Oklahoma Basketball: A Half-Dozen First-Half Sooner Surprises
By Chip Rouse
This week the conference season in the Big 12 reaches the halfway point. Here are six surprising story lines that sum up Oklahoma basketball heading into the second half:
Buddy Hield’s return in 2015-16 has elevated Sooner basketball to a Final Four contender: When Buddy Hield made the decision to bypass early entry into the NBA to return to school for his senior season, it automatically elevated the prospects for the 2015-16 edition of Oklahoma basketball from being a top-25 team to one that could be a legitimate national championship contender.
Eighteen games into the current season, Hield has more than lived up to superstar status. Everyone knew Hield was a special player. After all, you don’t get voted Big 12 Player of the Year, which he was last season, if you do not stand out above the other outstanding players in the league.
Hield was outstanding last season, leading the Big 12 in scoring. This year, if you can believe it, he has taken his game to an even higher level than simply outstanding. We’re talking about another stratosphere. Hield’s 25.7 scoring average leads the Big 12 and ranks fourth nationally. But that is just part of the sensational story that is being written this season by the 6-4 Sooner senior who hails from the Bahama’s. Hield is shooting 52 percent from the field and 51 percent from behind the three-point line, and his three-point percentage is second-best on the team to Jordan Woodard’s 55-percent accuracy from long range.
Even though he is successful on just over 50 percent of his three-point tries, it seems virtually every time Hield sets up behind the three-point arc it is going to be an automatic three points for the Sooners. Hield is averaging four treys per game, which is No. 1 in the country and a big reason Oklahoma sits No. 1 in the Associated Press rankings.
Hield is obviously the Sooners’ go-to guy on offense, and for good reason, but one of the key things that has made Hield so special this season is the experience of the veteran team that surrounds him. Four of the five Oklahoma starters has started every game for the past three seasons (86 consecutive games). That is something that is extremely rare in college basketball today.
You’re hearing it here first: Buddy Hield not only will retain his Player of the Year honor in the Big 12, but will become the Sooners’ second National Player of the Year in the past seven seasons.
Next: Three-Point Shooting Supremacy