OU men’s basketball (19-15, 7-11 SEC) missed the cut for the NCAA Tournament when the 68-team March Madness field was revealed at 5 p.m. on Selection Sunday.
OU’s loss to No. 17 Arkansas (24-8, 13-5 SEC) in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals proved to be the nail in the coffin for a team fighting to play its way into the bracket after failing to be featured in any form in ESPN’s Bracketology until 72 hours before Friday’s game.
The Sooners dropped nine straight games in the middle of conference play but rode a six-game winning streak through the late season, where another win likely would have earned them a berth, given they were the first team out before tipoff.
The Sooners have now missed the NCAA Tournament in four of five seasons under head coach Porter Moser. Athletic director Roger Denny announced Saturday that Moser will return for the 2026-27 season, adding that the department plans to increase its investment in the program as part of Denny’s initiative to build dynasties across all OU sports.
OU closed out the season ranked No. 48 in the NCAA NET, climbing from No. 73 after a Feb. 7 win over No. 22 Vanderbilt that snapped the team’s nine-game losing streak. OU's late-season rise wasn’t enough to overcome the midseason slide that ultimately kept the Sooners out of the field.
With OU’s season likely over, here are some statistical leaders for the 2025-26 season:
Points
Senior guard Nijel Pack led OU with 16.5 points per game on 47.4% shooting and 45.2% from three across 34 starts. Pack surpassed 2,000 career points and became just the 31st player in Division I history to hit 400 career 3-pointers made. He also became the fourth Sooner in 30 years to record back-to-back 20-point games in conference tournament play, capping one of the most accomplished individual seasons of his six-year career.
Rebounds
Senior forward/center Mohamed Wague led the team in rebounds, collecting 6.7 boards as part of a career year where he posted career highs with 7.1 points, 1.3 assists and 1.5 blocks per game while starting all 34 contests. The veteran big man recorded four double-doubles and posted career highs of 20 points and 15 rebounds in separate games. Wague, a practicing Muslim, played his best basketball while observing Ramadan, averaging 10.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and two blocks during OU’s final eight games.
Assists
Junior guard Xzayvier Brown was the Sooners’ floor general, leading the team with 3.2 assists per game and finishing with a 1.8 assist-to-turnover ratio. Brown surpassed 300 career assists and committed a career-low 54 turnovers while contributing nearly a quarter of OU’s 14.3 assists per game. Notably, the Sooners ranked No. 10-of-16 in assists per game in the SEC.
Bench Production
Senior guard Jadon Jones became OU’s most impactful reserve after missing the previous season with a medical redshirt. Jones averaged 5.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.8 blocks across 30 games, to lead all non-starters in rebounds, steals and blocks. Freshman forward Kuol Atak led bench scoring at 7.0 points per game, and sophomore guard Dayton Forsythe added 1.8 assists per contest.
Looking ahead, the Sooners will lose five seniors — Pack, Wague, Jones, forward Tae Davis and guard Reid Lovelace — to graduation. Their 2026 recruiting class currently features one signee: four-star power forward Gage Mayfield of Hale County High School in Moundville, Ala. Mayfield is the state’s top-rated player, ranked as the No. 11 power forward and No. 73 overall prospect nationally by 247Sports.
Last offseason, Moser dipped heavily into the transfer portal after seeing 10 of his 13 players with playing time depart. Wague, Forsythe and Lovelace were the three returners who saw the floor in the 2024-25 season, while Jones, Atak and senior guard Jeff Nwankwo returned but had all redshirted the previous season. OU added nine new players to the program during the last offseason, and will most likely stock up again on experienced transfers as its way of bringing in new talent.
OU declined an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament but will continue its postseason after accepting an invitation to the eight-team College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas. The Sooners will face Colorado (17-15, 7-11 Big 12) at 7 p.m. April 1 on Fox Sports 1.
This story was edited by Laurie Jones.
