Big 12 W BB: Records and Rankings: Sooners still in there, BUT..

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Basketball team is not going to play this week. Coming off their disappointing loss to UNLV on Saturday night, the Sooners are now towards their game on Tuesday night in the Jumpman Classic against North Carolina in an 8:30 PM tip-off in Charlotte. Meanwhile, the Big 12 teams are laying well for the most part as all 14 teams have a winning record and only one team has a NET Ranking below at 101 (Cincinnati). Here are the records and rankings for the Big 12 Women's Teams thru the 12th of December.

Team --------------- Record ---- AP Rank - Coaches - NET Rank
Texas ---------------- 10-0 --------- #5 ---------- #7 ----------- #4
TCU ------------------ 10-0 ------- RV 28 ------ RV 35 ------ #24
Texas Tech ------- 10-0 ------- RV 31 --------- NA --------- #47
West Virginia ------ 9-0 ------- RV 29 ------ RV 36 ------- #21
Central Florida ---- 8-0 --------- NA ---------- NA --------- #66
Baylor ---------------- 7-0 --------- #10 --------- #13 ---------- #14
Kansas State ------ 9-1 ---------- T-#12 ------ #16 ----------- #8
Houston ------------ 6-1 ------------ NA --------- NA --------- #85
Brigham Young -- 8-2 ----------- NA --------- NA ---------- #74
Oklahoma --------- 6-3 ----------- NA -------- RV 34 ------- #55
Oklahoma State - 5-3 ----------- NA --------- NA ---------- #67
Cincinnati ---------- 5-3 ----------- NA --------- NA --------- #101
Kansas -------------- 5-4 ----------- NA --------- NA --------- #49
Iowa State --------- 5-4 ----------- NA --------- NA --------- #63
The good news is that the Sooners did still receive votes in the Coaches poll but are in the RV 34 position. The Sooners losses have been to Princeton (NET #41), Tennessee (NET #97) and UNLV (NET#9). Only the loss to Tennessee is on the ugly side with their #97 NET Ranking. The Sooners wins over Ole Miss (NET #61) and Virginia (NET #59) are helping them though to maintain their NET Ranking of #55.

The important news though is this, the Sooners play North Carolina on Tuesday as noted above. North Carolina is ranked as the #25 team in the country, and holds the #54 Rank in the NET. It is an important game for both teams. For OU, it is vitally important for them to right the ship and play well in Charlotte. A won by OU over the Tarheels would even their record against the better teams they have played at 3-3. It also gives them a win with a national view, which is important. It also will give them more votes and maybe even get bck in the Top 25 teams with a good solid win.

Going forward after the North Carolina game on Tuesday, the Sooners return home to play Southern University who is 0-7 against D competition and holds a #246 NET Rank. That game is on Friday in LNC in a 12 PM Noon tip-off.

The Big 12 play starts with the next game after Christmas on Saturday, the 30th of December in LNC in a 2 PM tip-off. The Sooners will play each of the other 13 teams once and play 5 of the teams in a home-road for their 18 conference games. OU has drawn Texas, Kansas State, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State and Kansas to play twice. If you divide the other 13 teams into the Top 5 teams, the middle 4 and the bottom 4 teams. OU will play the Top 5 teams in 7 games, 4 home and 3 on the road. The play the middle 4 teams in 4 games with 2 at home and 2 on the road. The Sooners play the bottom 4 teams 7 times. 3 are at home and 4 are on the road. That seems to be a very balanced schedule for OU in the conference. But a question is where does Kansas belong in the Big 12 teams. they are tied for the poorest record at 5-4, but they have a NET Rank of #49 which is 7th in the Big 12 and higher than OU's NET. PErhaps Kansas should slide into the middle 4 with Houston dropping to the bottom 4 teams. That only moves things around by 1 game though so it is just a thing that i noticed.

The first 6 games for OU could be tougher and provides a chance for a good start. OU opens with UCF at home, then travels to BYU and returns home to play Cincinnati in the firs tthree games. OU could, maybe should be 3-0 after those games. I will note that playing in Utah last year proved tough for OU in one of their games though against Utah. OU did defeat BU last year by 11 but that was last year. The Sooners next three games are Kansas State on the road, Texas Tech at home and then Houston on the road. To me the two games vs K-State and T-Tech will be huge for the Sooners in the big view of things. If OU can win both of those games, things are very good. If they split the two games, they are okay, but if they so not pick up a win in the two games I think it says the Sooners are not in the top half of the teams. A 6-0 start is possible. A 5-1 start in the Big 12 would be good. A 4-2 start puts pressure on the other 12 games.

In the next 6 games the Sooners play at Texas (always tough), at home against Kansas, Kansas State at home, Oklahoma State in Stillwater, TCU at home and Iowa State on the road. Four of those games look tough. Is a 2-4 record possible in this group of 6 games, yes. Can the record be 4-2 instead, maybe, but that means that OU beats one of Kansas, K-State or TCU.

If you will allow, at this point in the season the Sooners will hopefully have played themselves to a solid 8-3 record in the preseason which includes a win over North Carolina. The soones could be anywhere between probably 8-4 to 5-7 in the Big 12. a record of 16-7 looks very good for OU. 13-10 looks less so. If they drop the North Carolina game the record could be 12-11. That sets up a very critical last 6 games in the Big 12.

In the final six games, the Sooners are at home vs Baylor, at West Virginia, at Cincinnati, at home vs OSU, at home vs Texas and finish on the road at Kansas. This last set of six games looks to be tough as well. At worse the record is 2-4 at best it could be 4-2 or maybe 5-1. A Big 12 record of 11-7, at best 12-6, at worse 8-10, looks almost what to expect or predict. If you add that to the 8-3 or 7-4 preseason record, the win total is between 20-9 at very best and 15-14 at the worse.

The Sooners probably need 18 or 19 wins to get into the NCAA for sure. It may take at least one or two wins Sooners in the Big 12 Tourney to do that. It will be interesting to watch this play out for the Sooners. But between now and then, a lot of basketball will be played and new stars can show up or injuries can take place. It is all still before the Sooners at this point.

Boomer Sooner!