It was such an odd day/night of Big 12 basketball for pretty much the entire conference minus West Virginia and TCU who played the night before on Big 12 Monday Night.
First… the Big 12 announced O State will have to play both of their road games which were cancelled due to Covid protocol just prior to the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. This means O State has to hit the road to play in Waco vs. Baylor on March 4 then head to Morgantown on March 6 to play the Mountaineers. Clearly—this is a tough ending for O State’s regular season heading into Kansas City. Brutally tough.
But for those us who love to see Cade play bigtime games it’s a plus. For Cade if he brings his Danning Manning game he could play his way into NPOTY if he shines in both games. We’ll see.
OU–conversely came out of the Covid reschedule smelling like a rose. Their home game versus Baylor will not be played and the Texas home game will be played at Lloyd Noble on March 4.
The Sooners as a Vegas 10 point road favorite then promptly went out and played their worst game of the Big 12 season and lost 62-57 to the Wildcats.
Other than Austin Reeves who scored 25 points and DeVion Harmon who had a good first half scoring 12 points no other Sooner scored in double figures. It marked the first time… both EJ Harkless and Moj Gibson were subpar on the same night. Circle that in red.
This is not a conference where you take the floor and sleepwalk to a win. You have to get your motors running and keep them running for forty minutes.
Just ask 2nd ranked Baylor from last night as well as they almost got beat in Waco by winless Iowa State.
Ask Bill Self’s Jayhawks as they went to sleep in the second half in Austin and consequently had their five game winning streak snapped by the Longhorns after blowing a double digit lead.
It’s a grind it out blue collar conference and if you don’t play hard forty minutes you won’t win.
Despite the fact Austin Reeves was fouled at the end shooting a three which would have tied the game…I’m not going to bemoan that fact because OU didn’t deserve to win the game.
O State at OU on Saturday afternoon…if that doesn’t get the Sooners’ motors revved then nothng will. OU doesn’t play an easy game from here on. I would expect the hard hats to be strapped on moving forward. I’m sure every member of the Sooner coaching staff was conveying that message in the locker room after the game last night.
That was a bad game you want to wash out of your system as fast as possible. A Marshall Tucker song would be good on a warm sunny day in Deer Creek. You learn from it move to the next game.