Oklahoma basketball: Sooners’ season comes to an unceremonial close in Big 12 Tourney
By Chip Rouse
Men’s Oklahoma basketball took its final breath in the 2022-23 season on Wednesday night, losing for a third time to Oklahoma State in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament.
A 57-49 loss to its Bedlam rival in Kansas City likely brought to a close an up and mostly down season in head coach Porter Moser’s second season as the man in charge of the OU men’s program.
The Sooners held a brief lead at the start of the game, which was quickly wiped out by an 18-1 Oklahoma State run when OU went cold from the field for an eight-minute stretch.
Oklahoma battled its way back on a 12-0 run of its own to pull within two, 22-20, with just under four minutes remaining in the first half, but that was as close as the Sooners would get the remainder of the way.
The Oklahoma State defense, one of the best in the Big 12, and the Cowboys’ size advantage down low bothered the Sooners the entire game and made it tough to get off clean shots.
Oklahoma suffered its worst shooting game of the season, connecting on just 25.0 percent of its shots in great part due to an aggressive, switching Oklahoma State defense that made it virtually impossible for the Sooners to score down low in the paint.
Playing his last game in an Oklahoma uniform, super senior Tanner Groves posted a double-double, his sixth of the season, scoring 13 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. The Cowboys’ Caleb Asberry was the game’s high scorer with 15 points, including three of OSU’s five made three-pointers.
One of Asberry’s three-balls was launched in desperation from near midcourt with the shot clock about to expire. The shot clanked off the front and back rim, shot straight up in the air above the backboard and came straight down and cleanly through the net to the surprise of everyone in T-Mobile Arena.
It was that kind of night and has been that kind of season for the OU men.
The Sooners finished with an overall record of 15-17. The win may have secured a ticket to the NCAA Tournament for Oklahoma State, which needed the win to make the tournament, according to ESPN resident bracketologist Joe Lunardi. The Cowboys advanced to the second round and a matchup against No. 2-seeded Texas.
This will be the second consecutive year Oklahoma has missed the NCAA Tournament. There is still a slim possibility that the Sooners could get a bid to the National Invitation Tournament.
An NIT rule change allows for teams with a losing record to receive an invite, but the NIT has never had a team with a losing record play in that postseason tournament. OU was a No. 1 seed in the NIT a year ago but lost to St. Bonaventure in the second round.
Three takeaways from Oklahoma’s likely season-ending loss in a Bedlam 3-peat
- Oklahoma shot 25.0 percent for the game, a season low, making just 14 of 56 shot attempts. The Sooners’ previous low was 31.3 percent in a 79-52 loss to TCU.
- Grant Sherfield, Oklahoma’s leading scorer on the season (16.1 per game) was held to just eight points (2 of 14 from the field; 1 of 7 from three-point range).
- The Sooners were outrebounded 49 to 39, including 14 Oklahoma State offensive rebounds that led to 22 second-chance points.