OU Opens Big 12 Tournament Play Thursday

⁵Oklahoma

⁴Texas

2017 Big 12 Men's Tennis Championships

Quarterfinals Round | April 27 | 10 a.m. CT | Norman, Okla.

FSSW

THE OPENING MATCHUP

This week marks the first time since 2013 OU has hosted the Big 12 Tournament. The Sooners fittingly will open up the event with a Red River Rivalry showdown on Thursday at 10 a.m. CT at the Headington Family Tennis Center. The 4th-seeded Sooners and 5th-seeded Longhorns will play for a spot in the semifinals to take on the No. 1 seed, TCU. Rounding out the seedings are Oklahoma State at No. 2, Baylor at No. 3 and Texas Tech at No. 6. All matches are scheduled to be played outdoors.

THE FORECAST

REGULAR SEASON RECAP

Oklahoma finished up the regular season at 14-9 overall and 2-3 in Big 12 play. The Sooners were absent senior and three-time All-Big 12 selection Andrew Harris for 12 of their final 13 matches due to injury. In matches when Harris played, OU went 9-2, with four wins over top-20 opponents, including a 4-0 win over No. 5 Oklahoma State on Senior Day just a week ago. Eight of Oklahoma's nine losses came to top-10 teams, with the other coming to No. 25 Cornell. This year's Oklahoma squad includes three seniors, Alex Ghilea, Florin Bragusi and Harris, juniors Mason Bridegan and Spencer Papa and freshmen Jochen Bertsch, Adrian Oetzbach and Arnaud Restifo. Each has notched at least three wins in dual play.

FLYING HIGH INTO THE POSTSEASON

OU head coach Nick Crowell's team is hitting its stride as the Big 12 Tournament approaches, with back-to-back conference wins over Texas Tech (4-2) and then-No. 5 Oklahoma State (4-0). The Sooners were unstoppable against the Cowboys, winning doubles and not dropping a single set in singles en route to winning the three completed matches. OU won all four singles points against the Red Raiders. In a hostile environment in Waco, Texas, a week earlier, Oklahoma nearly fought back from a 3-1 hole against Baylor, ultimately falling 4-3 to the No. 6 Bears. Papa has returned to the No. 2 singles spot with the return of Harris.

SENIORS' FINAL PUSH

All three Sooner seniors have been a part of multiple teams that were NCAA Finalists. Ghilea and Harris reached the NCAA Final in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and Bragusi was a member of the 2015 and 2016 teams. The trio has been OU's heartbeat since they arrived on campus. Combined, the three have 201 singles wins and 115 doubles wins. They also helped Oklahoma win the 2015 ITA National Indoor Championship, the program's first national title. Harris is a three-time All-American and was the 2014 ITA Rookie of the Year, Ghilea is a two-time All-Big 12 member and was the Most Outstanding Player athe the Indoor Championships in 2015. Bragusi maintains the 11^th-best singles win percentage in program history.

CLIMBING THE RANKS

Thanks to that strong conclusion to the regular season, Oklahoma is trending upward in Oracle/ITA rankings. The Sooners jumped up two spots from No. 17 to No. 15 in the team rankings, while Papa (No. 18), Harris (No. 30), Ghilea (No. 40) and Bragusi (No. 107) all remain in the singles ranks. Harris moved up 10 spots following his 7-5, 6-4 win over No. 23 Julian Cash of Oklahoma State. In doubles, Papa and Harris moved up 20 spots from No. 35 to No. 15. The two are 7-3 at No. 1 doubles on the season.

BIG 12 BOASTS THE BEST

There's not a more competitive conference in the country than the Big 12, with five of the six men's tennis programs in the top 15 in the country. TCU leads the way at No. 4 in the nation, with Baylor at No. 6, Oklahoma State at No. 8, Texas at the No. 9 spot and OU at No. 15. Texas Tech, the lone team outside of the top 15, coming in at No. 41. No other conference has more than three teams in the top 15. In the final 2016 rankings, the Big 12 contained four top-15 squads. As recently as 2015 the Big 12 put three teams, including the Sooners, in the final four at the NCAA Championships.

FLOURISHING FRESHMEN

Crowell brought in three new faces to the program after Oklahoma returned just four student-athletes from the 2015-16 national runner-up team. Bertsch, Oetzbach and Restifo have all been crucial in adding depth down the lineup for the Sooners. Bertsch has amassed an impressive 12-6 dual match singles record while Oetzbach has tallied eight singles wins (including three straight victories). Restifo has also notched five singles wins since joining the rotation in early February. Oetzbach has been one of OU's best doubles players, carrying a 9-5 record into postseason play.