There will come a day for Oklahoma senior Kristian Doolittle to reflect back on his days as a Sooner, but Tuesday night against Texas won’t be one of those occasions.

Doolittle, the lone senior on OU’s team, will be honored before the game for the traditional senior night festivities, but his focus remains squarely on the Longhorns.

He won’t reminisce, but it has been quite the eventful four seasons for the Edmond Memorial product, full of twists and turns and ups and downs.

He’s hoping his final moment at Lloyd Noble Center will be his finest.

“Just his career, it’s been better and better and better and doing more things,” head coach Lon Kruger said. “Last year he was the most improved player in the conference and led us down the stretch to the NCAA Tournament. This year he’s doing the same thing in terms of taking a lot of things on his back and doing a good job.”

Doolittle leads the team at 15.7 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game, and you could see his confidence growing with each game deeper and deeper into the season.

He’s well on his way to being a first team all-Big 12 performer, which seems pretty remarkable remembering where he was coming into his sophomore season.

Doolittle had a solid freshman season, but things went off the rails when he was suspended for the first semester of his sophomore season. He played the second semester but never really felt like an integral part of the team.

It was possible he was on his way toward a what could have been story before he righted his ship and has become one of the most respected players in recent program history.

“You don’t think in those terms. You think in terms of OK, he made a mistake,” said Kruger about Doolittle’s early issues. “Let’s learn from it and do better. Obviously, he’s done that. He’s done a terrific job. He played in a summer league game last year that he shouldn’t have. It wasn’t a great decision.

“All those things really bothered Doo because he’s very self-conscious with a very kind heart. He wants to be everything for everyone and doesn’t want to make any mistakes. That’s a tough burden to put yourself under, yet he’s done a great job with all of that.”

The last couple of weeks have seen the latest chapter for Doolittle when he broke his nose in OU’s Bedlam loss at Oklahoma State.

Backs against the wall, Doolittle was instrumental in OU winning back-to-back ranked games against Texas Tech and at West Virginia to play the Sooners off the bubble, for at least one week.

“It means a lot. I sacrificed,” Doolittle said. “I could have easily have sat out those two games when I broke my nose. I didn't make it about myself. I did what the team needed me to do. I had the surgery so I could heal faster. Just been able to play hard for them.”

Doolittle has played with a mask the last two games and will have to do so the rest of the season. A season he is hoping stretches well into March as, if the chips all fall in the right place, the Sooners could end up as high as third place in the Big 12 by week’s end.

He said he doesn’t anticipate getting emotional prior to Tuesday’s game, but it’s obvious his teammates understand how much Doolittle has meant to the program.

“He’s scored a lot of baskets. He talks a lot on defense,” junior Brady Manek said. “He’s an all-around good player and he’s grown the last four years since he’s been here. Playing with him the last three will be something that I always remember for a long time. I think he’s grown as a person and as a player.

“He’s one of the smarter basketball players around. I can’t wait to see where he goes.”

What’s at stake

*What a difference a week makes for the Sooners. After winning vs. Tech and at WVU, not only has OU almost nearly cemented its NCAA berth, it’s now in play for the third seed in the Big 12 tournament.

Texas Tech has been reeling, losing three in a row. And if the Sooners can sweep this week combined with a Tech loss to Kansas on Saturday, OU will earn that third slot.

“Very hard to imagine how the season flies by at this time, especially,” Kruger said. “Guys are coming off a couple of really good games. It was our best complete 40 minutes, back-to-back, for sure on the year against two really good teams. We have two really good teams this week, as is the case in Big 12 play. Huge game tomorrow (Tuesday) night.”

OU and Texas are both 8-8 in conference play, but the Sooners have the current edge because of their win in Austin way back when during the second game of the conference season.

The Longhorns, despite a rash of injuries, have won four in a row to put themselves firmly on the bubble after looking like there was zero hope three weeks ago.