Oklahoma basketball: Sooner men holding steady on NCAA Tourney 9 line
By Chip Rouse
With less than a month to go before the field is set for the 2020 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the men’s Oklahoma basketball team remains a nine seed, according to Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology projections.
CBS Sports bracketologist Jerry Palm projects the Sooners as an eight seed, if the final selections were today.
This despite a 17-point loss to Kansas on Saturday. Losing to the No. 3 team in the country on their home floor, even by 17 points, isn’t considered a bad loss, given all the factors involved. The Sooners go from facing No. 3 Kansas to a home matchup on Tuesday night against the country’s No. 1 team, the Baylor Bears.
Given that Baylor is expected to win — the 23-1 Bears are 8-0 in true road games this season — Oklahoma’s NCAA Tournament resume probably won’t be affected that much, unless, of course, the Sooners were to get blown out by, say, 25 points or so.
Oklahoma Sooners Basketball
The game that follows Baylor, however, a Bedlam battle against Oklahoma State, would be a completely different matter were OU to lose that game.
Oklahoma’s February schedule — arguably one of the most difficult among teams from major conferences — includes nine games, five at home and four on the road, four against ranked teams and one against a team (Texas Tech) ranked 26th in both major weekly polls this week.
The Sooners are five games into the February gauntlet and stand 3-2, including a victory over then-No. 13 West Virginia that is largely responsible for elevating Oklahoma to the nine line in Lunardi’s projected tournament seedings.
Through five February games. OU is averaging 74.4 points to 69.0 for the opponents. Oklahoma’s three wins have been by an average margin of 17.4 points. The two losses (to Texas Tech and Kansas) have been by an average of 12.5 points.
The Sooners still have February games left with Oklahoma State (there), Texas Tech (at home) and West Virginia (there).
Beat Baylor and OU should move into the “likely in” category and out the of “work to do” designation. Add Baylor and Oklahoma State to the victory column, and with a victory against a ranked team already on the books, the Sooners can all but punch their NCAA Tournament ticket.
Lose to Baylor, but with wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, Oklahoma is likely in, but might also have to win a game in the Big 12 Tournament to close the deal.
Oklahoma probably needs to win four of its final six regular-season games to feel comfortable about making it into the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive seasons and the seventh time in nine seasons under head coach Lon Kruger. That means beating Baylor, West Virginia or Texas Tech to go along with winnable games over Oklahoma State, Texas and TCU.
Work still to do? You betcha!