21. Oklahoma Sooners
Record: 9-1 (0-0 Big 12)
Last Week: No. 23
Did you think Oklahoma would be ranked at any point this season? Yeah, didn’t think so. The Sooners have exceeded just about everyone’s expectations heading into this season as arguably the nation’s biggest surprise so far (and I do not say this lightly). Head coach Lon Kruger has his team playing at an extremely high level as the Sooners stand at 9-1 with a superb collection of wins: Wofford, Florida, Dayton, Notre Dame, Wichita State, and USC.
None of these wins really jump off of the computer screen as an “elite win” but they are extremely impressive when you consider that they have already beaten all of those teams. Additionally, OU’s only loss so far this season came against another nationally-ranked team in the Wisconsin Badgers. We might not have predicted that the Sooners would be in the top-25 but they more than belong a spot at this point in time.
Christian James, the team’s senior superstar, has been leading the way throughout this season. The Sooners are, for the most part, defensively-oriented but James is the one that can fill up the basket in big moments. He is averaging 18.9 points and 6.5 rebounds to help pace Oklahoma on the offensive end.