How to Watch Oklahoma Sooners vs. Kentucky Wildcats

Over a month has passed since Oklahoma’s most recent — and only — victory in SEC play.

The Sooners defeated Ole Miss 86-70 in their conference opener on Jan. 3. That win moved Oklahoma to No. 49 in the NET rankings, a good spot to be in terms of the NCAA Tournament bubble.

The Oklahoma squad that has taken the floor since then has been a shell of that competitive squad.

OU (11-11 overall, 1-8 SEC) comes into Wednesday’s game at Kentucky on an eight-game losing streak. The lengthy skid is tied for the Sooners’ third-longest in program history.

Fast forward a month from the Ole Miss game and the Sooners are now No. 82 in the NET rankings. OU is 14th out of the SEC’s 16 members in the NET, ahead of only South Carolina and Mississippi State — which both defeated the Sooners during their losing streak.

As far as the SEC’s standings, Oklahoma is in sole possession of last place. The Sooners shared that spot with LSU before Saturday, when they lost to Texas and the Tigers defeated South Carolina to improve to 2-7 in SEC games.

JBR Bracketology believes that the Sooners’ loss to Texas on Saturday eliminated them from at-large contention for the NCAA Tournament, even if they won out. If that proves to be true, Oklahoma would have to win every game at the SEC Tournament in March to qualify for the tourney.

For a magical conference tournament run to be even remotely possible, the Sooners must focus on generating momentum and, of course, wins. And that won’t be easy on Wednesday.

Kentucky, for its standards, is having a down year. The Wildcats are 15-7 and 6-3 and currently unranked in the AP Top 25.

How to Watch Oklahoma vs. Kentucky

Location: Rupp Arena (Lexington, KY)
Date: Feb. 4
Time: 8 p.m.
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 107.7 FM The Franchise

Even so, they have won six of their last seven conference games after starting SEC play 0-2. Most recently, Kentucky earned a resume-building road win against No. 15 Arkansas on Saturday.

Kentucky’s best player this season has been Otega Oweh, who spent the first two years of his college career at Oklahoma. Oweh is averaging 16.6 points and 2.5 assists per game, both of which are team highs.

The Wildcats are one of the conference’s best defensive teams. Kentucky ranks second in the SEC in scoring defense, allowing only 71 points per contest. The Wildcats have held opponents to a 41.7-percent clip from the floor, which ranks fourth in the league.

Oh yeah — and Wednesday’s game will be played in arguably the most hostile environment in the SEC.

Kentucky’s Rupp Arena is averaging 19,665 fans per game this year, which leads the SEC by more than 700.

All of this is to say that Wednesday’s tilt isn’t an easy one for Porter Moser and company. Kentucky is the better team and has a home-court advantage.

But with OU sitting in last place, the Sooners will be underdogs in every game that lies ahead. It’s imperative for them to collect a few upset wins to avoid the season becoming more disastrous than it already is.