Oklahoma
Oklahoma basketball: No more hypothesizing; field set for Big 12 Championship
For the past couple of weeks, the talk surrounding the men’s Oklahoma basketball program has been about finishing strong and seeding for the Big 12 Championship and, more importantly, have the Sooners done enough to end their three-year absence from the NCAA Tournament.
We now know the answer to the first but will have to wait another week before we learn the Sooners’ fate for the NCAA Tournament.
The Oklahoma men (20-11, 8-10) finished the regular season on Saturday, their last as a member of the Big 12, with a 94-80 loss at Texas. That earned the Sooners the No. 9 seed in this week’s Big 12 Men’s Championship at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. The OU women are the top seed and one of four teams remaining in the women’s bracket of the same tournament, also in Kansas City.
The Sooner men will play No. 8 TCU on Wednesday afternoon. Oklahoma and TCU played once in the regular season with the Horned Frogs winning 80-71 in Ft. Worth in early January. Because of TCU’s surprising 79-77 loss at home to UCF on Saturday, the Horned Frogs dropped to the eight line in the conference tournament. Otherwise, the Sooners would have faced a rematch with Texas, a team that they had lost to twice during the regular season and have not beaten in seven consecutive games.
Although Oklahoma’s 9-seed in the conference postseason tournament isn’t anything to brag about, it is better than the 12th-place projection for the Sooners by the league coaches in the Preseason Big 12 Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll. The major downside of being on the 9-line is: If you are fortunate enough to win and advance, your next opponent is the top-seeded team, which in this case is Big 12 regular-season champion Houston.
The men’s tournament begins on Tuesday with two first-round games. Here is how the bracket sets up for OU and the rest of the teams in what will be the final Big 12 Tournament for the Sooners and the Texas Longhorns, both of whom are leaving the conference after this season for the SEC.
Tuesday, March 12
Game 1: No. 12 UCF vs. No. 13 Oklahoma State, 11:30 p.m. CT
Game 2: No. 11 Cincinnati vs. No. 14 West Virginia, 2 p.m.
Wednesday, March 13
Game 3: No. 5 BYU vs. Game 1 winner, 11:30 p.m.
Game 4: No. 8 TCU vs. No. 9 Oklahoma, 2 p.m.
Game 5: No. 7 Texas vs. No. 10 Kansas State, 6 p.m.
Game 6: No. 6 Kansas vs. Game 2 winner, 8:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 14, Quarterfinals
Game 7: No. 4 Texas Tech vs. Game 3 winner, 11:30 p.m.
Game 8: No. 1 Houston vs, Game 6 winner, 2 p.m.
Game 9: No. 2 Iowa State vs. Game 5 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 10: No. 3 Baylor vs. Game 6 winner
Friday, March 15, Semifinals
Game 11: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner
Game 12: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner
Saturday, March 16, Championship Final
Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner
KANSAS CITY, MO — Christian Coleman reached high but couldn’t grab the alley-oop pass from Jaylen Curry.
But it glanced off his fingertips, hit the backboard, then the rim and fell in the basket.
It wasn’t the prettiest clutch play by the Oklahoma State forward, but it was as important as any of them.
Coleman’s alley-oops layup with just over two minutes remaining helped the 14th-seeded Cowboys stretch their lead on the way to a 92-83 win over No. 11 Colorado in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday at T-Mobile Center.
Had Coleman gotten his hands on the ball, it would have been a massive exclamation-point jam, yet as he rose for it, he could tell it was out of his reach.
“But God had his hands around it and it kinda fell in for me,” Coleman said with a laugh. “So we count it.”
Coleman finished with 17 points and a season-high 14 rebounds, backing guard Anthony Roy, who had 17 of his game-high 24 points in the second half. Curry added 15 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Late in the game, the lanky 6-foot-8 Coleman moved to center as coach Steve Lutz was forced to put a small lineup on the floor.
The Cowboys were without their two most-used bigs, Parsa Fallah and Andrija Vukovic, because of injuries. Their freshman replacements, Benjamin Ahmed and Mekhi Ragland, found themselves in foul trouble.
“He’s versatile,” said OSU point guard Kanye Clary, who had seven points, six assists and five rebounds. “He can guard the 1-5. He switches and plays hard.
“When he’s motored up, I don’t really think there’s nobody who can stop him. He’s the only person who can stop himself. And tonight, he went out there and showed how impactful he is.”
The Cowboys (19-13) will take on sixth-seeded TCU at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as they try to once again keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
“Our mentality has been the same every game in the Big 12, because the league is so darn hard,” Lutz said. “If you look forward, you have no chance.
“I’m proud of the guys for sticking together and banding together, because we’ve had some key people, teammates, go down and we had to piece it together. I’m just happy for them and excited to face TCU tomorrow night.”
Here are three takeaways from the OSU victory:
Anthony Roy settles in for big game
In an odd twist, Colorado was hit with a technical foul for not submitting its lineup in time prior to the game, and that put Roy on the free throw line before the tipoff.
He missed the attempt, but it was the only one he’d miss all night, hitting the next 10.
Roy hit some rough patches throughout the first half, at one point getting quickly subbed out after missing an awkward 3-pointer from the corner.
But in the second half, he found his rhythm, going 5 of 6 from the floor with a pair of 3-pointers and a couple tough drives for layups.
“He got to the free-throw line and made 10 of 11,” Lutz said. “I thought he did a good job with that. And we tease him a bunch about his defense, but I thought at the end of the game when it mattered, he played good defense. And he rebounded the basketball.”
Freshmen Benjamin Ahmed, Mekhi Ragland play key minutes
With the Cowboys thin in the frontcourt, Ahmed made his third straight start, and Ragland was the first center off the bench.
Ahmed went to the bench after getting his fourth foul with 7:20 to play and didn’t return, but still played his second-most minutes in a game this season at 21. He finished with seven points, six rebounds and a blocked shot.
“Parsa going down, he spoke to me about it that I have a big role to fill,” Ahmed said. “It’s a learning process for me. I’m just excited to see what the future holds for me.”
Ragland had four points, a rebound and an assist in eight minutes — his most against a Big 12 opponent.
“It felt good being able to step up,” Ragland said. “I’ve wanted to show myself and show what I can do all year.
“The first couple up-and-downs, you’re a little nervous, but that goes away fast. It’s just basketball at the end of the day, so I was ready for the moment.”
OSU by the numbers
∎ The Cowboys are now 29-1 under Steve Lutz when scoring at least 81 points. The only loss came to TCU earlier this year, 95-92 in overtime at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
∎ The 92 points scored Tuesday are the most by OSU in the Big 12 Tournament. The previous high was 87, scored against Colorado in 2005.
∎ Coleman’s 14 rebounds were his season high and tied his career high.
∎ Adding a new combination Tuesday, OSU has used 19 different starting lineups this season.
∎ Clary led the team in plus-minus at 17, followed by Vyctorius Miller at 14.
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on X at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
Oklahoma State vs. TCU
TIPOFF: 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. (ESPNU)
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Severe weather is still expected tonight across much of our area. In fact, the threats have increased since this morning due to more clearing skies in western Oklahoma. More sunshine means more instability to work with.
SPC Severe Weather Outlook. (KOKH)
Due to this, the Storm Prediction Center has increased all hazards for our part of Oklahoma. The strongest storms could produce winds up to 80 mph, baseball size hail, and a few tornadoes. This would be from essentially now until early Wednesday morning.
SPC Tornado Outlook. (KOKH)
The tornadic potential has increased across much of the area generally along and east of I-44/I-35.
The general thinking is that discrete supercells will form in western North Texas in the 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM window and begin to make their way towards southwest Oklahoma. These storms will then quickly go from being individual cells to more clusters of storms. This would increase the wind potential and make it possible for brief spinup tornadoes to form. These QLCS (quasi-linear convective systems) tornadoes can form and develop quickly.
Once the storms are generally east of I-35, there won’t be any more cells anymore and we’d be looking at a larger squall line. Check out the below model images for a look at the evolution of the storms tonight:
There is also the potential for very heavy rain with these storms too.
A cold front will sweep the storms away to the east tonight. After the front, strong northerly winds are possible. Due to this, there is a Wind Advisory Wednesday for parts of our area.
Wednesday Wind Gusts. (KOKH)
These strong winds will increase the fire danger Wednesday afternoon.
To stay up to date with the latest forecast, be sure to download the Fox 25 Weather App.
Download the Fox 25 First Warning Weather App. (KOKH)
Stay with Fox 25, we’ve got your back.
A legal fight is escalating between former Oklahoma City municipal attorney Orval Jones and the city over how the Oklahoma City Police Department handled cash seized during arrests.
The city has filed a motion asking a judge to strike Jones’ claims, arguing he has no legal standing and calling the criminal-case process a “restitution scheme.”
Jones says he spent eight years “cleaning up” the OKCPD property return process from 2017 to March 2025 until he resigned “due to duress” in September.
He filed an affidavit claiming OKCPD seized more than $400,000 in cash from arrests and deposited it into the city’s bank account.
In his audit, Jones made lists of seized cash amounts, including amounts under $250, from $250 up to $500, and more than $500.
In its motion, the city argues Jones is no longer an attorney for the city or the district attorney’s office, is not an owner of any of the property “properly disposed of,” and has not suffered an injury.
The city also alleges Jones filed his motion with “half-truths” and without support or proof.
Jones responded in a rebuttal affidavit that the issue involves injury to the state, the county, other counties, crime victims, and property owners who received no notice. Jones said, “I had a professional duty to tell the court that these filings were legally defective and potentially fraudulent. I cannot stay silent.”
In an email in April 2025, OKCPD Chief Ron Bacy said the department had 288,000 overdue property and currency claims needing a disposition update, and that many investigators assigned to those cases are no longer employed with the department. Bacy said the department developed programs to assist the Property Management Unit.
Court documents show more than 350,000 pieces of property held in the Property Management Unit, more than $2.5 million in the unit’s bank account, and that 80% of the property and money are due for disposition.
If a judge agrees with Jones, the funds may be returned to the owners.
If the judge agrees with the city, the case will be dropped.
The city and OKCPD had not responded to open records requests submitted Feb. 10.
When asked whether the city conducted or requested an internal review into the allegations, the city said it does not comment on pending litigation.
A hearing has been set later this month.
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