ESPN ‘Bracketology’ guru Joe Lunardi has Oklahoma basketball a No. 2 seed in his latest weekly projections.
Lunardi, who projects the NCAA Tournament field throughout the college basketball season and updates his bracket seedings on a regular basis, currently has the Sooners as the two seed in the West Region opposite of No. 1 seed Duke.
With the season not even a third of the way through the schedule, it is way too early to place too much stock on where the teams might grade out right now, but it does make for good discussion among pundits, sports writers and columnists and, of course. fans and other followers of college hoops.
Dec 19, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Creighton Bluejays guard Ronnie Harrell Jr. (4) drives to the basket against Oklahoma Sooners forward Ryan Spangler (00) during the first half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
It also serves as a window of hope and opportunity of what could be, as well as what could be lost for those teams that aren’t resilient enough to weather adversity and can’t continue to make improvement and get better as the season wears on.
The Sooners remain No. 3 this week in the Associated Press poll, but jumped over Kansas into the No. 2 position in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Lon Kruger’s team has a tough 3-game challenge this week in the Diamond Head Classic taking place in Honolulu. If the 8-0 Sooners are able to get past Washington State on Tuesday in their tournament opener, there is a good chance their second-round opponent will be Northern Iowa, the same team that handed Iowa State its first defeat of the season last weekend.
The Diamond Head Classic will be the Sooners’ last action before tipping off the conference season a week from this Saturday at home at Lloyd Noble Center against a very good Iowa State squad. Then comes a date at Kansas two days afterwards. Sounds strikingly familiar to the football Sooners’ closing schedule this season, doesn’t it?
Getting back to Oklahoma’s two seed in Joe Lunardi’s most recent “Bracketology” report, that would be the highest seeding for an OU men’s basketball squad since the 2008-09 season when the Sooners entered the NCAA Basketball Championship as the second seed in the South Region behind No. 1 North Carolina.
The last three seasons, Oklahoma has entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed, a No. 5 seed and a 10 seed, respectively.