The 12th-ranked Oklahoma men will put their undefeated record on the line when they travel deep into SEC country for a top-10 showdown on Saturday against No. 5 Alabama.
The Sooners (13-0) began the new calendar year with their fourth-best start in program history and their best since going 12-0 to begin the 2015-16 season. OU also debuted inside the top 10 of the USA Today Coaches Poll this week.
Alabama comes into Saturday's SEC home opener with an 11-2 record, marred only by a pair of losses to two other ranked teams (Purdue and Oregon). The Crimson Tide began the season as the No. 2 team in both the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 and in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Oklahoma leads the all-time series with the Crimson Tide 7-3, but the Sooners lost the last two times they played in Tuscaloosa (70-55 in 2007 and 80-73 in 2018).
As was the case with OU's football schedule in its inaugural SEC season. the Sooners will face a similarly formidable gauntlet in basketball. Alabama is one of seven teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 that Oklahoma will face this season. And the Sooners will play No. 13 Texas A&M twice.
How to watch
When: 5 p.m. CT Friday
Where: Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Watch: SEC Network
Need to know
Alabama
Alabama is a veteran team with four graduate starters joined by true freshman guard Labaron Philon. The Crimson Tide advanced to the Final Four last season, and several members of that team, including two starters, are back for this season.
The Crimson Tide lead the SEC and rank No. 1 nationally, averaging 90 points a game.
Second-team AP All-American Mark Sears is one of three Alabama starters averaging at least 12 points a game and leads all Bama scorers at 18 a game, which is also sixth best in the SEC. Forward Grant Nelson averages 13.2 points and leads the team in rebounding with 8.6 per game, and the freshman Philon, the SEC Freshman of the Week following a season-high 21-point performance in Alabama's previous game against South Dakota State, averages 12.4.
Alabama ranks third in the country in 3-point attempts, averaging 32 per game. The Crimson Tide average around 30 points per game off of 3-point shots They made a season-best 19 of them in the win over South Dakota State.
One of the best rebounding teams in the SEC, Alabama has been particularly tough on the offensive boards, pulling down an average of 14 per game, third best in the SEC.
Oklahoma
The Sooners are led by their big two of senior Jalon Moore and Jeremiah Fears, who is the best freshman to play at Oklahoma since Trae Young in 2017-18.
Fears is averaging 18.1 points a game and Moore averages 17.7. High Point transfer Duke Miles is the third member of the starting five averaging in double figures at 12.2 points a game.
Oklahoma leads the SEC in free-throw percentage, shooting 82% as a team. Three Sooner starters average 82% or better from the charity line: Jeremiah Fears (85%), Jalon Moore (86%) and Duke Miles (82%).
Fears and Miles both rank in the top 10 in the SEC in steals. Both average two per game.
With a win over Alabama, Oklahoma would tie the second-best start in the history of the program. The 1985-86 Sooner team with Darryl "Choo" Kennedy and Tim McCalister won 17 straight games to open the season.
Two years later, the 1987-88 team, led by Stacey King and Mookie Blaylock, started out with 14 consecutive wins. The '87-'88 team went to the Final Four but lost to Kansas in the national championship game.
Prediction
This will easily be Oklahoma's biggest challenge of the season so far. On top of that, it will be the Sooners' first true road game of the season and in a hostile environment that has not been kind to OU in the recent past.
OU cannot afford to start out slow, as it has in a number of games this season, or this game could get away early. This is an improved Oklahoma team, but Alabama has played together longer and is playing at home.
The Crimson Tide hand Oklahoma its first loss of the season