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OU Basketball: Oklahoma Enters Postseason Headed in Positive Direction

The Sooners have put themselves in March Madness position, pending today's SEC Tournament opener against Georgia.

Guerin Emig

Oklahoma guard Kobe Elvis
Oklahoma guard Kobe Elvis / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
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Around the time Oklahoma was blown out at Florida for a fifth consecutive SEC loss and 3-10 conference record, Sooners coach Porter Moser cleared the deck. 

“Two or three weeks ago we were talking about our mission statement,” Moser said Monday during his pre-SEC Tournament press briefing. “We wanted to play better basketball, to win games and to get in the NCAA Tournament.”

The Sooners have played better since their 85-63 nadir in Gainesville back on Feb. 18. They have won three of their last five games, and put themselves in position to make their first NCAA Tournament since 2021, Lon Kruger’s final season in charge. 

Play well again in Wednesday’s 8:30 p.m. SEC Tournament opening-round matchup against Georgia, and OU should expect to win again. One more win should just about clinch an NCAA bid, given Georgia’s No. 30 NET ranking and the potential, therefore, for the Sooners’ seventh Quad 1 victory of the season.

It will not be easy. Nothing is easy in the SEC. OU went to the mat to beat Mississippi State 93-87, Missouri 96-84 and Texas 76-72 over the past 18 days. 

The No. 14-seed Sooners must work just as hard to beat 11-seed Georgia inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena Wednesday night. 

SEC Tournament

Bridgestone Arena, Nashville

WEDNESDAY

  • Game 1: 9-seed Arkansas vs. 16-seed South Carolina, noon (SEC Network)
  • Game 2: 12-seed Vanderbilt vs. 13-seed Texas, 2:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
  • Game 3: 10-seed Mississippi State vs. 15-seed LSU, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
  • Game 4: 11-seed Georgia vs. 14-seed Oklahoma, 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

THURSDAY

  • Game 5: 8-seed Ole Miss vs. Game 1 winner, noon (SEC Network)
  • Game 6: 5-seed Texas A&M vs. Game 2 winner, 2:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
  • Game 7: 7-seed Missouri vs. Game 3 winner, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
  • Game 8: 6-seed Kentucky vs. Game 4 winner, 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

FRIDAY

  • Game 9: 1-seed Auburn vs. Game 5 winner, noon (ESPN)
  • Game 10: 4-seed Tennessee vs. Game 6 winner, 2:30 p.m. (ESPN)
  • Game 11: 2-seed Florida vs. Game 7 winner, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
  • Game 12: 3-seed Alabama vs. Game 8 winner, 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

SATURDAY

  • Semifinal 1: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, noon (ESPN)
  • Semifinal 2: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 2:30 p.m. (ESPN)

SUNDAY

  • Championship, noon (ESPN)

“They just won four in a row. Four in a row in the SEC,” Moser said of the Bulldogs. “Silas Demary, their point guard, in the last five games he’s up six points in his point average. He’s at 19 a game in this stretch. He is really playing at a high level. 

“They rebound so well. They’re so big and physical. They’re just playing at a high clip, very, very confident.”

The Bulldogs are more confident about March Madness than the Sooners. They are safely in the 68-team field according to bracketologists Joe Lunardi of ESPN and Jerry Palm of CBS. 

OU is among Lunardi’s “Last Four In” and facing a First Four play-in game in his mock bracket. The Sooners await the same fate according to USA Today’s NCAA projection. They are an 11-seed in Palm’s bracket and in Mike DeCourcy’s at Fox Sports.

Winning Wednesday takes care of a lot of conjecture. That means changing the result from Jan. 11, the day OU lost 72-62 at Georgia. 

“We kind of beat ourselves in a sense,” OU leader Jalon Moore said Monday. “I don’t think we were as connected as we are now.”

“I think the outcome will be different the second time around,” Jeremiah Fears said.

Fears can do a lot to assure it is different. He shot 1-for-11 and had more turnovers (4) than points (2) Jan. 11 in Athens. 

Though he didn’t shoot well at Texas last Saturday, Fears did contribute nine free throws and four assists while limiting his turnovers to two. When Moore and teammate, Brycen Goodine, Duke Miles, Glenn Taylor and Luke Northweather all scored in double figures, OU took a giant step toward its most important win of the season.

“To win in this league you’ve gotta have multiple guys producing,” Moser said.

That will certainly be the case this week in Nashville, starting Wednesday night.

“We’re playing together, we’re playing tough, we’re believing. And I think that’s what you want,” Moser said. “You want to be playing your best basketball in February and March.”

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Guerin Emig
GUERIN EMIG

Guerin is a 25-year Oklahoma sports journalist. He spent the bulk of that time with the Tulsa World, where he partnered with Sooners On SI publisher John Hoover on the OU beat before eventually becoming a columnist. He lives in Tulsa with his wife, Christy, his sweetheart from Booker T. Washington's Class of ‘86.

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