Oklahoma Basketball: Can Sooners Pull Off the Improbable at Baylor?
By Chip Rouse
Ordinarily when you hear there are only two weeks remaining in the regular season, it would evoke some sad feelings. For men’s Oklahoma basketball this season, though, you can’t get this one over fast enough and on to next year.
The Sooners have four more games to go – two at home and two on the road – in the conference regular season, plus however long they are able to hang around in the Big 12 postseason tournament, which isn’t likely to be more than one game, if that.
Both of their remaining road games are about as tough as it gets, beginning with Baylor on Tuesday night and followed next Monday with a ‘Big Monday’ nationally televised contest at 12-time and about to become 13-time defending Big 12 champion Kansas. Both Baylor and Kansas are ranked in the Associated Press Top 10.
Baylor (22-5, 9-5) ranks ninth in the current AP rankings and has been as high as No. 1 this season.
Oklahoma has already played six games against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 and 10 games if you include teams receiving votes in the AP weekly poll. Largely for that reason, plus the fact that the Big 12 Conference has the best RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) in college basketball again this season, the Sooners, 9-17 on the season, rank No. 1 in strength of schedule.
The Sooners have not beaten a top-25 opponent at Lloyd Noble Center this season, but somewhat surprisingly, they are 1-1 when going up against a ranked foe away from home.
Oklahoma lost rather convincingly to Wisconsin in December, after staying close for a good part of the game, and pulled off a stunning upset over then No. 7 West Virginia, rallying from a 16-point deficit late in the game and winning in double overtime.
Sooner fans are hoping for the same kind of miracle as occurred at West Virginia on Tuesday night in Waco. Only Oklahoma won’t have its leading scorer and senior leader Jordan Woodard on the floor at Baylor like the Sooners had in the game at West Virginia.
Woodard scored 20 points and was a prime factor in OU’s comeback on the road in Morgantown, but he is gone for the remainder of the season after tearing his ACL a couple of games back at Iowa State.
One glaring statistic that stands out and could well be a determining factor in the Sooners’ performance against Baylor, outside of the giant disparity in their season records, is in the all-important category of field-goal efficiency. Oklahoma has struggled all season in shooting the basketball. Much of the problem can be explained by having so many young players playing major minutes this season.
This is a weakness that could get exploited further by an outstanding Baylor defense that contains great size and length, especially in the front court.
The Sooners are last in the Big 12 with a shooting percentage of 42 percent. Baylor, on the other hand, not only leads the Big 12 but is ranked 12th nationally in field-goal-percentage defense, holding opponents to just 39 percent from the floor through all games.
Baylor is gunning for only its second sweep of the Sooners in the regular season in the 21 years the Big 12 has been in existence. Oklahoma is 19-6 all-time on the road at Baylor and has won 19 of its last 23 games against the Bears in Waco.
Three Things to Know About the Sooners in This Game
- OU freshmen Kameron McGusty and Kristian Doolittle are averaging 20.5 points combined in the Sooners first five games in February.
- Before 2010, Oklahoma had won 30 consecutive basketball games against Baylor. Since that time, however, OU is 8-9 vs. Baylor.
- Eighty-five of Oklahoma’s 92 points scored in its last outing, vs. Oklahoma State on Saturday, came from freshmen and sophomores on the Sooner roster.
Three Things to Know About Baylor in This Game
- Baylor is 44-7 in the last two seasons when it takes a lead in the second half.
- The Bears have four players over 6-foot, 8-inches in height who play a lot of minutes in every game, led by 6-foot, 10-inch Jonathan Motley, who averages 16.8 points per game.
- Baylor won the first game between this two teams this season 76-50 in Norman. The Bears outscored the Sooners 36-17 in the first half. The 26-point loss was the largest margin of victory by a conference opponent over an OU team at home since 1963.
Game Prediction
This game could get ugly real fast. I’m not anticipating another Sooner road miracle, especially not against a top-10 opponent that has lost its last two games. Lon Kruger’s 600th career win will have to come on another day.
Baylor 74, Oklahoma 58