We have the Texas Longhorns who are winless in Big 12 play facing off with the Oklahoma Sooners in this crucial matchup.  As mentioned above the Longhorns are 8-9 overall, 0-4 in league play while the Sooners are currently sitting at 12-4 overall, 3-1 in conference play.

Things have not gone well for the Texas Longhorns all season and things have really gone south once Big 12 play started.  Texas had two games in the palm of their hands against Baylor and West Virginia but was unable to execute during crunch time and wound up losing both in overtime.  Following those two tough losses came a beating at the hands of Iowa State in which the finally score was 82-62.  In the Longhorns last game they came out fired up in hopes of knocking off the 4^th ranked Kansas Jayhawks but was unable to close the game out after leading throughout most of it.  The 64-59 loss to the Jayhawks is yet another setback in the Longhorns season and they are in desperate need of a conference victory.  Leading the way for Texas is Sheldon McClellan and the 6-4 sophomore guard is averaging 14.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, and .9 apg.

The Oklahoma Sooners saw their 5 game winning streak come to an end whenever they traveled into Manhattan and were upended by the Kansas State Wildcats 69-60.  Before that the Sooners were unbeaten in conference play and their victories were against WVU, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech.  The Sooners have to win the game against Texas as their next games come against Kansas, Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Kansas again.  That is a tough slate of games upcoming for the Sooners and they are going to need to take care of business against the teams they should beat.  The main man for the Sooners is Romero Osby and the 6-8 senior forward is averaging 13.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg, and 1.0 apg.

Prediction: Texas played their hearts out in the Kansas game and really put forth a valiant effort but it just wasn’t enough to win.  Oklahoma on the other hand played very well against Kansas State and the final score does not indicate how close of a game that truly was.  I like Oklahoma in this one as I think Texas is deflated from the Kansas game and that the Sooners realize they need to win this game.  Look for the Sooners to win by double digits.

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