OU Hoops: Sooners Host No. 2 Kansas On Tuesday Night

Riding a six-game losing streak, the short-handed Sooners will be back in action on Tuesday night against No. 2 Kansas inside the Lloyd Noble Center. Tip-off for this Big 12 clash is set for 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

Related: OU's Jordan Woodard Returns To Practice

Here’s everything else you’ll need to know about the matchup:

Kansas is still Kansas

Winners of the last 12 regular season Big 12 Championships, this Jayhawks team has picked up right where they left off. This will be the first time (in what seems like centuries) we won’t see Perry Ellis out on the court for KU, but Bill Self’s squad remains loaded with talent.

A pair of familiar faces in Frank Mason III (19.9 ppg) and Devonte’ Graham (13 ppg) make up one of the best backcourts in the nation, while diaper dandy, Josh Jackson (15.3 ppg), projects to be a top-five pick in this year’s NBA Draft.

KU’s only loss so far this season came in overtime against Indiana in the Jayhawks’ first game of the season. Since then, Kansas has won 14 consecutive games and has solid wins over then No. 1 Duke, Georgia, Nebraska, Kansas State and on the road at TCU.

Sooners hanging tough

While the six-game skid is tough to look at on paper, just looking at the win-loss columns can be quite deceiving when trying to judge how this young Sooner team has performed. OU’s only bad loss during that run came against now No. 1 Baylor (76-50), and the losses to Wichita State, Memphis, Auburn and TCU were all by four points or less.

In Saturday’s loss to Kansas State, the Sooners fought back to get within six points late in the game but ultimately didn’t have enough firepower down the stretch to pull off the road win against a now Top-25 team.

It may not look pretty all the time, but this OU group is getting better. Once Jordan Woodard returns from injury, look for the Sooners to start finishing some of these close games.

More McGusty

OU’s highest rated recruit of the Lon Kruger era, freshman Kameron McGusty has come on strong as of late and is showing why ESPN ranked him as top 40 player coming out of high school.

McGusty totaled a career-high 20 points in OU’s loss to Kansas State on Saturday, and played an aggressive brand of basketball as he shot nine free throws along the way. He’s averaging 7.1 points in 17.3 minutes on the season, but McGusty has logged at least 27 minutes in each of the last three games.

It’s encouraging news for the future of the program for McGusty to be playing at that kind of level this early in the process, and he’ll need to bring that effort on a consistent basis if this young group wants to continue its improvement.