Big 12 Tournament Game 5 Preview: Kansas vs. Oklahoma
Here’s a preview of the Baylor Bears and the Oklahoma Sooners in Game 5 of the 2021 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
No. 2 Kansas (19-8, 12-6 Big 12) vs. No. 7 Oklahoma (15-9), 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN or ESPN2
Season series (Tied, 1-1): Kansas def. Oklahoma, 63-59, in Lawrence, Kansas, on Jan. 9; Oklahoma def. Kansas, 75-68, in Norman, Oklahoma, on Jan. 23.
Winner gets: a Friday semifinal game against either Texas or Texas Tech at 8:30 p.m. CT.
Big 12 Tournament results: This is Kansas’ first game in the Big 12 Tournament. Oklahoma def. Iowa State, 79-73, in Game 2 on Wednesday night.
Projected starting lineups
Kansas: G Ochai Agbaji, G Christian Braun, G Marcus Garrett, F Jalen Wilson, F Mitch Lightfoot
Oklahoma: G Austin Reaves, G Umoja Gibson, G Elijah Harkless, G De’Vion Harmon, F Brady Manek.
Player to watch
Kansas: Wilson. With David McCormack and Tristan Enaurna out for the Big 12 Tournament due to COVID-19 protocols, it falls to Wilson to be the team’s leading rebounder and provide them with whatever presence they can muster inside the paint. The good news is that you can make a case that the redshirt freshman is the team’s best overall rebounder. He finished the regular season with 12.3 points per game, along with 8.5 rebounds per game. He nudged that number up a bit in Big 12 games. Plus, he produced double-doubles in seven of his last nine games.
Oklahoma: Reaves. Both the Big 12 coaches and the Big 12 Media had Reaves on the All-Big 12 First Team, and for good reason. Entering the Big 12 Tournament he averaged 17.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game. The senior has been the Sooners’ most consistent player this season. He’s hard to defend and he’s hard to throw off his game. He’s failed to score in double figures just twice this season, and hasn’t scored fewer than 10 points in a game since Jan. 19. He’s one of the Big 12’s best free-throw and 3-point shooters and he’s capable of taking over a game at a moment’s notice. He averaged 18 points in two matchups with Kansas.
Heading into the Tournament
Kansas: The Jayhawks had a rough January, but once February hit they got back into a groove. Kansas won seven of their final eight games of the season, with an overtime loss to Texas being the only blemish. Now, admittedly, the Jayhawks did feast on Iowa State and Kansas State twice each, but they also won games against three ranked teams — Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Baylor. This is a team that knows how to win in situations like this, and the near-loss to UTEP during the buffer week probably only served to give head coach Bill Self more coaching points.
Oklahoma: The Sooners lost their last four games of the season, so beating Iowa State on Wednesday, even though the Cyclones are a two-win team, allowed OU to stop the bleeding. The Sooners had lost those previous four games by five points or fewer, and three of those four losses were to ranked teams. Beating Iowa State allows the Sooners to wash the taste of that losing streak out of their mouths and gives them a bit of confidence heading into the game with Kansas. So does the knowledge that the Sooners split with the Jayhawks this season.
Number to know
Kansas: 8.8: That’s the number of rebounds per game that Kansas redshirt freshman Jalen Wilson pulled down in Big 12 play, second-best to West Virginia’s Derek Culver.
Oklahoma: 86.1: That’s the free-throw percentage of Oklahoma’s Austin Reaves, fourth best in Big 12 games.
Who wins?
I’m taking Oklahoma in this one, and I was actually high on the Sooners winning this game before the news on McCormack. The one thing that the Sooners have that the Jayhawks don’t have is depth, and losing McCormack and Enaruna only exacerbates that fact. The Sooners are also a more consistent 3-point shooting team. Kansas will have to win this game with the 3-point shot and Wilson’s rebounding ability, and I don’t believe that will be enough. Oklahoma wins the ‘rubber’ match with Kansas.
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