No. 8 seed Oklahoma will square off against No. 9 Missouri at 6:35 p.m. Saturday in the NCAA Basketball Tournament in Indianapolis.

The Tigers were former members of the Big 12 Conference and the Big Eight Conference but moved to the Southeastern Conference.

Missouri  (16-9) finished in seventh place in the Southeastern Conference.

The Tigers posted wins over No. 21 Oregon, No. 6 Illinois, No. 6 Tennessee and No. 10 Alabama. They beat TCU 102-98.

Missouri lost to then-No. 7 Tennessee, twice to No. 8 Arkansas and to No. 10 Alabama.

The Sooners have a 15-10 record (9-8 in Big 12 play). Oklahoma faced one of the most difficult schedules in the country with 52% of its games being against teams ranked in the top 20 of the current AP Top 25.

Oklahoma’s five wins over top-15 teams in the regular season were tied for the most in the country. The Sooners only lost one game outside of “Quad 1” in the NCAA NET Rankings.

Oklahoma beat No. 9 West Virginia (twice), No. 9 Kansas, No. 5 Texas and No. 9 Alabama. OU swept TCU. OU lost to No. 15 Texas Tech (twice), No. 2 Baylor, No. 6 Kansas  (twice, once in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament), No. 17 Oklahoma State (twice) and No. 15 Texas.

The last meeting between OU and MU was November 26 in 2019 in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City. OU won 77-66.

Oklahoma has gone to the NCAA Tournament seven times in the last eight seasons under Coach Lon Kruger. Oklahoma was also projected to make the 2020 NCAA Tournament, which was canceled due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

If OU beats Missouri, the Sooners will play Monday against the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 1 seed Gonzaga and the region’s No. 16 seed (either Norfolk State or Appalachian State).

Oklahoma will be making its 33rd NCAA Tournament appearance, including its 28th in the past 38 years. The Sooners’ 28 NCAA Tournament appearances since 1984 are the ninth most in the nation during that span, behind only Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan State and Syracuse.

Oklahoma and Kansas are the only Big 12 schools with at least seven trips to the Big Dance since 2013.

The Sooners are 42-32 all-time in the NCAA Tournament (7-6 under Kruger) and have reached the Final Four five times (1939, 1947, 1988, 2002 and 2016). Oklahoma also boasts nine Elite Eight showings and eleven Sweet 16 appearances.

Kruger is taking a team to the NCAA Tournament for the 20th time in his career. He was the first Division I coach to take five different schools to the NCAA Tournament and is the only coach to win an NCAA Tournament game with five programs.

In 2015, he became the first and only coach since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 to take four programs to the Sweet 16 or beyond.

He is one of only three head coaches to ever lead four schools to multiple NCAA Tournament wins.

Saturday’s matchup with Missouri is the 212th meeting between the Sooners and Tigers. The Sooners are 114-97 all-time against Missouri.

The two programs have met in the NCAA Tournament on just one previous occasion, with OU defeating the Tigers in the 2002 Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four. The Sooners have won six straight games against SEC schools and are 3-0 all-time against SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

OU stumbled at the end of the regular season, losing four in a row including both Bedlam games and a rematch with Texas.

OU beat Iowa State 79-73 in the opening round of last week’s Big 12 Tournament but then lost to Kansas, 62-69, in Kansas City.

Kansas led 35-15 at the half as the Sooners had trouble scoring. Oklahoma was 6 of 20 from the field with 13 turnovers, and its 15 points set a season low for scoring in a half.

“You can’t have a half like that against a really good ballclub,” said Kruger. “I’m proud of our guys’ response. they came out the second half much more like themselves — moved the basketball, made plays for each other, played better on each end of the floor. But we dug a big hole for ourselves and couldn’t get out of it.”

But in the second half, OU closed to within 62-59 with less than four minutes to go.

Austin Reaves and Brady Manek each scored 19 points to lead Oklahoma.

“The first half we were great. We got everything we wanted,” said Kansas coach Bill Self said. “The second half we didn’t play nearly as well, but they were as good as we were the first half in the second half. They made shots and we made some bonehead plays.”

Kansas was supposed to play Texas in the Big 12 semifinals but the Jayhawks pulled out of the tournament due to coronavirus protocols. The No. 3 seed Jayhawks are scheduled to play No. 14 seed Eastern Washington in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Seven Big 12 teams are in the NCAA Tournament:

• No. 1 seed Baylor plays No. 16 seed Hartford.
• No. 3 seed West Virginia plays No. 14 seed Moorehead State.
• No. 3 seed Kansas plays No. 14 seed Eastern Washington.
• No. 3 seed Texas plays No. 14 seed Abilene Christian.
• No. 4 seed Oklahoma State plays No. 13 seed Liberty.
• No. 6 seed Texas Tech plays No. 11 seed Utah State.
• No. 8 seek Oklahoma plays No. 9 seed Missouri.

Oklahoma is in the West Bracket with Kansas. Baylor and Texas Tech are both in the South Bracket. OSU and West Virginia are in the Midwest Bracket and Texas is the only Big 12 team in the East Bracket.

The national championship game will be April 5.