Oklahoma basketball: Sooners reveal 2022-23 nonconference schedule
By Chip Rouse
With the Oklahoma football season opener just days away, not many of us have Oklahoma basketball on our minds, but that season is all that far off either.
On Thursday, the Sooners announced what the nonconference portion of their 2022-23 hoops season will look like, and it is far from a walk in the park with some top teams on the docket.
In addition to the always tough 18-game Big 12 schedule, Oklahoma is schedule to play 13 games with teams outside of the conference.
The Sooners open the season on Oct. 25 at home against Sam Houston State and follow that with three more consecutive games at the Lloyd Noble Center over a period of eight days: Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Nov. 7, UNC-Wilmington on Nov. 11 and South Alabama on Nov. 15.
Oklahoma will make its first road trip of the season Nov. 24-27 to play in the ESPN Events Invitational near Orlando, Florida. That eight-team tournament includes a formidable field consisting of Nebraska, Florida State, Memphis, Ole Miss, OU, Seton Hall, Siena and Stanford. The Sooners will open against former Big 12 rival Nebraska, a team against which OU owns a 104-83 all-time record. The following day, they will play either Memphis or Seton Hall.
Porter Moser’s Sooner team won’t get much of a break after the ESPN tournament, having to go to Philadelphia to take on perennially highly ranked Villanova on Dec. 3 as part of the Big 12/Big East Challenge. These two teams have met five times previously, with Villanova holding a 3-2 edge.
The Sooners also have nonconference contests scheduled with the Florida Gators on Dec. 20 in the inaugural Jumpman Invitational at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Then, on Jan. 28, Oklahoma will host Alabama in the Big 12/SEC Basketball Challenge. The Sooners are 6-3 all-time against the Crimson Tide in basketball. including a 66-61 win the last time these two teams played in Norman in 2020-21.