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Sooners Announce Home and Home Series with Florida

Lon Kruger, who once coached at Florida, is having success against his old conference
John E. Hoover|
Sooners Announce Home and Home Series with Florida
Sooners Announce Home and Home Series with Florida

Lon Kruger and the Sooners are hungry to take another bite out of the SEC.

Oklahoma announced Tuesday a coming home-and-home men's basketball series against Florida over the next two seasons.

OU will host the Gators on Dec. 2 at Lloyd Noble Center this in 2020, and the Sooners will make their first ever trip to Gainesville in 2021.

For Kruger, it’ll be like old home week. The Sooners head coach helmed the Gators from 1990 to 1996 and went 104-80, including a trip to the Final Four in 1994.

The Sooners' return game to Florida in 2021 will be Kruger's first time back in Gainesville as an opposing head coach.

OU and Florida have met three previous times, including twice in the last four years. The Gators lead the series 2-1, but OU won the most recent matchup, a 65-60 victory in the 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis.

Kruger is 13-9 against the SEC at OU, including 11-5 against schools which were SEC members at the time. The Sooners own five straight victories against SEC schools, including wins over Missouri and Mississippi State last season.

OU will play at least three time against SEC opponents this season. Earlier this month, the Sooners announced a two-year, neutral-site series with Arkansas at the BOK Center in Tulsa, starting this season on Dec. 12. OU will also host the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in January against an opponent to be determined.

The Sooners' full non-conference slate will be announced later.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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