Joe Lunardi offers critical update on NCAA Tournament fate of Oklahoma, Michigan State

Oklahoma and Michigan State will be sweating it out on Selection Sunday. According to ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi, the Sooners and Spartans are among the “last four in” on the NCAA Tournament bubble following Saturday’s early conference tournament results.

OU and MSU will be rooting hard for North Carolina and Colorado to win their respective conference championships. Both NC State and Oregon, who will face the Tar Heels and Buffaloes, are among the “next four out” according to Lunardi but would steal an automatic bid with wins.

Oklahoma is coming off of a 20-12 finish but has dropped six of its past eight games to end the year. The Sooners have quality victories against quad 1 teams such as Iowa State and Cincinnati.

Meanwhile, Michigan State ended its season 19-14 after falling to Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament. The Spartans have not missed an NCAA Tournament since 1997, and their 25-season streak is the longest active in college basketball.

OU has not made an NCAA Tournament since Porter Moser took over in the 2021-22 season. The Sooners began the season 13-1 but had a rough close to the year in Big 12 play that has now thrown their March Madness hopes in question.

If Oklahoma and Michigan State are indeed among the last four teams to make the NCAA Tournament, they would both compete in a play-in game to set the field at 64. Both will find out their fates when the field is announced at 6 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS.