Terrific Saturday, Sooner men still face long road to dance a second straight season
Here’s all that can be said about Porter Moser’s Oklahoma men’s basketball team Saturday afternoon.
Pretty much, the Sooners did all they could do, and yes, if you were catching them for the first time, opening day in SEC play, darned if you might think they’re Moser’s best team already.
OU (11-3, 1-0 SEC) prevailed 86-70, leading the vast majority of the game, pulling away in the second half of the second half.
By the end, Ole Miss (8-6, 0-1 SEC), which reached the Sweet 16 only last season under the second-year direction of the much traveled and widely despised Chris Beard, appeared uninterested, tired and beaten.
OU never slowed down, even if it took bad shots the first several opportunities it had to break the game open. As it was, the Sooners finally led by double digits when Xzayvier Brown canned two free throws to make it 75-64 with 5:26 remaining and kept going from there.
Believe me, I’m not inclined to argue any Moser-coached squad played great unless it really did and it did against the Rebels.
OU shot 51.7 percent (31 of 60), 39.3 percent (11 of 28) from 3-point land and made 10 of 12 free throws.
Shooting like that, the Sooners were crazy efficient, turning the ball over just seven times, which might be repeatable given the guard play of Brown and Nijel Pack, the former having transferred in from St. Joseph’s and the latter from Miami after beginning his collegiate journey way back in 2020 at Kansas State.
OU entered averaging 9.4 turnovers, 11th in the nation, best among SEC units.
Brown led the Sooners with 23 points on 8 of 11 shooting and 4 of 5 3-point shooting.
Pack, who leads the team in 3-point attempts by a wide margin, lived in the lane, coming up with a potpourri of teardrops, floaters and difficult layups, finishing with 15 points on 7 of 11 shooting, 7 of 8 when not shooting 3s.
Tae Davis netted 15 points on 5 of 8 shooting to go with six assists and a best-on-the-team plus 24 over his 29 minutes on the court.
Mo Wague was pivotal, scoring just 10 points, but grabbing 15 rebounds and rejecting three shots, each one at the rim, finishing plus 21 over his 29 minutes
Then there was Kuol Atak, who may become a folk hero, given his long, lanky 6-foot-9, 190-pound frame and the beautifully quick and high-arching 3-point attempts it produces. Atak netted 14 points on 4 of 9 3-point shooting and a sweeping, thundering dunk out of a half-court set on a drive that began at the arc.
It was something.
By all means, OU looks like a team quite capable of making hay in the SEC.
The only problem?
It must do exactly that to reach a second straight NCAA tournament because Oklahoma State aside, an impressive victory Dec. 13 in Oklahoma City, the Sooners haven’t beaten anybody.
In every previous non-conference slate since Moser arrived, OU downed several capable teams, like Florida and Arkansas in the coach’s first season; Nebraska, Ole Miss and Florida in his second; Iowa, Southern Cal and Arkansas in his third; Providence, Arizona, Louisville and Michigan last season.
This time, it’s just the Cowboys, who’ve been receiving votes in the polls, but whose NCAA NET rating is 76 and whose RPI is 57.
OU’s NET is 52 and its RPI 107, primarily because its strength of schedule, among 365 Division I programs, ranks 279th, even with No. 7 Gonzaga, No. 13 Nebraska and a fair enough Arizona State team on it, a trio of Sooner losses by scores of 83-65, 105-99 and 86-70.
Against that backdrop, OU’s high point has been playing Nebraska so close. The Huskers, now 14-0, topped No. 9 Michigan State on Friday.
Its lowest point, follow me here, is the mere five-point lead, 43-38, it held over Mississippi Valley State with 18:54 remaining Dec. 29 in Norman. It must be because the Delta Devils’ only victory came against the Mississippi University for Women — its men’s team, of course — which does not play in the NCAA, nor the NAIA, but the United States Collegiate Athletic Association, which I previously did not know existed.
You can look it up.
The 6-12 conference mark the Sooners rode into the NCAA tournament last season won’t be near enough this one. Horror of horrors, the Sooners might need an actual winning conference record to get there, something they’ve yet to attain since Moser took over before the ’21-’22 season.
On Wednesday, OU’s at Mississippi State (9-5, 1-0), which just beat Texas (8-5, 0-1) and the Bulldogs are just the kind of team the Sooners must beat on the road to be a player in their league.
Mississippi State’s NET is 109, well back of OU, and its RPI 80, in front of OU.
It’s the same deal three days later at Texas A&M (11-3, 1-0). The Aggies’ NET is 65 and their RPI 102.
A 3-0 start in conference play would be huge for OU with No. 22 Florida visiting Jan. 13 and No. 14 Alabama arriving Jan. 17.
Play like they played against Ole Miss, and 5-0 is within reach.
Don’t, and it’s a mess.
The Sooners look good.
They must keep looking good.
The weak non-conference schedule point is really sharp here. 86-70 sounds dominating but that NET of 52 with a strength of schedule at 279th tells the real story about where OU actually stands. I followed Kansas State through a similiar situation a few years ago where they looked great early but didn't have the resume to back it up when selection time came. Those two roadgames at Mississippi State and A&M just became must-wins.