A once promising Oklahoma men's basketball season is circling the drain fast. OU has lost six consecutive SEC games and now must go up against No. 20 Arkansas on Tuesday night at Lloyd Noble Center.
The Sooners' collective confidence has to be near the breaking point. Two of OU's last three losses have been by a combined three points, and the Sooners are coming off of a one-point defeat at Missouri in which they had their hearts ripped out not once, but twice by a pair of buzzer-beating shots at the end of regulation and overtime that literally seized victory from the jaws of defeat for Missouri.
Sooners host Arkansas in midst of SEC losing streak
The Missouri loss will be extremely tough to recover from, and looking ahead to the final third of the Sooners' schedule, things potentially could get much worse before they get better. Seven of OU's final 11 regular-season games are against teams that are currently or have been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 at some point this season.
The Oklahoma season has reached a serious, if not desperate, sense of urgency as OU (11-9, 1-6) gets set to host a Razorback squad that, unlike the Sooners, has won four of its last six conference games. Sooner fans can take some solace in the fact that Tuesday's game is being played in Norman instead of Fayetteville, where Arkansas is a perfect 12-0 this season. The Hogs are a different team away from home, where they have won just once in four games this season with an average score margin of minus-9.6 points.
Arkansas holds a 17-15 advantage in the all-time series against Oklahoma, but the Sooners have won 10 of the last 15 meetings and are 9-3 when hosting the Razorbacks at Lloyd Noble Center. Arkansas' last win in Norman was 74-63 in the 1977-78 season. Oklahoma won last year's game between the two teams 65-62 at Arkansas.
Tuesday night's game with Arkansas will be on ESPN at 6 p.m. CT. Tom Hart will do play-by-play and Dane Bradshaw will provide analysis.
What to know about Arkansas
Arkansas averages nearly 90 points in conference games (87.8) to lead the SEC. The Razorbacks move the ball around a lot in their offensive possessions and take good shots, and they hit a high percentage of them. The Hogs are No. 1 in SEC games in both field-goal percentage (50.2) and in 3-point shooting (8.1 per game and 37%). Their excellent ball movement is reflected in their 17.7 assists per game, third-best in the SEC and 27th nationally.
The Razorbacks are led by a pair of freshman in the scoring column. Freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr. averages 20.2 per game, fourth-best in the SEC. He makes 50% of his field-goal attempts and also is the team's best 3-point shooter, averaging 7.5 per game with 42% accuracy. Backcourt mate Meleek Thomas averages 15.2 per game.
Arkansas likes to get out and run, and can be especially lethal on a steal or defensive rebound. The team is averaging 21.3 fastbreak points per game for the season. Five times this season, the Razorbacks have scored 30-plus fastbreak points in a game.
What to know about Oklahoma
Junior guard Xzayvier Brown is OU's leading scorer, averaging 16.5 points a game, but 18.4 against the Sooners' seven SEC opponents. The former St. Joseph's transfer has scored at least 18 points in nine of his last 11 games. He is averaging 19.2 points in those 11 games, including four games of 20-plus points. Brown's four 20-point games are one shy of the 20-point leader in the SEC this season, former Sooner Otega Oweh of Kentucky, who has five. Brown also leads the SEC at the free-throw line, shooting 91% from the charity stripe.
If you are curious about the longest losing streak by the Oklahoma men in program history, the record is 10 in 1963-64. The Sooners have lost as many as six in a row in 10 different seasons, as many as seven consecutive losses seven times, including twice in 2016-17, eight straight losses in five different seasons and nine losses in a row once in 2010.
The Sooners are 8-2 this season when playing at Lloyd Noble Center. Six of OU's top seven scorers have shot better than 50% from the field in true home games this season. The Sooners have outshot their 10 home opponents 50% to 42% from the field and 38 to 33% from 3-point range.
The average score margin at home for Oklahoma this season is plus-20 in favor of the Sooners (89.9 to 69.8). In the three home SEC games, the average score has been considerably tighter, 83-82, favoring the opponents.
Stat watch
Defense is not a particular strength of either team. The problem is, Arkansas has excellent ball rotation and is better than the Sooners at finding the open shooter. As a result, the Razorbacks are better shooters, individually and as a team, and score at a higher pace than Oklahoma. Arkansas leads the SEC against conference opponents in both points and shooting percentage. The Sooners, on the other hand, rank near the bottom in both categories against SEC teams.
Prediction
As much as I would like to look at this as a trap game for Arkansas against a desperate Oklahoma team playing at home, I'm concerned about the way the Sooners will respond to the improbable and gut-wrenching way the game at Missouri ended on Saturday. OU definitely cannot afford to come out flat and have a poor shooting game against a Razorback team under head coach John Calipari that can run off 20 points faster than you can spell O-k-l-a-h-o-m-a. The Sooners need to enter the final 10 minutes down by no more than five to win this game. Without a good shooting night and a solid points contribution from the bench, I can't see that happening.
Sorry, Sooner fans, Arkansas wins by double digits.