Oklahoma basketball has some work to do.
Nothing can cure the wretched feeling of Sooner basketball fans after Oklahoma’s painful meltdown at Texas better than a huge bounceback on Senior Night Tuesday at Lloyd Noble Center against equally tough Baylor.
The last thing that the Sooners need right now is to allow one bad loss to turn into another, especially this late in the regular season with so much at stake.
Baylor comes to Norman with a No. 19 ranking nationally, a 21-8 overall record and is tied with Texas and Oklahoma at 10-6 and third place in the Big 12 standings. The Sooners defeated Baylor in the first of their round-robin games this season, downing the Bears 82-72 at Baylor. Oklahoma leads the all-time series between the two teams 43-12 and is 21-4 when playing Baylor in Norman.
The Sooners have won 13 of 14 games at Lloyd Noble Center this season, the lone loss to conference-leading and No. 1-ranked Kansas, 76-72.
Oklahoma has been struggling in the second half of the Big schedule after starting out like a team that looked every bit like a Final Four contender. In their first eight conference games, the Sooners won six of eight, led the Big 12 in scoring with an 81.4 average, owned a shooting percentage of 46 percent and a nation-leading 47 percent three-point shooting.
Over their last eight games, though, OU has split four games, the team scoring average dropped by 10 points, the field-goal percentage is barely at 41 percent and the biggest problem has been getting the three-ball to drop. The Sooners three-point average has been off by 13 percent what it was earlier when those shots were falling at nearly a 50-percent rate. And that has made a huge difference in Oklahoma’s ability to get off the quick starts and close out games like they were earlier in the season.
Baylor has four players scoring in double figures, led by senior Taurean Prince (15.3 points per game) and sophomore Jonathan Motley (11.7). The Bears are an outstanding rebounding team, with the Big 12 leader in the category, Rico Gathers, who averages right at 10 boards per game.
Buddy Hield is, and has been all season long, the top scoring threat in an Oklahoma offense that has been sputtering of late. Regardless, Hield continues to put the ball in the basket at a 50-percent clip and his average of four three-pointers per game leads the nation. His 72 three-pointers in Big 12 play this season is a new conference record, and he has already set new Oklahoma highs in three-pointers over a career and a single season.
Six Sooners will be honored on Senior Night at Lloyd Noble Center, including three starters – Buddy Hield, Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler – who have started every Oklahoma basketball game for the last three seasons. Seniors C.J. Cole, Dinjiyl Walker and Austin Mankin will also be honored.
Blake Griffin, the last Oklahoma player to be named National Player of the Year (2008-09), will be honored at halftime, ironically on the same night that will be the final home game for the player likely to be the next recipient of National Player of the Year honors, Buddy Hield.
Three Things to Know About This Game
- In three of their last four games, two of them losses, the Sooners have shot well below their 43-percent three-point percentage. Against Texas Tech and West Virginia, Oklahoma actually shot below 30 percent from behind the three-point arc. If Oklahoma doesn’t find more balance between the inside game and their long-range marksmanship, and doesn’t shoot better from outside than they have in the second half of the Big 12 season, the Sooners’ longevity in the Big Dance may not be extend beyond the first weekend. How OU plays in its home finale against Baylor will be a good marker of what we might expect from the Sooners in the postseason.
- Oklahoma ranks second in the Big 12 with almost 40 rebounds per game and 14th in the country in defensive rebounds. The Sooners are 16-1 this season when they outrebound their opponent. Baylor’ big front line is one of the strongest on the backboards in the Big 12, and the Bears are particularly tough on the offensive glass, where they manufacture an abundance of second-chance points. Whichever team wins this battle is likely to come out on the winning end on Tuesday.
- Baylor is 21-2 this season when it shoots 40 percent or better from the field. The Bears are 0-6 when their shooting percentage is below 40 percent. Oklahoma is the second-best team in the Big 12 in field-goal-percentage defense, holding opponents to 40-percent shooting through all games.
My pick: Oklahoma 85, Baylor 72 – I see this being a close encounter for a while, but I believe the Sooners are going to come out with a big chip on their shoulder and something to prove after what happened over the weekend at Texas. (If you watched the Monday night game between Kansas and Texas, you’re probably wondering, like me, how the Longhorns could shoot so well down the stretch in the Oklahoma game and look so discombobulated against the Jayhawks in the early going on Monday.) This will be a statement game for the Sooners. The one thing they will need to guard against is not getting too caught up and amped up in the emotional rush of the evening.