Despite the rough patch the Oklahoma basketball squad went through earlier this month, having Villanova move into the top spot in the college basketball rankings was an added-plus to the Sooner resume.
But like the six other teams that have occupied the nation’s top spot this season, including both Oklahoma and Kansas, Villanova’s stay at the top wasn’t that long lived. The Wildcats replaced the Sooners at No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 at the beginning of Week 14 (Feb. 8) following OU’s loss at Kansas State.
Villanova has remained at No. 1 since that time, but the Cats are likely to fall a couple of spots next week and probably relinquish the top spot to Kansas, the second time this season that the Jayhawks have held the No, 1 position in the national rankings.
After surrendering the AP No. 1 ranking to Villanova, the Sooners lost twice more (to Kansas and at Texas Tech), but did not fall more than two spots in the polls, in no small part because Villanova remained at the top and also happened to be one of the six top-20 teams the Sooners have beaten this season.
In early December, Oklahoma and Villanova met in a special Pearl Harbor Invitational game played in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Sooners were ranked No. 7 at the time and the Wildcats were two spots back at No. 9. Buddy Hield had 18 points and Isaiah Cousins a game-high 19 as Oklahoma hit 14 of 26 three-point shots for 54 percent and outscored Villanova 46-29 in the second halt for a 78-55 victory.
For the last several weeks, that dominating win over Villanova has aided the Sooners in the polls as well as in Joe Lunardi’s various “Bracketology” projections that have continued to have OU on the top line despite the recent shortfall.
Earlier this week, however, Villanova lost to Big East title contender Xavier by a wide margin. As a result, Nova’s time atop the polls may have come to an end, and that actually hurts Oklahoma.
In this crazy, wacky season of college basketball, the Sooners are in a good position to regain the No. 2 spot in the national rankings with a win on the road on Saturday at Texas. This has been made possible courtesy of a Virginia loss on Monday to 12th-ranked Miami (Fla.), and the Cavaliers have another difficult challenge on Saturday when they host North Carolina.
With Xavier sitting comfortably at No. 5 at the beginning of the week, the Musketeers are expected to move up, and this will likely also keep Villanova in the top five. which should continue to help the Sooners, although not as much as having Villanova in the top spot.
There’s one thing wrong with this picture: Oklahoma can’t control what happens to Villanova. All they can control is what happens to OU, and that means first taking care of business against Red River archrival Texas and following that with a victory over Baylor in the home finale and again in the regular-season finale at TCU.
Falter in any one of those three remaining Big 12 games and the Sooners will hurt themselves a lot worse than anything Villanova, Kansas or any other team can do to them.