While the Oklahoma Sooners have made it to the NCAA tournament final twice (1947 and 1988), the…read moreschool has yet to win it all. Regardless, this has been one of college basketball's better-performing programs. The Sooners have 33 NCAA tournament appearances (T13 nationally) and five Final Four appearances (T16 nationally). While I wouldn't consider Oklahoma to be among the all-time great programs, it's certainly good and better than most including those from Power Five conferences. In my lifetime, I most associate Oklahoma basketball first with coach Kelvin Sampson (1995-2006) and then with coach Lon Kruger (2011-2021). Sampson led the Sooners to the 2002 Final Four while Kruger led the Sooners to the 2016 Final Four. Under Sampson, Oklahoma had nine-straight 20-win seasons. However, Sampson also got the school in trouble with the NCAA after the NCAA determined Sampson and his staff had made hundreds of impermissible phone calls to numerous recruits. In 2015, Kruger became the first coach to lead five different schools to the Sweet Sixteen. Oklahoma's 2016 Final Four team was led by senior shooting guard Buddy Hield. Hield is now a standout in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings. He was drafted 6th overall by the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2016 NBA draft. A couple other Sooner alum who have become quite popular in the modern NBA are power forward Blake Griffin and point guard Trae Young. Griffin played at OU for two seasons (2007-2009) and Young for one season (2017-2018). Griffin was selected with the 1st overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers in 2009 and Young was selected with the 5th overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks in 2018. In each of their final seasons at OU, Griffin and Young were Consensus First-Team All-Americans. Also, Griffin led the country in rebounding in 2009 while Young led the country in scoring and assists in 2018. Kruger's last stop was Oklahoma. He retired in March 2021. Oklahoma then made a smart decision, in my opinion, in hiring Porter Moser from Loyola Chicago. As a Georgia Tech alum and longtime men's basketball season ticket holder and as an Atlanta Hawks fan, I remember Kruger from his days as the Hawks head coach (2000-2003). I also remember Kruger when he coached UNLV to a win over Georgia Tech in the 2007 NCAA tournament. Future NBA player Joel Anthony and Kruger's son, Kevin Kruger, played for that UNLV team. Porter Moser led Loyola Chicago to the Sweet Sixteen in 2021. That path included a first-round win over Georgia Tech. Kelvin Sampson, who is now the head coach at Houston (since 2014), lost to Georgia Tech in the first round of the 2016 NIT. I was at that game at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta. I'll be surprised if anyone made it this far into my digression from Oklahoma hoops.