NCAA Basketball: Purdue, Marquette rise in latest top 25 power ranking
By Joey Loose
25. Oklahoma (6-0)
While the Sooners certainly haven’t been bad the last few seasons, they haven’t really been competing in this tough Big 12, a league that got even deeper this offseason. While it’s still too early to make sweeping statements about this team, Oklahoma is certainly playing better ball three weeks into the new season and have caught our attention, especially after their performance in San Diego.
Playing as part of the Rady Children’s Invitational, the Sooners secured a pair of impressive wins this past week. The success started with a 79-67 win on Thanksgiving over Iowa, getting 18 points from Jalon Moore. Things got even better the following day, as the Sooners pulled out a 72-70 win against a ranked USC team, with 16 points and the game-winning shot in the final seconds from Otega Oweh.
Regardless of where things end up in the coming weeks, this is certainly a great start for the Sooners. They’ve got an intriguing core of players and we didn’t even mention Milos Uzon or Javian McCollum. We’ll have to see what happens with Oklahoma, though next week’s game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff probably won’t tell us much; the schedule certainly gets much more brutal after New Year’s.