Oklahoma basketball: What went wrong for the Sooners against Texas?

Oklahoma Basketball suffered a fourth consecutive loss Thursday night, this time at the hands of their hated rival, the 15th-ranked Texas Longhorns.

The Longhorns (16-7, 8-5) avenged their 80-79 loss to the Sooners back in late January in a bit of a back and forth matchup. Oklahoma went down double digits at one point in this game, eventually taking the lead for a short time with a little over seven minutes remaining in the contest.

Unfortunately for the Sooners, the Longhorns were able to fend off the Oklahoma off the comeback attempt.

This loss clinches the No. 7 seed in the BIG 12 Tournament for the struggling Sooners and undoubtedly will have major NCAA Tournament implications as far as seeding.

Oklahoma is going to have to right the ship fast as it heads into the conference tournament, especially with March Madness right around the corner.

The Sooners had trouble stopping Andrew Jones and Jericho Sims as they logged in 16 points each for Texas. Austin Reaves had 16 points as well for Oklahoma, but shooting 4 of12 is not the percentage you want to see from OU’s leading scorer and the Big 12’s second-leading scorer..

Brady Manek added in 13 points but only hauled in two rebounds in the game for the Sooners. Alondes Williams matched Maneks’13 points on 5 of 11 shooting in 29 minutes.

This skid for Oklahoma is concerning, but if this team can get back to form in the Big 12 Tournament the Sooners should make some noise during March Madness.

The four-game losing streak, after winning eight of nine, has Oklahoma at the seeded No. 7 in next week’s Big 12 Tournament, which is in marked contrast to 10 days ago when OU occupied second place in the Big 12 standings.

Three big takeaways from the regular-season finale loss the Texas:

The Sooners gave a poor performance from three-point range

In a game of basketball that is now based around your ability to make the three-point shot, allowing Texas to shoot 61 percent from three -point range (5 of 9) does not translate to winning basketball.

Oklahoma shot three of nine from long range, but the Sooner shot an abysmal one of eight from behind the three-point line (12.5 percent) in the second half.

Every team is going to have cold nights from time to time, but to have a total team decline from three-point range against a top-25 opponent is not a good look at the moment.

Brady Manek shot made three of six three-point attempts and was the only real bright spot for the Sooners in terms of three-point shooting. The OU guards need to step up from behind the arc if the Sooners are going to advance to the quarterfinal round in the Big 12 Tournament.

Oklahoma did not capitalize enough on Texas’ mistakes

The Sooners won the turnover battle by a wide margin 11-3, losing with that difference is shocking, to say the least.

Nine points off of 11 turnovers are just not enough if Oklahoma wants to take down top-25 teams like they had no issue doing earlier in the season.

Eight steals to Texas’ one is an impressive defensive performance, but capitalizing off of that is just as important.

Great teams do not just force turnovers, they create fastbreak opportunities and get easy buckets on the other end — creating offense from defense. Oklahoma created just nine points off of the 11 Texas turnovers.

The Sooners lost the crucial battle on the glass

Texas big man Jericho Sims made his presence known down low in this rivalry matchup. The senior added 12 rebounds to his 16 points, leading to a 36-29 rebounding advantage for the Longhorns.

Austin Reaves led Oklahoma with six rebounds as a guard, which is not a winning formula against a team with size like Texas.

This is one of those games in which boxing out and positioning becomes even more important for someone like Brady Manek. It is hard to expect a 12-rebound performance from him against Texas, but two is a bit disappointing.

The rebounding advantage was most likely going to end up in Texas’ favor, but not being able to make up in other areas made this category hurt much more.

So what now heading into Big 12 Tournament and postseason play?

A matchup against Iowa State in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament may prove to be what the Sooners need to get back on the winning track, but the problem is the Cyclones have been playing better the second half of the season and aren’t that far off from winning their first league game of the season. If Oklahoma plays the way it did against Texas, the Sooners may not be able to escape the first round in the conference tournament.

This game should not be an issue for Oklahoma as long as the Sooners take Iowa State seriously and return to the way they played in January and early February.

Revenge against teams like Texas and Oklahoma State is possible depending on how the tournament plays out, but taking it one game at a time is more important for Oklahoma.