Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners ‘First Four Out’ in Latest Bracketology

Apparently the Oklahoma basketball loss at then No. 17 Wisconsin last weekend was more costly than first thought.

The Sooners were not expected to win on the road at Wisconsin, but they also weren’t expected to lose by 20 points. The contest was extremely close for about 30 minutes. The Badgers led by two with less than 11 minutes remaining in the game, but over the last half of the second half, the Sooners were buried in an avalanche as Wisconsin out-hustled, outplayed and outscored OU by a count 28-10 to win going away, 90-70.

It was only Oklahoma’s second loss in eight outings this season, but easily the worst of their two defeats (they lost by six points to Northern Iowa in the Tire Pros Invitational in Orlando in mid-November).

A week ago at this time (before the Wisconsin game), ESPN’s Bracketology guru, Joe Lunardi, had the Sooners projected as a 10 seed in the 2017 NCAA Basketball Tournament. In the latest Brackektology  projections, Oklahoma has dropped from a 10 seed all the way out of the 68-team field to the grouping referred to as the “First Four Out.”

I’m not sure what happened in a week’s time to send the Sooners falling like a rock outside of what Lunardi views as the projected 68-team tournament field as of today. Of course there is a lot of season remaining for Lon Kruger and the guys to rectify all of this and prove Lunardi and other college basketball wonks wrong, but it is like a right hook to the jaw to a school that went to the Final Four last season.

OU is joined in the shunted “First Four Out” grouping by Temple, California and Seton Hall.

TCU, one of six Big 12 teams that Lunardi has making the 2017 NCAA Tournament, is off to an 8-1 start in 2016-17, and was the biggest mover among Big 12 teams in the Bracketology projections this week. The Horned Frogs were “On the Bubble” in last week’s Bracketology, but are all the way up to a 10 seed this week.

TCU, the lowest seeded of the Big 12 teams in the current Bracketology projections, appears to have been rewarded for its 74-59 win this week over SMU, which Lunardi has a March Madness 11 seed.

The Horned Frogs, under new head coach Jamie Dixon, were projected by the Big 12 coaches in the annual preseason Big 12 poll to finish last in the conference in the current season. TCU has finished last in three of the four years It has been a member of the Big 12 Conference and the Horned Frogs have won only a combined eight conference games during those four seasons.

Here are the six Big 12 teams Joe Lunardi has making the NCAA Tournament in this week’s Bracketology report and how he projects their seedings (season record in parentheses):

1 – Kansas (8-1)

1 – Baylor (8-0)

4 – West Virginia (7-1)

6 –  Iowa State (6-3)

10 – TCU (8-1)

12 – Oklahoma State (6-2)