SOONERS GO DANCING

Oklahoma is back in the NCAA Tournament after a year’s absence. The Sooners are a No. 10 seed and will face No. 7 Rhode Island in a first-round game Thursday in Pittsburgh.

The Setting

•When: 11:15 a.m., Thursday

•Where: PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh

•TV: CBS (Cox 10/HD 709, Dish 9, DirecTV 9, U-verse 9/ HD 1009)

•Announcers: Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner, Dana Jacobson

•Tickets: A limited number of tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday on SoonerSports.com/tickets or by phone at (800) 456-GoOU.

The Matchup

No. 10 OU (18-13, tied for sixth in the Big 12): The Sooners stumbled down the stretch, dropping 11 of their last 15 games. No other team has made the tournament with such a finish. Oklahoma likes to push the tempo, averaging just 14.0 seconds per offensive possession, lowest in the tournament. The Sooners struggle to defend, especially on the perimeter. Opponents are shooting 36.1 percent from behind the 3-point line, No. 238 in Division I.

No. 7 Rhode Island (25-7, First in Atlantic 10): The Rams won 16 consecutive games from mid-December to mid-February but went 4-4 down the stretch, including Sunday’s 58-57 loss to Davidson in the Atlantic 10 title game. Rhode Island is No. 2 nationally in turnover ratio and No. 5 in defensive turnover percentage at 22.8 percent, behind only Stephen F. Austin and West Virginia among tournament teams. The Rams also protect the ball offensively, turning the ball over just 15.5 percent.

Scouting the Rams

The Atlantic 10’s late tournament, which wrapped up Sunday, allowed Sooners coach Lon Kruger to watch the Rams in both the semifinals and the finals.

“They’re rangy. They’re athletic,” Kruger said. “They’ve got a lot of really good scorers. They do a great job defensively. They’re a very good team. But anyone seeded 7 in the tournament is gonna be really good.”

Kruger wasn’t the only one. Freshman point guard Trae Young also watched Rhode Island a bit, though he missed the thrilling finish to Sunday’s game.

He was rooting hard for the Rams to win, hoping Davidson wouldn’t steal berth from a bubble team.

“I actually thought Rhode Island was going to win the game early on, so I turned the TV off, then I saw that they had lost by one point,” Young said.

Quotable

Kruger, on his feeling about this year’s Selection Sunday: “I don’t know if this was any different. In 40 years, we’ve been on the bubble a few times. Knock on wood, we’ve never really had a time when we were expecting to get in and didn’t get in. We were hoping the trend would continue. The format was a little different . ... When you go through it alphabetical there are moments when you are anxious.”