Completed Event: Men's Basketball at Kentucky on February 4, 2026 , Loss , 78, to, 94
Final
Men's Basketball
78
at Kentucky
94
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Saturday, February 28
Pete Maravich Assembly Center • Baton Rouge, La.
5 p.m.
University of Oklahoma
at
LSU
Photo by: Morgan Givens/University of Oklahoma
Men's Hoops Heads to LSU for Saturday Tilt
February 27, 2026 | Men's Basketball
NORMAN — The Oklahoma men's basketball team (14-14, 4-11 SEC) goes for its fourth win in six games when it plays at LSU (15-13, 3-12) on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.
Saturday's game will be televised by SEC Network with Kevin Fitzgerald (play-by-play) and Rodney Terry (analyst) announcing. It will air on the Sooner Sports Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Varsity Radio App) with Toby Rowland and Kevin Henry on the call.
Picked 15th in the preseason SEC media poll, LSU is 15-13 on the year and tied for 14th place in the league at 3-12. The Tigers, who are 1-6 in SEC home games (beat Missouri on Jan. 17), posted a 106-99 double-overtime win at Ole Miss on Wednesday to snap a five-game losing streak. Head coach Matt McMahon is in his fourth season at LSU and owns a 60-66 record there.
After losing nine straight games, Oklahoma has won three of its last five (at No. 15 Vanderbilt, vs. Georgia and vs. Auburn). In those three contests, the Sooners led by double digits for a combined 59:08 of 120 minutes (27:23 at Vandy, 13:09 vs. Georgia and 18:36 vs. Auburn). It shot a combined 55% from the field and 55% (36 for 65) from 3-point range.
Oklahoma leads the SEC in league play with its 38.0% 3-point field goal mark and ranks third with its 9.5 treys per outing. Over the last four games, the Sooners are shooting 48.4% (46 for 95) from behind the arc. On the season, OU is averaging 10.0 treys per game (the school record is 10.3 in 2015-16).
First-year Sooner Nijel Pack, who is in his sixth year overall, ranks first among active Division I players (and 25th all-time) with 405 career 3-point field goals and third with 2,192 points. He leads the SEC with his .453 3-point field goal percentage and 3.3 treys per game. Over the last four games, Pack is a sizzling 16 for 24 (.667) from long distance.
• OU is the only SEC team and one of just five out of 361 nationally to start the same lineup every game this season (Houston is the only other Power Five squad). Its starters have been guards Xzayvier Brown and Nijel Pack, forwards Tae Davis and Derrion Reid and center Mohamed Wague. LSU has started five different lineups.
• Wague is coming off the most productive two-game stretch of his career, averaging 15.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.0 blocked shots and 2.5 steals while going 16 for 20 (80%) from the free throw line against Texas A&M and Auburn. The fifth-year center recorded 12 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks against the Aggies on Saturday and followed with 18 points, nine boards and career highs of four blocks and four steals in Tuesday's win over the Tigers. He entered last weekend averaging 6.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 0.5 steals while shooting 60% from the charity stripe.
• The resurgence of guard Dayton Forsythe has boosted the Sooners the last few weeks. After a 10-game stretch in which he averaged 1.3 points and went 2 for 31 from the field (he battled sprains of both ankles), the sophomore is averaging 9.3 points over the last seven contests. Over the last five games, he is averaging 10.6 points in 22.1 minutes.
• In the only meeting at LSU, guard Isaiah Cousins hit a pull-up jumper from the left elbow with four seconds remaining to lift Lon Kruger's No. 1-ranked Sooners to a 77-75 victory in the 2015-16 season. OU, which finished 29-8 that year and advanced to the program's fifth Final Four, got 32 points and seven rebounds from Buddy Hield (8 for 15 from 3-point range). Hield went on to earn the Wooden Award and Naismith and Oscar Robertson trophies as national player of the year. Cousins finished with 18 points, four boards, seven assists and four steals, while forward Ryan Spangler registered 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ben Simmons, the No. 1 pick in the ensuing NBA Draft, recorded 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists for LSU.
• OU's other series wins came in January 1987 at The Myriad in Oklahoma City (94-85) under head coach Billy Tubbs and in the 2004 postseason NIT first round in Norman (70-61) under head coach Kelvin Sampson.
• LSU's series wins came in the 1970 NIT quarterfinals at New York's Madison Square Garden (97-94), in January 1988 in New Orleans (84-77) and last year in Norman (82-79). In the NIT matchup, the Tigers' Pete Maravich scored 37 points in his next-to-last collegiate game. The 1988 contest marked OU's first loss after a 14-0 season start and came the same day it had climbed to No. 3 in the AP poll, its highest ranking in program history at the time. Jose Vargas led LSU with 30 points and 10 rebounds, while Harvey Grant paced the Sooners with 19 and 9. The loss was one of just four on the season for OU, which won 35 games and advanced to the national title contest under Tubbs.
• OU, which led 35-29 at halftime and grew its lead to as many as 13 (46-33) with 14:33 left in the second half, posted a 15-rebound advantage on the day (43-28), tied for its season best, and outscored LSU by nine from the charity stripe. But the Sooners made a season-low three 3-pointers and shot a season-worst 17% from long distance.
• Freshman guard Jeremiah Fears scored an OU-high 15 points but was 5 of 15 from the field. Senior forward Jalon Moore had 14 points and a team-high-tying seven rebounds.
• Pack leads active Division I players and ranks 25th all-time with 405 career 3-point field goals. The only player to ever wear an OU uniform who has made more career treys is Umoja Gibson (428; was a Sooner during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons).
• Pack leads the SEC with his .453 season 3-point field goal percentage and 3.3 treys per game. Nationally, he ranks fifth and 18th, respectively.
• Pack has scored 20-plus points in five of the last nine games (25 at Missouri, 22 vs. Arkansas, 23 vs. Texas, 20 at Tennessee and 22 vs. Auburn).
• Pack has made at least one 3-pointer in 26 of 28 games, at least three in 18 contests and at least five in eight outings. He buried at least three treys in six consecutive games between Nov. 11 and Dec. 2, the first Sooner to accomplish the feat since consensus national player of the year Buddy Hield during OU's 2015-16 Final Four campaign.
• A sixth-year collegian, Pack spent his first two seasons at Kansas State (he was a first-team All-Big 12 pick as a sophomore when he averaged 17.4 points and made 95 3-pointers and shot a league-high .436 from behind the arc) and the last three at Miami, Fla. (he helped the Hurricanes to their first Final Four his junior season and was named the Midwest Region Most Outstanding Player). He has started 149 of his 150 career games.
• Brown has a team-high-tying six outings of at least 20 points in SEC play (23 in a win over Ole Miss, a season-high 24 against No. 19 Florida, 21 vs. No. 18 Alabama, 22 at South Carolina, 21 at Kentucky and 20 in a victory at No. 15 Vanderbilt).
• Brown leads the SEC by shooting 91% from the free throw line (79 for 87) but only has eight attempts over the last eight games. By comparison, he attempted 41 free throws over the previous eight contests. He assembled a streak of 27 makes, which ended Jan. 13 vs. Florida.
• After scoring at least 20 points in 14 of 35 games last year at Saint Joseph's, Brown has a team-high 11 games of 20-plus in 28 outings this season (Nijel Pack ranks second with eight such efforts). Brown has 31 career games of at least 20.
• The Sooners have scored at least 85 points in 14 of their 28 games (50%), already their most 85-point efforts in a season since 2017-18 (15). For perspective, OU's last four teams scored 85-plus a combined 21 times in 133 games (16%).
• Oklahoma's 82.6 scoring average is its highest through a season's first 28 games since 2017-18 and third highest in the last 32 years. And OU's 10.0 3-pointers per game are its second most through 28 contests in the 40-year 3-point era.
• OU has committed single-digit turnovers 15 times, already its most such outings for an entire season in at least 40 years. The Sooners average just 10.1 turnovers per contest.
• The Sooners are averaging 24.5 bench points in their four SEC wins and 15.1 bench points in their 11 league losses.
• OU's top four scorers are all transfers in their first year in the program. Nijel Pack averages a team-high 16.0 points per game, while Xzayvier Brown (15.4), Tae Davis (12.3) and Derrion Reid (11.6) also average double figures. Mohamed Wague rounds out the starting five with his 6.8 per contest.
• Davis surpassed 1,000 career points and 500 rebounds this season and now has 1,227 and 591.
• Davis went 41 for 66 (62%) from the free throw line over OU's first 17 games but is 31 for 39 (79%) over the last 11.
• Long Beach State transfer Jadon Jones is averaging 5.8 points in 18.8 minutes per game over his 24 outings. The sixth-year guard, who has made at least two 3-pointers in each of the last five games (11 for 20; 55%), has drawn 13 fouls while attempting a 3-pointer. The 2021-22 Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year has 14 steals and 10 blocks over the past 11 games.
• Redshirt freshman forward Kuol Atak ranks third on the team with his 38 3-point makes (shooting 43%) despite playing in just 21 of 28 games and averaging only 12.2 minutes in those contests. He is 27 for 52 (52%) from long distance in home games, including 18 for 32 (56%) over his last five outings at Lloyd Noble Center. He has played in just five of OU's last 11 games. In the Sooners' Feb. 14 home win against Georgia, he scored 18 points on 6-for-7 3-point shooting.
Saturday's game will be televised by SEC Network with Kevin Fitzgerald (play-by-play) and Rodney Terry (analyst) announcing. It will air on the Sooner Sports Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Varsity Radio App) with Toby Rowland and Kevin Henry on the call.
Picked 15th in the preseason SEC media poll, LSU is 15-13 on the year and tied for 14th place in the league at 3-12. The Tigers, who are 1-6 in SEC home games (beat Missouri on Jan. 17), posted a 106-99 double-overtime win at Ole Miss on Wednesday to snap a five-game losing streak. Head coach Matt McMahon is in his fourth season at LSU and owns a 60-66 record there.
After losing nine straight games, Oklahoma has won three of its last five (at No. 15 Vanderbilt, vs. Georgia and vs. Auburn). In those three contests, the Sooners led by double digits for a combined 59:08 of 120 minutes (27:23 at Vandy, 13:09 vs. Georgia and 18:36 vs. Auburn). It shot a combined 55% from the field and 55% (36 for 65) from 3-point range.
Oklahoma leads the SEC in league play with its 38.0% 3-point field goal mark and ranks third with its 9.5 treys per outing. Over the last four games, the Sooners are shooting 48.4% (46 for 95) from behind the arc. On the season, OU is averaging 10.0 treys per game (the school record is 10.3 in 2015-16).
First-year Sooner Nijel Pack, who is in his sixth year overall, ranks first among active Division I players (and 25th all-time) with 405 career 3-point field goals and third with 2,192 points. He leads the SEC with his .453 3-point field goal percentage and 3.3 treys per game. Over the last four games, Pack is a sizzling 16 for 24 (.667) from long distance.
SCENE SETTERS
• Despite its 4-11 SEC record, Oklahoma has held a halftime lead in seven of the 15 games. In fact, it has held a double-digit advantage in six of the last 11 outings (three wins).• OU is the only SEC team and one of just five out of 361 nationally to start the same lineup every game this season (Houston is the only other Power Five squad). Its starters have been guards Xzayvier Brown and Nijel Pack, forwards Tae Davis and Derrion Reid and center Mohamed Wague. LSU has started five different lineups.
• Wague is coming off the most productive two-game stretch of his career, averaging 15.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.0 blocked shots and 2.5 steals while going 16 for 20 (80%) from the free throw line against Texas A&M and Auburn. The fifth-year center recorded 12 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks against the Aggies on Saturday and followed with 18 points, nine boards and career highs of four blocks and four steals in Tuesday's win over the Tigers. He entered last weekend averaging 6.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 0.5 steals while shooting 60% from the charity stripe.
• The resurgence of guard Dayton Forsythe has boosted the Sooners the last few weeks. After a 10-game stretch in which he averaged 1.3 points and went 2 for 31 from the field (he battled sprains of both ankles), the sophomore is averaging 9.3 points over the last seven contests. Over the last five games, he is averaging 10.6 points in 22.1 minutes.
SERIES HISTORY
• Saturday's game will mark the seventh all-time meeting between Oklahoma and LSU, with the series tied at 3-3.• In the only meeting at LSU, guard Isaiah Cousins hit a pull-up jumper from the left elbow with four seconds remaining to lift Lon Kruger's No. 1-ranked Sooners to a 77-75 victory in the 2015-16 season. OU, which finished 29-8 that year and advanced to the program's fifth Final Four, got 32 points and seven rebounds from Buddy Hield (8 for 15 from 3-point range). Hield went on to earn the Wooden Award and Naismith and Oscar Robertson trophies as national player of the year. Cousins finished with 18 points, four boards, seven assists and four steals, while forward Ryan Spangler registered 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ben Simmons, the No. 1 pick in the ensuing NBA Draft, recorded 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists for LSU.
• OU's other series wins came in January 1987 at The Myriad in Oklahoma City (94-85) under head coach Billy Tubbs and in the 2004 postseason NIT first round in Norman (70-61) under head coach Kelvin Sampson.
• LSU's series wins came in the 1970 NIT quarterfinals at New York's Madison Square Garden (97-94), in January 1988 in New Orleans (84-77) and last year in Norman (82-79). In the NIT matchup, the Tigers' Pete Maravich scored 37 points in his next-to-last collegiate game. The 1988 contest marked OU's first loss after a 14-0 season start and came the same day it had climbed to No. 3 in the AP poll, its highest ranking in program history at the time. Jose Vargas led LSU with 30 points and 10 rebounds, while Harvey Grant paced the Sooners with 19 and 9. The loss was one of just four on the season for OU, which won 35 games and advanced to the national title contest under Tubbs.
LAST YEAR'S OU-LSU RECAP
• Looking to snap a four-game losing streak, Oklahoma led 79-74 with under 30 seconds to go, but LSU scored the game's final eight points over the last 20 seconds to post an 82-79 win in Norman on Feb. 15 last season. LSU guard Cam Carter converted a 4-point play with 20.9 seconds left and, following a steal, registered a traditional 3-point play with 8 seconds remaining to put the Tigers up 81-79. They added a free throw in the final second.• OU, which led 35-29 at halftime and grew its lead to as many as 13 (46-33) with 14:33 left in the second half, posted a 15-rebound advantage on the day (43-28), tied for its season best, and outscored LSU by nine from the charity stripe. But the Sooners made a season-low three 3-pointers and shot a season-worst 17% from long distance.
• Freshman guard Jeremiah Fears scored an OU-high 15 points but was 5 of 15 from the field. Senior forward Jalon Moore had 14 points and a team-high-tying seven rebounds.
PACK MENTALITY
• First-year Oklahoma guard Nijel Pack surpassed the 2,000-point mark Jan. 11 at Texas A&M and has 2,192 for his career to rank third nationally among active players.• Pack leads active Division I players and ranks 25th all-time with 405 career 3-point field goals. The only player to ever wear an OU uniform who has made more career treys is Umoja Gibson (428; was a Sooner during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons).
• Pack leads the SEC with his .453 season 3-point field goal percentage and 3.3 treys per game. Nationally, he ranks fifth and 18th, respectively.
• Pack has scored 20-plus points in five of the last nine games (25 at Missouri, 22 vs. Arkansas, 23 vs. Texas, 20 at Tennessee and 22 vs. Auburn).
• Pack has made at least one 3-pointer in 26 of 28 games, at least three in 18 contests and at least five in eight outings. He buried at least three treys in six consecutive games between Nov. 11 and Dec. 2, the first Sooner to accomplish the feat since consensus national player of the year Buddy Hield during OU's 2015-16 Final Four campaign.
• A sixth-year collegian, Pack spent his first two seasons at Kansas State (he was a first-team All-Big 12 pick as a sophomore when he averaged 17.4 points and made 95 3-pointers and shot a league-high .436 from behind the arc) and the last three at Miami, Fla. (he helped the Hurricanes to their first Final Four his junior season and was named the Midwest Region Most Outstanding Player). He has started 149 of his 150 career games.
OU's 'X' FACTOR
• After scoring at least 13 points 14 times in a 15-game stretch (he averaged 18.7 points on 50% field goal, 40% [34-for-84] 3-point and 93% [54-for-58] free throw shooting in the 15 contests), junior guard Xzayvier Brown has been held to an average of 8.5 points over the last four games.• Brown has a team-high-tying six outings of at least 20 points in SEC play (23 in a win over Ole Miss, a season-high 24 against No. 19 Florida, 21 vs. No. 18 Alabama, 22 at South Carolina, 21 at Kentucky and 20 in a victory at No. 15 Vanderbilt).
• Brown leads the SEC by shooting 91% from the free throw line (79 for 87) but only has eight attempts over the last eight games. By comparison, he attempted 41 free throws over the previous eight contests. He assembled a streak of 27 makes, which ended Jan. 13 vs. Florida.
• After scoring at least 20 points in 14 of 35 games last year at Saint Joseph's, Brown has a team-high 11 games of 20-plus in 28 outings this season (Nijel Pack ranks second with eight such efforts). Brown has 31 career games of at least 20.
MORE OU NOTES AND NUGGETS
• Oklahoma has led for over 20 minutes in six of the last nine games. In those six games, OU has been ahead for 176 out of 245 minutes (72%).• The Sooners have scored at least 85 points in 14 of their 28 games (50%), already their most 85-point efforts in a season since 2017-18 (15). For perspective, OU's last four teams scored 85-plus a combined 21 times in 133 games (16%).
• Oklahoma's 82.6 scoring average is its highest through a season's first 28 games since 2017-18 and third highest in the last 32 years. And OU's 10.0 3-pointers per game are its second most through 28 contests in the 40-year 3-point era.
• OU has committed single-digit turnovers 15 times, already its most such outings for an entire season in at least 40 years. The Sooners average just 10.1 turnovers per contest.
• The Sooners are averaging 24.5 bench points in their four SEC wins and 15.1 bench points in their 11 league losses.
• OU's top four scorers are all transfers in their first year in the program. Nijel Pack averages a team-high 16.0 points per game, while Xzayvier Brown (15.4), Tae Davis (12.3) and Derrion Reid (11.6) also average double figures. Mohamed Wague rounds out the starting five with his 6.8 per contest.
• Davis surpassed 1,000 career points and 500 rebounds this season and now has 1,227 and 591.
• Davis went 41 for 66 (62%) from the free throw line over OU's first 17 games but is 31 for 39 (79%) over the last 11.
• Long Beach State transfer Jadon Jones is averaging 5.8 points in 18.8 minutes per game over his 24 outings. The sixth-year guard, who has made at least two 3-pointers in each of the last five games (11 for 20; 55%), has drawn 13 fouls while attempting a 3-pointer. The 2021-22 Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year has 14 steals and 10 blocks over the past 11 games.
• Redshirt freshman forward Kuol Atak ranks third on the team with his 38 3-point makes (shooting 43%) despite playing in just 21 of 28 games and averaging only 12.2 minutes in those contests. He is 27 for 52 (52%) from long distance in home games, including 18 for 32 (56%) over his last five outings at Lloyd Noble Center. He has played in just five of OU's last 11 games. In the Sooners' Feb. 14 home win against Georgia, he scored 18 points on 6-for-7 3-point shooting.
UP NEXT
• OU returns home to play Missouri (19-9, 9-6) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT. The senior night game will be televised by ESPNU.
Players Mentioned
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