Even before the season, Oklahoma forward Kristian Doolittle was confident his junior campaign would be a heck of a lot different than his forgettable sophomore season.

You could hear the confidence and honesty in his voice, but it was still hard to shake what had transpired the season before and whether Doolittle could come back.

Well, he did. Doolittle has been the catalyst to the Sooners turning around their Big 12 conference play in the last month and earned the Big 12’s Most Improved Player on Sunday morning.

“Fantastic. He's deserving of that,” head coach Lon Kruger said. “He's made that much progress and will continue to do that. He's worked hard and it's great to see that for him.”

Doolittle is 13.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in conference action and is the team’s leading scorer in Big 12 play heading into the first round of the Big 12 tournament against West Virginia on Wednesday evening in Kansas City. The Sooners enter 19-12 overall with a 7-11 record in conference action.

Following a promising freshman season, Doolittle went off the rails. It started off the court with an academic suspension that forced him to miss the first semester of his sophomore season.

When he rejoined the team, it was tough to find a spot and where he fit. He went from being the first or second option as a freshman to averaging just 2.9 points and 4.3 rebounds last year.

Through the first month of this season, not much had changed. Doolittle didn’t score in double figures in the initial 10 games. But something happened in a two-game stretch in mid-December against Creighton and at Northwestern.

A 13-point and five-rebound effort at home was combined with a 14-point, nine-rebound game in Evanston that seemed to turn everything around.

“I would probably say the Northwestern game,” Doolittle said. “I'd go all the way back to that game. I've been able to keep the same momentum throughout the entire Big 12 and just gaining confidence all the way through until to this point, going into our first-round game against West Virginia.”

Doolittle nailed a game-winner with three seconds left in a win vs. TCU in January, but it would still take some time before he finally realized this could be his show.

Once it clicked, he hasn’t looked back, and the team has followed his lead.

“He's had to keep working at it,” Kruger said. “He's really ...even going back to November of his year and the change in his game from then to now is unbelievable. His confidence level is high and the results are great. It's a credit to him to continue to work at it.

“You make plays, you get better results and get more confidence. He wanted more plays and wanted more touches and he kept getting better results. I think it's a result of getting good results and his confidence level going up.”

Doolittle has scored in double figures in nine straight games and had four double-doubles during the conference season.

It can’t stop there, however. Although most feel the Sooners have earned the right to dance in the NCAA tournament, any wins this week in Kansas City will definitely help the cause.

Sooners were sweating it out last season, following a loss to Oklahoma State in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. A year older, the experience could pay off vs. the Mountaineers.

“Focus more. Playing OSU in the first round last year we got beat because we didn't' take them seriously like we should have,” Doolittle said. “So we're going to learn from that mistake this year, starting with the seniors going down and reminding us on how big this game is for us and what this game has at stake for us as well. We'll be ready.”

OU is the No. 7 seed in the tournament. If the Sooners are able to beat WVU for the second time this season, they would take on No. 2 seed Texas Tech on Thursday evening. The Red Raiders swept OU in the regular season.

Quotable

“I was surprised but I was grateful that I was chosen for the award. But I'm not satisfied. I'm just proud that what I've done so far has been noticed and it's always nice to receive an award. I'm just looking forward to next year as well.” – Doolittle on winning the Big 12’s Most Improved award