Oklahoma knocked off Missouri 72-68 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night in Indianapolis.
No. 8 seed Oklahoma and No. 9 seed Missouri rekindled an old-school Big 12 rivalry on Saturday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. While the Sooners were the higher seed, the fact they were playing without second-leading scorer De’Vion Harmon due to a positive COVID-19 test made many question if they could topple a solid Tigers team.
But, if there is any team prepared to play without one of their key players due to COVID protocols, it would be Lon Kruger’s club. Some of their best wins of the year came when they were under-manned in the regular season. Once again, the guys stepped up for their teammate who was unable to take the floor.
“Yeah, the big-time performance, performances from everybody, ” Austin Reaves said postgame. “Vic (Iwuakor) came in, gave us really good minutes, Alondes (Williams) played really good minutes, E.J. (Harkless), Brady (Manek) really stepped their game up a lot. That’s what they’re capable of. We’ve known they’re capable of that for a long time and it just shown today. I can’t be more proud of those guys and everybody else on the team.”
As they often are, Oklahoma was led by all-Big 12 guard Austin Reaves who was superb for significant stretches in the game putting up 23 points along with six assists. As he as has been numerous times this year, he was the leader down the stretch the team needed him to be.
“Yeah, Austin battled all night,” Lon Kruger said postgame. “When you’re the guy that the ball’s in your hands late, you can’t be shy, you can’t be timid, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But our guys know that he’s going to have the ball late and I thought other guys stepped in and made plays to get to us that point where Austin then made some plays to get to the free-throw line, quite frankly, and that was a big part of creating a little bit of a spread there late.”
Also stepping up a big way was senior Brady Manek, who has had a bit of a tough year for the Sooners. He has been better as of late, though, working his way back into the starting lineup in the last month. In this game, when his team desperately needed him to be on, he stepped up with 19 huge points.
“Yeah, it was huge,” Kruger said of Manek’s performance. “It was really big. Making those threes early and then that one late to take it to four, I think it was, it was a huge shot. And again, he battled, Tilmon’s big and he’s tough down there in the post, I thought he and Kur (Kuath) battled him all night on the defensive end too.”
One of the most pivotal moments of the game came with Missouri bringing the ball down the floor late with Oklahoma holding a three-point lead. After a disjointed possession had the clock running down, Elijah Harkless made the extremely heads-up play to intentionally foul Drew Buggs to force him to shoot two free throws, essentially forcing the Tigers’ only hope to be a offensive put back on a missed free throw. The savvy play helped the Sooners put the game on ice.
“Teams practice that, of course, a lot, and we do,” Kruger said. “We kind of do that, we use that six-second mark, we talk about it huddle, and regardless of what happens on the free throws, anytime the clock gets under six — it’s one thing to talk about it — Jalen Hill did that once in a game earlier this year and real nice heads-up play and Elijah made a very good heads-up play right there.”
The bottom line of the night for the Sooners is that they stayed incredibly composed in the games biggest moments, often making the smart play. Along with Harkless’ decision to foul, the team made high-IQ plays throughout the game – highlighted by Manek giving up an open three-point shot to pass the ball off and use more clock. An underrated play that was one of many key ones that won’t necessarily show up in the box score.
“It’s something that you talk about, you refer to it, but still it’s to Brady’s credit, the decision-making at the time,” Kruger said. “Because when you’re wide open as a shooter you’re tempted to shoot it, but Brady made the right play and he’s a smart guy, smart basketball guy as well and glad to see that.”
Oklahoma has now punched their ticket to the second round and a date with the No. 1 team in the country Gonzaga Bulldogs. At time of writing, the Bulldogs hold a massive second-half lead over Norfolk State.
The task is tall, but this team has never cared much about the odds being stacked against them. One thing that is guaranteed is that Kruger will have the team prepared to give the tournament’s top dog their best shot.
The Sooners will face Gonzaga on Monday, the tip time is to be announced.
