Three takeaways from Oklahoma’s 72-68 win over Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament

Three takeaways from Oklahoma’s 72-68 win over Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night.

Brady Manek deserves a whole lot of credit

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

It has been a really strange season for senior Brady Manek. As one of the faces of the program, expectations were understandably very high for him coming into the year as a guy who could lead the team largely with his ability to shoot the deep ball.

But, for a long stretch that three-point shot wasn’t falling and he found himself relegated to the bench both to start games and for long stretches throughout – seeing his minutes reduced greatly.

He would slowly start to find it again and work his way back into the lineup, still not quite at his best but obviously improving. It feels like that all was building up to this moment for him.

Without De’Vion Harmon, Oklahoma had to have a second legit scorer to go with Austin Reaves. It was an absolute must for them to be able to win a game in the tournament and that is what he delivered. His 19 points were simply massive.

Manek deserves a whole lot of praise for having one of his best games of the entire year in a spot where his team had to have it.