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Oklahoma basketball: Sooners on doorstep of cracking the Top 25

By Chip Rouse

Dec 11, 2021; Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks guard JD Notae (1) tries to block a shot by Oklahoma Sooners guard Elijah Harkless (55) during the second half at BOK Center. Oklahoma won 88-66. Mandatory Credit: Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 11, 2021; Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks guard JD Notae (1) tries to block a shot by Oklahoma Sooners guard Elijah Harkless (55) during the second half at BOK Center. Oklahoma won 88-66. Mandatory Credit: Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports /
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Half of the 10 Big 12 teams are ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 this week, and Oklahoma basketball is on the doorstep of making it six.

The Sooners, who are likely to be 10-2 this time next week sit in the No. 26 position among teams receiving votes, just behind No. 25 Texas Tech.

Oklahoma has one game remaining in December, on Wednesday at home against 1-10 Alcorn State, and then is off until New Year’s Day, when the Sooners will begin the new year and the  opening of the Big 12 schedule, entertaining Kansas State at Lloyd Noble Center.

The Sooners began the current season far off the radar, and with good reason, having undergone a coaching change following the retirement of Lon Kruger after last season and with just four scholarship players returning from OU’s 2020-21 roster.

Under new head coach Porter Moser, however, Oklahoma has been a pleasant surprise, averaging 75.0 points a game while holding its 11 opponents to 60.4 points a contest. Two of the Sooners nine wins have been against opponents ranked in the nation’s top 25. Florida was ranked 14th in the country when Oklahoma beat them 74-67. Ten days after that, the Sooners defeated 12th-ranked and undefeated Arkansas 88-66.

Those two wins over ranked teams out of the SEC have provided the fuel behind OU’s rise in the voting in both the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll. The Sooners are a tidge farther back in the Coaches Poll, where they received the 30th most votes this week, but still well within striking distance of breaking into the top 25.

The schedule gets much tougher for Oklahoma and all of the Big 12 teams when conference play begins after the first of the year. The Sooners’ next three conference games after Kansas State, for example, are against top-ranked Baylor, No. 9 Iowa State and No. 18 Texas. The games with Baylor and Texas are on the road. Two-games after that they host No. 7 Kansas.

Based on the projections of ESPN “Bracketology” czar Joe Lunardi, Oklahoma is on a trajectory that would have the Sooners making the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in the last nine years the tournament has been held (it was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic). Lunardi currently has OU projected as a No. 8 seed.

The difficulty of the schedule speaks for itself, but it’s good to know the new-look Oklahoma men are getting some much-deserved recognition on the national stage, even if it is still very early in the season.

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