The Oklahoma Sooners woke up as underdogs.
The Sooners take on Baylor at 12:30 p.m. CT Saturday in Las Vegas in the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown with a spot in Sunday's championship on the line. Vegas initially liked OU's chances of getting to the finals, with FanDuel having the Sooners as 1.5-point favorites as of Friday. On Saturday morning, though, it was Baylor favored by 1.5 points just hours before tip-off.
The Bears absolutely dominated Minnesota 67-48 in the first round on Wednesday night to get to this point, and the Sooners needed overtime to barely get past a depleted Colorado squad 90-86, so those outings alone would make Baylor look like a clear favorite. However, fans would have to bet on which OU team shows up.
College Basketball Crown odds swing puts matchup in the air
That team Wednesday night looked more like the Sooners that lost nine games in a row in January. The Sooners then turned things around down the stretch of the season as one of the hottest teams in college basketball and put together a six-game winning streak to end up being the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament.
OU head coach Porter Moser blamed rust for the Sooners' poor performance against Colorado after a 19-day layoff between games. The question is if it really was rust that was shaken off before Saturday afternoon, or did that long layover dump water on a team that caught fire at the right time.
Meanwhile, Baylor is fighting to stay above .500 at 17-16 and lost two of three games during the month of March after losing to Arizona State in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. The Bears we saw Wednesday night, though, definitely would have tallied a lot more wins on their schedule.
Delaying tournament action for nearly three weeks causes confusion for anyone looking to bet on the College Basketball Crown, especially for a team as streaky as the Sooners, which was proven with the dramatic last-minute swing.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.