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OU basketball picking up the pieces, now No. 15

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•01/15/24•

BPrzybylo

Syndication: The Topeka Capital-Journal
Oklahoma junior guard Javian McCollum (2) returns the ball after a Kansas basket in the first half of the game Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, inside Allen Fieldhouse.

It turned out to be worst-case scenario last week for OU basketball, but it’s still not time to hit the panic button.

You were really hoping to sneak one out in either Fort Worth or Lawrence. Didn’t happen, didn’t really come close to happening at either spot.

But time to come home. Oklahoma, now 13-3 overall and 1-2 in Big 12, is No. 15 in this week’s rankings. The Sooners host West Virginia 7 p.m. Wednesday.

A lesson from last week? It’s a lesson about toughness.

“We need to be more aggressive. Couldn’t run because we weren’t getting stops,” head coach Porter Moser said. “We have a thing called ‘gaps’ where it’s three stops in a row. If we have seven gaps in a game, we’re usually winning (according to the) percentage. We had zero gaps i the second half. We didn’t have one time (where we got) three stops in a row.

“You’re not gonna beat Kansas doing that. You’re not gonna beat a lot of teams doing that. We had to get more stops so we could run on some misses, get things going. It just put a lot of pressure on our offense not getting any stops.”

Rounding out the Big 12 in the top 25? No. 3 Kansas, No. 5 Houston, No. 9 Baylor, No. 19 TCU, No. 20 BYU, No. 24 Iowa State and No. 25 Texas Tech.

Team of the Week

Let’s go to Fort Worth and those Horned Frogs. Two home games vs. top-10 teams and two big-time victories. TCU took care of OU and then won a thriller against Houston on Saturday evening. Welcome to the Big 12, Cougars, as Houston lost at Iowa State and TCU last week. OU, Houston, Oklahoma State and Cincinnati all had 0-2 weeks. The key is to not let 0-2 last week lead to 0-2 this week, obviously.

Big 12 Week 3 thoughts

*Just like we all thought, Texas Tech is one of the two remaining undefeated teams in conference. Huh, what? The Red Raiders overcame a 20-0 run against Kansas State to win a thriller of its own in Lubbock. Tech is joined by Baylor as the only two 3-0 teams in the Big 12.

*OSU is the lone winless team. And even teams like Central Florida and West Virginia are gonna have fight in them. UCF took down Kansas last week, and WVU shocked Texas on Saturday.

*OU is No. 23 in the NET rankings, which sounds about right. The Big 12 continues to show its strength. Nine teams in the top 50 in the NET, no surprise. But Javian McCollum and Sooners gotta get it going again vs. WVU.

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