Oklahoma’s brutal defense, strong guard play is a good recipe for March

The images from the end of last season might still haunt Lon Kruger and his players at Oklahoma. There was North Dakota State guard Lawrence Alexander lying on the floor, pumping his fist after hitting a three-pointer to tie the game at the end of regulation. There was Bison coach Saul Phillips throwing up devil horns to the crowd. There was Oklahoma’s opponent from the Summit League dancing in the locker room after upsetting the Sooners in their first game of the NCAA Tournament.

North Dakota State’s win was a perfect snapshot of the wonder of March Madness, but Kruger probably wasn’t feeling particularly sentimental that day. Oklahoma had grabbed a No. 5 seed during a year many expected them to miss the tournament, only to be relegated to an upset victim in the round of 64.

The good news was that Oklahoma was set to return four starters, and Kruger had his eyes on an impact transfer. The Sooners got one of the offseason’s best gifts when Houston fired coach James Dickey to hire Kelvin Sampson. The Cougars’ two best players, Danuel House and TaShawn Thomas, immediately decided to transfer, and after some haranguing from the NCAA, Thomas landed at Oklahoma. He was the final piece for a starting lineup that could now beat you from deep or beat you up inside.

Oklahoma took some lumps along the way, but a month out from Selection Sunday, the Sooners are looking like a potential sleeper candidate to advance far in the tournament. They’re one of three schools two games back of Kansas in the Big 12, and still host the Jayhawks and play at Iowa State before the Big 12 regular season concludes. Right now, it sure seems like Oklahoma is a team no one wants to play.

After starting off 3-4 in conference play, Oklahoma has ripped off five straight wins. The most recent was a 94-83 victory at home against Iowa State that saw the Sooners score more than 1.2 points per possession for the fifth time this year. The offense is carried by shooting guard Buddy Hield, one of the better pro prospects among the juniors in college hoops this season.

Hield is leading the team in scoring (17.6 points per game) and has become one of the best high volume three-point shooters in the country, connecting on 39 percent of the 7.2 triples he attempts per game. He opened the season going 7-for-7 from three-point range against SE Louisiana. In a January win over Oklahoma State, he went 10-for-10 from the field (with four three-pointers) as the Sooners knocked off their in-state rivals.

Hield is the unquestioned leader of Oklahoma’s attack, but it’s not like he’s a one-man army. All five Sooner starters average at least 8.8 points per game -- the starting lineup makes up nearly 83 percent of the team’s scoring.

Oklahoma has a perfectly respectable offense at No. 39 in the country, but what makes the team a potential sleeper in March is its defense. Oklahoma is No. 5 in the country in defensive efficiency this season after placing No. 99, No. 89 and No. 91 in Kruger’s first three seasons in Norman, respectively. Having two big bodies in the middle in Ryan Spangler and Thomas certainly helps.

So far, Oklahoma has only allowed five opponents to cross the 1.0 PPP threshold all season. The team has done it by being No. 8 in opponent’s effective field goal percentage (42.6) and No. 25 in block percentage (14.1).

The victory over the Cyclones was Oklahoma’s seventh against a top 30 KenPom team. Our latest Bracketology projection has the Sooners as a No. 4 seed, but there’s an opportunity to still climb higher. Four of their seven losses -- at Baylor, at Kansas, at West Virginia and against Wisconsin on a neutral floor in the Bahamas -- look perfectly respectable right now.

Spangler at 6’8, 235 and Thomas at 6’8, 240 aren’t the biggest frontcourt players around, but they’re strong and tireless workers. Thomas is shooting over 53 percent from the field while Spangler is shooting over 60 percent. The threat of the kick out to Hield or Isaiah Cousins -- a 47 percent three-point shooter -- makes the Sooners’ inside-out game seem impossible to defend at times.

With great guard play, a lockdown defense and two enforcers on the inside to keep it from getting bullied, Oklahoma fits the profile of a team that can go deep in March. Kruger knows better than anyone that there’s always an underdog lurking, but this year one of those upstarts has to contend with Thomas’ physical play in the paint and a much improved defense.

With four weeks until Selection Sunday, it’s officially the time to start scouting potential Final Four sleepers. If there’s a profile for something that involves so much chance, Oklahoma seems to fit it.