Oklahoma basketball: ‘Bracketology’ likes OU even better after Kansas loss

It will be interesting to see what impact the Oklahoma basketball loss to perennial Big 12 favorite Kansas will have on the Sooners top-25 national ranking?

If you go by what Joe Lunardi, the author of ESPN’s “Bracketology,” is projecting, the Sooners should remain in the top 25 in both major polls (Associated Press and the Coaches Poll) when the new rankings are released on Monday.

At the beginning of the week, Lunardi had Oklahoma as a projected four seed in this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, before the Sooners played at Kansas, one of Lunardi’s four No. 1 seeds (what else is new?). OU didn’t get the win, but they played well enough to strike some concern in the heads and hearts of Jayhawk fans, who saw what was once a 15-point lead dwindle down to just four with just over 30 seconds to go in the game.

In Lunardi’s widely followed analytical view, at least, Oklahoma is a beneficiary of addition by subtraction. Translation: Even with the seven-point loss at Kansas, where the Jayhawks have lost just 16 times in 253 games under head coach Bill Self, the Sooners have advanced to a three seed in Lunardi’s latest projections of the 2019 NCAA Tournament field.

Kansas and Oklahoma are seeded the highest among Big 12 teams at this very early stage of the conference season. Lunardi projects that seven Big 12 teams will make it into the NCAA Tournament this season, the same number as last season.

In an article posted today on the ESPN website, Lunardi wrote this about how many NCAA Tournament bids the Big 12 could expect, given the way things look now:

"“Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech (a projected 4th seed), TCU (projected 7th seed) and Iowa State (an 8th seed) are five locks.“Texas and Kansas State (both projected as 11 seeds) currently sit in the (68-team) field and should remain. If one of both do not, West Virginia and Baylor have enough talent to make a run at an at-large bid.”"

Oklahoma was voted to finish eighth this season in the Big 12 in the annual preseason poll of the league coaches, and virtually none of the college basketball preview magazines had the Sooners projected as an NCAA Tournament team. As things stand today, however, the 23rd-ranked Sooners, off to an 11-2 start) are clearly one of the early surprises, both in the Big 12 and nationally.

In the month of January, OU will play seven more Big 12 opponents (four at home and three on the road, plus host Vanderbilit as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge series. That should give us a much clearer look at where this season is headed for the Sooners men’s basketball program.

But right now, “You’re looking fine, Oklahoma…”