The Oklahoma Sooners will start February against another ranked opponent.
The Sooners will host the surging No. 24 Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center.
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Vanderbilt is the second of five-straight ranked teams OU has on its schedule. The Sooners just started that tough stretch with a 75-68 loss to No. 13 Texas A&M on Tuesday night in College Station, Texas.
The Commodores just barely debuted in this week's Associated Press Top 25 after a recent surge. Vanderbilt has won three of its last four with upsets over then-9 Kentucky and then-No. 6 Tennessee. Both of those wins were at home, though, as the Commodores are 1-2 in road games during SEC play.
The Sooners still haven't seemed to figure things out against conference competition. After getting through nonconference unscathed at 13-0, OU started its first SEC slate 0-4.
OU beat SEC bottomdwellers South Carolina and Arkansas in back-to-back outings to end the losing streak, but then got back to losing against Texas A&M earlier this week.
Another loss Saturday to Vanderbilt could pop the Sooners' NCAA Tournament bubble.
Vanderbilt is the only Quadrant 2 game OU has during this five-game span against ranked teams. On paper, this is the Sooners' best chance of winning one over the next two weeks, but a loss wouldn't be a good foreshadowing of what's to come.
The Sooners will need everything they can get from their dynamic duo in senior forward Jalon Moore and freshman standout Jeremiah Fears to get a win.
Moore leads OU with 18.2 points a game and has scored at least 20 points in three of the last four games. Fears, though, didn't score a single bucket in OU's last outing against the Aggies.
Junior guard Jason Edwards leads Vanderbilt with 17.3 points a game.