COWLY.0.U, STATE

inc Haven’t Won a Won a Game in
~_ Four Starts but Always Do
a3 Well in Tourney Here.

eo

ASAD TACK OF HEIGHT

It’s the Smallest Team in Okla-|
homa History and Is Geared |
to Les Lane, a Fine Shooter. |

(This is the second of a series |
of analyses of team personnel
=f the clubs which will. partici-

F ‘ pate in the annual Big Seven |
~ conference tournament. The |
*4- day affair opens — “December |
og’ 7 in. Municipal: Auditorium)” ms

my. SOONER SCOREBOARD.
Record. to: Date—64, Baylor 80; 66, wis-|
consin: ae 3 a HAVER Ane Ses ‘Minnesota.

am Thompson, c.
gas Pat 7 gt gE 4 ee ‘games,

“Previou Tournament Finishes
fifth;. "1947, ‘fifth; 1948, first
ond; - 195: fifth; 1951,
eightht 1953, second. (14 :
rst Round Opponent—Colorado, 3 B.
December 27.

“Oklahoma, the the traditional up-
i. team of’Big Seven tourna-
ent history, will again wear,
at guise: into the ninth annual
et, ‘which opens a 4-day run
in Municipal Auditorium next
fonday.
he "Sooners can- hope for]
ing else. They do not own|
s size nor ability to cope with}
the likes of Missouri, Colorado}
and California, Furthermore,|
they. will come “into. the affair}
carrying four consecutive losses:|
Latest was a 102-84 hammering|
‘by Ohio State Saturday in Nor-)
n. Before that they fell to|
Baylor, 64-80, and 79-86, and to]
Wisconsin, an easy victim for}
Missouri, 66-77. Complicating this|
misery is the fact that three of
ose decisions went down the}
ain on their home planks. Sig-}
nificant is thé fact that they]
played Baylor tighter at Waco—|
seven points—than they did .at
Norman—sixteen points. All this
aad to a perfect upset cloak.

g Reason to Be. Cautious. |.

"Regardless of record or phy-
sique, other conference teams
have learned to be wary of O.
U.’s tournament thrusts. The
Sooners wrought one of the big-
gest reversals in meet annals in
1951 by dumping Stanford’s fast-
beealing. Indians, 77-71, in a first

und game which saw forward
Sherman Norton notch a single-
game record of thirty-nine points,
Bruce Drake’s band cut the
Cardinals ‘to ribbons that night
for thirteen layups off their
famed shuffle. :

In 1949 they. clipped favored

, in the sec-

late basket pulled ot a 55-53
verdict.