Oklahoma basketball: Sooners get home court and No. 1 seed in NIT

Men’s Oklahoma basketball missed out sneaking into and receiving a low seed in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, they will be a No. 1 seed in the National Invitation Tournament with home-court privileges.

Head coach Porter Moser and the Sooners are disappointed for sure, but don’t expect them to approach their participation in the 32-team NIT — the understudy to the bigger, flashier basketball spectacle that everyone likes to refer to as March Madness — with any less heart or desire to win and advance than they would have as a participant in the bigger brother NCAA Tournament.

The Sooners will host Missouri State, seeded No. 8 in the OU side of the NIT bracket, at 6 p.m. Tuesday night. So they’ll have little time to lament not getting into the NCAA Tournament.

Oklahoma may be a No. 1 seed and playing at home, but they will have their hands full against the Bears of Missouri State. The Bears were the second-place team in the Missouri Valley Conference this season with a 13-5 league record and 23-10 overall.

Interestingly, Loyola Chicago, Moser’s former team, was the automatic qualifier from the Missouri Valley, winning the MVC Championship Tournament over Drake. The Loyola Chicago Ramblers are the No. 10 seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament despite finishing fourth in the regular-season conference standings.

Oklahoma and Missouri State have met three times, with the Sooners winning all three games when the Bears were then known as Southwest Missouri State.

The other three NIT No. 1 seeds are Dayton (23-10), Texas A&M (23-11) and SMU (23-8). Other opening-round games in the Sooners’ side of the bracket include No. 2 North Texas (24-6) vs. Texas State (21-7). No. 3 Mississippi State (18-15) vs. Virginia (19-13) and No. 4 Colorado (21-11) hosting St. Bonaventure (20-9).

The first two rounds of the tournament are played on the campus site of the higher-seeded team. The four teams remaining after the quarterfinal round will advance to the semifinals, which will be played at Madison Square Garden in New York City, as will the championship game, scheduled for March 31.

This will be OU’s seventh appearance in the NIT. The last time they participated in the NIT was in 2003-04. The deepest the Sooners have gone in the NIT is the championship final in 1991 under Billy Tubbs, where they lost to Stanford. Their record all-time in NIT postseason action is 10-7.

Tuesday’s game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

What fans need to know about the OU-Missouri State NIT round-one matchup

• Missouri State led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring offense (77.5 points per game), field-goal percentage (48.4) and free-throw percentage (79.5) and was second in the conference in rebounding (35.3) and three-point field goal percentage (37.4).
• The Bears are led in scoring by 6-foot, 5-inch junior Isaiah Mosley, who averages 20.1 points a game, and 6-foot, 9-inch senior Gaige Prim, who averages 16.4 a game.
• Missouri State’s best three-point shooter, in terms of number made, is Ja’Monta Black with 74 made three-balls this season. Mosley is the best three-point artist in terms of percentage (67 made at 42.8 percent).
• Missouri State is 13-11 all-time against Porter Moser-coached teams (7-9 vs. Loyola Chicago and 6-2 vs. Illinois State).
• Oklahoma was second in the Big 12 in field-goal percentage this season (47.5) and second in free-throw percentage (74.3).
• The Sooners have three starters scoring in double figures — Tanner Groves (12.5), Umoja Gibson (11.8) and Jordan Goldwire (10.5) — and a fourth, Jalen Hill, averaging 9.1.
• If Oklahoma defeats Missouri State, the Sooners will face the winner of No. 4 seed Colorado and St. Bonaventure at the LNC on March 19 or 20.

Prediction

This is a game Oklahoma should win, especially if they play the way they did in the Big 12 Tournament and in winning the final three regular-season games. The Sooners can ill afford a letdown from missing the NCAA Tournament. Oklahoma wins 77-70.