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Oklahoma basketball: Lon Kruger’s 5 worst Sooner losses

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - FEBRUARY 17: Head Coach Lon Kruger of the Oklahoma Sooners questions a call with a referee during the game against the Texas Longhorns at Lloyd Noble Center on February 17, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Longhorns defeated the Sooners 77-66. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - FEBRUARY 17: Head Coach Lon Kruger of the Oklahoma Sooners questions a call with a referee during the game against the Texas Longhorns at Lloyd Noble Center on February 17, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Longhorns defeated the Sooners 77-66. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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HOUSTON, TEXAS – APRIL 02: Jordan Woodard
HOUSTON, TEXAS – APRIL 02: Jordan Woodard /

#1 – Villanova 95, Oklahoma 51, April 2, 2016

Every college team wants to make it to the Final Four and still be playing on the last weekend of the NCAA Division I college basketball season. No team, however, wants to go on record as suffering the worst defeat in the history of Final Four. That’s what Lon Kruger’s Oklahoma Sooners had to walk away with after a 95-51 shellacking by Villanova in the 2016 NCAA Basketball Championship.

The game started out as a back-and-forth affair in the early going, but then Villanova broke away on a 21-4 first-half run and the rout was on.

All you need to know about this debacle of a game – which not only goes down as the largest margin of defeat in Final Four history, but also the worst defeat for an Oklahoma basketball game under Lon Kruger – is the shooting percentage of the two teams. Villanova was on fire, shooting a red hot 71 percent for the game(77 percent in the second half), while OU shot just 32 percent.

Buddy Hield, the Big 12 and national player of the year, made just 4 of 12 shots and ended the game with only eight points.

What made this loss even harder to stomach, OU had beaten Villanova by 23 points, 78-55, much earlier in that season.

After blowing out the Sooners, Villanova advanced to the national championship game, where the Wildcats beat North Carolina 77-74 to become national champions.

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