Past failures handicap Sooners in first-round elimination against Huskies

Oklahoma played hard and tough, but also like a team with no recent history in the bracket because previous conference dives kept it from getting there

Oklahoma huddles during its NCAA tournament first-round loss to UConn. (OU Athletics Photo)

They played fairly well.

For a team that shot 32.1 percent from the field, making 17 of 53 attempts, in the ways that we have come to define Oklahoma men’s basketball during the Porter Moser era, they played fairly well.

The No. 9-seed Sooners fell 67-59 to No. 8-seed and defending national champion Connecticut Friday night in Raleigh, N.C., making OU’s first NCAA tournament stay since 2021 a short one, yet there was good stuff to be had.

The Sooners played defense.

Their shots not going down, they got to the free-throw line over and over again, 27 times in all, making 22, and though one of the misses belonged to Mohamed Wague with 9:03 remaining, the 2-pointer he canned before being awarded the free toss put OU on top 47-46.

So, after trailing the whole game, the Sooners actually led.

Also, after Jeremiah Fears, who led both teams with 20 points, made two charities with 4:28 remaining, OU was within a point, 57-56, still with every chance to win.

The Sooners did not wilt.

They did not do the things in their return to March Madness that have defined their play in four straight conference seasons, three in the Big 12 and one in the SEC, the first three of which kept them out of the tourney.

They did not disappear.

They kept playing.

They found life at the end of their season, finally reached the bracket and played a hard and tough game they might have won.

They left it on the court.

Good for them

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