For the fourth time in head coach Porter Moser's five seasons at Oklahoma, the Sooners will head into the new year and conference season with double-digit wins. The second half of the 2025-26 campaign for Oklahoma tips off on Saturday with the Sooners hosting SEC foe Mississippi.
The 10-3 Sooners are hoping to make it back to the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season and the 35th time in program history, but according to ESPN's Joe Lunardi, OU has some work to do to achieve that season goal.
In his latest Bracketology projections, Lunardi has the Sooners as the last team to get into this year's 68-team tournament. That's just a one-spot improvement over Lunardi's preseason outlook for Oklahoma, which had the Sooners as the first team to be left out of the tournament.
Sooners host Ole Miss in SEC season opener
Oklahoma's second SEC season begins on Saturday with a home showdown at Lloyd Noble Center against visiting Ole Miss. The Rebels come to Norman with an 8-5 record. Four of their five losses have been away from home, affording the Sooners an excellent opportunity to grab a win in their conference opener and get off to a quick start in league play, unlike last season when they lost their first four conference games.
Saturday's game will be just the seventh meeting all-time between the two teams. The series is tied at three games apiece. Ole Miss evened up the all-time series, winning 87-84 victory last season in Oxford.
Oklahoma has won eight of its last nine games, including all seven games played at Lloyd Noble Center this season. Ole Miss began the season with five consecutive wins, then dropped four in a row, but has won three of its last four. The two teams have one common opponent this season in Alcorn State. The Sooners posted a 72-53 win over the Braves in late November. Ole Miss won 79-43 over the same team earlier this week.
The Sooners head into their second season of SEC play with a team scoring average of 87.4 points per game, their highest in the first 13 games since the 2017-18 season. Four of OU's five starters are scoring in double digits, led by transfers Nijel Pack with 16.3 and Xzayvier Brown at 15.4.
Pack is one of the best 3-point marksmen in the country, averaging 3.6 made 3-balls per game, second-best in the SEC and 10th-best nationally. The Miami transfer has made at least three 3-pointers in 10 of his 13 games this season and four 3-pointers seven times. He is the first Sooner since Buddy Hield in 2015-16 to make at least three 3's in six straight games.
Six times in their 13 games, the Sooners have scored at least 90 points. Moser credits the team's ability to take care the ball as a prime factor for Oklahoma's success on the offensive end. The Sooners rank ninth nationally, committing only 9.4 turnovers per game. This is a notable positive change from recent seasons. Now we'll see if they are able to keep it up as the competition gets tougher.
This will be the second game since Oklahoma's signing of 6-foot-11, 240-pound, 23-year-old Russian Kirill Elatontsev, who has one semester of eligibility remaining. Elatontsev had six points and four rebounds in 18 minutes in the Sooners' win over Mississippi Valley State on Monday. Before signing with OU, he played for Lokomotiv Kuban in the VTB United League, considered the top tier of Russian professional club basketball.
Like Oklahoma, the Ole Miss roster is largely made up of newcomers from the Transfer Portal. Four of the Rebels' starters are in their first season at Ole Miss. So far this season, the Rebels have hung their collective hats on strong defense. They average 74.6 points a game as a team and are holding opponents to 66.5. The Rebels have used their length and athleticism to average 5.1 blocks per game, 28th-best in the country.
Ole Miss' leading scorers are 6-foot-9 forward Malik Dia, a transfer from Belmont who is averaging 14.5 per game, and 6-foot-5 guard AJ Storr with 11.5 on his fourth team and last playing for Kansas.
The game on Saturday is scheduled to tip off at 2:30 p.m. CT and will be available for viewing on SEC Network.
Stat watch
Ole Miss is 8-0 this season when the Rebels lead at halftime. The Sooners are 9-0 when leading at the half. Something has to give in this game.