Oklahoma Declines NIT Bid

For the fourth time in five seasons, the Oklahoma Sooners were denied a chance among the 68-team field in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.

Oklahoma did not appear among the field of 32 for the National Invitational Tournament when their bracket was released late Sunday evening. Oklahoma declined an invite to the postseason tournament.

This follows a stretch where the Sooners won eight of their final 11 games of the season, including post-season conference tournament play. OU beat South Carolina and Texas A&M in the first and seond rounds of the SEC Tournament only to lose to eventual champion Arkansas by three points.

Oklahoma finished their season 19-15. Considering the hole they dug themselves from Jan. 7 to Feb. 3, losing a program record-tying nine consecutive games, OU's late-season push was quite the accomplishment. With two quadrant one victories on the road against Texas and a neutral-court victory over A&M, Oklahoma gave themselves outside hope that they could be dancing further into March.

Oklahoma Sooners, Porter Moser — Oklahoma coach Porter Moser | Carson Field, Sooners On SI

Oklahoma has not played in the NIT since Porter Moser's first season in Norman in 2021-22. OU would beat Missouri State 89-72 int he first round and lose to St. Bonaventure 70-68 in the second round. Moser's squad would decline an NIT bid two seasons later.

OU is 11-8 all-time in the NIT, reaching the NIT Finals in 1991 before losing to Stanford.

In five seasons, Moser has been one of the first teams out of the NCAA Tournament field four times. In his lone appearance as the Sooners' head coach in 2024-25, OU was one of the last teams in. Moser is 93-74 during his run as the University of Oklahoma's basketball coach.

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New Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny announced on Saturday that Moser would return for his sixth season as OU's head coach citing a desire to "ensure that our resources match our expectations.

"We haven’t held up our end of that bargain," Denny added on his X account. "From NIL to staffing and beyond, we’re going to fix that."

Following this season, OU stands to lose seniors Mo Wague, Tae Davis, Kirill Elatontse, Jeff Nwankwo, Nijel Pack, Reid Lovelace and Jadon Jones. The question now moves to if Moser can retain players like Xzayvier Brown, Derrion Reid, Dayton Forsythe, Kuol Atak and Kai Rogers while going into the transfer portal to bring in more talent for 2026-27.