Men's College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Oklahoma Sooners

The Big 12 had a successful year in men’s college basketball in 2020 as the Baylor Bears closed out the season as the national champs. It was a dominant run, and they truly were the best team in college basketball.

The conference comes into the new year looking strong from top to bottom, but there was some drama in the offseason with a few teams planning to leave for the SEC. Texas and Oklahoma will be headed to the SEC in the near future, but for this year at least it’ll be business as usual.

Like many other conferences around the country, Big 12 teams took advantage of the expanded transfer portal and loaded up with all sorts of new faces. Figuring out rotations will be especially important for this group so let’s dive in and take our best crack at deciphering the best players for each squad.

In this one, Oklahoma.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Oklahoma Sooners 2021-2022 Season Preview

2020-2021 record: 16-11 (9-8 Big 12), seventh in Big 12
Postseason: Lost in NCAA Tournament second round

Key Departures | Oklahoma Sooners

Austin Reaves (NBA)
DeVion Harmon (transferred to Oregon)
Brady Manek (transferred to UNC)

Key Additions | Oklahoma Sooners

Jordan Goldwire (transferred from Duke)
Tanner Groves (transferred from EWU)
Jacob Groves (transferred from EWU)
Ethan Chargois (transferred from SMU)
Marvin Johnson (transferred from Eastern Illinois)
Akol Mawien (JUCO transfer)
CJ Noland (top 90 recruit)

Returners | Oklahoma Sooners

Umoja Gibson (9.1 PPG/3.1 RPG/1.2 SPG)
Elijah Harkless (8.1 PPG/5.4 RPG)
Jalen Hill (4.4 PPG/2.9 RPG)

Oklahoma Sooners Outlook for 2021-2022

Porter Moser steps in as the Sooners coach after the legendary Lon Kruger called it a career. Moser did a fantastic job of leading Loyola Chicago to the tournament the last couple of years, and I’m certainly a believer in his ability to field a competitive team.

The holdovers from the previous regime include three-point specialist Umoja Gibson, elite defender Elijah Harkless and productive bench piece Jalen Hill. Jordan Goldwire is another upper-tier on-ball defender who is going to create a ton of turnovers with his quick hands like he did at Duke. The Groves brothers can shoot the ball, crash the boards and defend well. They will be fun for DFS this year. Ethan Chargois is a stretch big with the capability to shoot the rock and bang down low while Marvin Johnson was a 15.3 PPG scorer at Eastern Illinois.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

This team is going to be a nightmare to target against because of its elite defense and they also possess a penchant for knocking down long range jumpers. There is enough talent here to expect a potential second week run in the tournament so don’t sleep on the Sooners before their move to the SEC.