Men's Basketball Outlook: Bleak

Oklahoma's record stands at 3-3, with an additional preseason victory against Northern State. Their three victories were against Coppin State, North Carolina Central (which required overtime), and Texas Southern. It's also important to point out that they lost to Division II Chaminade.

According to the KenPom pace neutral stats, the Sooners are ranked #113. This is worse than every other team in the Big 12 Conference, which is by the way the 2nd best conference according to the same ranking system. 

If you look at the Sooners page on the KenPom site the most likely scenario is for a 12-18 record, with a greater than 80% chance for between 10 and 14 wins. They will face heavy odds in their next two games, with only a 27% chance of winning at Arkansas, and a 6% chance of winning at Arizona.

The Sooners are going to have to rely heavily on senior guard Cade Davis. They should probably get him the ball more, as he only accounts for 24.2% of the Sooners points thus far, despite his FG%, effective and true FG%, 3-point FG%, and free throw rates being at career highs.

Cade has a lower possession percentage (possessions that he's directly involved in the shot) than Pledger, Fitzgerald, and Newell Jr., despite having a higher offensive efficiency than all three. It sounds to me like he's trying to be a leader and spread it around, when he should be getting the ball more. He is the Sooners best chance to avoid a truly embarrassing season.

If the Sooners lost to Chaminade, who they were favored by 17 against, then they are in danger of losing just about every game left on their schedule - and there are some pretty bad non-conference teams remaining.

The good news is that with zero expectations, we might get to experience the glory of scoring a major upset. It is odd to be in that position, for sure.