March Madness: What To Know And Oklahoma Team's Histories In The Tournament

In collegiate basketball, March Madness refers to the NCAA Division I men's and women’s basketball tournaments. The winner of said tournament is declared the national champion.

In Oklahoma, only one school, Oklahoma State, has been declared national champions in the men’s or women’s sport, with the men’s team having won in 1945 and 1946 when the school was known as Oklahoma A&M.

History Of The NIT and NCAA Tournaments:

According to the NCAA, the National Invitation Tournament, or the NIT, was founded in 1938, where the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association based in New York City would host a basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden. The composition of teams would be selected, or invited, to the tournament by the MBWA. Usually, teams were selected based on success, and were typically the best or second-best teams within their conference.

One year later, in 1939, the NCAA tournament was founded. Originally consisting of eight teams, the tournament expanded to 16 teams in 1951, then to 22 in 1953, and fluctuated between 22 and 25 teams until 1975, when it was expanded to include 32 teams. In 1985, the tournament was expanded to 64 teams, and then to 68 teams in 2010.

Originally, the NIT tournament was seen as the “premier” tournament due to the ability for teams to receive nationwide coverage playing in New York City, as opposed to games being played around the country in the NCAA tournament. However, following an NCAA decision to suspend teams from postseason play for rejecting an invitation to their tournament in 1971, teams began to play exclusively in the NCAA tournament for two reasons.

First, with the expansion of the number of teams entering the NCAA tournament to 32 teams in 1975, more teams were eligible to join the NCAA tournament, which often ran at the same time as the NIT tournament.

Second, in 1973, NBC, the network who aired the tournament, moved coverage of the national championship game from Saturday to Monday evening, giving the tournament primetime status on television which the NIT could not compete with.

Tournament Terms To Know:

In the tournament, several terms related to the event have gained national prominence for their uniqueness.

March Madness:

The tournament, primarily taking place in March, is often referred to as March Madness. One would expect that to be the end of the name explanation, but due to the large number of teams and games taking place in such a short period, less than a month, it’s easy to go mad trying to keep up with it all.

The Big Dance:

Most sports fans know the tournament by its more common nickname, March Madness, however, a close runner-up in terms of commonality would be referring to it as “the Big Dance.”

The name stems from Marquette basketball coach Al McGuire, who in 1977 said to a reporter, “you gotta wear the blue blazer when you go to the big dance.” Throughout the season, McGuire wore a bright blue blazer on the courtside, and Marquette ended up winning the tournament that year. Since then, the name has stuck.

Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four:

These names refer to different stages of the tournament. Beginning with 68 teams, 8 teams play against each other in four matchups, known as the First Four. The four winners then advance to become the four 16th seeds in the first round. Now with 64 total teams, the teams play until the end of the first round leaves 32 remaining, then 16 teams after the second round. These sixteen teams are known as the Sweet Sixteen.

After that round, the remaining eight are the Elite EIght, and then after that remains the Final Four. These final four teams compete in the semifinals, and the winners advance to the final matchup.

What is a seed? Pods? Bracket?

A seed is essentially what “rank” a team is in the tournament. Seeds are assigned based on team success, with winning teams being closer to the first seed and the not-as-successful teams being the 15th seed. The 16th seed, as previously mentioned, are the winners of the First Four matchups at the beginning of the tournament.

A pod is how the tournament is divided into who plays who. Pods are organized to each contain a first seed through a 16th seed, with the team’s playing based on seed number. The matchups are organized so the first seed plays the 16th seed, second seed plays the 15th seed, and so on with the eighth seed playing the ninth seed.

Brackets are how the tournament looks as a whole laid out on paper. A fun activity many fans participate in is predicting the entire bracket from beginning to end, winners and losers. Although mathematically close to impossible, there have been close ones over the years, and it is still fun to guess.

Teams In Oklahoma:

Oklahoma:

The Sooner men's team has had 33 appearances in the NIT and NCAA tournaments. Of those appearances, it resulted in eleven Sweet Sixteens, nine Elite Eights, five Final Fours and two finishes as runner-ups in 1947 and 1988.

In 1979, Oklahoma’s first Sweet Sixteen appearance, the Sooners were coming off a win over No. 4 Texas when they faced the No. 1 seed, Indiana State, led by future NBA three-time champion and hall of famer Larry bird. The Sooners lost 72-93.

In the Sooners’ only appearance in the national championship following the tournament’s expansion to 64 teams, the Sooners, then the No. 1 seed, faced No. 6 Kansas. In heartbreaking fashion, the Sooners lost that game 79-83.

The women’s team has also shown up several times in the tournament, with 23 total appearances. Of those, the team managed ten Sweet Sixteens, three Elite Eights, three Final Fours and were the runner-ups a single time in 2002.

That game in 2002, which saw the No.1 Sooners face also No. 1 UConn, ended in a 70-82 loss for the Sooners.

In addition to the Sooners’ regular two mascots, the equestrian Boomer and Sooner duo, OU Basketball is known for a third mascot: Top Daug. Top Daug was introduced in the 1980s, and entertained fans for two decades before the mascot’s retirement following the 2004-2005 season, with a brief resurrection for a single game in 2008. However, Top Daug was re-resurrected again in 2020, and has since been a mainstay for fans of the sport at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.

Oklahoma City:

The Oklahoma City Stars’ men's team has competed in the NCAA tournament a total of eleven times. 

Out of those appearances, the men’s team has been in the Sweet Sixteen six times, and the Elite EIght twice.

Despite currently playing in the NAIA, the stars previously played in the NCAA until moving to the NAIA in 1985. The men’s team has won the NAIA national championship six times since then.

The women’s team also plays in the NAIA, and has been crowned the national champion on nine separate occasions.

Oklahoma State:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have appeared in the NCAA tournament a total of 29 times, and are the only program in the state to have won the national championship, having done so twice in 1945 and 1946 under head coach Henry Iba.

Of those 29 appearances, the Cowboys boast a total of 11 Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight appearances, though not all in the same years due to tournament expansion. Additionally, the team has six Final Four appearances and one finish as the runner-up.

In 2004, the No. 6 Cowboys pulled off a game winning shot to topple No. 1 St. Joseph’s to head to the Final Four.

The three-point shot by John Lucas III left six seconds on the clock, and St. Joseph was unable to recover in time.

However, in their very next game against Georgia Tech, the Cowboys fell 65-67 in a close matchup with No. 3 Georgia Tech, ending their miracle season.

The Cowgirls have also achieved their share of success in Stillwater, with 17 tournament appearances. Eight of which come from 2010 to the present. The Cowgirls have also earned a spot in the Sweet Sixteen three times.

Oral Roberts:

The Oral Roberts men’s team based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, have appeared in the NCAA tournament seven times, with two Sweet Sixteen appearances and one Elite Eight showing.

In 2021, the No. 15 Golden Eagles stunned No. 2 Ohio State in a 75-72 overtime win in the first round, capturing national attention and garnering support from fans around the country in a basketball Cinderella story.

The women’s team has appeared six times, but has yet to advance in the bracket further.

Tulsa:

The Tulsa men’s team has appeared in the NCAA tournament 16 times. Of those appearances, the Golden Hurricanes entered the Sweet SIxteen four times, and had a single Elite Eight appearance in 2000.

In the NIT, the Golden Hurricanes went all the way in 1981, securing a win over Texas Pan-American, UTEP, South Alabama and West Virginia, and beating Syracuse 86-84 in the title game.

In 2000, the Golden Hurricanes also managed to march their way through the tournament, defeating UNLV, and Cincinnati in the first two rounds, and beating Miami in the Sweet Sixteen to enter the Elite Eight for the first time in program history.

The women’s team has two appearances in the tournament: once in 2006 and the other in 2013. The team advanced to the second round in 2006, but lost their first matchup in 2013.