OKLAHOMA SOONERS
› Record: 21-5 (9-5 Big 12)› AP ranking/RPI: 3 (tied with Virginia)/3› Best win: 78-55 over No. 1 Villanova in Hawaii› Worst loss: 80-69 at Kansas State› Best player: Senior guard Buddy Hield is the favorite to win the Wooden Award, which is college basketball’s version of the Heisman Trophy. That tends to happen when you’re averaging 25.4 points per game while hitting nearly 49 percent of your 3-pointers and 89 percent of your free throws for a Top Five team.› Biggest weakness: A penchant for being sloppy with the ball. The only statistical category in which the Sooners trail their opponents is turnovers, as they’re coughing it up 12.5 times a game compared to 12.1 for the opposition. It doesn’t sound like much, but most championship teams lead in that category by four or more a game.› Can be hoopin’ in Houston if: Everyone stays healthy and laser shooters Hield and Jordan Woodard (45 percent from 3-point range and 85 percent on free throws) remain hot. The biggest concern for the Sooners beyond again facing Kansas, which has beaten them twice, might be running into a similarly impressive offensive team such as Indiana.› Coachspeak: “They have a chance to go a long, long way in the NCAA tournament. It would not surprise me one bit if this team made a Final Four and won a championship. I think they are that good. I think their guards are experienced, they’re big, they can shoot the ball and those younger guys off the bench are going to mature throughout the season.” — Oral Roberts’ Scott Sutton after a 96-73 loss at OU
Road to Final Four series
* Indiana suddenly good enough to win it all * Nothing silly about a Virginia run to Final Four * Buddy system could make Oklahoma an NCAA champion * Can No. 1 Villanova finish season as Top Cats? * Michigan State back on track for Final Four run * Texas A&M could become a March monster * Tar Heels good enough to win Williams his third NCAA title * Kansas once more has Final Four look in January
The Buddy system.
Until three weeks ago it was next to impossible to discuss college basketball in general or this year’s national championship hopefuls in particular without mentioning Buddy Hield, the 6-foot-4 senior guard of the Oklahoma Sooners.
That became especially true after Hield delivered the single most impressive performance of this or any other season in recent memory when he scored 46 points at Kansas in a three-overtime loss.
Hield’s effort was so Herculean and heavenly that it caused the normally defense-addicted KU coach Bill Self to gush: “We guarded our (behinds) off against Buddy. Frank (Mason) guarded the heck out of him and, of course, he went for 24 in the second half. He’s great and he’s such a class act.”
Hield is certainly a first-class shooter for the Sooners, who are tied with Virginia for the No. 3 spot in this week’s Associated Press poll heading into Wednesday night’s visit from in-state rival Oklahoma State. The Bahamas native is scoring 25.4 points a game, the second highest average in Division I to Howard’s James Daniel (27.7), and he’s making the highest number of 3-pointers per game (4.19) in all of D-I.
“His range is basically anything inside halfcourt,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said earlier this season.
Yet good as Oklahoma (21-5, 9-5 Big 12) was playing until February in rising to No. 1 for three straight weeks, the wheels had appeared to come off the Sooner Schooner heading into last weekend’s game at No. 10 West Virginia.
OU had lost three of its last four games at that point, including its home rematch with Kansas, and it appeared as if the team’s relative lack of depth was catching up to them. Only seven players log 10 or more minutes a game, and three starters, including Hield, play 33.2 minutes or more a game.
Said Hield of that swoon: “For the past few weeks we’ve been struggling. Coach (Lon Kruger) got on us. You look at the tapes from the Texas Tech and Kansas games, we didn’t have fun competing. Everybody wanted to come to West Virginia and prove something.”
And so they did. With Hield outscoring the Mountaineers starters all by himself, 29 to 23, Oklahoma won 76-62, putting itself back on track to earn a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament, at least in the eyes of ESPN resident bracketologist Joe Lunardi.
“Every game is important when you’re a couple of games behind (Kansas in the Big 12 standings), as we are,” Kruger said after the West Virginia win. “We’re coming up on March and we may be too far back now. But still, we can’t do anything about last week. We’ve got to do what we can to take care of business moving forward.”
Moving forward is what these Sooners do best for Kruger, who’s in his 30th year of college coaching overall and his fifth with OU. Hield’s fellow senior starters Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler both log big minutes and hit big shots, especially from long range. The Sooners are hitting a preposterous 43 percent from behind the arc for the season.
“Well, that’s Golden State,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said after watching Oklahoma bag 16 3-pointers during an 82-72 win at Baylor. “They make tough ones, they make open ones, and the way they pass it makes it so much more difficult to defend.”
How dangerous are the Sooners? They defeated No. 1 Villanova by 23 in Hawaii in December. In that Baylor win, Hield scored just five points in the first half due to foul problems. He finished with 19 while hitting four of seven 3s, and the Sooners led by as many as 24 until Kruger emptied the bench late because Hield’s teammates were a combined 12-for-21 from Treysville.
A final thought from Drew: “We ran three defenses, and I am out of defenses after three.”
With last weekend’s win at West Virginia, the Sooners appear to be getting out of their funk just at the right time. Given the continued solid play of point guard Jordan Woodard (45 percent on 3s, 85 percent from the foul line) and the defensive genius of 6-9 sophomore Khadeem Lattin – who had 13 rebounds, six blocked shots and three steals with nine points against the Mountaineers – OU may be getting even better.
A bit of Lattin trivia: His granddad Dave “Big Daddy” Lattin – helped lead Texas Western to the NCAA title exactly 50 years ago this spring.
No less than Self said earlier this winter, “They’re good. They could win the national championship.”
But it’s something West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said after watching Hield outscore his entire starting five that may best explain why the Sooners can win it all come April in Houston.
“They have Buddy Hield,” he said, “and we don’t.”
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.