Statement Win Makes Dancing Chances Strong

The Oklahoma men's basketball team officially ended Kansas' streak of 14 consecutive Big 12 Conference regular-season titles with an 81-68 rout on Tuesday night inside Lloyd Noble Center.

The Sooners dominated from the start, never trailed, built a double-digit lead just 4½ minutes into the game and led by as many as 24 points on five occasions. The Jayhawks closed out the game on a 13-2 run and still lost by 13.

Tuesday's home was widely considered to be a “clincher” for the Sooners, who have won four of their last five games down the stretch. With a victory over the No. 13-ranked Jayhawks, OU would likely receive its sixth NCAA tournament invite in the last seven seasons.

Roughly 30 minutes after his team had been dismantled, Kansas coach Bill Self was asked if he thought the Sooners were worthy of an NCAA bid.

“Well, God, I hope they are. Or s---,” Self said bluntly, forcing a smile and drawing laughter from reporters. “No, they're an NCAA Tournament team. We knew that going in. … Yeah, OU's going to get in the tournament. They're definitely a tournament team.”

"Anyone who watched the game tonight feels good about the way we played tonight in terms of being a tournament team...Regardless, we've got to approach it like we've got to win another one. That doesn't change.”
- Lon Kruger

Meanwhile, ever-composed Sooners coach Lon Kruger assessed his team's tournament chances thusly: “We're much better now than we were three hours ago in terms of our opportunity. Anyone who watched the game tonight feels good about the way we played tonight in terms of being a tournament team, but that doesn't mean a lot. It'll all be sorted through here in the next few days. Regardless, we've got to approach it like we've got to win another one. That doesn't change. We're fans and we like where we're at right now, but we've got to keep getting better.”

Tuesday night's victory upped OU's overall season record to 19-11 and its Big 12 mark to 7-10. The Sooners close out the regular season at No 18-ranked Kansas State (22-7, 13-4) on Saturday with a 5 p.m. contest inside Bramlage Coliseum.

Will KSU fans greet the Sooners warmly after they eliminated arch-rival Kansas? “It'll probably be short-lived.” said Kruger, who was a standout point guard with the Wildcats from 1971-74. “Our guys know how tough it's going to be. … The atmosphere will be special in Manhattan. Our guys know what they're in for and it'll be interesting to see how we respond to that challenge.”

Once again, OU will play role of the spoiler. The Sooners officially ended the Jayhawks' run of league titles and also could prevent KSU from claiming this year's Big 12 crown, depending on the result of Saturday's 1 p.m. game between No. 8 Texas Tech (25-5, 13-4) and Iowa State (20-9, 9-7) in Ames.

OU is guaranteed to finish with a sub-.500 mark in conference play this season, but plenty of teams have received tournament at-large berths with losing conference records since 1960.

Only two teams that finished four games under .500 in conference play have received NCAA tournament at-large bids. Iowa State of the Big Eight went 5-9 in 1992 and got in as a No 10 seed. Florida State of the ACC went 6-10 in 1998 and was a No. 12 seed.

Matter of fact, ESPN “bracketologist” Joe Lunardi has had the Sooners in the 68-team tournament since the conference season began play. In early January, he projected OU as a No. 3 seed playing in Tulsa. In his heart-felt Valentine's Day version, Lunardi had the Sooners tabbed as a No. 13-seeded team even though they were 15-10 overall, 3-9 in Big 12 play and riding a five-game losing streak at the time.

An NCAA Tournament bid would make the Sooners one of only three Big 12 teams to make the Bid Dance in six of the last seven seasons.

OU's strength of schedule is what qualifies it for an NCAA bid.

According to the ESPN Power Index, the Sooners have the nation's 12th most difficult schedule. Boosting the degree of difficulty is a grueling double-round-robin Big 12 slate with home and away games against each conference team.

“The thing about our league is so screwed up – and people don't know – our league is not top-heavy (this season),” Self said. “Texas Tech has obviously played at an unbelievable level here that gives the appearance because they're in the top eight in the country, which they deserve to be, and K-State obviously has had a tremendous league (performance). Where our league is so good is the 10 total.”

Eight of OU's nine Big 12 opponents (Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech and West Virginia) qualified for last year's NCAA tournament or the NIT.

The Sooners went 12-1 this season against a non-conference schedule that included No. 21-ranked Wisconsin (the lone loss), No. 22-ranked Wofford (26-4 overall), Florida, Dayton, Wichita State, USC, Creighton, Northwestern and Vanderbilt.

Most impressively, OU is the nation's only team this season that has not played a “Quadrant 4” game. The Sooners are 15-2 in “Quadrant 2 and 3” games and 4-9 in “Quadrant 1” games.

OU's average opponent NET Ranking of 64 is second best in the country and the “Quad” evaluation tool ranks the Sooners' schedule as the nation's 19th toughest.

OU also is the only school in the country with a win over a team from every major conference (Power Five, plus the Big East). With Tuesday's victory, the Sooners are now No. 38 in the NCAA's new NET Rankings.

Seniors

Oklahoma sent off its seniors with its first double-digit win over KU since 1990.

A stifling OU defense held the Jayhawks to just 40.9-percent shooting for the field and 22.6 percent from 3-point range. KU also had 15 turnovers and just eight assists.

Leading the Sooners' attack was the overwhelming combination of junior forward Kristian Doolittle (24 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals) and sophomore forward Brady Manek (21 points on 8-of-14 shooting and five rebounds). Senior guard Rashard Odomes, playing his final home game, added 12 points while freshman point guard Jamal Bieniemy had eight assists.

“Obviously a huge win,” Kruger said afterward. “Kansas set the bar for so many years. They've been outstanding and a very good team again this year. I'm very happy for our guys, proud of them.”

So it appears Kruger will soon add to his already impressive NCAA tournament resume.

He is the first Division I coach to take five different schools to the NCAA Tournament and the only coach to win tournament game with five different programs. Four years ago, Kruger became the first coach since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 to take four programs to the Sweet 16 or beyond.