Oklahoma basketball: ESPN’s Jay Bilas rates OU as 5th-best Big 12 team
By Chip Rouse
You are what your record says you are, and right now the Oklahoma basketball record says the Sooners are the third best team in the Big 12.
In putting together his analysis and ranking of what he cites as the 68 best college basketball teams in the country right now ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas must have experienced a sense of withdrawal.
When was the last college basketball season when teams like Kansas, North Carolina and Bilas’ beloved Duke weren’t anywhere to be found among the nation’s top 25 teams? And then there’s Kentucky, one of the college basketball blue bloods. What in the world has happened to John Calipari’s Wildcats? Bilas doesn’t even have them in his top 68.
We know Bilas is not particularly enamored with Big 12 basketball — aside from perhaps Kansas, that is. He also apparently doesn’t believe the Oklahoma men’s basketball team is who its record say it is this season.
The Sooners defeated four top-10 teams in the month of January, including three in succession, and the week before last they jumped 15 spots in the Associated Press poll, from 23rd all the way up to No. 9. It was the first time an Oklahoma basketball team had cracked the top 10 since the Trae Young team in January 2018.
Bilas has Oklahoma 17th in his 68-team ranking. Moreover, he has four Big 12 teams ranked ahead of the Sooners: No. 2 Baylor, No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 13 Texas and No. 15 West Virginia.
“The Sooners have developed into a very tough out,” Bilas writes. “It has been a very simple formula: Oklahoma takes care of the ball, protects the paint and demands you make tough shots. It does all this without fouling you and letting you shoot free throws.”
For the record, Bilas has Kansas 26th, North Carolina 40th and Duke 50th. No, this is not a misprint. They are what their record says they are this season.