Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma basketball: Joe Lunardi latest to reward Sooners’ rocket rise in rankings

By Chip Rouse

Jan. 4, 2011; New Orleans, LA, USA; ESPN logo prior to the 2011 Sugar Bowl between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Louisiana Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
Jan. 4, 2011; New Orleans, LA, USA; ESPN logo prior to the 2011 Sugar Bowl between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Louisiana Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Porter Moser’s men’s Oklahoma basketball team has been on a steady rise up the rankings since the opening tip of the 2023-24 season a month ago.

In the last 30 days, the Sooners have gone from unranked to No. 25, to No. 19, and this week all the way to No. 12 in the Associated Press national rankings.

Oklahoma, picked to finish 12th out of 14 teams in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, may have used that at motivation to prove wrong the Big 12 coaches and anyone else doubting how good they might be this season.

All this group of Sooners, mostly newcomers, have done is run off nine straight wins to open the season, including victories over Iowa, USC, Providence and Arkansas. They are one of eight teams, including three out of the Big 12, that remain unbeaten in Division I college basketball.

Related Story. ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects OU as NCAA Tournament No. 9 seed. light

In another week, OU will get its toughest test yet, going up against 9th-ranked North Carolina. Win or lose that game, the Sooners have made a resounding statement that they are a team to be reckoned with this season.

Prior to the start of the season, hardly anyone had Oklahoma making the NCAA Tournament field for what would be a third consecutive season. ESPN “Bracketology” expert Joe Lunardi was among those prognosticators who had the Sooners looking in from far outside the 2024 tournament field.

Here’s where it gets really fun if you’re an Oklahoma basketball fan. Three weeks ago, the Sooners showed up for the first time in Lunardi’s 2024 NCAA Tournament bracket projections, but just as one of the last few at-large teams to get in. Two weeks ago, after OU had beaten both Iowa and USC to win the championship of the Rady Children’s Invitational. Lunardi moved the surging Sooner team to the No. 9 line in his tournament projections.

That brings us to the most recent edition of Lunardi’s rolling 2024 Bracketology, issued on Dec. 12. You might want to bookmark this for later in the season, but for right now Lunardi has those out-of-sight, out-of-mind Oklahoma men penciled in as a No, 4 seed, which would make the Sooners one of the top-16 teams in the tournament.

A long way still to go, but it’s good to see the men’s Oklahoma basketball program more than holding its own, even if it is still very early in the season. The Sooners have four more nonconference games scheduled before opening conference play at the LLoyd Noble Center on Jan. 6 against Iowa State.

Home/OU Basketball