W E E K E N D E D I T I O N | J A N U A R Y 2 8 - 3 1, 2 0 16 | T W I C E W E E K LY I N P R I N T | O U D A I LY. C O M
BUDDY VS. BEN
OU DAILY
Hield prepares to meet his match
SPENSER DAVIS • @DAVIS_SPENSER
W
STACKING UP
hen Buddy Hield and Ben Simmons suit up for their respective teams on Saturday night, it will be in front of numerous NBA scouts and a curious national audience. It will be a guard against a forward. A senior against a freshman. A Bahamian against an Australian. Oklahoma against LSU. Buddy against Ben. Simmons is a transformative talent, a player so gifted even LeBron James permitted a comparison. As a 6-foot-10 player who is known as a distributor, Simmons has also drawn comparisons to Magic Johnson. “I would say I’m a pass first kind of guy, but I can also score the ball,” Simmons told Draft Express in his subtle Australian accent. He leads LSU in points, rebounds and assists per game — and it’s not particularly close. But there’s a weakness in Simmons’ game, a shortcoming that happens to be Hield’s biggest strength — shooting. A freak athlete, Simmons lacks the ability to create his own shots. When he scored down a career-high 43 points against North Florida on Dec. 2, he did not make — and hardly attempted — a shot outside the paint. And while Hield may not be the exciting prospect at the next level Simmons is, his eye-opening scoring ability has him atop many National Player of the Year watchlists. So far this season, Hield has been the nation’s second-best scorer with 25.9 points per game, trailing only Howard’s James Daniel. The next closest Big 12 player — Iowa State’s Georges Niang — is
Buddy Hield Year: Senior
Points per game: 25.9 Field goal percentage: 53% Three-pointers per game: 4.2 — No. 1 nationally ESPN draft ranking: No. 14 Source: espn.com
Ben Simmons Year: Freshman
Points per game: 19.8 Field goal percentage: 55.3% Rebounds per game: 12.7 — No. 3 nationally ESPN draft ranking: No. 1 Source: espn.com
see BUDDY page 2
CHRISTOPHER MICHIE/THE DAILY
Senior guard Buddy Hield dribbles toward the basket during Tuesday night’s game against Texas Tech at the Lloyd Noble Center. Hield is averaging 25.9 points per game.
PHOTO OF BEN SIMMONS BY HASKELL WHITTINGTON/THE DAILY REVEILLE
Budget cuts cause need for early retirement One professor calls the incentive a ‘quick fix’ JESSE POUND @jesserpound
A $20 million budget reduction has forced OU to plan to incentivize older faculty and staff members to retire early. T h e S p e c i a l Vo l u n t a r y Retirement Incentive, which would cover just half of the budget reduction, is expected to pass at Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting. A source within the university
said about 400 employees are eligible for the program, and similar programs at other universities OU has looked at yielded a participation rate between 10 and 25 percent. Four hundred employees represent about 7.2 percent of OU’s full time faculty and staff workforce on the Norman campus. Under the details of the plan explained in the meeting agenda, retirees will be paid a lump sum 75 percent of their annual salary or 1560 hours worth of their hourly wage, with no retiree receiving more than $100,000. The retirements are expected
to become effective between June 30, 2016, and Dec. 23, 2016, according to the agenda. “This is just a quick fix,” Craig Russell, a human resources professor, said. Russell said the plan is a conservative one and would motivate only those who plan to retire in the next year anyway. “If you don’t plan on retiring for two or more years, that would not be an incentive,” Russell said. Eligible employees are at least 62 years old, fulltime and eligible for benefits and meet normal university retirement age and service requirements by Dec. 31,
2015. The other $10 million of the budget reduction is expected to come from eliminating vacant faculty and staff lines and decreasing department budgets. Funding at the state level for higher education has been decreasingly steadily in recent years. In December, amid tumbling oil prices, the state declared a midyear revenue failure. Jesse Pound
jesserpound@gmail.com
RETIREMENT PLAN
how it works and who’s eligible Participating faculty and staff would be paid 75 percent of their annual base salary effective upon their retirement date. Eligible faculty and staff must be age 62 or greater and meet normal university retirement age and service. Effective retirement dates are expected to occur between June 30, 2016 and December 23, 2016.