Earlier this week, the No. 1 Auburn Tigers showed off why they're the best college basketball team in the country against the Oklahoma Sooners. But then on Saturday, the Sooners played the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers, and then the Volunteers also looked like the top team in the nation.
Auburn and Tennessee are both great teams, but it might be the common denominator there.
The Sooners lost to Tennessee 70-52 on Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center. That score actually looks prettier than what it was after the Sooners had a late 7-0 run in the final minute once the game had turned into a junior varsity scrimmage. Tennessee's 45 points in the first half was the most it scored all season in a half.
It was OU's fourth of five straight games against ranked teams and second top-5 opponent of the week. This is a tough stretch for OU and worth an excuse for losing three of the last four, but it proved the level these Sooners are really at.
The Sooners' only win so far during this stretch was blowing out then-No. 24 Vanderbilt 97-67 last week. The Commodores are no longer in the Associated Press Top 25 after the loss to OU dropped them out.
Of the five currently ranked SEC teams OU has played this season, the Sooners have lost by an average of 16.6 points. Texas A&M, which the Sooners have played twice already, is the only team OU has gotten within single digits of.
Against top-10 teams, which would exclude the Aggies, the Sooners' average margin of defeat is 24.7 points. OU lost to then-No. 5 Alabama by 28, No. 1 Auburn by 28 and No. 4 Tennessee by 18 on Saturday.
As the SEC is like a Royal Rumble this season in men's basketball, the Sooners haven't even punched back in heavyweight matches. Even South Carolina, winless in conference play at the bottom of the SEC, has been within single digits of beating a top-15 team four times, including a three-point loss to Auburn.
The Sooners have the talent to compete now. They have a projected NBA Draft lottery pick in freshman Jeremiah Fears, and he's not even the best player on the team with Jalon Moore leading the way.
In matchups it's sure the Sooners have more talent, they win. It's when there needs to be more is when there are problems.
When the Sooners need to outplay or Porter Moser needs to outcoach, blowouts happen.
This is not an ask that these Sooners should be slaughtering top-10 teams on a nightly basis. These are expectations that a team wanting to get into the NCAA Tournament to compete for a national title should at least look like it belongs on the same court as the best.
Right now if the Sooners went dancing, they would stand in the corner waiting for someone to ask.