Young returns to practice for Sooners

After missing Sunday’s practice to rest his bruised hip, Oklahoma freshman point guard Trae Young returned to practice Monday and participated in the Sooners’ Tuesday practice in at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“It’s not really affecting me too much,” Young said earlier in the week of the injury he suffered against Baylor. “I played through it against Iowa State.”

Oklahoma, the No. 9 seed in the Big 12 Tournament, will face No. 8 Oklahoma State in the first round at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Sprint Center.

Young scored a combined 75 points in two games against the Cowboys this season, including 48 in an overtime loss in Stillwater.

Improved scheduling fueling Waters’ 3-point breakout

Getting settled academically has helped Oklahoma State’s Lindy Waters get settled from behind the 3-point line.

Waters is 12-for-16 from 3 in his past four games, more than double the 32.0 percent he shot from deep is his first 26 appearances. The sophomore guard, who will try to continue his hot streak Wednesday against Oklahoma in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, said his improvement is the result of sorting out his academic schedule.

“Earlier this season, with school and stuff, it was a little bit harder to get into the gym, having to study and do homework and all that stuff,” Waters said Tuesday. “But once you get into the flow of things and start figuring out your exact schedule, you know, ‘I got 20 minutes. I can put up 300 shots.’”

Wednesday’s Bedlam game will be the second time Waters will face former Norman North teammate Trae Young, the Sooners’ freshman point guard. Waters, who missed this season’s first Bedlam matchup while in concussion protocol, didn’t want to exaggerate the significance of another meeting with Young.

“We’re both competitive players,” Waters said. “We’re both here for the same thing, here for a Big 12 championship. We’re just going to go out there and play basketball.”

The opportunity to face OU, though, is not lost on Waters.

“It’s big for our school,” Waters said. “Getting a win over OU is always meaningful for us.”

How is OU still in the tournament?

Plenty have wondered why the Sooners are still considered a likely NCAA Tournament team despite their struggles over the last month and a half.

The answer is the criteria the selection committee uses to determine the field, most notably some recent tweaks that have helped the Sooners’ standing.

This season, the team sheets the committee uses will include records broken down by “quadrants.”

“Quadrant 1” games are home games against teams ranked 1-30 in the RPI, neutral-site games against teams ranked 1-50 and away games against teams ranked 1-75.

The Sooners stack up well in that regard, with six Quadrant 1 wins, more than sure-fire tournament teams Arizona, Michigan State, Texas Tech, TCU and Wichita State among others.

Also, none of Oklahoma’s losses have come in Quadrants 3 or 4.

As of Tuesday, the Sooners were No. 37 in the RPI. The Sooners are also similarly positioned in the other metrics the committee uses to determine the field.

Until a few years ago, the last 10 games were also an official part of the criteria. With that stricken, Oklahoma’s recent struggles become more spread out in the overall picture than highlighted on the official team sheets used to determine the field.