Red-hot Sooners face huge opportunity against Arkansas

For the first time since 2003, the Sooners have won multiple games in a conference tournament as they took down 6-seed Texas A&M 83-63 on Thursday night in Nashville. This was Oklahoma’s sixth straight win and their eighth in the last 10 games.

It started with Nijel Pack, who had yet another incredible outing. He totaled 20 points on 4-10 shooting from behind the arc. Pack was on fire in the first half and that is what quickly built Oklahoma a 20-point lead. Xzayvier Brown was also on, as he scored 16 points on the night. Derrion Reid and Tae Davis were also in double figures as they scored 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Thursday night’s game against Texas A&M was Oklahoma’s best defensive performance of the season. The Sooners had an adjusted defensive efficiency rating of 86.0. They hadn’t been in the 80s once this season.

The Sooners currently find themselves right on the cut line, as the last team in according to some and the first team out according to many. More things continued to bounce Oklahoma’s way yesterday, like Auburn losing, but the one thing that didn’t was Miami (OH) losing, which will likely result in a bid stealer.

All things considered, it is remarkable that the Sooners have gone 8-2 since February 7 and find themselves with a chance to make the NCAA Tournament despite going on a nine-game losing streak to begin conference play. Hats off to Porter Moser and his staff, who have kept this team together.

Oklahoma hasn’t just been playing well. They have actually been playing like one of the best teams in the country. Since February 24, the Sooners are 6-0 and are the No. 7 team in the country per Torvik. They also have the No. 10 offense in the country and the No. 35 defense in the country in that stretch, which is significant considering Oklahoma struggled defensively all season.

The Sooners are playing like exactly the type of team you don’t want to face in March. Now they’ll get 3-seed Arkansas on Friday night in the SEC Tournament as they look to keep their hot streak going.

With a loss on Friday night against Arkansas, Oklahoma would have a 55.9% chance of getting a bid per Torvik. With a win, that jumps to 81.0%. A win against Arkansas should effectively punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

These two teams last met on January 27 in Norman, when this was a completely different Oklahoma team. Still, the Sooners held a 13-point lead at one point in that game but ended up blowing it and losing 83-79.

For Arkansas, it starts with SEC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year Darius Acuff, who is averaging 22.2 points and 6.4 assists. In the first meeting between the two teams, he scored 21 points and had 10 assists.

The Razorbacks lack depth as they will likely only go seven deep in this game, but they have two other guards who can also score it at a high level. In Arkansas’ 10 games since these two teams last faced off, Billy Richmond is averaging 17 points and has become a secondary scorer next to Acuff.

Meleek Thomas is another guard who can catch fire for Arkansas. He has averaged 15.4 points on the season and scored 28 points the last time the Razorbacks played, which was nearly a week ago on Saturday, March 7 when they beat Missouri 88-84 in overtime.

The Sooners actually match up pretty well with Arkansas, all things considered. But they will have to slow down Acuff and the Razorbacks’ guards. One player who will be key for Oklahoma is Jadon Jones, who will come off the bench and get the Acuff matchup. Jones has been great defensively down the stretch for the Sooners, but he has not yet had to defend a player of this caliber.

Pack is averaging 19.6 points over the last six games for the Sooners, which is a huge reason why they have been on this win streak. He’s going to have to continue that in this game and at least match that average if Oklahoma wants to pull off a big upset.

One thing to monitor will be the health and energy of the Sooners. This will be their third game in three days, and one of their key contributors, Dayton Forsythe, went into this tournament with a bad ankle. It will be interesting to see if the fatigue catches up to the red-hot Sooners.

A win tonight and Oklahoma is most likely going dancing. That is not something one would have thought back in January. This is such a big game for this team and program, and it’ll tip off at approximately 8:30 p.m. on SEC Network.

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