If as a Sooner fan you're experiencing great disappointment of the Oklahoma performance in football in its first season in the SEC, you probably shouldn't get your hopes up for a much different result in men's basketball.
At least that's how the media that cover the SEC see the coming season playing out in the 2024-25 SEC Preseason Men's Basketball Poll. Oklahoma, which welcomes 11 newcomers to the roster in head coach Porter Moser's fourth season at the helm is picked to finish 15th out of the 16 teams that make up the league.
Only Vanderbilt is picked to finish behind the Sooners, who were 20-12 overall and 8-10 in their final season in the Big 12. Even Missouri, which failed to win a conference game last season (0-16) is ranked ahead of OU, picked to finish 13th. Meanwhile, the favorite to win the SEC men's basketball race this season, Alabama, will be Oklahoma's opening SEC opponent in the Sooners inaugural season competing in their new conference.
The Sooners have missed the NCAA Tournament is all three seasons under Moser, who unfortunately has had to practically overhaul the full roster every one of those seasons because of graduation and the transfer portal. OU returns just two starters from last season, F/C Sam Godwin and F Jalon Moore.
Additionally, no Oklahoma Sooner was selected for any of the preseason All-SEC teams, which include 15 players from 11 different SEC teams.
Oklahoma opens it 2024-25 season at home on Nov. 4 against Lindenwood, a small private school near St. Louis and out of the Ohio Valley Conference
Projected order of finish for this season for SEC men's basketball: 1. Alabama, 2. Auburn, 3. Tennessee, 4. Arkansas, 5. Texas A&M, 6. Florida, 7. Texas, 8. Kentucky, 9. Ole Miss, 10. Mississippi State, 11. South Carolina, 12. Georgia, 13. Missouri, 14. LSU, 15. Oklahoma, 16. Vanderbilt.