Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma basketball: Sooner men will face brutal January in Big 12

By Chip Rouse

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 22: Kristian Doolittle #21 of the Oklahoma Sooners shoots against Devontae Shuler #2 of the Mississippi Rebels in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 22: Kristian Doolittle #21 of the Oklahoma Sooners shoots against Devontae Shuler #2 of the Mississippi Rebels in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Oklahoma basketball will face a brutal stretch in January, and we’re not talking about the weather conditions at that time of year.

The 2019-20 Big 12 schedule was announced earlier this week, and the Oklahoma men will play four of the top five teams from last year’s conference standings in their first six league games, and three of them are on the road.

The Sooners, who finished 20-14 overall and 7-11 and tied for seventh place in the Big 12 a year ago, will open the conference season on Saturday, Jan. 4, hosting the co-champion Kansas State Wildcats at Lloyd Noble Center.

The following week, the Sooners travel to Texas for a Red River Showdown with the archrival Longhorns, and then to Iowa State, where the Sooners have not won a game since 2011, and that one required overtime. Oklahoma has lost in its last eight visits to Hilton Colisem in Ames, Iowa. The average score of those eight consecutive losses at Iowa State is 81-70.

And that’s just the start of it. The Sooners return home the week of Jan. 13 for back-to-back home games against probable league favorite this season, Kansas, followed by TCU. Then its off to Baylor and K-State to finish off league play in the month of January.

Oklahoma does not play the first of its two Bedlam basketball series games with Oklahoma State until Feb. 1, almost a month into the league schedule and does not face conference co-champion Texas Tech for the first time until Feb. 4. The first of the two rivalry game with OSU is in Norman and will be carried nationally by ABC. It is the only Big 12 game that network will broadcast all season.

According to the ESPN College Basketball Power Index, the Sooners’ schedule has been one of the seven toughest in the country the last five seasons.

Oklahoma will open the 2019-20 season at home against the University of Texas-San Antonio on Nov. 5. The Sooners will get tested early, playing seven of its first 10 games away from the Lloyd Noble Center. They will play Minnesota on a neutral floor in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, then travel to Portland, Oregon, where they will square off with Oregon State as part of the Phil Knight Inviatational.

OU will play Stanford Nov. 25 in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, followed by either Missouri or Butler the following night. The Sooners also will play nonconference games at Wichita State and Creighton in December.

In addition to announcing its conference schedule for 2019-20, the Big 12 also announced the pairings for the seventh annual Big 12/SEC Basketball Challenge. Oklahoma will host Mississippi State on Jan. 25. The Sooners are 4-2 in the Challenge series, but are 0-3 all-time against Mississippi State. Both teams appeared in last season’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.

This will be Lon Kruger’s ninth season as OU head coach and his 34th as a college head coach. The former two-time All-Big Eight performer for Kansas State has been at Oklahoma longer than any of his five previous coaching stops.

Home/OU Football