Memphis basketball program. Lattin's grandfather, David "Big Daddy" Lattin was a starter on the Texas Western 1966 National Championship team, later portrayed in the 2006 movie Glory Road. The primary assistant coach on that team was Moe Iba, who a season later became head coach of the Memphis basketball program, and was head coach of the Tigers for four seasons.

POSITIVE RATIO

This season the Memphis Tigers are setting new standards for assists, while also cutting down on the turnovers. As such, the Tigers rank fourth in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio. Mempis has dished out 201 assists this season against just 111 turnovers.

Rk.	School	Ast.	TO	Ratio
1.	Notre Dame	187	82	2.28
2.	UCLA	239	123	1.94
3.	Virginia	148	81	1.83
4.	Memphis	201	111	1.81
5.	West Virginia	174	100	1.74
6.	Kentucky	200	115	1.74
7.	St. Mary's	144	83	1.73

FACING OFF AGAINST THE FINAL FOUR

Memphis' game against Oklahoma will be the program's 35 against a team that had played in the NCAA Final Four a season before. Since the NCAA played its first championship in 1939, Memphis has an overall 15-19 record in those games; however, that number is deceiving, as Memphis has won eight of its last 10 such games, and seven of the last eight. In 2013 and 2014 Memphis swept the reigning National Champions, Louisville in 2013 and UConn in 2014. The team also picked up wins in 2007 against UCLA and Georgetown, and 2003 against Marquette.

ONE OF TWO IN THE NCAA

Dedric Lawson ranks 12th in the country in rebounds per game, and 43rd in the country in points per game. With that, he is currently the one of two players in NCAA Division I to average 20+ points and 10+ rebounds per game, joining Lehigh's Tim Kempton (22.8 points / 10.4 rebounds).

STRONG RUN

The University of Memphis is currently on an 10-game stretch in which 10 of the Tigers' opponents have an even record or better. Providence (8-2) started the streak which also includes Iowa, Ole Miss, UAB, Monmouth, Oklahoma, Incarnate Word, SMU, while South Carolina (8-1) is the tail end of the stretch.

TWO OF A KIND

When Tubby Smith and Lon Kruger meet on the court on Saturday morning, the pair will represent 100% of the collegiate basketball coaches to ever take five different schools to the NCAA Tournament. Smith has taken Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Texas Tech to the "Big Dance", while Kruger has helped lead Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV, and Oklahoma to the NCAA Tournament. The two also represent half of the NCAA active coaches to have led six different programs, with John Beilein and Ritchie McKay joining the two. Additionally, Kruger and Smith are separated by just four spots on the NCAA active list for coaching wins, Kruger at 14th, and Smith at 18th.

BLOCKING THE WAY

University of Memphis sophomore Dedric Lawson's eight blocked shots against UAB has him third in a pair of different rankings and lists, and fourth in another. His total is the third-highest single-game total in school history.

	S-A	Blk.	Opponent	Date
1.	Keith Lee	9	Brown	Dec. 22, 1981
	David Vaughn	9	Georgia State	Dec. 11, 1993
3.	Dedric Lawson	8	UAB	Dec. 10, 2016
	Six Others

The mark is also the third-highest in American Athletic Conference history.

	S-A	Blk.	Opponent	Date
1.	Yanick Moreira (SMU)	9	Midwestern State	Dec. 29, 2014
	Amida Brimah (UConn)	9	Maine	Nov. 13, 2015
3.	Dedric Lawson (Memphis)	8	UAB	Dec. 10, 2016
	Three others

Finally, it is tied for the fourth-highest single-game total in the NCAA this season.

	S-A	Blk.	Opponent	Date
1.	Reggie Lynch (Minnesota)	9	St. John's (N.Y.)	Nov. 18, 2016
	Ben Lammers (Georgia Tech)	9	Southern	Nov. 14, 2016
	Liam Thomas (Nicholls)	9	Thomas (Ga.)	Dec. 11, 2016
4.	Dedric Lawson (Memphis)	8	UAB	Dec. 10, 2016
	Three others

TEAMING UP ON THE BOARDS

This season Memphis' Lawson duo of Dedric and K.J. combine to average 19.3 rebounds per game. That is the second-highest teammate average in the country. Below are the top five teammate rebounding totals in the NCAA this season.

Rk.	School	Student-Athletes	Rebs.
1.	UCF	Tacko Fall (13.1)	19.8
		Nick Banyard (6.7)
2.	Memphis	Dedric Lawson (11.1)	19.3
		K.J. Lawson (8.2)
3.	Hofstra	Rokas Gustys (13.4)	19.2
		Ty Greer (5.8)
4.	UCLA	Thomas Welsh (9.6)	18.9
		TJ Leaf (9.3)
5.	Georgia Tech	Ben Lammers (10.8)	18.4
		Quinton Stephens (7.6)

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

Memphis currently ranks fourth in the country in assists per game, at 20.1 per contest, and are one of five schools to average at least 20 assists per game. The team had spent some time at the top spot, but has dropped to fourth.

Rk.	School	Ast.	Ast./G
1.	UCLA	239	23.9
2.	The Citadel	233	21.2
3.	Purdue	202	20.2
4.	Memphis	201	20.1
5.	Kentucky	200	20.0
6.	Oakland	197	19.7
7.	Michigan State	213	19.4
8.	West Virginia	174	19.3
9.	Savannah State	211	19.2
10.	Creighton	189	18.9

Tigers Travel to Oklahoma to Take on Sooners on Saturday

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Dedric Lawson

K.J. Lawson

Chad Rykhoek

Tigers Travel to Oklahoma to Take on Sooners on Saturday

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Dedric Lawson

K.J. Lawson

Chad Rykhoek

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