Where Does the Oklahoma Sooners Mens Basketball Team Play Again
NORMAN — The Oklahoma men's basketball team knows who it'll be playing on Sunday.
Now it knows where it'll play.
Lloyd Noble Center is the site for the Sooners' game against St. Bonaventure in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. Tipoff time is 7 p.m.
As a top seed, OU is afforded the option to host the first two rounds and the quarterfinals of the tournament, but the team had to overcome a logistical hurdle to make Sunday's showdown possible.
More:OU men's basketball denied NCAA Tournament bid, will face Missouri State in NIT
The Sooners aren't the only show in town this time of year.
As a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the OU women's basketball team is scheduled to host an opening-round game against IUPUI at 9 p.m. Saturday. If OU wins, it will then host a second-round game on Monday at an undetermined time.
OU women's basketball is also scheduled to hold a press conference and practice on Sunday. A practice time hasn't been announced, but the team's press conference is from 1:25 to 2:50 p.m.
This made a Sunday home game against St. Bonaventure difficult to schedule for the men's team. After deleting a tweet late Tuesday night that announced Lloyd Noble as the site for the contest, the Sooners' Twitter account confirmed the location on Wednesday.
While scheduling a men's game in the middle of two women's games is a logistical headache, it has been done before.
The North Carolina State men's basketball team hosted an NIT game on March 24, 2019, while its women's team also hosted a pair of NCAA Tournament games on March 23 and 25. The two programs managed to go a combined 3-0 during that stretch.
OU is fresh off an 89-72 win over Missouri State on Tuesday. Meanwhile, St. Bonaventure won its opening-round game against No. 4-seeded Colorado on Tuesday, 76-68.
'We have to keep on fighting': OU plans to 'prove people wrong' with NIT run after NCAA Tournament snub
Late Tuesday
OU 89, MISSOURI STATE 72: The top-seeded Sooners channeled the pain of missing the NCAA Tournament and turned it into a convincing win over Missouri State to kick off their NIT run.
Umoja Gibson finished with 28 points, while Jordan Goldwire added 15 points and eight assists.
After briefly exiting the game due to an ankle injury he suffered while making a layup, Goldwire checked back in with 6:07 left until halftime and went right back to work.
The graduate transfer got the ball rolling by attacking the rim for a layup to put OU up 27-26, and he searched for his shot once more a few possessions later.
Goldwire sized up his defender at the top of the arc before getting near the free throw line and cashing in on a mid-range jumper. That brought the point total up to 10 for Goldwire, who finished with 15 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the floor (63.6%).
Opposing defenses, injuries and just about everything in between haven't been able to stop Goldwire lately. The 6-foot-3 guard is averaging 12.8 points on 47.8% shooting from the floor in the month of March.
No OU player has improved his scoring as much as Goldwire this season. The veteran guard scored a combined 342 points in his four seasons at Duke. He has scored 360 points this season.
'Just lock in': OU shows focus by defeating Missouri State in NIT opener
Bijan Cortes needs a chance
OU coach Porter Moser told the same story multiple times during the regular season.
He was in his fourth season as the head coach of Loyola Chicago when the Ramblers received an invitation to the 2015 College Basketball Invitational (CBI), a tournament for teams that didn't make the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.
Loyola Chicago went on to win the CBI, and the freshmen on that team grew to be key contributors in the Ramblers' 2018 Final Four run.
"We decided to get in it, and we won it," Moser said of the 2015 CBI run. "Those freshmen in that class were my seniors at the Final Four class. They were the seniors that understood when you get in a tournament, it's win (and) advance...
"And that's what I want this group to do. You've got a chance."
But Bijan Cortes is waiting for that chance.
Despite establishing himself as one of OU's top facilitators off the bench in the regular season, the 6-foot-3 guard didn't get a chance to contribute in the BIg 12 Tournament. Cortes never touched the floor against Baylor or Texas Tech as Moser opted to roll with senior guard Marvin Johnson instead.
"There were some tough matchups, Baylor and Texas Tech, for (Cortes)," Moser said on Monday. "We just decided to ride old during the tournament. We're going to count on Bijan. He's had some great moments for us this year, but that was kind of how we rode it."
Cortes was far from perfect in the regular season. He recorded an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.9, and his lack of lateral quickness made him a liability on defense.
But while the Big 12 Tournament was a high-stakes environment for an OU team looking to keep its season alive, the NIT is not. The Sooners have nothing to lose but pride in the NIT, and yet Cortes didn't get much of a chance on Tuesday.
The Kingfisher High School product made his first appearance with 11:28 left until halftime, and he quickly threw the ball away on OU's first possession.
Johnson then soared to the rim on the Sooners' next possession only to get caught in the air. He hastily threw the ball to Cortes, who caught it out of bounds.
That marked Cortes' second turnover in 59 seconds, and Moser immediately subbed him out. Cortes didn't check back in until there were only 44.3 seconds left in the game.
"I'll talk to (Cortes)," Moser said. "We need to get him back. We didn't really have him in the flow of the tournament. We tried to get him in today. I've got to get him back."
Source: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/sports/college/sooners/2022/03/16/ou-mens-basketball-sooners-set-host-st-bonaventure-nit-second-round/7063496001/#:~:text=Lloyd%20Noble%20Center%20is%20the,of%20the%20National%20Invitation%20Tournament.
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