Just hours before Oklahoma’s 91-90 victory over West Virginia at 91-90 on Saturday – which ended the Sooners’ season of mountaineers – the NCAA Test Selection Committee indicated its confidence in OU’s men’s basketball team through the program as a 3 seed in the first top-16 series of the season.
For the Sooners, who also boast victories over Texas and Alabama, Saturday’s result could propel the program to a higher seed line, while also giving head coach Lon Kruger the lead in national coach of the year.
This is why the victory on Saturday felt like an announcement to the rest of the country: Oklahoma is real, its coach is one of the best in the country and a strong finish for the program in the NCAA tournament seems achievable.
Kruger is your favorite coach’s favorite coach, a worker with a career defined by consistency. He and Tubby Smith are the only coaches in the history of Division I basketball to lead five different programs to the NCAA Tournament. However, his success during the 2020-21 season highlighted some of his best work.
Kruger has coached several stars over the past few years, including Trae Young and Buddy Hield. But this group does not have a high profile player that the standouts enjoy, which makes this achievement more impressive. Kruger does it with Austin Reaves, the Wichita State transfer that leads the team averaging 15.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists. He has De’Vion Harmon, a former four-star record who is a more effective scorer today compared to the faltering first-year student we watched a year ago. Brady Manek, who arrived with Young’s class, made 38% of his three-point effort.
The Sooners also have the lowest turnover per Big 12 game, per KenPom, and they also hold opposing teams for a 45.5% cut in the arc in conference games.
Oklahoma was selected to finish sixth in the Big 12 race. Now the Sooners are in second place with a 4-0 record over the three teams (Kansas, West Virginia, Texas) behind them. They are also tied with Ohio State with five wins over the Associated Press’ top 15 teams, according to ESPN Statistics and Information.
Second place in a league crowned by an undefeated Baylor group is a significant position. The committee had five Big 12 teams – none named Kansas – in the first top-16 series.
The spotlight on the league focused on the rise of Baylor and the fall of Kansas. Between these two storylines, the reality is that the race for second place in the Big 12 is one of America’s most fascinating events. That Oklahoma has placed itself at the top of the pile in a comfortable place says a lot about the strength of the program.
In a year when the sheer dominance of undefeated Baylor and Gonzaga groups our collective use of the phrase “national title candidate” as a label for any teams that performed outside of Spokane, Washington, and Waco, Texas, Oklahoma , it appeared as a program. it’s more than just a good story.
The Sooners continue to prove that they are a threat to face the Final Four in Indianapolis.
With just one loss since Jan. 9, Oklahoma is sailing – and the country is starting to mark.