Oklahoma men's basketball couldn't buy a conference win in the month of January, and head coach Porter Moser had one foot out the door. Flash forward to the championship month of March, and this Sooners team that was once left for dead with a 1-9 record in conference play enters the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament in Nashville as one of the hottest teams in the league.
Eleventh-seeded Oklahoma (17-14, 7-11) will face No. 14 South Carolina (13-18, 4-14) on Wednesday in the final game of the opening round of the conference tournament. With a win, the Sooners would advance to play Texas A&M.
Sooners get South Carolina in SEC Tournament
Since snapping a nine-game losing streak with a 92-91 road win at Vanderbilt on Feb. 7, Oklahoma has gone 6-2, tied for the third-best record in the SEC over that span. The Sooners are coming off a huge road win over Red River Rival Texas on Saturday that not only extended their current winning streak to four games, but also provided a big boost to their NCAA Tournament chances.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi projected 11 SEC teams to make the NCAA Tournament in his latest update. Oklahoma could be a 12th team, but Lunardi currently has the Sooners among the "Next Four Out." OU probably has to win at least two games in the SEC Tournament to have a chance of making it into the Big Dance, but at least the Sooners have worked themselves into that position, when a month ago it appeared there was absolutely no chance.
Oklahoma lost a road contest at South Carolina on Jan. 17, 85-76, the Sooners' fifth consecutive loss at the time. That meeting was just the seventh all-time between the two teams. OU has a 5-2 record in the series with the Gamecocks. This will be only the third time the two teams have met as members of the SEC.
Wednesday night's SEC Tournament game will be televised on SEC Network at 8:30 p.m. CT. Tom Hart (play-by-play) and Dane Bradshaw (analysis) will call the game.
What to know about South Carolina
Four of South Carolina's five starters average double figures in scoring, with Meechie Johnson (17.3 per game) at the head of the pack. All five Gamecock starters scored in double digits in the win earlier this season over Oklahoma, including 20 by Johnson, who has 12 20-point games this season.
Like Oklahoma, South Carolina went through a nightmare stretch this season in which it lost 10 of 11 games. Coming into the SEC Tournament, the Gamecocks have lost 10 of their final 12 regular-season games.
The Gamecocks rank second in the SEC and 16th nationally in free-throw percentage (78.2%), but they rank last in the SEC in rebounding, averaging a combined 32.5 and just 9.0 offensive boards per game. They are also last in the league in scoring, averaging 75.0 per contest.
South Carolina is 16-2 under head coach Lamont Paris when it shoots 50% or better from the floor, 21-2 when it scores 80 or more points and 29-4 when the opponent shoots below 40%.
What to know about Oklahoma
Oklahoma leads the SEC in conference play shooting 39% behind the three-point line and averaging 9.6 made three-point shots per game.
The Sooners have led for at least 20 minutes in nine of their last 12 games and held double-digit leads in nine of their last 14 games (they won six of the nine). OU closed out the regular-season schedule with four straight wins. The Sooner trailed in those four games a combined 9:37.
Over the last eight games, the Oklahoma reserves have averaged 24.5 points per game, and the Sooners have won six of the eight games. Over those same four games, OU has forced its opponents into an average of 13.0 turnovers per game, converted by Oklahoma into an average of 16.5 points per game.
Senior forward/center Mo Wague has been on a terror the past five games and is playing some of the best basketball of his career. He is averaging 11.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.2 blocked shots, 1.6 steals and has made 21 of 26 free throws (81%).
Winner will face Texas A&M in second round
Whichever team advances from the Oklahoma-South Carolina opening-round SEC Tournament matchup on Wednesday will move on to play No. 6 Texas A&M (21-10, 11-7) on Thursday. OU lost twice to the Aggies during the regular season, 83-76 in College Station on Jan. 10 and 75-71 in Norman on Feb. 21. Texas A&M rolled over South Carolina, posting a 23-point, 92-69 win at home on Jan. 24.
The Aggies split their final eight games of the regular season, going 4-4 down the stretch and were pushed to the limit by last-place LSU in their regular-season finale on Saturday, pulling out a 94-91 victory in three overtimes.
Prediction
I expect this to be a different game than the first meeting this season between OU and South Carolina. For one thing, it is being played on a neutral floor and the two teams are playing much differently than they were earlier in the season. The Sooners clearly have more at stake, and I believe they will use that as extra motivation. Oklahoma wins and advances.