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Oklahoma basketball: Joe Lunardi moves OU to NCAA Tourney 9 line

By Chip Rouse

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Jarrett Culver #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders holds the official game ball in the first half against the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Jarrett Culver #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders holds the official game ball in the first half against the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Nothing is definitive until Sunday when the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament selection committee comes out with the official tournament bracket, but the Oklahoma basketball team appears to be safely in and trending upward.

Both ESPN bracketology wizard Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm, who does the same number crunching for CBS Sports, project the Sooners as a No. 9 seed in their latest NCAA Tournament projections.

That brings the Oklahoma men’s team back full circle to where Lunardi, for one, had OU projected on Nov. 15, just a couple of weeks into the college basketball season. By Jan. 24, the Sooners stood at 3-3 against Big 12 opponents and had dropped to the 11 line in Lunardi’s March Madness tournament projections and having to endure a play-in game to make it into the official 64-team tournament field.

A month later, on Feb. 24, Oklahoma was 6-8 in the Big 12, mirred in a three-game losing skid and in real danger of playing its way out of the NCAA Tournament.

Since that time, however, the Sooners have been slowly working their way back in a northerly direction in terms of their postseason tournament plans.

With three wins over top-25 ranked teams in the last month and victories in three of its last four regular-season games, has strengthened it NCAA Tournament resume and appears at this point to be safely in the field.

Oklahoma would be making its third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and sixth appearance in the last seven seasons. As a No. 9 seed in 2019, the Sooners defeated No. 8 Ole Miss 95-72. The year before that, in 2018, OU lost as a No. 10 seed to No. 7 Rhode Island.

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