OU basketball is ranked No. 6 this week in both major weekly poll services.
To be perfectly honest, it is a wonder the Sooners have dropped down further in the national rankings. Two weeks ago, Oklahoma was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press media poll. Since that time, however, the Sooners have dropped four of their last seven games and gone from a 19-2 season record to 22-6 overall. Despite that sub-.500 performance, OU has fallen just five spots in the rankings.
You can attribute the apparent safety net in the Sooners’ national standing to all the upsets of teams in the top 10 this season as well as the universal belief that there are probably 18 to 20 very good teams in college basketball this season, but no teams that you can classify as dominant or truly great.
As a result, the impending NCAA Tournament should be very interesting and truly unpredictable this year, as will the conference championship tournaments that will precede the Big Dance.
Kansas is the new No. 1 team this week, back for the second time in the top spot. The Jayhawks were No. 1 in the USA Today coaches’ poll on Week 9 Jan. 4), while Oklahoma occupied the top spot in the AP Top 25. Following the Sooner loss in the triple-overtime thriller with Kansas, the Jayhawks assumed the No. 1 ranking in both polls, only to fall out over a week later when they were upset at Oklahoma State.
That’s pretty much the way things have been going this season among teams ranked at the top of the college basketball rankings.
On Jan. 25, Oklahoma was back on top of the rankings in the AP poll and second to North Carolina in the USA Today weekly rankings. After reclaiming the top spot in the land – at least according to the media, the Sooners lost at Kansas State, barely escaped a second straight loss, beating Texas at home on a buzzer-beating winning shot by Buddy Hield and then fell in back-to-back games at home against Kansas and at Texas Tech.
For the last few weeks, it seemed as if every time the Sooners lost a game, one of more of the teams behind them in the national spotlight. No question that has saved grace for Oklahoma. Otherwise, we could easily be looking at a Sooner team that was outside of the top 10 and just hanging on for a possible three seed in the NCAA Tournament.
After keeping Oklahoma on his top line for the past few week, despite the Sooners losing three out of six games, ESPN “Bracketology” expert finally moved the Sooners down this week to a No. 2 seed.
Oklahoma still has an outside shot a regaining one of the four top seeds, but to do so, the Sooners would have to win their final two regular-season games and probably beat Kansas or win the Big 12 conference tournament to receive any consideration.
Rounding out the AP Top 10 this week are: 2. Michigan State, 3. Villanova, 4. Virginia, 5. Xavier, 6. Oklahoma, 7. Miami (Fla.), 8. North Carolina, 9, Oregon and 10. West Virginia. Baylor is No. 19, Iowa State 21 and Texas 24.