Buddy Hield has been at the top of his game all season, and his Oklahoma Sooners are about to ascend to the top rung in the 2015-16 college basketball rankings.
On Monday, Oklahoma should be the No. 1 team in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Poll, one of only five teams in the Top 10 who survived last week without going down to defeat.
The Sooners began the season ranked No. 8 in both of the major national polls and have slowly moved up, losing only to then-No. 1 Kansas in a triple-overtime slugfest a couple of weeks ago. Despite the loss, 15-1 Oklahoma retained its No. 2 position in the national rankings.
The last time the Sooners were ranked No. 1 in basketball was at the end of the regular season in the 1989-90 season. OU ended the regular season that year as the top-ranked team and the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. That Sooner team was upset, however, by No. 8 seed North Carolina in the round of 32.
Speaking of firsts, OU senior All-American Buddy Hield is closing in on a few of his own. Hield is having a career year in his final collegiate season. The Big 12’s leading scorer is averaging 26.0 points a game, second-best in the nation among NCAA Division I players, and currently is the only player in the country shooting 50 percent from the field, 50 percent in three-point attempts, 90 percent from the free-throw line and averaging 14 or more points per game.
Hield has scored 30 or more points six times in the Sooners 16 games this season and 20 or more in 13 of the 16. Before being limited to 17 points in Oklahoma’s 70-68 victory over West Virginia on Saturday, the Sooner superstar had reached the 20-point level in nine consecutive games. Through Saturday’s game, Hield has 1,782 career points at Oklahoma. He is 39 points away from tying Hollis Price, who is the seventh leading scorer in Sooner basketball history.
If the season ended today, Hield would be the only player in Big 12 history to average at least 25 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. His current stat line reads 26.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists.
His 26-point scoring average stands second all-time in Big 12 history. Michael Beasley has the scoring record at 26.2 ppg for Kansas State in 2007-08.