OU Basketball: With the Postseason On the Line, Can Oklahoma Make Strides vs. LSU?

There are two basketball teams in the Southeastern Conference that are most likely going absolutely nowhere this postseason.

One of them is coming to Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday evening.

Will that be enough for Oklahoma to end its latest losing streak and start the kind of positive stretch that can turn the program around — and maybe save coach Porter Moser’s job?

OU (16-8 overall, 3-8 in SEC play) hosts LSU (12-12, 1-10) today in a 5 p.m. tipoff in Norman.

The SEC is said to be having arguably the greatest season any conference has ever had from top to bottom — a record 14 of the league’s 16 teams are projected to make this year’s NCAA Tournament in the Sooners’ first season as an SEC member — but LSU is not one of them. Only South Carolina (10-14, 0-11) is below the Tigers in the standings. And only LSU and the Gamecocks are below Oklahoma in the standings.

And OU beat South Carolina 82-62 back on Jan. 18, a game that ended a 4-game SEC losing streak.

Now, the Sooners find themselves once again mired in a skid: three in a row and four of the last five games. More than that, the Sooners have been blown out in all three defeats, by 28 at No. 1 Auburn, by 18 against No. 4 Tennessee, and by 24 at No. 21 Missouri.

The last time OU lost three straight by 18 or more was apparently 1963.

Oklahoma loses at #21 Missouri 82-58. 3 consecutive losses of 18 or more.

Last time that happened? December of 1963. 62 years ago.

Lost to Texas Tech, Arizona State and Michigan State, all by 18+. Bob Stevens was the coach. That team went 7-18.

Basically unprecedented #Sooners
— TJ Eckert (@TJEckertKTUL) February 13, 2025

And beyond even that, the team’s performances have been entirely moribund each game — and have somehow gotten progressively worse, with a new season low in field goal percentage set against Auburn (.333), Tennessee (.321) and Missouri (.310) each night. The Sooners have also committed double-digit turnovers in every game since Dec. 29.

“One of the natural things that happens when you're not playing well or you go through a tough stretch like those last three games for us, is slippage magnifies,” Moser said on Friday. “ … We know there's short margins of error with the competition in this league, and we've got to eliminate the slippage of fundamentals, of taking care of the ball, of, you know, I think when you miss layups, it's a slippage of your just mental concentration.”

LSU isn’t good. While OU ranks 91st in the nation in scoring offense and 197th in scoring defense, LSU is 123th and 198th. OU is 71st in field goal percentage and 64th in 3-point percentage, but LSU is 151st and 317th, respectively. OU is 247th in turnovers per game, while LSU is 319th.

Moser said he admires “how hard they're continuing to fight through adversity — like us.”

But frankly, this Oklahoma squad shouldn’t concern itself with its opponents’ accomplishments, or lack thereof. Looking ahead at the rest of the 2025 conference schedule, the Sooners will face six teams currently ranked No. 33 or better in the latest NCAA NET Rankings. That’s a gauntlet.

OU’s current NET is 48.

Beating LSU (with an 82 NET) in itself certainly won’t get the Sooners into their first NCAA Tournament under Moser. The Tigers are currently represent Quad 3 game in the rankings, and OU is currently 12-1 against Quad 2, Quad 3 and Quad 4 contests — but only 4-7 in Quad 1 games.

Quad 1 includes teams ranked 1-30 in the NET rankings at home, a neutral site game against a team ranked 1-50 in the NET rankings or a road game against a top-75 team in the NET rankings, so the Sooners have a possibility to add to their Quad 1 resume six times down the stretch (Mississippi State is 30, Texas is 33).

To reach even the edge of cracking the NCAA field, OU will most likely have to finish 7-11 at worst in the SEC standings — and stack a few more Quad 1 wins.

ESPN bracket guru Joe Lunardi reported Saturday that the Sooners are currently in the group of teams labeled “last four byes,” which is one rung ahead of “last four in” — which is where the Sooners were last season when they got left out of the field for the third year in a row.

pic.twitter.com/S0Oq7l2DPP
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) January 28, 2025

But being on the bubble in mid-February is different than being on the bubble in mid-March — especially given the strength of OU’s finishing stretch.

Vegas says today that Oklahoma — even with a win over LSU — will be an underdog in its last six contests.

Moser may very well be coaching for his job over the next three weeks. His contract runs through 2028, but the buyout after this season is reportedly between $4-5 million — not ideal, but certainly affordable for OU after what would be four straight seasons without a postseason appearance and a fan base that has gone from disgruntled to disinterested.