The 120th season of Oklahoma men's basketball is in the books with the Sooners finishing with a 21-16 record and missing the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in the five seasons Porter Moser has been head coach.
Oklahoma has won a total of 46 national championships across seven different sports, but men's basketball -- arguably the second most popular of OU's 19 sanctioned programs by revenue and fan interest -- has never reached that exalted point in college sports.
The Sooners have come very close twice, with five Final Four appearances and making it to the national championship game in 1947 and again in 1988, but finished as runner-up both times. Oklahoma lost out to Bob Cousy and the Holy Cross Crusaders in 1947.
In 1988, many believed the national championship game was the Sooners' to lose, but No. 6-seed Kansas and "Danny (Manning) and the Miracles" managed to pull off the improbable upset, 83-79, and put a devastating wrench in Oklahoma's best chance to date of winning a national title in basketball.
It's been a decade since Oklahoma last fielded what would be considered a legitimate championship-level team. That was the 2015-16 team led by Buddy Hield. The recent run of mediocre Oklahoma teams makes it easy to forget and much easier to long for a return to the success of the 1980s and '90s and through the early 2000s.
The history of Oklahoma men's basketball, however, has hardly been one of mediocrity. The Sooners have had 93 winning seasons in 120 years of basketball and only 24 losing seasons all-time. Fifty-six of Oklahoma's past 75 seasons, or 75%, have been on the plus side of .500 and by considerable margins over the quarter century from 1981-82 through 2005-06. The Sooners have made 34 NCAA Tournament appearances, which places them in the top 20 of all NCAA Division-I teams.
Kelvin Sampson never had a losing season at Oklahoma in 12 seasons as head coach (1995-2006). Billy Tubbs, the winningest Sooner hoops coach of all-time, had one losing year in 14 seasons at Oklahoma (1980-1994). That was in his first season in Norman when OU went 9-18.
With quite a few quality Oklahoma basketball teams over the past 75 years, we've taken on the challenge of recognizing and ranking the top 10 OU men's teams over that time span.
Top 10 Oklahoma men's basketball teams of the past 75 years
10. 1988-89
In the year following Oklahoma's best season of all-time and an appearance in the national championship game, Oklahoma won the Big Eight regular-season title for a second straight year. This was the second year that Stacey King and Mookie Blaylock were together and the Sooners delivered another 30-win season (30-6), but they were only able to advance to the Sweet 16.
9. 2002-03
The 2002-03 team earned a ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance for Kelvin Sampson. Many of the players on Oklahoma's 2001-02 Final Four team, including the high-scoring guard trio of Hollis Price, Ebi Ere and Quannas White, returned for this season. Price averaged 18 points and earned his second All-America selection. The Sooners finished with an overall record of 27-7 and advanced to the Elite Eight, where they lost to a Syracuse team that featured super freshman Carmelo Anthony.
8. 2015-16
The 2015-16 season was the last time an Oklahoma team made it as far as the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament. That team was led by All-American and National College Player of the Year Buddy Hield. That team was 29-8 overall. OU averaged over 80 points a game that season and featured a starting lineup with four starters who averaged over 10 points a game and made 104 consecutive starts together over three seasons. Oklahoma was a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where it went on to win the West Regional over Oregon and advance to the Final Four. The Sooners' season ended, however, in a loss to Villanova in the national semifinals.
7. 1983-84
Oklahoma captured its first Big Eight regular-season title under Billy Tubbs in 1984 in his fourth season at the helm. It was Wayman Tisdale's second season at OU. Tisdale averaged 27 points a game that season as he and freshman Tim McCalister led Oklahoma to a 29-5 overall record and just the school's sixth NCAA Tournament appearance. Unfortunately, the Sooners didn't make it past the opening round of the tournament. Tisdale, however, was a consensus All-America selection for a second consecutive season.
6. 2008-09
This was head coach Jeff Capel's third season at Oklahoma. Behind the dominant play of college basketball's National Player of the Year, Blake Griffin, the Sooners started the season winning 25 of their first 26 games, the best start in Oklahoma basketball history, and a No.1 national ranking. OU finished the season 27-5 and advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to North Carolina. Griffin was the first player taken in the 2009 NBA Draft.
Read more: Blake Griffin admits Oklahoma almost lost him to blue-blood dream
5. 1989-90
The 1989-90 Oklahoma team was the fifth-best Sooner team of the modern era, if not all-time. The Sooners were Big Eight regular-season champions with a 30-6 overall record and a 12-2 mark against conference opponents. This OU team went on a remarkable late-season run, beating two No. 1-ranked teams (Missouri and Kansas) within two days of one another to take over the No. 1 spot for itself. Led by seniors Skeeter Henry (17.3 points a game) and William Davis (16.8 points a game), the Sooners went into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed. The dream season came to a surprising end, however, in the second round, when the Sooners lost to No. 8 North Carolina.
4. 1984-85
This was all-time OU great Wayman Tisdale's third and final season at Oklahoma before becoming the second overall selection in the 1985 NBA Draft. Oklahoma's all-time scoring leader averaged 25 points and 10 rebounds a game in leading the Sooners to a 31-6 record and into the Elite Eight that year, when their season ended in a two-point loss to then-Memphis State. Tisdale was backed up by a talented supporting cast that included Daryl "Choo" Kennedy (16.0 points per game), Anthony Bowie (13.0 ppg) and Tim McCalister (13.0 ppg).
3. 1946-47
This was head coach Bruce Drake's best OU team in his 17 seasons leading the program. Led by All-American and National Player of the Yeasr Gerald Tucker, Oklahoma's 24 wins were the most in program history at the time. This was also the first Oklahoma team to play in the national championship game. The Sooners fell to Holy Cross 58-47 in the national title game and have made it to the final game only one other time since then.
2. 2001-02
With an overall record of 31-5 and a Final Four appearance for what at the time was only the third time in school history, this season was Kelvin Sampson's best team in his 12 seasons as head coach. OU was 13-3 in Big 12 play and finished second to Kansas, which also advanced to the Final Four in 2002. The Sooners' leading scorers this season were All-American Hollis Price (16.5 points per game), Aaron McGee (16.0) and Ebi Ere (14.6 ppg). Both OU and Kansas lost in the national semifinals, eliminating the possibility of a 1987-88 rematch between the Sooners and Jayhawks for the national championship.
1. 1987-88
This may be the best team in Oklahoma basketball history. Coached by the legendary Billy Tubbs, the 1987-88 team posted 35 wins (35-4), the most in one season by any Oklahoma men's team. The starting five included All-Americans Stacey King and Harvey Grant, and future All-American Mookie Blaylock.
The Sooners not only won the Big Eight regular-season championship, but also the conference postseason tournament. No. 1-seeded Oklahoma made it all the way to the national championship game in 1988, only the second time in school history that OU had advanced that far, but suffered a heart-breaking 83-79 loss to underdog Kansas. Four members of this Sooner team were selected in the NBA Draft. Grant was a first-round pick in 1988, King and Blaylock were first-round selections the following year, and guard Ricky Grace went in the third round in 1988.
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