Billy Tubbs, the colorful coach with the high-octane system known as Billy Ball who brought Oklahoma basketball to prominence in the 1980s, died Sunday. He was 85.

Tubbs' family said in a statement that he battled a form of leukemia since being diagnosed in 2015. The statement said he died peacefully surrounded by family. A news release from the University of Oklahoma said Tubbs died in Norman.

"Though his passing represents a tremendous loss for everyone close to him, our family is comforted by the knowledge he lived an extremely spirited life full of outstanding accomplishment in and out of...