No. 7 seeded Oklahoma (14-9, 9-8 in the Big 12) played their way out of a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament with four straight losses – including being swept by in-state rival Oklahoma State, a home loss to Texas and being upset by Kansas State.

(OU played Wednesday night. The Tulsa Beacon is printed on Tuesday night).

The No. 24 ranked Sooners were tied with Texas Tech with 9-8 conference marks but the Red Raiders swept OU this year and got the No. 6 seed, sending OU to an opening game.

If OU wins Wednesday, they will play No. 2 seeded Kansas at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2. OU split with Kansas this year, losing 59-63 in Lawrence on January 9 and winning 75-68 against then-No. 9 Kansas in Norman on January 23.

If OU beats Iowa State and Kansas, they will face the winner of the Texas-Texas Tech game in the semifinals Friday at 8:30 p.m. in Kansas City.

Oklahoma lost their last three games by four points each. The Sooners blew leads in all three of those games.

In the loss to Texas, Austin Reaves had 16 points and Alondes Williams and Brady Manek each has 13 points. The Sooners shot just 37% in the game.

“Obviously, again, very similar to the last couple,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said after the loss to Texas. “Super disappointing result. First half, Texas dictated. I thought second half, certainly, a different level of intensity to come back and take the lead. Again, have to do some things better for 40 minutes. No question about that. Texas is awfully good, and you can’t afford to not play 40 minutes against them.”

Even with the four losses, the Sooners are projected to be an at-large team for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. CBSsports.com projects OU to be a No. 7 seed in the NCAAs.

“The margin is small,” Kruger said. “It’s one play here, one play there. I don’t think we’re playing much differently than when we won seven out of eight. We’ve got to finish games differently. Those games we did finish, these games we haven’t.”

Oklahoma would have to win four games in four days against teams ranked in the Top 25 to win the league title this week. That has never happened in the history of the tournament.

The winner of the Big 12 Tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Big 12 is expected to place seven teams in the NCAAs.