OU Playing Beyond Scoreboard vs KU

When Oklahoma (6-8; 0-3) hosts No. 2 Kansas (14-1; 3-0) tonight at 8 pm CT on ESPN2, it will have been 371 days since the teams played a 109-106 3OT thriller in Lawrence and 283 days since Lon Kruger had the Sooners playing in a Final Four, but both moments feels like a lifetime ago for a team amidst a six-game losing streak.

Losing National Player of the Year Buddy Hield and other key cogs Ryan Spangler and Isaiah Cousins obviously lead to lower expectations for OU in 2016-17. If the Sooners, who had made four-consecutive NCAA tournaments and two-consecutive Sweet Sixteens, were to even make the field of 68, it would be considered a more than successful season.

The hope was that senior Jordan Woodard would be the catalyst in the back court, junior Khadeem Lattin would hold down the paint, sophomore Christian James would step up into a bigger scoring role, and a group of young, highly athletic newcomers would compensate in the aggregate.

Unfortunately for Oklahoma, there appears to be a glitch in the formula.

Woodard has missed four games with injury, Lattin is averaging just 2.8 and 0.3 more points and rebounds per game, respectively, and James, who scored 12 points or more twice in tournament play as a freshman, is averaging just 10.9 points per game as a senior and has failed to top 11 points in the Sooners' last four games.

Even though OU lost Hield, the nation's top three-point shooter a year ago, their long-ball shooting has actually only dropped from 42 to 40-percent.

The problems for the team arise in turnovers, inefficiency, and sloppy play. Oklahoma is not playing the type of basketball to create free looks and often giving away possessions to their opponent before even getting a shot off.

Hield shot 322 three-pointers by himself last season.

Through 14 games this year, Oklahoma has shot just 262 as a team - nearly six fewer per game. For a team that shoots 40-percent from three, that amounts to over seven points per game lost.

Pretty important for a team that has lost five games this season by six points or fewer.

Help could be on the way next season with 2017 Norman (Okla.) North five-star point guard Trae Young, who is averaging over 40 points per game as a senior. Oklahoma is among the final teams left in the nation's No. 14 overall player and the top threat to steal the hometown star's signature may be tonight's opponent, Kansas.

Kansas head coach and Edmond Memorial graduate Bill Self recently took a break from his team's season and returned to his home state to watch Young in person, firmly communicating to the five-star his importance to the Jayhawk class. With KU sitting at No. 2 in the national polls and OU grasping for anything to stop this current slide, it's not hard to imagine what Self was selling. Tonight's game provides a rare first-hand look for Young at two of his final schools, their coaches and players in action - providing a clear juxtaposition of his possible futures.

Even though Young is smart and realistic enough to not to expect a Sooner win tonight, a competitive performance by Oklahoma and, perhaps more importantly, showcasing the talent Young could have at his disposal if he chose to remain in Norman and run the show.

In Oklahoma's previous four Elite Eight runs since 2002, they've been lead by either a national player of the year or a contender for the honor.

So if the Jayhawks are selling a guarantee, the Sooners are pitching a story. OU will never top the totality of the KU history, their 2,000+ wins, 15 Final Four appearances, etc.

However, Oklahoma has had more Naismith Award-Winners since 2009 than Kansas has total since UCLA's Lew Alcindor first won in 1969.

And if the Sooners wish to sell team success along with the spotlight, they'll need to convince Young that his talented teammates, his Isaiah Cousins, Taylor Griffin, Ebi Ere, or Aaron McGhee, are already on the roster. Not being overwhelmed by the talented Jayhawks at the Lloyd Noble Center is the best way to present that argument.

While the chase for 2017's No. 14 overall player rages on, 2016's No. 51 overall player, Kameron McGusty, just nabbed his first career 20-point game in Oklahoma's 75-64 loss to Kansas State on Saturday. The play of guys like McGusty and fellow freshmen Kristian Doolittle, Jordan Shepherd, and Matt Freeman will not go unnoticed.

Even if Young were to ultimately choose Kansas, building confidence for underclassmen is still paramount for the Sooner program and Kruger's plan for longterm success. There's no way tonight's contest will mean as much in conference or national title implications as both games in this series a year ago. Yet, these are 40 minutes that could have an impact for years. The more meaningful minutes played in this game will only create more confident players in the future.

Confidence is the core of the Kruger philosophy. Everything the sanguine coach does is designed to bring it out in his players and program. Confidence is infectious. Confidence allows people to attempt things they had previous thought impossible and reach new heights.

Tonight, Oklahoma hopes it can plant seeds of confidence to produce a more fruitful future.