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OUDAILY
For 100 years, the student voice of the University of Oklahoma
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The Oklahoma bench celebrates a basket late in the game Saturday against West Virginia at Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners’ win propelled them to a No. 1 ranking.
CHRISTOPHER MICHIE/THE DAILY
Sooners top AP poll for first time since 1990
AP TOP FIVE 1. Oklahoma (15-1) 2. North Carolina (16-2) 3. Kansas (15-2) 4. Villanova (16-2) 5. Xavier (16-1) Source: AP Top 25
TOUGHEST TESTS
Ranking the most challenging matchups left on the schedule
1. Kansas When: Feb. 13 at 1 p.m. Where: Norman, Oklahoma Watch: ESPN/2
2. West Virginia When: Feb. 20 at 3 p.m. Where: Morgantown, West Virginia Watch: ESPN/2
3. Baylor When: Jan. 23 at 11 a.m. Where: Waco, Texas Watch: ESPN2
4. Texas When: Feb. 27 at 1 p.m. Where: Austin, Texas Watch: CBS
5. LSU When: Jan. 30 at 4 p.m. Where: Baton Rouge, Louisiana Watch: ESPN
NEXT HOME GAME Oklahoma vs. Texas Tech When: Jan. 26 at 6 p.m.
Team snags top spot after 26-year absence
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What was going on in the world last time OU was ranked No. 1 in the AP poll? George H. W. Bush was president of the United States. He held office from 1989 to 1993.
SPENSER DAVIS • @DAVIS_SPENSER
klahoma was named the AP No. 1 team Monday afternoon following its win against No. 11 West Virginia on Saturday. It’s the first time OU has been at the top of the college basketball world since the 1989-90 season when Billy Tubbs was still patrolling the Sooner bench. But what else was going on in the world the last time OU was No. 1? The day was March 17, 1990. Oklahoma, a one-seed in the NCAA tournament, lost 79-77 to North Carolina in the second round. Peyton Manning was a freshman in high school, Derek Jeter was not legally permitted to drive a car and Emmitt Smith was still a few weeks away from being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger was the head man at Kansas State, his final season before going to Florida. One of his current assistants, Steve Henson, was an undergraduate student at Kansas State. Bob Stoops was also in Manhattan, Kansas, as a defensive backs coach for then-50-year-old Bill Snyder. Former Sooner Blake Griffin was born on March 16, 1989, just one year and one day before the last time the Sooners were atop the AP Poll. That 1990 Oklahoma basketball team averaged 101 points per game, a full 15 more than this current Sooner squad. And while OU has the No. 4 scoring offense in the country, Kruger’s team gets it done much differently than Tubbs’ team did. OU currently leads the nation with a 45 percent mark from three-point land. In 1990, the Sooners shot just 37 percent from deep. That team also shot six fewer threes per game than Buddy Hield’s Sooners do.
In the entertainment world, many of the things enjoyed today were beginning to take shape. Jennifer Lawrence, Iggy Azalea, Liam Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart, Emma Watson, The Weeknd, Yasiel Puig and Klay Thompson were all born in 1990. “The Simpsons” (Dec. 17, 1989) and “Seinfeld” (July 5, 1989) both debuted just before the Sooners took the top spot. “Pretty Woman,” “Lord of the Flies” and “Goodfellas” were three of the most popular movie titles from that year. The World Wide Web did not yet exist — the first web page is dated January 1991. The Hubble Telescope was launched into space just weeks later (April 24, 1990). The world was also different beyond the scope of sports and entertainment. That was the year Nelson Mandela was released from prison (Feb. 11, 1990). The demolition of the Berlin Wall began June 13, 1990, following years of unrest in Germany. The United States’ national debt was just a paltry $3 trillion. A staggering amount, sure, but a far cry from the $18 trillion mountain the U.S. faces today. Many of the faces of America’s current political landscape were in much different places, too. George H. W. Bush was the current president. Barack Obama, then just 28 years old, was freshly elected as the first AfricanA m e r i c a n p re s i d e n t o f t h e Harvard Law Review. Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio was just 18 years old. The average gas price? Just $1.34 a gallon. OK, maybe things weren’t that different after all. Spenser Davis
davis.spenser@ou.edu
The average cost of a gallon of gas was $1.34. Today, it’s about $1.89.
The national debt was $3,233,313,451,777.25, more than $15 trillion less than it is today.
Both Lon Kruger and Bob Stoops were coaching at Kansas State.
The World Wide Web didn’t exist yet; the first web page was created in January 1991.
The Hubble Space Telescope was nearly ready for its first launch into space in April 1990.