Just hours before Oklahoma’s 91-90 victory in the double extension over West Virginia on Saturday – which completed the Sooners’ season sweep over the Mountaineers – the NCAA tournament selection committee signaled its confidence in the men’s basketball team. OR listing the program as a 3-seed in the first top-16 bracket reveals of the season.
For the Sooners, who also have victories over Texas and Alabama, Saturday’s result could boost the program to a higher seed line, while giving coach Lon Kruger the advantage in the race for the national coach of the year.
That’s why Saturday’s victory seemed like an announcement to the rest of the country: Oklahoma is real, your coach is one of the best in the country, and a strong ending to the program at the NCAA tournament seems viable.
Kruger is his coach’s favorite coach, a worker with a career defined by consistency. He and Tubby Smith are the only coaches in Division I basketball history to lead five different programs for the NCAA tournament. His success during the 2020-21 season, however, highlighted some of his best work.
Kruger has trained several stars, including Trae Young and Buddy Hield, in Oklahoma in recent years. But this group does not have a player with the proud profile of those highlights, which makes this feat even more impressive. Kruger is doing this with Austin Reaves, the Wichita State protractor who leads the team with averages of 15.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists. He has De’Vion Harmon, a former four-star recruit who is a more efficient scorer today compared to the shaky freshman we saw a year ago. Brady Manek, who arrived with Young’s class, made 38% of his attempts at 3 points.
The Sooners also have the lowest turnover rate in the Big 12 game, by KenPom, and they are keeping the opposing teams in a 45.5% drop in arc in conference matches as well.
Oklahoma was chosen 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 the state of Ohio, with five wins over the Associated Press’s top 15 teams, according to the ESPN Stats & Information poll.
Second place in a league led by an undefeated Baylor team is a significant position. The committee had five big 12 teams – none named Kansas – in its first revelation among the top 16.
The league spotlight focused on Baylor’s rise and Kansas’s fall. Between these two stories is the reality that the race for second place on the Big 12 is one of America’s most fascinating events. The fact that Oklahoma has placed itself in a comfortable position on top of that pile says a lot about the strength of the program.
In a year in which absolute dominance by Baylor and Gonzaga’s undefeated squads downplayed our collective use of the phrase “candidate for national title” as a label for any team operating outside Spokane, Washington, and Waco, Texas, Oklahoma emerged as a program this is more than just a good story.
The Sooners continue to prove they are a threat to reach the Final Four in Indianapolis.
With only one defeat since Jan. 9, Oklahoma is sailing – and the country is starting to notice.