Oklahoma basketball: OU starting to gain some hoops national attention
By Chip Rouse
Men’s Oklahoma basketball was not nationally ranked to start the season, and the Sooners didn’t do themselves any favors by losing its season-opening game.
After rebuilding practically an entire roster in his first season as the Sooners’ head coach a year ago, Porter Moser added eight newcomers as replenishment for the 2022-23 roster.
The Sooners failed to make the NCAA Tournament last season, and a number of college basketball experts had them on the outside looking in again this season, largely because of the major roster turnover and the loss of two of their leading scorers (Umoja Gibson and Elijah Harkless) to the transfer portal.
The 2022-23 edition of Oklahoma men’s basketball was picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 Preseason Men’s Basketball Poll, which was right where they finished a year ago with a 7-11 conference record (19-16 overall).
Despite this, Joe Lunardi, the ESPN college basketball expert who projects the NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket on a rolling basis throughout the season, had the Sooners as a 10 seed and one of the last four byes to make this 2023 tournament field in his initial Bracketology forecast to start the season.
That ranking was short-lived, however, as Oklahoma dropped out Lunardi’s tournament field projections after losing its season opener to Sam Houston State.
Since then, the Sooners have won six straight games, including three in capturing the championship of the ESPN Events Invitational Tournament this past weekend.
Four Big 12 teams are ranked this week in the Associated Press Top-25 rankings, including three in the top 10, and five other teams, including Oklahoma received votes.
Oklahoma’s rebound from its season-opening loss also has caught the attention of Lunardi, who in his latest Bracketology projections has the Sooners on the No. 8 line.
That’s a huge positive development from where Oklahoma was earlier this month. It’s still very early in the season, but Moser has the Sooners playing with good chemistry, confidence and for each other. They’ll need all of that, and perhaps a little Sooner Magic, against their next opponent, Villanova, in Philadelphia on Saturday.