After stunning weekend results, Oklahoma misses the NCAA Tournament

Heading into this week of conference tournament games, Oklahoma's place in the NCAA Tournament of 68 appeared secure.

But after a series of crazy results over the weekend, the worst-case scenario is here for the Sooners. They did not earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, the selection committee announced on Sunday evening.

The Sooners (20-12, 8-11 Big 12) are officially the first team listed among the first four out, making it the slimmest of margins that led to the program missing the NCAA Tournament for the third-consecutive year.

Essentially, everything went wrong for the Sooners.

The Sooners won 18 of their first 24 games, which was punctuated by a 66-62 win over Oklahoma State in Norman on Feb. 10. But injuries started to pile up for the Sooners; John Hugley hasn't played since that Bedlam clash, Javian McCollum missed two of the last three games and Rivaldo Soares, who was the Sooners' most consistent player through conference play, was in and out of the lineup with an ankle injury. As a result the Sooners lost six of their final eight games, with all three players out for the Sooners' 77-70 loss to TCU at the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday.

Despite the loss to TCU, most projections still had the Sooners as a nine or 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Sooners had logged huge wins over Iowa State and BYU while being one of only five Power 5 teams to go undefeated in games marked as Quad 2, 3, 4. Most importantly, the Sooners expected to be fully healthy in time for the tournament.

OU coach Porter Moser delivered his argument to the committee after the TCU loss.

We are going to be at full strength by this weekend," Moser told reporters. "I know the first round is not until the second weekend, but in terms of our body of work, we have zero Quad 2, 3 or 4 losses in the best conference in the country. You look at our defense. We were (ranked) 31st going into the game and TCU has one of the best offensives. So we could end up top-30 defenses. Our offense is in the top-50. With the schedule we've had, with zero Quad 2, 3 or 4 losses, being 20-12 going into this week — and our guys know that we are going to be at full strength and where we were at full strength until we just hit this bug these last couple of weeks, but we're going to be at full strength by this weekend."

But the chaos started to ensue during the weekend. There were four specific results the Sooners needed to lock in their bid, and they all went the opposite way. NC State defeated North Carolina in the ACC Championship game, completing an unthinkable run of five wins in five days that clinched them an automatic bid; Oregon defeated Colorado in the Pac 12 Championship; New Mexico defeated San Diego State; and Florida Atlantic lost to Temple.

Those results significantly shrunk the amount of at-large bids while expanding the bubble field to a degree that hasn't been seen in recent memory. As a result, the committee left the Sooners out.

Now, questions surround the Sooners heading into the offseason. Moser and the Sooners have largely had to rebuild the roster via the transfer portal each of the last three seasons. Does anyone enter the portal? Plus, Soares and Le'Tre Darthard, who both played key roles this season, have exhausted their eligibility. The Sooners will also likely be extended an invitation to the NIT Tournament.

The Sooners will face a ton of questions over the next few days.