You thought SEC's a football conference?
Hardwood gauntlet Porter Moser's Sooners about to run is absolutely ridiculous
It’s a freaking blender.
That’s what Oklahoma has stepped into not on gridiron, though it may have done that, too, but on the hardwood, where every single SEC men’s basketball program believes it’s an NCAA tournament team.
How can that be?
When the worst record in the entire league is 9-3 and even that team, South Carolina, has a big non-conference win over an ought-to-be tourney team like Clemson, they just do.
Sure, by the time the selection committee has its say, the Big 12 could again reign supreme. Just don’t count on it, because the SEC is flat out ridiculous.
Given coach Porter Moser’s fourth band of Sooners are threatening to be his best by a wide margin, remain unbeaten at a perfect 12-0 and finds itself ranked 12th in the nation, it seems like a good time to look at OU in the context of its league.
In the context of its league it could still be the the program’s finest campaign since Buddy Hield took it to the 2016 Final Four, but it could also be what happened three seasons ago and last season all over again, when it all fell apart, because the SEC is bananas.
How about this.
You know how we used to look at the RPI as a beyond-the-rankings guide to explain how good teams really were? And you know how the RPI has kind of been pushed aside in favor of NET Rankings, which while still not perfect has become the preferred measuring stick the last six seasons?
Well, we did and it was, and both remain to help us make sense of the madness, and using them, the Sooners’ new conference should blow your socks off.
The Nos. 1, 2, 4, 10, 13 and 19 NET teams — Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi State, Kentucky — all plant their flag in the SEC. Simultaneously, that list that does not include the Nos. 12, 13, 16 and 23 ranked teams in the Associated Press Top 25, which are also SEC teams: OU, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Arkansas, which is bonkers.
You know how ridiculous it appears the Sooners were chosen 15th in the SEC preseason hoops poll now that they’ve ascended to the No. 12 ranking?
It’s not quite so ridiculous if NET Rating’s your guide, because OU still trails 11 of its conference rivals on the list: Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Texas and Vanderbilt, none of which have lost more than two games (Alabama, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Texas); four of which have lost only one (Mississippi State, Georgia, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt); three of which, like the Sooners, have lost none (Auburn, Tennessee, Florida).
It should be noted OU’s RPI is higher than its NET, but not much. The Sooners’ RPI is No. 38, good for eighth best in its conference behind No. 1 Auburn, No. 5 Alabama, No. 7 Florida, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 14 Tennessee, No 25 Mississippi State and No. 30 Kentucky.
If you’ve kept count, we’ve thus far mentioned 14 of the SEC’s 16 programs.
Those yet to make an appearance are Missouri (10-2), which just had a 10-game winning streak snapped by 24th-ranked Illinois and whose NET is 45 and RPI is 98; and LSU (10-2), which has only fallen to two two-loss teams, SMU and Pitt, whose NET is 62 and RPI is 84.
Why is OU is being treated so shabbily by the NET and RPI?
It’s probably its strength of schedule, which currently ranks in the 300s according to Ken Pomeroy, who everybody seems to trust; is 151st according to WarrenNolan.com, an excellent website; 49th according to teamrankings.com, also an excellent website, though perhaps not for its strength of schedule list; and 285th according to realgm.com, yet another terrific website.
Right now, Jerry Palm, who does CBS Sports’ bracketology has 12 SEC teams entering March Madness, OU among them with a No. 4 seed.
Meanwhile, Joe Lunardi, who does ESPN’s bracketology, has 13 SEC teams in the tourney, OU among them with a No. 5 seed.
Palm has eight Big 12 programs dancing, so does Lunardi and eight is not 12 or 13.
It’s crazy is what it is.
Remember how end-of-the-regular-season swan dives killed Sooner shots at the ’22 and ’24 NCAA tourneys.
That’s unlikely to happen this season. If OU’s not the real thing, we might know quickly, for its SEC conference schedule is front-loaded, the first half of it going like this: at Alabama, Texas A&M, at Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, at Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Auburn, and the 10th game of the Sooners’ 18-game league loop is Tennessee, right now ranked No. 1.
That’s six ranked teams if you count A&M twice and two other one-loss teams in Georgia and Texas.
Ouch.
It’s exciting.
Also excruciating.
Yet again, welcome to the SEC.