Oklahoma Basketball will have to sweat it out after losing in the Big 12 Tournament. But in reality, the Sooners’ resume should be viewed kindly by the committee.
When it comes to resumes for teams on the bubble, Oklahoma Basketball has one of the most controversial. They have great metrics overall compared to others in the at-large discussion and play in arguably the toughest conference from top to bottom in the Big 12.
Of course, the Sooners could do themselves a favor and make a run in the conference tournament to make it no doubt. But a foot on the line by Christian James ended Oklahoma’s stay at the Sprint Center in the first round against West Virginia. The Mountaineers aren’t an awful team but are outside of the top 100 in the NET ranking. It also put the team five games under .500 in conference play and 13 losses overall.
But people continue to underestimate how weak the collective bubble is overall, with the Sooners greatly benefitting from it. As of Thursday morning, Oklahoma Basketball is No. 40 in NET ranking and according to out latest Bracketology projections, a nine seed. It makes sense, with the team having just one Quad-3 (no Quad 4) defeats on the season and is 10-12 overall versus those Quad-1 or 2.
But the Sooners ace in the whole (and the reason why they’ll hear their name called on Selection Sunday) has been their highly regarded strength of schedule. Oklahoma Basketball is the only team in the country that hasn’t played Quad-4 opponent the entire year and has the No. 1 SOS.
They played (and defeated) a brutal non-conference schedule of opponents, including wins over Florida, Creighton, USC, Wichita State, Dayton, Northwestern, Notre Dame. And while many of these programs didn’t have as great a season themselves, it still adds up very favorably for the Sooners. This doesn’t even include their best victory of them all, a 75-64 win over Wofford, a likely six or better seed in the Big Dance.
Oklahoma Basketball did have some struggles in the Big 12, including a five-game losing streak and now multiple losses to West Virginia. But they have wins over fellow conference bubble teams TCU and Texas, as well as that signature home win towards the end of the regular season over Kansas.
In a lot of ways, this season was similar to last year’s squad, with the team having massive success in the non-conference, sputtering during conference play but getting saved by their great strength of schedule numbers. Even if they are truly on the cut-line, their resume will always look better than (insert-major) or another power conference foe who doesn’t have the same kind of metrics.
Oklahoma Basketball is probably safe in regards to their at-large hopes and in my opinion – they should be. While I understand that the Sooners haven’t passed the eye-test since the start of the new year, what they’ve done since the start of November should speak for itself. Unlike other power conference teams who rarely schedule tough, Lon Kruger and the Sooners once again faced all comers. That should be rewarded by the Selection Committee and set as an example for what to do in order to make a compelling case while on the bubble.
Is Oklahoma going to be a trendy pick to make the Sweet Sixteen this season? Probably not? But thy should absolutely be given one of the 36 available at-large spots as a reward for what they did in the non-conference. Beating the Mountaineers would’ve made things easier for the Sooners but in reality, they didn’t really need that win to go dancing.
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