Oklahoma Basketball: NCAA Two Seed Has Been Good to Sooners

Mar 5, 2016; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Buddy Hield (24) speaks with head coach Lon Kruger during the second half against the TCU Horned Frogs at Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 5, 2016; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Buddy Hield (24) speaks with head coach Lon Kruger during the second half against the TCU Horned Frogs at Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports /
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For NCAA Tournament-bound teams, a No. 1 seed is about as good as it gets, but for Oklahoma basketball the two spot in the Big Dance has worked almost as well.

The Sooners are the No. 2 seed in the West Region in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the highest placement in the brackets for a Lon Kruger-coached Oklahoma team in his fifth season as the Sooners head coach.

Mar 1, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lon Kruger reacts to a call in action against the Baylor Bears during the second halt at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 1, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lon Kruger reacts to a call in action against the Baylor Bears during the second halt at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /

The last time an Oklahoma men’s team was seeded as high as No. 2 was in 2009, ironically the same year that Sooner star Blake Griffin was named National Player of the Year, winning both the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award as college basketball’s best player. Fast forward to 2016, and Buddy Hield is in position to duplicate what Griffin accomplished and with a team that also sits in the two spot in the NCAA Tournament.

The 2008-09 OU team, led by the All-American Griffin and coached by current Duke assistant Jeff Capel, advanced to the Elite Eight and the South Region championship game before falling to eventual national champion North Carolina. The Sooners were beaten by a dozen points, 72-60, by the Tar Heels, despite a 23-point, 16-rebound performance by Griffin.

And then there was the 2001-02 Oklahoma team that featured Aaron McGhee, Hollis Price and Ebi Ere. The Sooners were 31-5 that season and the West Region’s No. 2 seed (sound familiar?).

Oklahoma advanced to the West Region final, where the Sooners defeated the 12th-seeded Missouri Tigers to earn a spot in the Final Four, OU’s fourth such appearance in program history. Kansas was one of the four teams advancing to the national semifinals that season, as well.

Mar 10, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Buddy Hield (24) shoots as Iowa State Cyclones forward Georges Niang (31) defends in the second half during the Big 12 Conference tournament at Sprint Center. The Oklahoma Sooners won 79-76. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Buddy Hield (24) shoots as Iowa State Cyclones forward Georges Niang (31) defends in the second half during the Big 12 Conference tournament at Sprint Center. The Oklahoma Sooners won 79-76. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports /

Neither the Jayhawks nor the Sooners made it past the semifinals, however. Oklahoma lost to Indiana 73-64 in the first of the two national semifinals games.

The Sooners have forged a linear progression under Lon Kruger in terms increasing their win total every season and their positioning in the NCAA Tournament field.

Kruger’s first Oklahoma team failed to make it into the tournament field in 2012, but all of his teams since then (2013, 2014, 2015 and this season) have made it into the NCAA Tournament, and their seeding has gotten better every year.

Leading teams into the NCAA Tournament has been a strength throughout Kruger’s coaching career. He is the only NCAA Division I coach to take five different schools (Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV and now the Sooners) to the Big Dance.

In its last three appearances in the NCAA Tournament, Oklahoma has been seeded 10th (2013), 5th (2014) and 3rd (2015), and this season the Sooners’ body of work, as well as the strength of the Big 12, was enough to elevate them all the way to the two line.

In 2013 and 2014, OU was an opening-game casualty. Kruger’s crew was eliminated in the 2013 tournament by higher-seeded San Diego State, but the following year the Sooners were victims of one of those all-too-common 5-12 upsets  , losing to lower-seeded North Dakota State by a five-point margin.

The Sooners registered their first NCAA Tournament win under Kruger a year ago, taking care 0f Albany and Dayton in the opening weekend of the tournament before falling to Michigan State, which went on to win the East Regional title, in the Sweet 16.

If the Sooners continue the progression established under Kruger over the last three seasons, this should be the year that Buddy Hield & Company get to the regional final, where they could face No. 1 seed Oregon, and perhaps even further.

Bear in mind, the last time Oklahoma was a No. 2 seed in the West, it resulted in a Final Four appearance.