What to Expect When Providence Meets Oklahoma for Just the Second Time
The Sooners will enter Tuesday's game with Providence undefeated with a national ranking next to their name.
Providence has a chance to make quite a statement when they visit resurgent Oklahoma on Tuesday night.
The Sooners are in their third season under head coach Porter Moser, the man who led Loyola-Chicago to the Final Four in 2018. Moser was hired following the retirement of Lon Kruger, and his first two seasons in Norman were challenging, with a 12-24 mark in Big 12 play heading into this year.
Moser lost four starters from a team that finished last in the Big 12 a year ago, but he has retooled behind a player who the Friars’ Corey Floyd Jr. is very familiar with, alongside an almost completely new core made up of transfers.
Oklahoma is one of the surprises of the college basketball world through the season’s first month, starting 7-0 and cracking the AP Top 25 last week. Wins over #23 USC and Iowa vaulted them up the national rankings.
This is a program that ranks 35th in the country in offensive efficiency per Ken Pomeroy, and 23rd defensively. Providence coach Kim English consistently brings up Effective Field Goal Percentage when judging his team’s effort, and Oklahoma ranks 12th in the country offensively and 10th defensively in that category.
Longtime Friar fans will remember the last time that PC and the Sooners met. The first, and only, game between the two programs came in the National Invitational Tournament in 1991 at the Providence Civic Center. That game marked the end of the amazing career of Eric Murdock, as Oklahoma took care of business on the road and headed to Madison Square Garden for the semifinals. The Sooners were a juggernaut back then, reaching the AP Top 15 in every season for a decade (1983-1993).
Here’s what to watch for when Providence and Oklahoma meet for just the second time ever on Tuesday night.
Floyd Reuniting with an Old Friend
Somewhat ironically, Corey Floyd Sr. was on the last Friar team to play Oklahoma, and when the Friars head to Norman they could certainly benefit from Floyd’s familiarity with OU’s leading scorer, Otega Oweh.
Ed Cooley’s staff recruited Oweh, a Somerset, NJ native who won a Peach Jam title with Team Final as part of a starting unit that included himself, Floyd Jr. and lottery pick big men Dereck Lively and Jalen Duren. The 6’5 sophomore has taken off this season for Moser after finding his way into the starting lineup as a freshman last year.
Oweh is averaging 15.7 points with 4.7 rebounds per game. A terrific athlete, Oweh hasn’t missed a 3-pointer this season (5-5) and averages 2.3 steals per game.