13. Oklahoma (13-1)
This Oklahoma team disappointed in recent years, but those past teams with different players don’t matter at all to this year’s squad. The Sooners won all of their games before New Year’s and put themselves in fantastic shape, especially with nice wins over Arizona, Louisville, and Michigan along the way. The beginning of SEC play starts a significantly tougher challenge and it’s going to be quite the ride in Norman.
Before that journey began, they secured an 89-67 win over Prairie View A&M way back on Sunday. It wasn’t the best effort, but Jalon Moore had 22 points and 6 rebounds and the Sooners did shoot 60% from the field. The going got significantly tougher this weekend as their perfect start to the season ended with a 107-79 loss at Alabama to open league play. Most of the scoring came from the five starters as the Sooners were led by a 20-point, 7-rebound effort from Moore, but clearly it was nowhere near enough.
Road games at Alabama are going to be hell for anyone, it’s not any specific indication on the Sooners right now. That being said, the nonconference schedule was much softer than league play and it’s fair to presume that Oklahoma would start dropping some games like this. Whether or not they can bounce back in the coming weeks remains to be seen, with a big chance against Texas A&M before a road game at Georgia.