Oklahoma Basketball: 2023-24 season preview for the Sooners

Season Outlook

When he’s sitting in the basketball offices in Norman, Moser isn’t feeling down about the Sooners’ situation. He’s been proactive in grabbing pieces from all over the country, hoping to start turning things around in the nation’s toughest basketball conference. Even after losing much of their talent from last year, there’s certainly reason for optimism in Oklahoma.

We’ve gone in-depth into the transfers and freshmen joining the program, but the Sooners should be excited in particular if Hugley and McCollum play at their highest level. There’s no ignoring that all these moving parts could cause growing pains for the Sooners, but they have the pieces for a talented defense and an offense that should be a bit sharper than last season.

If Uzan makes a big leap as a sophomore, then Oklahoma could be in much better shape than we imagine. The same holds true for Oweh, who was starting to get some serious run in the back end of the season. Replacing Groves and Hill and the rest of those important players wasn’t easy, but let’s not pretend like the Sooners didn’t return anyone talented either.

There’s a lot of athletic and talented players in this rotation, though there’s clearly a strength in the backcourt. Oklahoma needs some of those younger or less-experienced frontcourt pieces to take a step forward this season. They’d also greatly benefit from Hugley playing like his old self with the Panthers, or perhaps even better.

The Sooners are the only Big 12 program, new or old, that finished under .500 last season but they’ve been proactive in improving this roster. We’re not crazy enough to expect Tournament success in Oklahoma this year, but the Sooners’ new pieces mean they should at least avoid the conference’s cellar this season.