OU basketball enters top 10, ranked No. 7
Say it with me now, OU basketball is ranked in the top 10. From virtually zero national preseason expectations, all the Sooners keep doing is winning.
And winning and winning. Ten times in a row, as a matter of fact, as OU is off to a 10-0 start and one of only four undefeated teams left in the country (Houston, James Madison, Ole Miss).
The Sooners have gone from not ranked to No. 25 to No. 19 to No. 11 last week to now? No. 7 in the latest AP poll released Monday afternoon.
The seventh-ranked Sooners will take on No. 11 North Carolina in the Jordan Brand Classic Jumpman Invitational on Wednesday night from Charlotte.
“Now we got a top 10 team coming up, you know, in Carolina, and in a ‘supposedly’ neutral site in Charlotte,” head coach Porter Moser said. “I was there last year and even our Florida game was all baby blue. But we know they’re a storied program, so our guys are excited about next one up.”
There are plenty of reasons as to why the Sooners have made the leap so far. But the biggest? It has to be the depth. Not just the depth, but how Moser is using the guys and how the guys are responding to their minutes and roles.
Because it’s great to have 8-10 players who can do things for you. But if those guys want a bigger piece of the pie, it won’t always work.
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When you have experienced guys like Rivaldo Soares, Le’Tre Darthard and John Hugley coming off the bench and prospering, that’s a strong recipe. Guys who have been starters at other stops now realizing it’s OK to come off the bench and do what’s being asked. Because, above all else, it will help the team.
“We have these get better tapes that are part of our process after every game,” Moser said. “I just see them soaking in what they can do better. You know, there’s no entitlement, there’s no… there’s some humility with the guys, that, you know, we won, but where can we get better? They’re believing in that. And I just, I see the gaps of mistakes keep shrinking.
“Here’s what’s crazy: I feel like we’ve got a big room to improve and I think they’d say the same thing. And so I see these guys investing practice, investing in learning. And we’re deeper. We’re deeper. And the guys know it. They know it. And they’re confident in the depth.
“And that’s, I will say, you know, just talking to friends around the country, sometimes teams have issues with depth. Either they don’t have it, or they have it and the depth want’s more, and it’s just… And these guys have really bought into their ‘shift.’ When it’s their shift, they’re coming in playing their tails off.”
OU is No. 10 in NET Rankings, updated daily. As impressive as what OU has done so far, the Sooners do not have a Quadrant 1 victory. OU has three Quadrant 2 wins, but this will easily be the biggest competition for the Sooners this season. The Tar Heels are a Quadrant 1 opponent, ranked No. 11.
