Big 12 baseball: Sooners shift focus to NCAA Tournament

“Regular season's over,” said OU baseball coach Sunny Golloway. “Big 12 Tournament is now over, unfortunately for us. But a new season is going to start.

“And we'll get excited for it. We'll get ready for it. We'll wash this. We'll eat dinner. It won't taste as well as it could have. But we'll be ready.”

SOONERS BOOST ATTENDANCE

The All Sports Association received no break in the initial tournament pairings, with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State meeting in a first-round game at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

The bracket resulted in the loser playing at 9 a.m. Thursday, and led to OU playing its winner's bracket final Saturday at 9 a.m. — hardly an ideal time for drawing crowds.

Still, with the Sooners winning, their appeal with their fan base grew as the week went on. A crowd of 4,000-plus watched OU beat Baylor on Saturday and Sunday's attendance of 6,343 — heavily shaded in crimson — was the best in recent memory.

LOOKING AHEAD

Next weekend will mark Oklahoma's 36th NCAA Tournament appearance and fourth in a row.

But as expected, Oklahoma will start on the road, with regional sites announced on Sunday and Norman not making the list.

College Station (Texas A&M) and Waco (Baylor) were the only two Big 12 sites selected. Because of regional guidelines, the Sooners can't play at either conference location the first weekend.

For geographical purposes, the two rumored destinations for OU's regional are Rice and Purdue.