There's hope around the corner, Sooner fans. It's just not for the listing ship that appears to represent the fate of Oklahoma football this season.
The college football season is barely a month old, but basketball is hot on the horizon. For Oklahoma men's basketball, official practice sessions in preparation for the 2026-27 season began this past week.
Football will always be king at Oklahoma, but in the early going this season, the metaphor seems more applicable to that of the court jester. As a result, some Oklahoma fans have begun looking ahead to the basketball season much earlier on the calendar than would ordinarily be the case.
On paper, the 2026-27 edition of Oklahoma men's basketball may be the most promising in Porter Moser's six seasons as the Sooners' head coach. The roster for the coming season, which officially tips off at home at Lloyd Noble Center on Nov. 2 against visiting East Texas A&M, features a veteran group of four returning Sooners, two of whom were starters, eight new transfers, and a pair of talented freshmen.
OU brings back a veteran core combined with what appears to be the best transfer class under Porter Moser
Starters Xzayvier Brown and Derrion Reid return for another season along with Dayton Forsythe and Kai Rogers. Both Brown and Reid are in their second season with the Sooners.
Brown, a 6-foot-3 guard and one of the SEC's top point guards, was Oklahoma's second-leading scorer last season, averaging 15.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game. A 6-foot-8 forward, Reid started all 37 games for the Sooners as a sophomore and averaged 11.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per contest.
Forsythe, the only native Oklahoman on the roster, gives OU another veteran guard coming off the bench, and Rogers adds reserve depth and physicality in the frontcourt, a major limitation for Moser's teams the past couple of seasons.
Oklahoma's impressive group of incoming transfers includes former Villanova big man Duke Brennan, an All-Big East selection who averaged 12.4 points and 10.3 rebounds last season, and shot 66% from the field. Moser said the 6-foot-10 Brennan brings the combination of size, toughness, skill, and a competitive edge that will enable him to have an immediate impact in the Sooner lineup.
The Sooners have also added guards B. J. Edwards, Pop Issacs, and Tyler Hendricks, each of whom, like Brennan, is in his fifth year of collegiate basketball as a result of the NCAA one-time 5-in-5 rule granted to members of the 2022 class.
Edwards began his collegiate journey at Tennessee but played the last three seasons at SMU, where he averaged 12.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game last season while shooting 47.4%. He was a two-time selection to the All-ACC defensive team. Issacs is a collegiate journeyman, playing with his fourth college team. He was at Texas A&M last season and averaged 9.8 points, including 40 percent on the three-ball and 1.8 treys per game.
Hendricks is a long-range marksmen who averaged 11.8 points at Utah Valley State last season. A career 42% three-point shooter, Hendricks shot 44.8% from behind the arc last season, which was one-tenth of a percentage point better than Nijel Pack was from that distance for OU last season. Pack finished fourth in Division I in three-point percentage last season.
Adding to Oklahoma's frontcourt size, length, and rim presence in the coming season is Louisville transfer Khani Rooths and Yaak Yaak from Oregon State. Rooths comes to OU as a 6-foot-10 power forward after two seasons at Louisville. He has two years of eligibility remaining and averaged 5.3 points and 4.3 rebounds coming off the bench for the Cardinals last season.
Yaak, a 6-foot-11 senior, will provide needed depth and physicality on the interior for the Sooners. He averaged 6.6 points and 2.2 rebounds in one season at Oregon State and shot 51% from the field and 83% at the free-throw line.
True freshmen Quincy Wadley, a 6-foot-5 guard, and Gage McDonald, a 6-foot-7 forward, round out the Sooner roster for the 2026-27 season. Wadley was the No. 43 player overall and the highest-rated recruit in the time that Moser has been head coach at OU, according to 247Sports. He is the highest-rated Oklahoma signee since Trae Young in 2017. McDonald, another highly regarded prospect, was ranked 89th overall, according to the 247Sports Composite
Oklahoma is coming off a 2025-26 season in which it finished with a 21-16 record overall and 7-11 in its second season as a member of the SEC. The Sooners are 95-75 in five seasons under Moser, but just 32-56 in conference play (three in the Big 12 and two in the SEC). Oklahoma has just one NCAA Tournament appearance during Moser's time in Norman (a first-round loss to Connecticut in 2024-25).
Purdue and SMU are the only NCAA Tournament teams from last season on Oklahoma's 2026-27 non-conference schedule. It will be a much different story, however, when the Sooners begin conference play. OU will play all 16 SEC teams at least once this season, and 10 of the 16 were participants in March Madness this past spring.
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