The Oklahoma men have one more nonconference game remaining this season and needing one more win to reach double digits before heading into the grueling grind of the SEC schedule.
The Sooners are 9-3 overall and 4-1 in December after defeating the Stetson Hatters out of the Atlantic Sun Conference in record-setting fashion on Monday. OU scored a season-high 107 points in a 53-point, 107-54 win with six Sooners, including all five starters, scoring in double figures. The Sooners shot a school-record 67.8% while recording the victory.
OU will close out the year and first half of the season with a home game at Lloyd Noble Center on Monday against Mississippi Valley State.
Daunting SEC slate around the corner for the Sooners
A win against MVSU would give the Sooners double-digit wins against nonconference opponents for the fourth time in Porter Moser's five seasons as head coach and for the second season in a row. OU started out 13-0 last season before beginning conference play.
Oklahoma ranks 43rd in the ESPN Men's College Basketball Power Index, 54th in the KenPom rankings and 61st in the NCAA NET rankings. It would appear the Sooners have some work to do if they want to make the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year and 34th overall.
ESPN Bracketology wizard Joe Lunardi currently has nine SEC teams making the 2026 NCAA Men's Tournament, but listed OU as one of the first four teams left out of the 68-team field, along with Villanova, Boise State and Virginia Tech. The Sooners were a No. 9 seed in last year's tournament, but lost to No. 8 UConn 67-59 in the first round.
Oklahoma's next three games are against teams from the state of Mississippi. The Sooners begin the conference portion of their schedule immediately after the first of the year, hosting Ole Miss on Jan. 3. That contest will be followed by a road game at Mississippi State.
The Sooners opened their first season of SEC basketball a year ago losing their first four conference games and finished the month of January with a 2-5 league record. The rest of the season wasn't much better. Oklahoma went 4-7 against conference opponents the rest of the way to finish with a 6-12 conference record.
With eight new players on the roster who weren't around last season, the OU is hoping for a much better start in league games than was the case last season, but the January schedule appears as daunting as it did a year ago.
The eight teams Oklahoma will face in January (Ole Miss, at Mississippi State, at Texas A&M, Florida, Alabama, at South Carolina, at Missouri and Arkansas) were a combined 188-95 overall last season. South Carolina was the only team in that group with a losing record (12-20) in 2024-25.
OU will play every conference team at least once this season and will face Texas, Texas A&M and Missouri twice. All nine SEC teams that will play in Norman this season participated in last season's NCAA Men's Tournament, including Final Four participant Auburn and national champion Florida.
This should make for some exciting SEC games at the LNC this winter as the Sooners seek to follow their football brethren by advancing to postseason play for a second consecutive season.