Two weeks and a lot has changed for Oklahoma basketball. The Sooners are surging into the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament with a three-game winning streak.

But in terms of clinching that spot in the NCAA tournament? Still a lot of work to be done as OU begins the conference tournament vs. No. 2 seed Baylor 6 p.m. Thursday at The Sprint Center.

The Bears swept the two meetings vs. the Sooners during the regular season.

OU went from 12-3 overall to 14-14, and every game became a must-win scenario. The Sooners have done just that to improve their NET ranking to No. 42 entering the event at 17-14 overall and a 7-11 record in the Big 12.

OU has wins against Arkansas and Texas Tech and four wins against top-15-ranked teams at the time, but first-year head coach Porter Moser knows now is not the time to politick for a berth. Go out and earn it on the court.

“So there are some things, but we just have to focus on taking care of ourselves,” Moser said. “But our strength of schedule, I think after the Baylor game our strength of schedule is going to be like one or two in the country. I think it's five today, I think. We've just been focusing on trying to take care of ourselves.”

And OU has done a good job of that in the last three games. The Sooners were rocked upon learning about the season-ending knee injury to forward Elijah Harkless.

OU looked lost and lifeless in the next two games before waking up. It was imperative, obviously, to turn things around, but it was also a tremendous sign to show the NCAA committee that Harkless’ injury wouldn’t spell the end of OU’s tournament chances.

“It was a tough L for us,” senior guard Mo Gibson said. “E.J. played a big role for us offensively and defensively. He was one of our guys that was a leader on the team. When he took that L, unfortunately, we dropped a couple of big ones. We got blown out.

“But these last few games, we managed to stick together. I feel like we're identifying who we are as a team. We just really came in did what we were supposed to do to finish it off.”

It has been the seniors leading the charge with point guard Jordan Goldwire and senior Tanner Groves playing some of their best ball of the season.

Goldwire has shown a lot more confidence in running Moser’s system and in the way he has found the balance between being aggressive and getting teammates involved.

The knock on Groves, rightfully so, was watching him get beat up in the post time and time again. That has changed in recent games. In the three-game swing, Groves had a double-double with points and rebounds in two of them.

“It’s just what achieving when you emphasize. Him and I have watched tape one-on-one,” Moser said. “We’ve watched it with the team. We’ve shown where he can be more physical. He has to get lower leverage. He has to be able to not worry so much about getting hit, but play through it.

“You can really see it with the rebounding. He’s getting rebounds in traffic. It’s just a great example of someone who wants to get better, someone who is humble enough to look at tape and accept what he needs to improve on and do it.

“It’s a great lesson for young guys. We sat there … it’s not fun to tell someone that you need to be tougher and you need to be stronger. We did that with him. He looked at the film, accepted it and did something about it. That’s what you love – kids that are coachable.”

The winner of OU-Baylor will play the winner of Iowa State-Texas Tech in the semifinals Friday evening. Kansas is the No. 1 seed.