Should OU make the NCAA Tournament field later today?
They should, but there’s probably more teams than ever vying for those last four spots into the tournament.
My last four teams in are Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Indiana.
We’ll have to wait and see though when the Committee shows America the field later today.
In reality, Oklahoma right now as of this writing is probably the fourth best team in the Big 12. Both Iowa State and Texas have finished their seasons on fumes and in the old days the way a team finished meant something. Currently, with the ‘totality of schedule’ doctrine…it’s hard to know exactly what the Committee is going to do later today.
As someone who watched all thirty-three games OU played this season…I have the Sooners in as a No. 11 seed in the West.
OU per the metrics played one of the three toughest schedules in DI basketball this season. By my estimation…I have the Big 12 and SEC as my top two conferences in the land this season.
Of OU’s thirty-three games played this season there were only two games the Sooners didn’t have a chance to win this season in the last eight minutes of their games played.
Those two games being the two games on the road in Ames and Lubbock following the loss of their best player for the season in EJ Harkless.
These two games were clearly outlier games for this OU team this season in every sense of the word.
Quite frankly, I don’t think Porter Moser and his staff knew exactly how they were going to bridge the loss of EJ Harkless.
But as a group after the dust of those two losses settled…what the Sooners did was shorten their bench of all things while increasing the roles of Marvin Johnson, Jacob Grove, and Ethan Chargois.
Then what Porter Moser did was shorten the leashes of his three freshmen guards off the bench in Bijuan Cortez, CJ Noland, and Alston Mason. Of those three players…only CJ Noland saw the floor in Kansas City this week. I’m sure this was done to basically shore up the defensive quality of OU’s overall minutes.
OU went only eight deep starting at Kansas State and at the Big 12 Tournament this week. What Porter Moser did was what coaches do all the time at this part of the season…he put his season in the hands of his best eight two-way players. If you can’t defend on an iso…you don’t see the floor.
And if the Sooners make the NCAA Tournament…I’d look for much of the same.
You could see Coach Moser’s trust in both Jordan Goldwire and Moj Gibson grow, while at the same time having a belief in what Jacob Grove, Marvin Johnson, and Ethan could provide in expanded roles.
I thought Marvin Johnson the transfer from Eastern Illinois was the key though. He gave the Sooners a boost with his defensive versatility and penchant for making big plays.
Should OU make the field though?
If playing a tough quality non-conference schedule, plus playing in the toughest grind of a conference, plus playing a then No. 1 ranked Auburn in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge on the road means anything…the answer is yes.
BTW…OU lost Marvin Johnson in the first half at Auburn to a lower leg injury which really hurt the Sooner’s depth that day as the Sooners ran out of gas with eight minutes left in the game.
If OU doesn’t make the field…I’ll deal with it and so will the Sooners.
These guys have my utmost respect. They never relented. They never surrendered. They never gave up.
And for me…that’s the future of OU basketball looking forward with Porter Moser. The guy can flat-out coach and his players believe in him.