Red-Hot Oklahoma Up Next For Wahoos

By Scott Ratcliffe

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Oklahoma enters Sunday’s matchup with Virginia fresh off its hottest performance of the season, a 95-72 beatdown of No. 8 seed Mississippi in the opening round Friday. The Sooners had four players register at least 18 points and shot 58 percent from the floor in the romp over the Rebels.

“I think [Friday] was probably the most fun we’ve had as a team,” said OU 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Brady Manek. “I mean, we came out and we hit them first. Everybody contributed, whether it was find an open guy or knocking down shots. I think everybody played a really big role in [Friday’s] victory.”

The Sooners wasted no time, jumping out to a 12-0 lead on Ole Miss, and never looked back. Christian James, the team’s leading scorer on the season, along with fellow senior guard Rashard Odomes, led the way with 20 points apiece.

In addition, 6-7 junior forward Kristian Doolittle scored 19 points (6 for 10) and matched a career high with 15 rebounds, while Manek added 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

Prior to Friday’s big win, things hadn’t gone so well down the homestretch for Lon Kruger’s club. The Sooners (20-13), lost 8 of their last 12 contests coming into the tournament, including an opening-round loss in the Big 12 Tournament to struggling West Virginia, but looked like a much different team on the big stage.

Kruger compared Virginia’s defensive style to that of Texas Tech and Kansas State, which his Sooners went 0-4 against this season.

“We had trouble scoring on those teams,” Kruger recalled, “so we’ve got to improve for [Sunday]. … Certainly, we’ve played a lot of good teams in the Big 12, and Virginia is every bit as good as them, based on the rankings. So yeah, we’ll go in, swing away and go ahead and try to do the best things that give us the best chance to be effective.”

Virginia’s Kyle Guy admitted that the Cavalier players watch a lot of college basketball, and shared his thoughts on Oklahoma.

“We’re definitely a basketball-junkie group,” Guy told reporters at Colonial Life Arena Saturday. “We watch basketball together all the time. It’s kind of how we bond off the court — playing cards and watching basketball is what we do.

“We got a chance to watch Oklahoma in the Battle 4 Atlantis, obviously, because they were there. We’ve watched teams from all over. We know [the Sooners] are a good team and I’m looking forward to playing them.”

Guy stated that the team has watched film of OU and will watch more Saturday night, and he and backcourt mate Ty Jerome believe that the Sooners will want to play at a faster tempo.

“They probably want to play a little faster than us,” Jerome said. “We’re really about getting the best shot and we want to keep teams out of transition, so sometimes the game will be slower if we have a preference. And I think Doolittle has been playing great, he had a great game [Friday]… So we’ll have to put different matchups on him, throw different coverages at at him. They’re also really balanced, too, so it’s not just him.”

The Sooners had a particularly good day against Ole Miss from in close, shooting 28 of 46 from inside the 3-point line. Tony Bennett was asked about the importance of limiting OU’s production in the paint.

“They shot, I think it was 62 percent from two-point range [Friday],” Bennett said of the Sooners. “Scoring 95 points and I think they only took 13 threes. That shows you their efficiency and how they run their actions and, again, how their bigs can back you down and their guards and post you up in play.

“It’s going to be a war in that regard. It’s kind of going to be ‘bend but not break’ because they have the ability to create their own, and that’s the test because they can space it.”

Oklahoma scored 44 points in the paint against Ole Miss, scored 16 points off turnovers (the Sooners recorded 10 steals) and scored 13 second-chance points. UVA big men Jack Salt and Braxton Key both talked about keeping the Sooners away from the basket Sunday.

“We watched a little bit of film this morning on them, so we kind of see the way that their base offense is,” said Key, “and they get a lot of guys involved. They just kind of play free, so we’re just going to try to keep the out of the lane, they got a lot of two-point baskets [Friday], so definitely try to keep them out of the lane and just use our Pack Line and just try to force them to shoot a lot of contested jumpers.”

Salt added: “They’re a strong, physical team, they can post up a lot of their players and they look to take advantage on the inside. They scored a lot of points in the paint [Friday] so it’s going to be a good challenge, but the guys are looking forward to it.”

In terms of Oklahoma’s backcourt, point guard Jamal Bieniemy doesn’t score a lot (4.8 points a game), but leads the team in assists and steals. James and Odomes combined to make 15 of their 22 shot attempts Friday, and James says he just wants to keep his college career going as long as he can.

“At the end of the day, we know it’s either win or go home from here,” said James, who was a member of the OU Final Four team as a freshman in 2016, “so we know we don’t have the luxury anymore of dropping games. So everybody has to come out ready and locked and loaded and we’ve just gotta play like we did [Friday].

“It may not be a high-scoring game like [Friday], but we’ve got to come out and we’ve got to make them work.”

James, who hit four 3-pointers Friday, knows the Sooners will have quite a challenge trying to contain Guy and Jerome if they’re knocking down shots.

“Jerome and Guy, they’re two great players,” James said. “Guy is almost shooting 50 percent from the field and Jerome’s great off the pick-and-roll and finding the open guy, so we’re going to have our hands full. We’ve just got to try to speed them up and make them uncomfortable, that’s the biggest thing.”

Conversely, Jerome shared his thoughts on OU’s backcourt and the matchups they present.

“I don’t think their point guard scores a whole lot, but I think he does a great job of running their team,” Jerome said of the 6-4 Bieniemy, “and just keeping everyone composed, and he’s super composed for a freshman, has good size too.

“James is their leading scorer, he’s really complete, really strong, he has great size, and he can shoot it, too. So they have a strong backcourt.”

Guy touched on getting past Gardner-Webb, as he was asked if the ‘Hoos feel more relaxed now that the monkey is off their back, so to speak.

“Yeah we can breathe a little bit easier now, but at the same time, it’s the NCAA Tournament,” he said, “so we’re not relaxed. We’re not content by any means. We still have our foot on the gas.”