The Big 12 coaches projected the Sooners to finish eighth in the 10-team Big 12 in their annual preseason poll, and Oklahoma was no where to be found in those major college basketball preview publications that were so bold as to plot out the 64 teams likely to fill out the brackets in the 2019 tournament field.
But then the Sooners, following a script similar to last season, but without one-and-done All-American Trae Young firing in rainbow threes from near half court, raced out to an 11-1 record through the nonconference portion of their schedule.