Oklahoma got back in the win column on Saturday as they avoided the home upset against Iowa State at the Lloyd Noble Center.
It wasn’t the game most were expecting, but fans at the Lloyd Noble Center were treated to yet another tightly-contested battle that went down to the final minutes on Saturday.
“Obviously, hard fought from the start,” Lon Kruger said in postgame. “I thought Iowa State played great.
I think they showed today how tough they are going to be when they are healthy. Coach Prohm does a terrific job and I thought he had his guys ready to battle today and it was a good contest, a good fight.”
Oklahoma came into play on Saturday having just gone through a stretch of schedule that would make any coach shiver. The Sooners faced four straight teams ranked in the top-15 and managed to win three of them before falling to No. 13 Texas Tech on Tuesday night in Lubbock.
The last-place Cyclones looked to provide some rare relief in the arduous Big 12 schedule, but it was far from it. They hit 16 3-pointers on the afternoon and led the game with just over 9 minutes remaining, pushing Oklahoma to the very end.
“We can’t afford that to happen,” Kruger said on allowing so many 3-point shots. “Just (need) a little more urgency getting to 3-pointers. I thought they made a lot of shots that were open but they also made some where we really didn’t mind the coverage. But that’s what good players do. They’ve got a lot of guys that can make shots and they did that today.”
Huge for the Sooners on Saturday was Brady Manek, who had easily his best game since dealing with contracting COVID-19. He only scored nine points, but was phenomenal on the glass with a career-high 15 rebounds while also adding four assists and playing good interior defense.
“He was terrific, absolutely,” Kruger said. “I thought Brady really really battled and worked at it. Offensively, he made some good plays out of the double team, out of the post, he rebounded the ball like crazy all day long. So yeah, really really happy for Brady to see him bounce back and have a game like that.”
Manek has been slowly getting his comfort back after missing time with the virus, and that was on full display on Saturday. He was back in the lineup for the first time playing 32 minutes with a tremendous +/- of +21. Even though the scoring wasn’t as high as he is certainly capable, the argument could be made this belongs among his very best outings of the season.
“This is probably one of the better games I’ve felt coming into,” Manek said. “Played well, just tried to hustle as much as I could.
There for a few weeks I was out, then I came back and wasn’t myself. Wasn’t getting to play much because of what was going on with just shorter breath and all that stuff from the injury and the COVID. It just feels good to be back.”
Someone who was making their return from the COVID-19 protocols on Saturday, although just a case of contact tracing and not a positive test himself like Manek, was Austin Reaves. As both the leading scorer on the team as well as a great facilitator, the Sooners were certainly happy to have him back. He went right back to being an impact player with 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
“He’s a big piece to our team,” Manek said of Reaves. “He does well facilitating, getting guys open, sharing the ball. He’s got a good mind for the game. He plays well at his position, he gets off screens, he finds open guys, he does a lot of good things for us.”
After missing two games, Reaves was very happy to be back on the court after having to watch his team play while he felt completely healthy. He didn’t miss a beat on Saturday.
“It felt good to be back for sure,” Reaves said. “It was really frustrating. It was contact tracing, I didn’t have it.
But, I mean, it’s the world we live in right now and you can’t really do anything about it. You just got to really go day by day.”
Unlike Manek, Reaves was able to keep working on his own since he still felt healthy. Which allowed him to slide right back into a big role and play well the first time back out.
“I actually felt better than I thought I would when I came back to practice two days ago,” Reaves said. “A little bit at first the wind was out of me but I kind of got the second wind and really just went from there.
Tonight I felt really good actually, little surprised by that.”
With Wednesday’s game against No. 2 Baylor postponed due to COVID-19 issues with the Bears, Oklahoma will have the week off before returning to action next Saturday on the road at No. 17 West Virginia.
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