Oklahoma basketball: Brady Manek pivotal piece in OU’s stretch run
By Chip Rouse
Four of the six Oklahoma basketball losses this season have been games played during the regular work week and not on a Saturday, when the Sooners are 8-1.
It would appear Lon Kruger’s guys much prefer to play on the weekends. The Sooners won their last two Saturday games, both on the road, but they could have easily lost both. In fact, the win at then-No. 14 West Virginia was in double overtime, with the Sooners winning by a single point when two different Mountaineers missed close-in shots as the buzzer sounded.
A troubling sign emerged against Iowa State last Saturday. The Sooners raced out to an early 21-point advantage over the Cyclones, who are winless in the Big 12, only to see all of that evaporate midway into the second half. Iowa State actually took over the lead with about 10 minutes remaining before the Sooners managed to wake up and regain control of the game.
Oklahoma’s up-and-down play in the last several games finally caught up with them at Kansas State on Tuesday night. The Sooners probably played their worst game of the season against K-State. And that is a very troubling sign.
Good teams are supposed to be peaking at this point in the season, not declining. Which begs the question: Have the Sooners, with five wins over top-15 teams between Jan. 2 and Feb. 13, already peaked?
The answer to that question should be much clearer over the next eight days, when Oklahoma plays Oklahoma State twice (home and away) and hosts Texas, all games that, like it or not, could go either way.
OU led throughout the first half, but was never able to put away K-State, the Big 12’s ninth-place team. The two teams were tied 29-all at halftime.
Kansas State jumped out in front in the opening minutes of the second half, but OU regained the lead and had stretched it to a six-point advantage with just under four minutes to go. K-State senior Mike McGuirl nailed three consecutive three-point shots as part of a 15-4 Wildcat run over the final 3:57 to close out the game in favor of Kansas State.
Austin Reaves, the Big 12’s second leading scorer, had another big offensive game for the Sooners, scoring 25 points. He has scored 20 or more points in four of his last five games. De’Vion Harmon contributed 13 points, but other than that there was little scoring punch from the other OU starters and reserves. Four Sooner starters were averaging at least 10 points a game entering Tuesday night, but credit the K-State defensive intensity for taking away open looks at the basket and disrupting Oklahoma’s offensive rhythm.
Oklahoma is generally the more opportunistic of the two teams and thrives on creating offense from it defense, but on this particular night, it was Kansas State turning 12 Sooner turnovers into 15 points and getting 16 second-chance points to nine for OU.
How well the Sooners are able to bounce back from the K-State loss and take care of business over their final three regular-season games will go a long way in determining not only how well, but how long their 2020-21 season will extend into March.
The one thing we do know at this point is that the Sooners desperately need senior forward Brady Manek to return to his former self. Oklahoma is not going to finish in the top four of the Big 12, win a game or two in the Big 12 Tournament and advance beyond the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament with Austin Reaves alone.
Harmon, Umoja Gibson and Elijah Harkless played well and were major contributors during the stretch that Oklahoma defeated three consecutive top-10 teams in a week’s time, but they need Manek back and playing the way he was through the first six games of the season.
Since Manek came down with COVID-19 and missed a couple of games in early January, he has not played or competed like his old self. It took him some time to get back into game condition and he appears to have lost his confidence and consistency as a shooter, particularly from three-point range.
In nine games back after contracting COVID, Manek has scored a total of 61 points, an average of just 6.8 points a game, and his last two outings, against Iowa State and Kansas State, he tallied just six points and was 0 for 9 from beyond the three-point line.
The four-year starter from nearby Harrah, Oklahoma, averaged 14.4 points a year ago and, importantly, was second on the team in rebounding (6.2 per game). He averaged 13.0 points over his first three seasons.
Manek started off strong this year with a 29-point performance against the University of Texas-San Antonio to open the season. He averaged 16.7 points through OU’s first six games, but he has struggled ever since
After returning from COVID, Manek averaged around 17 minutes a game coming off the bench. He has returned to the starting lineup the last four games and is playing close to 24 minutes a game. But in his last two outings, his minutes were down and so was his production.
The Sooners need Manek to get his old game back, and they need that to happen sooner rather than later.