What you've missed: OU basketball ready for SEC play

If you’ve been following OU football, welcome to SEC time for Sooners basketball. And as you keep one eye open on everything portal related for the Sooners, here come Porter Moser and crew.

An idea of what you missed in the first two months of the season. And an idea of what you could expect during the next few months in Norman and the SEC.

Ole Miss (8-5) at OU (10-3)
When: 2:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: SEC Network

At a glance

Team leaders
Scoring: Nijel Pack, 16.3 points
Rebounding: Mo Wague, 7.0 rebounds
Assists: Xzayvier Brown, 3.5 assists

What you’ve missed

It has been interesting. After the 2-2 start, you might have been ready to show Moser the door. But the two losses have been, well, pretty dang good (more on that later).

You can see OU starting to figure things out and learning from previous mistakes. However, some new errors keep popping up.

It was not the cleanest initial two months, but the close to non-conference play was about as strong as OU could have asked.

Still not sure if OU has a No. 1 option. And as we get deeper into the season, not sure when that is actually going to come into play.

A lot of quality No. 2 option guys. Maybe they all just become 1a, 1b, 1c? Brown has been sensational during the last four games. Pack is absolutely one of the best shooters in college basketball. Davis and Mo Wague give OU quality bigs but have to stay out of foul trouble. Jadon Jones has been a huge spark coming off the bench, anchoring the second unit.

The X Factor? Sure feels like it’s Derrion Reid. When he’s good, aggressive, that feels like when OU has been at its best.

Questions?

*Start with health. Ankle issues are lingering right now for guard Dayton Forsythe and center Kai Rogers. The Sooners are not deep enough to have those types of concerns for an extended period of time.

*What sort of impact will Kirill Elatontsev make going forward? The 23-year-old Russian center joined the team last week. He had six points, four rebounds in 18 minutes Monday night.

*Under Moser, OU has had the history of strong non-conference starts and fading. If that trend continues in 2026, oh boy. The Sooners have to be a team that gets stronger as the season gets deeper. Period.

Best win

You could argue at Wake Forest. Or maybe at the Paycom Center against Oklahoma State. Or you might say nothing just yet.

The Demon Deacons have not been a strong team since the defeat. OSU has the record but nobody has any idea of what the Cowboys are going to do in Big 12 play.

OU’s best win would have come in two of its losses. Just couldn’t get it done against Nebraska and Gonzaga.

The losses

The Arizona State one might sting come March, we’ll see. But, man, the losses to the Bulldogs and Cornhuskers are about as good as you could ask right now.

The two are a combined 27-1. Nebrasketball is 13-0, while the Zags are 14-1. Only defeat to No. 2 Michigan.

The debate will continue, perhaps. Do you value quality losses? Or do the wins mean more? OU has some work to do in the SEC to make it happen.

SEC overview

This is not the uber-gauntlet of last season. It will still be a grind, sure, but there won’t be 14 teams from the conference making the NCAA Tournament.

Vanderbilt is the only undefeated team. Teams like Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Auburn, among others, had challenging schedules and suffered the bumps that come along with it.

OU is right on the cusp, at No. 51 in the NET rankings. A 6-12 conference record means zero postseason play this season. The Sooners have to be at least 8-10, probably 9-9 to punch that ticket for the second season in a row.