Oklahoma basketball: Sooners beat No. 5 Kansas

Since that last game against Kansas, Oklahoma had the high of beating Baylor on the road and the low of a 19-point loss to Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. A plus and a minus for the NCAA Tournament resume.

Osby has been their rock, pushing the team in practice to get better, to stay energized in hopes of a new result to help their case for March.

The Sooners changed as a team.

“Coach told me, ‘Hey, you're not going to make every shot. Don't worry about it, just stay in the gym,'” Osby said. “That's what I did.”

The Jayhawks (19-4, 7-3 Big 12) could see the difference.

“It's a good team,” Kansas forward Elijah Johnson said. “Osby gave them so much. ... They're energetic. They like to play basketball. That's one thing I can say about them as a group. They like to play basketball.”

Saturday night showed just another change in a season of differences from the Sooners, who matched their win total from last season (15) with their victory Saturday night.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Pledger hoped to share his first victory over the Jayhawks with the fans. He hoped for a court rush.

“I see that on TV all the time,” Pledger said. “I always wished we could get something like that to happen. I didn't think they were gonna let them do that. But I turned around and everyone was rushing to me. So I started jumping, too.”