Big 12/SEC Challenge – Syndication Server

Big 12 winners, Alabama losers of inter-conference hoops clash

With a 7-3 record the Big 12 came out winners in their clash with the SEC, while Oklahoma made ‘losers’ of Bama per USA TODAY Sports.

If the SEC can claim superiority over the Big 12, and every other conference, on the football field, well it looks like the Big 12 can do the same on the court.

In this year’s edition of the Big 12/SEC Challenge, the Big 12 came away with a 7-3 record. Oklahoma and West Virginia picked up ranked wins on Saturday, while last-place Texas Tech knocked off LSU in Baton Rouge. Though Iowa State and TCU lost to unranked opponents, and Texas dropped a top-10 contest with Tennessee, the conference can still claim a win overall.

The conference continues to raise its profile as a basketball league. With their impressive weekend in the inter-conference clash, the Big 12 was named winners from the weekend by USA TODAY Sports’ Eddie Timanus.

As mentioned, the Large Dozen-minus-two claimed the overall series against the SEC helped by winning the two closest contests. Baylor and West Virginia picked up three-point wins at home over Arkansas and Auburn, respectively. – Timanus, USA TODAY Sports

The bottom of the conference held strong against some of the best in the SEC. The Sooners came away with the weekend’s biggest surprise, downing No. 2 Alabama at the Lloyd Noble Center.

It was an incredible environment that had to stun the Crimson Tide and the Sooners won in a blowout. Oklahoma’s domination put the Tide on the “losers” side of the ledger.

Losing on the road is one thing. But the way the Crimson Tide were run out of the gym by Oklahoma, which is most assuredly not among the Big 12’s upper echelon this season, had to be quite vexing for coach Nate Oats and his staff as the team was completely uninterested in playing defense. Ultimately, the damage to Alabama’s overall profile will be minimal, and if the team takes the lesson to heart that it can’t simply rely on its shooting each time out, the result could still prove useful. – Timanus, USA TODAY Sports

What the Sooners did to Alabama was equal parts shocking and impressive. They shot lights out from the floor and were efficient on their three-point attempts. But it was their defense, which had waned down the stretch at times this season, that was most impressive. They didn’t allow the Crimson Tide to roar back into the game and preserved the victory.

It was a win that could propel the program to brighter days if they’re able to go on a run to close out the Big 12 schedule.

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Relive the Oklahoma Sooners upset win over No. 2 Crimson Tide in fantastic photos

Relive the Oklahoma Sooners’ incredible win over the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide with these fantastic photos.

The Oklahoma Sooners took advantage of an incredible home atmosphere and a fantastic shooting night to stun the No. 2 team in the nation on Saturday at the Lloyd Noble Center.

It was an incredible scene from start to finish as the Sooners shot just under 70% from three, hitting 9 of 13 attempts to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide 93-69. It was the Sooners’ first win over a No. 1 or 2 team in the AP Poll since beating No. 1 Kansas back in 2002.

For a team that was blown out by TCU and Oklahoma State in the last week and a half, the Sooners needed this win to keep their tournament hopes alive and provide a boost to a program that appeared on the ropes.

Grant Sherfield poured in 30 points, Jalen Hill provided 26 of his own, and Tanner Groves had a double-double in the big win over the Sooners.

It was a fantastic atmosphere in Norman, and the fans made their presence felt from start to finish. Sooner Nation was rewarded with a fantastic effort from the home crowd and rushed the court when the final buzzer went off.

Here’s a look at the best photos from the Sooners’ win over Alabama on Saturday.

Sooners on wrong end of blowout, downed by the TCU Horned Frogs 79-52

Oklahoma Sooners blown out by the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, 79-52.

Things aren’t fun for the Oklahoma men’s basketball team right now. Their season might have hit rock bottom today as they lost to TCU 79-52 on the road.

From the tip, TCU looked and played like the better team. Any signs of a hangover from their road upset over Kansas were nonexistent. OU turned the ball over on four of its first five possessions of the game, helping the Horned Frogs race out to an 11-0 lead. From that point, the avalanche just kept rolling downhill for Porter Moser’s team.

Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year Mike Miles was in a zone for TCU, finishing with 23 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including a perfect 10-of-10 mark from the charity stripe. C.J. Noland led the way for Oklahoma in points with 11 but still finished -24 for the game. Grant Sherfield, Oklahoma’s offensive engine, was bottled up. His five points on 2-of-11 shooting were just a footnote in this game.

TCU’s long and athletic defense swarmed Oklahoma all night and forced them to play way too fast. The Sooners don’t play the fastest but entered the game as the nation’s 20th-ranked field-goal percentage team. TCU’s 66th-ranked defense showed up in a big way to speed them up, and the Frogs did a good job contesting shots throughout the game.

A 44-27 halftime deficit didn’t get any better for the Sooners after the break. The Sooners were on the wrong end of another 11-0 run out of the locker room. Moser had seen enough and gave younger guys like Otega Oweh and Benny Schroder extended minutes in the blowout. The TCU lead ballooned to 31 points, and the rest is history.

Oklahoma’s starters combined for just 20 points. For a normally scrappy Sooners team that has played a lot of tough games, Tuesday’s performance felt like the wheels completely falling off on this Sooners’ season.

The 27-point defeat is OU’s worst loss since it’s a 77-47 loss to Baylor on Jan. 28, 2019.

Oklahoma will step away from the Big 12 grind to do battle with the SEC’s best team, the Alabama Crimson Tide, as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off between the Sooners and the Crimson Tide is slated for 1 p.m. at the Lloyd Noble Center.

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Sooners have second toughest remaining schedule according to ESPN’s BPI

According to ESPN’s BPI metric, Sooners have the second toughest remaining schedule in the country.

While the Oklahoma Sooners couldn’t come out on top against 7th-ranked Texas to close out 2022, Oklahoma enters the year 2023 with ample opportunities to bolster its resume and solidify itself as an NCAA tournament team.

Per ESPN’s BPI metric, the Oklahoma Sooners have the nation’s second-toughest schedule remaining.

BPI is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is looking at current stats, schedules, and projections to calculate it.

Every Big 12 team is in the top 10. The major takeaway is that the Big 12 is far and away the toughest basketball conference in the country.

There are 362 basketball teams in Division I. Per ESPN BPI, the 10 toughest remaining schedules belong to…

Every team in the Big 12 😳 pic.twitter.com/XocX5vsAwQ

— Tyler Dreiling 🇺🇦 (@TylerDreiling) January 2, 2023

Oklahoma’s Big 12 journey is about to heat up. The only non-conference game they have remaining will be against a top-10 Alabama Crimson Tide team as a part of the Big 12-SEC Challenge.

In this predictive model, Oklahoma finishes somewhere between 16 to 17 wins and fourteen losses. Their projected conference record lands somewhere around 7-11. With all that taken into account, they have less than a 1% chance of winning the Big 12.

While that seems less than ideal, Oklahoma has road trips to Baylor, Texas, Kansas, and Iowa State still on its plate. All four squads are ranked, with Kansas being the highest at No. 3 nationally. A 2-2 split in those road games is the most ideal outcome and would give Oklahoma plenty of quality wins for their NCAA Tournament resume.

Taking care of business at home also matters, given the circumstances. There won’t be any easy games on the conference schedule, and while it holds well for the league come selection time, it also means Oklahoma can’t have lapses or multi-game losing streaks. Coming up just short against No. 6 Texas may not feel like a big loss, but letting that one slip away hurts. Opening Big 12 play with a win over one of the best teams in the country would have provided a huge boost to the Sooners’ resume.

Porter Moser’s team came up short last year in large part because of their work in the conference. This year an early loss to Sam Houston State in the first game of the season looks terrible on Oklahoma’s resume. So finishing as high in the conference as they can be the best way to push that loss further away from how the committee views Oklahoma.

Kansas, the standard bearer and reigning national champion, has the second-highest probability (21.7%) of winning the regular season title behind Oklahoma’s biggest rivals, Texas, who sits at 68.3 %. This predictive model believes the Big 12 is a two-team race.

While that may true, all the Sooners can do is lock in and try and steal a few games against some of the nation’s best competition.

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Auburn-West Virginia among best Big 12-SEC games in 2022-23 season

Auburn-West Virginia is rated among the top five matchups in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

It was announced on Thursday that the Auburn Tigers would take on the West Virginia Mountaineers in the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge. The matchup will feature a pair of polarizing coaches in Bruce Pearl and Bob Huggins.

Simply put, this will be must-watch TV. Last season Auburn took on the Oklahoma Sooners, they won 86-68. That win game during their 19-game winning streak that helped them secure the SEC regular-season championship.

When it comes to the matchup next season, CBS Sports ranked this game among the top five. They came behind Kansas-Kentucky, Arkansas-Baylor, and Texas–Tennessee. The Vols and Longhorns will match up for the second-consecutive season.

That makes Auburn-WVU as the No. 4 best game in the Big 12-SEC Challenge.

What CBS Sports Says…

Auburn will be making its first trip to West Virginia since a 59-58 victory over the Mountaineers in the 1984-85 season. A Bruce Pearl vs. Bob Huggins coaching matchup should be fun.

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3 takeaways as Florida takes down Georgia for 4th-straight win

Florida’s lead was as big as 16 in this one, but the struggling Bulldogs cut that to just three points late in the contest.

It looked like the Gators were finally going to have a low-stress close to a game after they needed comebacks to win the prior three. Florida held the lead against Georgia for all 40 minutes with as much as a 14-point margin separating them in the final eight minutes of the game.

But, as anyone who has watched this team this season (or for the last several, for that matter) is well aware, nothing comes easy for UF, and the matchup against the Bulldogs was no exception. They managed to close that gap and bring the game within one possession in the final three minutes.

However, a clutch three-pointer from Tyree Appleby and some strong defense down the stretch was enough to preserve a 72-63 win. That may not move the needle on the NCAA Tournament resume for Florida (16-8, 6-5 SEC), but it keeps the bubble team’s postseason hopes alive for at least another few days.

Here are the takeaways from the win over Georgia (6-18, 1-10 SEC).

Three reasons why Oklahoma beat Mississippi State 63-62

It came down to the wire. Here are three reasons why the Sooners took down Mississippi State 63-62.

It came down to the wire.

After a Jamal Bieniemy miss with 16 seconds left in the game, Mississippi State had no timeouts and raced down the floor. The Bulldogs were forced to take a contested jumpsuit, missing and giving Oklahoma a big NCAA Tournament resume building win.

Here are three reasons why the Sooners took down Mississippi State 63-62.

HELLO, ALONDES WILLIAMS

As Mississippi State started to make its run in the second half, one Oklahoma player kept the Sooners afloat.

Junior college transfer Alondes Williams came alive in the second half, scoring 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including 2-of-3 from three. The Bulldogs tied the game at 38 before a Williams’ 3-pointer and steal that turned into a dunk pushed Oklahoma back ahead by five.

MISSISSIPPI STATE FOUL TROUBLE

There is an ‘if’ in Saturday’s game.

Star Mississippi State forward Reggie Perry picked up two early fouls and then a technical foul to give him three early in the first half. Perry, who had averaged over 20 points and 10 rebounds in the previous three games, was forced to sit for majority of the game.

No telling how his presence would’ve effected the outcome of the game.

DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE

Oklahoma’s defense is a tough task to go against.

Although undersized, the Sooners dealt with the size and physicality of the Mississippi State bigs inside. Overall, Oklahoma held Mississippi State to 38 percent shooting for the game.

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Three keys for Oklahoma basketball against Mississippi State

Oklahoma (12-6, 3-3) and Mississippi State (12-6, 3-3) square off against each other for conference pride.

With this year being the seventh edition of the Big 12/SEC Challenge the Big 12 holds a 10-game lead over the SEC, with a 35-25 record. The Sooners are 4-2 in Big12/SEC Challenge matchups, trailing only Baylor, who has a 5-1 record in the event, for the best record among Big 12 teams.

STOP SECOND-CHANCES

Oklahoma needs to get control of the defensive glass early and keep control throughout the game to keep the Bulldogs at bay. Mississippi State averages 13.6 offensive rebounds per game. The Sooners allowed No. 1 Baylor to haul in 18 offensive boards, giving the Bears second-chance points with high-percentage looks. Oklahoma needs to be physical and put bodies on bodies in the paint to keep the Bulldogs off the glass.

REVIVE REAVES

After a hot start to conference play, Austin Reaves has cooled down since the Kansas game. Combining for 26 points over the past three games, Reaves has caught a cold streak, not playing up to his season average 14.7 points per game. The Sooners should look to get him involved in the offense early, but not force his involvement.

MANEK-MANIA

Fresh off of a career-high 31-point game last Saturday and a 21-point outburst against the No. 1 team in the country, Brady Manek is on a scoring heater. Not only is he getting shots to fall, but Manek is playing complete games from baseline to baseline. Against Baylor, Manek hauled in 10 boards and had four steals while setting a new career-high with 31 points. His performance will strongly influence Oklahoma’s game today.

The Sooners and Bulldogs can be seen on ESPN2 at 1p.m. CT. FOr more information on how to catch the broadcast, click here.

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When, where, how to watch, how to stream Oklahoma-Mississippi State

Oklahoma (12-6, 3-3) and Mississippi State (12-6, 3-3) face off as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

The Sooners see their first action after nearly upsetting No. 1 ranked Baylor on the road on Monday, having a shot to win as time ran down, but fell short, 61-57.

The Bulldogs come into the matchup riding a three-game win streak with wins over Missouri, Georgia, and Arkansas, beating the trio by a combined score of 240-174.

For Oklahoma, Kristian Doolittle is next in line to surpass 1,000 points. Brady Manek did just that last Saturday in the 83-63 thumping of TCU. Doolittle is just 16 points away from the milestone.

Here is how you can catch the inter-conference matchup:

WHERE: Oklahoma City (Chesapeake Energy Arena)

WHEN: 1:00 p.m. CT

HOW TO WATCH: ESPN2

HOW TO LISTEN: Sooner Sports Radio Network—KOKC AM 1520 and KRXO 107.7 FM in OKC, KMOD FM 97.5 and KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa (click here for more options if not in either of those markets)

HOW TO STREAM: WATCH ESPN

For the full slate of BIG12/SEC Challenge matchups, click here.

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