The Oklahoma basketball team finds itself one win away from a trip to Houston and the Final Four.
The last time the Sooners made it to the final weekend of the college basketball season was in 2002. That OU team also was a No. 2 seed in the West Region, but it did not have to go up against the top-seeded team in the region in the championship game like the Sooners will this time around for the right to advance and play on for the national championship.
The Oregon Ducks will pose a formidable challenge for Buddy Hield and the Sooners, and for Oklahoma to be able to cut down the nets at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Saturday it for sure is going to take more than just an outstanding game from the probable National Player of the Year to get the job done.
Hield was the primary reason for Oklahoma’s two wins last weekend in the opening two rounds of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. But the OU superstar had plenty of help in the team’s 14-point win over third-seeded Texas A&M in the Sweet 16. Five Sooners scored in double figures in the win over the Aggies, including 17 by Hield. Freshman Christian James had a dozen points, one shy of his career high, and Ryan Spangler and Khadeem Lattin added 10 apiece.
It was the 22 points from junior starter Jordan Woodard, however, that was the difference maker in the game. Fifteen of those 22 points came on five-of-six from three-point range from the one-time nation’s leader this season in three-point percentage.
While four of the five Oklahoma starters were in double figures in the scoring column in the Sooners’ Sweet 16 victory, Isaiah Cousins, the team’s third leading scorer on the season, posted a season-low two points.
Averaging 12.8 points in Oklahoma’s 34 games this season, Cousins had 16 and 15 points, respectively, in the Sooners two tournament wins over Cal State-Bakersfield and Virginia Commonwealth.
Two days ago in this space I predicted that Woodard would be the X-factor in an OU win over Texas A&M. I believe it will be Cousins who steps up on Saturday in the matchup against Oregon. Cousins’ biggest scoring games this season have come against teams that at the time the game was played were in the nation’s top 10.
Cousins had 19 points in Oklahoma’s big win early in the season over Villanova. He scored 26 in an OU loss at Iowa State and had 21 at home against Kansas after being held to just four points in the first game of the round-robin series this season with the No. 1-ranked Jayhawks.
One way or the other, Cousins’ contribution will be necessary if the Sooners are to get by top-seeded Oregon and advance to the Final Four for the fifth time in school history.