Oklahoma Basketball: 2022-23 season preview and outlook for Sooners

Although they’ll be off to the SEC in a couple years, Oklahoma Basketball has been a steady part of Big 12 basketball for the last two decades. Players like Blake Griffin, Buddy Hield, and Trae Young became stars for the Sooners, with this program appearing in the Final Four as recently as 2016. After a decade leading the program, Lon Kruger announced his retirement back in 2021 and former Loyola-Chicago coach Porter Moser now begins his second season in Norman.

This is Moser’s fourth D1 head coaching post and it’s hard to forget how he led Loyola-Chicago to Final Four and Sweet Sixteen runs before taking the Oklahoma job last offseason. He’s really only just gotten started with the Sooners, leading the program to a 19-16 mark last year, with a 7th-place finish in the Big 12. With some of the impressive programs in this conference, there’s no shame in a middle-of-the-pack finish like that in first season, but how will things look moving forward?

Oklahoma brings back some of last year’s talent, but there are also a few pieces missing as well. Three starters from last season won’t return, with Umoja Gibson, Jordan Goldwire, and Elijah Harkless all averaging at least 10 points a game last season. Moser has done a solid job of bringing in new talent to fill those holes in the backcourt. Still, in a really talented and competitive Big 12, you have to wonder how this new-look Oklahoma team will fare against juggernauts like Baylor and Kansas.

The metrics liked Oklahoma last season and saw them among the Top 40 teams in the nation, even if they were destined for the NIT. The Big 12 is an extremely tough league and might just be the deepest and most competitive conference in the nation. In recent years, Oklahoma has sort of been stuck in this middle group in the Big 12 and hasn’t won more than nine conference games since that Final Four run six years ago. However, is it possible that the talent they’ve added and developed will be enough to make them a contender in this conference?

We’re going to take a deep dive into this Oklahoma team and try to figure out what we can expect from the Sooners this season. Year two for Moser should be another step in the right direction, but anything can happen in a Big 12 that could see half of its teams ranked to start the season. We’ve talked about what’s missing from this Sooners squad from last season, but let’s take a closer look at who’s still here and who’s new on this team.