By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
The Big 12 Conference was a gauntlet this year, as evidenced by a 7-0 start to NCAA Tournament and NIT Tournament play before No. 1 seed Baylor lost to North Carolina in the second round on Saturday.
Eight of the 10 Big 12 teams rank in KenPom.com’s top 50, tied with the Big 10 for the most of any conference. Oklahoma stands 26th in that ranking, the best placement of any team that did not make the NCAA bracket.
The Sooners were the 70th team on the NCAA selection committee’s seed list, the second team out of the field behind Dayton. OU had the best NET ranking (No. 39) of any team excluded from the NCAAs and won 10 games against Quadrant 1 and 2 opponents. Committee chairman Tom Burnett explained that four Quad 1 wins in 16 opportunities wasn’t enough to earn first-year coach Porter Moser’s team an at-large bid.
“I think the Big 12’s probably the best conference in the country the past year,” St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt assessed. The Bonnies look to add another power-conference victory to their name when they meet the Sooners in Norman’s Lloyd Noble Center on Sunday night (8 Eastern Time, ESPNU).
Oklahoma won its last three regular season games before upsetting Baylor in the conference tournament quarterfinal, all without injured senior guard Elijah Harkless. Harkless was averaging 10 points and four rebounds a game and was considered the team’s best defender, corralling the second-most steals on the roster.
The Sooners play nine healthy players at least 10 minutes per outing, with 6-foot-7 guard Jacob Groves assuming the starting role in Harkless’s absence. Groves led the team with 15 points in the Baylor victory, connecting on three 3-pointers.
Oklahoma features just one starter who did not transfer from another Division I school. Groves and his brother Tanner previously played at Eastern Washington, while leading scorer Umoja Gibson transferred to OU from North Texas in 2020. Jordan Goldwire found a full-time starting role after four years at Duke and has embraced the opportunity, totaling more points this year (360) than he did over four years in Durham (342).
“They’ve got a really good five-man,” Osun Osunniyi said of Tanner Groves, who nearly recorded a double-double against Missouri State in the first round with nine points and nine rebounds. “He pick-and-pops; he can shoot the ball really, really well. So I think for me, personally, just being able to guard ball screens and not getting stretched out to let the big guy get open.”
Junior forward Jalen Hill, a four-star recruit from Las Vegas, is the Sooners’ lone “homegrown” starter. Hill is averaging 10.2 points on 54.5 percent shooting over his last 10 games.
Moser accepted the Oklahoma job last spring after 10 years at Loyola Chicago, where he guided the Ramblers to three NCAA Tournaments including a Cinderella Final Four run in 2018. The Ramblers had last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 1985 before Moser resurrected the program and built it into a mid-major power. OU targeted the 53-year-old, who served as an assistant coach at Saint Louis before his Loyola stint, to succeed retiring coach Lon Kruger.
Schmidt and Moser share a connection, having both worked for athletic director Steve Watson. Schmidt, hired by Watson in 2007, has kept tabs on the Loyola program since Watson moved there in 2014 and considers Moser a friend.
“He’s done a really good job the first year at Oklahoma,” Schmidt remarked. “It’s not easy, the portal and all that stuff, and he’s done a really good job; having a chance to get to the NCAA Tournament in his first year, I think, shows that. He’s well-liked in the business and he’s just a really good coach. He’s gonna be really successful at Oklahoma.”
After traveling the country for the last week, Bona could host its third round NIT game with a win and a Virginia win over North Texas (6 p.m. Eastern, ESPN+). The Bonnies are the fifth seed in their region of the bracket, while Virginia is sixth.
Another game in the Reilly Center, with a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semifinal round in the balance, would be all Bonaventure could have asked for when its five seniors decided to play in the tournament. Making that homecoming a reality is, of course, incumbent on Bona’s performance in Norman.
“We’re playing really good teams,” Schmidt acknowledged. “The NIT is a really good tournament and every night you’re gonna play somebody that if you don’t play your ‘A’ game, you’re gonna lose. Oklahoma is no different. … We have a challenge ahead of us.”
Great game . Both teams were outstanding.