Oklahoma Basketball: A Case for Remaining No. 1

On Monday, the new top-25 college basketball rankings will be released. Where will the current top-ranked Oklahoma basketball team be ranked?

There is a good chance that the Sooners will fall from the top spot. There was a better than good chance after Oklahoma lost at Iowa State that the Sooners would render the top spot in the national polls just hours after they claimed it. Such is life, or so it seems this season in college basketball. Easy come, easy go, as they say.

But channeling the popular phrase used by ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso, “Not so fast,” I say. Why should a last-second loss on the road to a ranked Iowa State team at one of the most difficult venues for a visiting team in college basketball landscape – after all, the game was tied with 19 seconds remaining – be viewed as grounds for automatic removal from the top spot in the land?

Jan 23, 2016; Waco, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Jordan Woodard (10) goes for a shot against Baylor Bears forward Johnathon Motley (5) at Ferrell Center. Oklahoma won 82-72. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports /

Then you tack on the dominating victory by the Sooners over the 13th-ranked Baylor Bears on Saturday- on the road against another ranked team, one even higher in the pecking order than Iowa State – and you tell me that isn’t worthy enough to retain a hold on the top spot.

North Carolina owns the identical 16-2 overall record as the Sooners heading into its Sunday game at Virginia Tech. The Tar Heels sat right behind Oklahoma in the No. 2 spot at the beginning of last week, and because of that are primed to move into the No. 1 spot depending on the outcome of their Sunday road clash against the Hokies.

The Tar Heels have been playing outstanding basketball since a two-point loss 11- games ago at Texas, a Big 12 team with a 12-7 overall record. When you compare the resumes of Oklahoma and North Carolina, however, the quality of the Tar Heels’ wins pales in comparison to that of the Sooners. Plus, you can add the fact that OU’s two losses, by a combined eight points to a pair of teams ranked in the top 15 in RPI (Ratings Percentage Index), are better than North Carolina’s (to Northern Iowa and Texas).

The Sooners have played six ranked teams this season and are 4-2 in those games. One of those victories, and perhaps the most impressive of all of them, was a 23-point win over a ranked Villanova team that currently stands No. 2, right behind the Sooners, in RPI. North Carolina has nothing to rival that.