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Stadium: Lloyd Noble Center
The Lloyd Noble Center is an 11,528-seat multi-purpose arena in Norman, Oklahoma, some 19-miles south of downtown Oklahoma City. The arena opened in 1975. It is home to the University of Oklahoma Sooners men's and women's basketball teams.
Before the construction of the facility, the teams played in the much smaller OU Field House, located on campus near Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. With the success of Sooner basketball in the 1970s and star forward Alvan Adams, demand became sufficient to upgrade to the modern and spacious Lloyd Noble Center, named after an alumnus and former member of the OU Board of Regents who gave OU's first ever $1 million gift to finance the center. The Sooners frequently sold out the arena during the Billy Tubbs era, with All-American forward Wayman Tisdale leading the high-scoring team to several Big Eight Conference titles and NCAA Tournament appearances. This led to the popular colloquialism around Norman that Lloyd Noble Center is "the house that Alvan built and Wayman filled."
In January 2006, after the NBA's New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets decided to move two games from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge because of low attendance, the Ford Center in Oklahoma City was unavailable for one of the game against the Sacramento Kings, so it was moved to the Lloyd Noble Center.
Team History:
The men's basketball team is highly successful and rose to national prominence since the early 80’s with head coach Billy Tubbs and three time All-American power forward Wayman Tisdale. It currently plays in the Lloyd Noble Center, which came to be known as the house Alvan Adams built and Tisdale filled. While the team has never won a national championship, it ranks second in most tournament wins without a championship behind Illinois. The team played in the 1988 national championship game but lost to Kansas, despite having beaten the Jayhawks twice earlier in the season. The program has won a combined twenty regular-season and tournament conference championships.
The Sooners headed into the 2005-06 season ranked #6 in the AP preseason poll, led by Taj Gray, Kevin Bookout, Terrell Everett, and David Goldbold, but had a disappointing early season. After the emergence of Micheal Neal as a potential star, the Sooners salvaged a #3 seed in the Big 12 Conference Tournament but lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
On March 29, 2006, Kelvin Sampson left the University of Oklahoma to become the head basketball coach at Indiana University. 13 days later, on April 11, 2006, Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione named Jeff Capel III the new head coach. Capel encountered trouble in his first few months as several players who had been recruited by Sampson backed out of their commitments. The Sooners look to continue a streak of 12 consecutive postseason tournament appearances in 2006-2007.
Season Preview:
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione and five of the Sooners' head coaches -- including football coach Bob Stoops and basketball coaches Sherri Coale and Jeff Capel -- had raises approved Wednesday by the university's Board of Regents.
Stoops, already one of the nation's highest-paid coaches, received a $50,000 annual raise, increasing his guaranteed annual income to $2.55 million, and had his contract extended by two years to December 2013.
Stoops, who guided the Sooners to the Big 12 Conference title last season, is eligible to receive a "stay bonus" of $3 million following the 2008 season if he remains at Oklahoma. His contract also is laden with incentives, including $150,000 if Oklahoma wins the national title.
Castiglione, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace outgoing Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, had his base salary increased by $30,000 to $325,000 and his potential bonus amount increased by $50,000 to $155,000.
Official Site:
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