Maintaining his spot as the NCAA's No. 3 active leader in career scoring, Oklahoma guard Nijel Pack eclipsed 2,200 career points while leading the OU men's basketball team to an 83-67 win over LSU on Saturday night in Baton Rouge.
Pack has been old reliable for the Sooners all season, leading the team while averaging 16.1 points per game. Saturday was no different as he recorded 21 points and four assists, including a 5-for-11 clip from three-point range. It was the ninth time this season that he has eclipsed the 20-point plateau. He now has the aforementioned 2,213 career points to go along with 410 career three-point field goals, which tops college basketball among active players.
Nijel Pack and Xzayvier Brown spark belief Sooners desperately needed
While Oklahoma's 15-14 record (5-11 in the SEC) doesn't scream "NCAA Tournament team," the ESPN broadcast noted bracket expert Joe Lunardi currently has Oklahoma between 80 and 90 in his Bracketology. With the Sooners having won four of their last six games heading toward March Madness, there's reason for optimism, starting with the SEC Tournament in Nashville on March 11-15.
But first things first, Oklahoma faces rivals Missouri for Senior Night on Tuesday and Texas in Austin on Saturday to close the regular season.
Wins over one or both of those teams would go a long way in building a tournament résumé. The for-sure path is pretty clear-cut at the end of the day, though. Oklahoma needs to run the table in Nashville to earn the automatic bid and secure its spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The Sooners' success may very well start and end with Pack and his tag team partner Xzayvier Brown, who had 20 points of his own Saturday on 6-for-10 shooting. If Pack and Brown can put together a run of nights like these, then Oklahoma may indeed have a dance that seemed unlikely for most of the season.