Game #26: Texas (16-9, 5-6) at No. 12/9 Oklahoma (18-4, 8-3)
Monday, Feb. 12, 2007; 6 p.m. CT
Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Okla.
Game Day Information & Quick Facts
TV: ESPN2: Mark Jones, play-by-play; Doris Burke, color analyst; Rebecca Lobo, sideline reporter
Radio: KVET 1300 AM- Texas; Sooner Sports Network
Teams at A Glance
National Rankings: Texas was in the "also receiving votes" in last week's Associated Press Poll and USA Today/ESPN Poll; Oklahoma was ranked No. 12 (AP) and tied for No. 9 (USA Today/ESPN) last week
Texas Head Coach Jody Conradt (Baylor '63): 38th year overall: 1,200 games: 898-302 (.748); 31st year at Texas: 1,021 games: 781-240 (.765)
Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale: 11th year overall (all at Oklahoma): 339 games: 222-117 (.655)
All-Time Series Record: 31st meeting -- Texas leads the series, 20-10
Texas' Home/Away/Neutral Record vs. Oklahoma: 11-3 at home; 6-6 away; 3-1 at neutral sites
Series Win Streak: +1, Texas
Last Meeting: Texas 67, No. 9/8 Oklahoma 62 (Jan. 31, 2007, Austin, Texas)
Conradt All-Time vs. Oklahoma: 20-10
Tonight's Teams
Texas enters tonight's game with a 16-9 overall record and a 5-6 mark in Big 12 play, while Oklahoma is 18-4 overall and 8-3 in the league ... Entering Sunday's Big 12 contests, Texas was in a three-way tie for sixth in the Big 12 with Iowa State and Oklahoma State; there is a tie for first in the league as Nebraska and Texas A&M are 9-2, while Baylor and Oklahoma are tied for third (both 8-3) and Texas Tech (5-5, prior to Sunday), was fourth ... UT is 9-6 in its last 15 games, with one of those wins against Oklahoma 12 days ago in Austin as the Longhorns posted an upset 67-62 victory over the then-No. 9/8 Sooners.
This will be the fifth game in the last 12 days for Texas ... UT has lost its last two contests, as Oklahoma State handed the Longhorns a 77-58 setback on Wednesday (Feb. 7), as UT shot a season-low .290 from the floor (20-69)... Texas then was stunned in the final 0.4 seconds of Saturday's (Feb. 10) home game with Kansas, as KU senior guard Shaquina Mosley banked a floater from 10 feet out with less than a second left on the clock to lead Kansas to the 50-49 upset ... Oklahoma fell from the top spot in the Big 12 Saturday with a 78-68 loss to Texas A&M at TAMU ... The Sooners are 1-3 in their last four contests.
Horns' Roller Coaster Ride
Texas is 3-4 in its last seven games, and 6-5 in its last 11... Three of those six wins, however, have come against Top 25 opponents -- 64-61 over No. 10 Purdue (Jan. 7), a 64-45 win over No. 17/18 Texas A&M (64-45, Jan. 21) and the 67-62 win over No. 9/8 Oklahoma (Jan. 31) -- all in Austin ... Texas is 3-4 against the Top 25 to date, and 2-1 against top 10-ranked squads.
In Midst of Key Road Stretch
Saturday's game at Austin against Kansas was UT's lone home game in a stretch of five conference games, with the four others at Kansas State (W), at Oklahoma State (L), at No. 12/9 Oklahoma and at No. 15/15 Baylor (Sunday, Feb. 18) ... Sixteen of UT's first 25 games were at home at the Frank Erwin Center, with nine of Texas' first 11 games and 11 of the first 15 at home ... The schedule shifted to a heavy away schedule to conclude regular season play, as six of UT's final 10 games are on the road ... UT is 12-4 at home to date and 4-5 away from Austin -- going 3-5 in away games and 1-0 at a neutral site... In Big 12 action, Texas is 3-3 at home and 2-3 in away contests.
Jackson Fifth in UT Career Rebounding, Sixth in Scoring, Approaching 1,000 Boards
All-America senior forward Tiffany Jackson is just 25 rebounds shy of 1,000 career rebounds, as the 6-3 senior has pulled down 975 in her career in 116 games ... Jackson, fifth in Texas career rebound average (8.4 rpg), will become just the FOURTH player in UT's illustrious history to reach the 1,000-rebound milestone ... Currently, Jackson is No. 5 in Texas career rebounds and SIX rebounds shy of tying Cinietra Henderson for the No. 4 spot (983, 1988-93).
Jackson also has registered 1,825 career points, ranking No. 6 in all-time scoring... Jackson needs SIX points to tie Vicki Hall (1988-93, 1,831 points) for No. 5 and 158 points to tie Henderson (1,983) for No. 4 honors... Jackson has an outside chance to reach the 2,000-point milestone as well, needing 175 more points to hit that mark; if she does, she will be the fourth Texas player to reach 2,000 points and the FIRST in Texas history to register 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career.
Among all Big 12 players in career rebounding, Jackson ranks No. 8 in rebounding; she also has the fifth-most steals (with 282) of any Big 12 player in history (Sophia Young is 4th, 315).
Texas Stat Leaders
All-America candidate and 6-3 senior F Tiffany Jackson continues as Texas' scoring (17.8 ppg), rebounding (9.0 rpg), blocks (1.2) and steals (2.6) leader and double-doubles (9) ... With sophomore G Erika Arriaran (10.5 ppg) out with her ACL injury, UT's second-leading scorer is redshirt freshman F Earnesia Williams (8.7 ppg, 4.0 rpg)... She is followed by junior G Erneisha Bailey (7.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg), freshman PG Carla Cortijo (7.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, team-high 4.43 apg), freshman G Brittainey Raven (7.2 ppg).
A Look at Oklahoma
The 10-point loss to Texas A&M on Saturday makes the Sooners 1-3 in their last four games -- and of these four losses, one was to unranked Texas (67-62) on Jan. 31 ... The Sooners are out-scoring the opposition by +16.5 ppg overall and by a +8/5 margin in Big 12 action ... Sophomore Courtney Paris leads the way for OU, as the 6-4 post averages a double-double with 23.1 ppg and 15.9 rpg ... She also leads the team with 74 blocks (3.4 bpg)... The senior duo of 5-9 guard Chelsi Welch (10.0 ppg) and 6-1 forward Leah Rush (9.8 ppg) are next in scoring ... They are followed by Courtney's twin sister, 6-3 sophomore Ashley Paris (6.8 ppg, 6.4 rpg) and 6-0 freshman Amanda Thompson (6.3, 4.9 ppg) ... Senior guard Erin Higgins (4.9 ppg) has made 32 3-pointers (32-101, .317), and Welsh is 31-69 (.449) from 3-point range.
Texas-OU Series
Texas and Oklahoma have met 30 times, and Texas leads play, 20-10 ... Texas is 9-3 against the Sooners dating back to 2002... A win today would give the Longhorns a sweep of the series against OU ... Last time UT swept OU was in 2004-05 when Texas went 3-0 against the Sooners ... Last year, OU won both meetings; in Norman, (Jan. 23, 2006), No. 13/14 OU won, 75-57; the ninth-ranked Sooners won in Austin, 61-54 on Feb. 15.
One year previous (2004-05), Texas swept the series going 3-0, winning in overtime in Norman on Jan. 26, 83-71, winning in Austin (72-36) on Feb. 26 during regular season play and winning in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals in Kansas City, 65-59 (March 9, 2005) ... Against OU, Texas is 11-3 in games played in Austin, 6-6 in Norman, and 3-1 at neutral sites.
Longhorns Against The Top 25 This Season
In UT's seven Top 25 matchups to date (vs. No. 23 New Mexico, No. 4 Duke, No. 5 Tennessee, No. 10 Purdue, No. 17/18 Texas A&M, No. 13/11 Baylor, No. 9/8 Oklahoma), Texas is 3-4 overall, 2-1 in the Big 12 ... Against Top 10 opponents, the Horns are 2-2 overall, 1-0 in the league with the win over OU...Here are the Longhorn stat leaders against Top 25 opponents:
· Senior Tiffany Jackson is averaging 16.3 ppg and 9.7 rpg with seven-game totals of 114 points and 68 rebounds ... Jackson also is 33-for-48 from the foul line, hitting 69 percent of her free throws, and has 15 assists, 17 steals and 12 blocks while shooting 41 percent (40-98...
· Redshirt freshman Earnesia Williams has collected 60 points (8.6 ppg) on 23-70 shooting (.329)... she is 9-for-14 from the foul line (.643), with 26 rebounds (3.7) and 12 steals
· True freshman guard Brittainey Raven adds 8.4 ppg against Top 25 foes, scoring 59 points to date ... She also has 11 assists and 10 steals and is hitting at a team-high 49.0 percent from the floor, making 24 of 49 shots
· Redshirt freshman point guard Carla Cortijo is 5-for-13 from 3-point range against Top 25 opponents and averages 7.6 ppg (53 points) with 4.7 rpg (33 boards) ... She has team-highs of 23 assists and 35 turnovers as well, averaging 3.3 assists and 5.0 turnovers per game
· Junior guard Erneisha Bailey has collected 53 points (7.6 ppg) and 31 rebounds (4.4 rpg) and is a solid 13-for-16 from the foul line, making 81.3 percent of her free throws against Top 25 opponents
As a team, the Longhorns and opponents are fairly even in all categories except FG percentage, where UT is shooting .384 in these games and the opposition is hitting 39.5 percent... Texas is being out-scored by 4.1 ppg in these games (58.9 to 63.0) and out-rebounded by a 4.6 margin (36.0 rpg to opponents' 40.6).
Conradt Closes in on 900
Already the No. 2 all-time winningest men's OR women's college basketball coach in history, Jody Conradt needs two more victories to join the illustrious 900-victory plateau... Only one collegiate hoops coach has registered 900-plus wins -- Tennessee's Pat Summitt (with 935).
Jackson Strong Against the Sooners
Jackson has had nine strong games against the Sooners to date -- collecting 154 points, 78 rebounds and 14 blocks, for averages of 17.1 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.6 bpg against the Sooners ... She has had four double-doubles in these nine games, including her 22-point/13-rebound effort in the Jan. 31st win to go with game-highs of four blocks and six steals.
Last year, she missed the second game in the series (won by No. 9 OU, 61-54 on Feb. 15 in Austin) as she nursed an ankle injury which forced her to miss three straight games)... Last Jan. 25 at OU, Jackson had 11 points, nine rebounds and three assists in the loss...In 2004-05 in the three wins over the Sooners, Jackson led the Longhorns with a double-double of 26.7 points per game and 12.0 rebounds per game.
10 Contests Decided by 5 or Less Points
Ten of UT's 25 games have been decided by five points or less ... The Horns are 5-5 in those games overall... And, seven of UT's 11 league games have been close, with UT 3-4 in Big 12 games decided by five points or less ... In the 11 Big 12 games, Texas averages 62.2 ppg to the opponents' 59.3 -- a +2.2 scoring margin edge... In the six league losses, the Longhorns have scored 345 points -- a 57.5 ppg average, while the opposition has netted 385 points (64.2 ppg)... UT has lost its six Big 12 games by an average of just 6.7 points ... four of the six losses have been decided by a total of 10 points (losses to Nebraska, 79-75; to Baylor, 63-59; to Texas Tech (49-48); to Kansas (50-49).
In these losses, the Longhorns have shot just .344 from the floor (134-379), as opposed to the opponents which have hit .407 (137-337) from the field.
