The Oklahoma Sooners will take on their biggest rival, the No. 9 Texas Longhorns this Saturday February 6th at 3:00 P.M. Central time at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. The day will celebrate the life of Wayman Tisdale, a successful jazz musician and former Oklahoma and NBA basketball player, who died last May due to cancer. Although Oklahoma has won 26 of the 42 games the two teams have played since 1980 Texas is the heavy favorite in this game. However, Texas may be looking ahead to their game against No. 1 ranked Kansas on Monday.
Players to watch will be Tommy Mason-Griffin(Oklahoma) and Damion James(Texas). Mason-Griffin although getting off to a slow start for the Sooners has really been coming on strong over the past 4 games. During those games he has averaged 23.5 ppg and 4 apg to lead all Sooners. The Sooners will need another strong game from Mason-Griffin if they expect to win on Saturday. James, who was actually committed to Oklahoma for the 2006-2007 season but later changed his mind, leads all Longhorns in scoring(18 ppg) and rebounding(11 rpg) to average a double-double. He also leads the Longhorns in steals(1.8 spg) so it is obvious he is the Longhorn’s overall best player, a great accomplishment on such a deep team.
Cade Davis
Other players of note are Cade Davis(Oklahoma) and Jordan Hamilton(Texas). Davis although only averaging 9.2 ppg, can often score much more than that. He also plays his absolute best every single game, a very important quality in a basketball player. Hamilton, despite receiving minimum playing time against Baylor absolutely exploded against Oklahoma State on Monday night scoring 27 points. Now that we know he can perform like that, will he do it again?
I will give Texas the edge in the paint, as they obviously have the better big men in James and Dexter Pittman. However, I consider the backcourt matchup to be fairly even, and Oklahoma having the homecourt advantage leads me to my final prediction.
Final Prediction: OU wins 77-73. Well, that’s all for now! See ya next article! Boomer Sooner!
