Oklahoma basketball: Notable numbers of seismic 6-week surge
By Chip Rouse
No men’s team outside of Nos. 1 and 2 Gonzaga and Baylor has had a more productive or resurgent past six weeks than the Oklahoma basketball team.
Since Jan. 12, the Sooners are 8-1 with wins over three teams ranked in the top 10 and four in the top 15. The one loss was to then-No. 13 Texas Tech by five points on the road.
Oklahoma broke into the Associated Press Top 25 on Jan. 25, at No. 24. It was the following week before the 62 Division I head coaches who make up the voting panel for the weekly Coaches Poll recognized the Sooners as a top-25 team.
OU was No. 14 the week of Feb. 1 in the Coaches Poll, but rocketed all the way up to No. 9 in the AP poll that week.
This week Oklahoma sits No. 7 in the AP poll and No. 8 in the Coaches Poll. That is the Sooners’ highest national ranking in basketball since the week of Jan. 16, 2018, when they were ranked No. 4 in the nation in the AP Top 25.
Here are some of the notable numbers during Oklahoma’s sensational six-week journey since the second week in January:
5 — Wins by Oklahoma over teams ranked in the top-10 this season, all coming since Jan. 2.
9 — Oklahoma’s average margin of victory in its eight wins in nine games since Jan. 12.
15 — The number of spots Oklahoma advanced in one week’s time this season in the Associated Press poll, from No. 24 to No. 9, the largest in program history. I’m not sure, but it may be the biggest jump in the national rankings factoring in all Oklahoma athletic programs.
18.2 — De’Vion Harmon is averaging 12.4 in 19 games this season. In five games between Jan. 12 and Jan. 30, however, all Oklahoma wins, the sophomore guard averaged 18.2 points.
19 — Transfer guard Elijah Harkless averages just 7.1 points a game, but he scored a team-high 19 points in Oklahoma’s 79-72 win over Iowa State on Feb. 6. He also had a monster game in the win over Kansas State on Jan. 19, scoring eight points along with 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals.
20 — Since Jan. 19, Oklahoma has shot as many as 20 free throws in a game five different times, and made at least 15 free throws in four of the five games.
20.6 — Austin Reaves scoring average in his past five games, all Oklahoma wins.
28 — Austin Reaves’ 28 points in OU’s double-overtime win at West Virginia on Feb. 13 is the third most points scored by a Sooner player this season. Reaves also owns the highest single-game scoring output for the season, scoring 32 in OU’s Big 12 opener against TCU on Dec. 6.
36 — The Sooners largest victory margin this season. Oklahoma defeated TCU 86-46 at home on Jan. 12, the first of what has been eight wins in the last nine games.
50 — In his last five games, North Texas transfer Umoja Gibson has averaged 50 percent from behind the three-point line (17 of 34) and averaged 13.6 points per game.