Oklahoma has beaten two former Big 12 foes to earn a spot in the championship final of the second annual College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas.
The Sooners (21-15) will meet a third team out of the Big 12 when they face West Virginia (20-14) on Sunday in the championship game. It will be the first appearance for the Sooners in the championship game of a postseason tournament since Billy Tubbs' 1990-91 team finished runner-up to Stanford in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).
Moreover, Oklahoma has never won a major postseason tournament in 117 years of basketball history despite 36 postseason appearances in either the NCAA (34) or NIT tournaments (2) . The Sooners will have an opportunity to change that on Sunday in The Crown championship.
Sooners face Baylor with College Basketball Crown championship on the line
Oklahoma defeated an undermanned Colorado team 90-86 in overtime in the first round of the tournament and followed that up with a much more convincing 82-67 win over Baylor in the semifinals. West Virginia's path to the championship included an 82-77 overtime win over Stanford and an 87-70 semifinal win over OU head coach Porter Moser's alma mater, Creighton.
Oklahoma and West Virginia have met a total of 18 times on the hardwood, mostly as members of the Big 12, which the Mountaineers became a member of in 2012. The Sooners are 18-10 all-time in games against West Virginia.
The Crown championship game from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will be at 4:30 p.m. CT and be televised on FOX.
West Virginia fact file
West Virginia has averaged a Big 12-worst 70.1 points a game this season, but the Mountaineers have made up for that with the No. 2 scoring defense in the conference, allowing 65.3 points per game, which is 12th best nationally. Interestingly, the Mountaineers have scored 80-plus points in both wins in The Crown.
Honor Huff, a transfer from Chattanooga, leads West Virginia in scoring, averaging 15.9 points a game and ranks 20th in the country this season with 112 three-point field goals this season. He led the country a year ago with 131 made three-pointers.
West Virginia is 16-4 this season when it leads at halftime, 19-2 when it outshoots its opponent and 14-5 when it out-rebounds its opponent.
The Mountaineers have won 176 of their last 203 games when they hold the opponent to 69 or fewer points.
Oklahoma fact file
The last time Oklahoma played in a postseason tournament final was in 1991. The Sooners lost to Stanford, West Virginia's first -round opponent in this year's College Basketball Crown.
Four Oklahoma starters (Nijel Pack, Xzayvier Brown, Derrion Reed and Tae Davis) average at least 11 points a game. All four scored in double figures in the Sooners' semifinal win over Baylor. All four OU players were transfers this season.
Oklahoma has led for over 20 minutes in 13 of its last 17 games. That equals out to 74% of game play. The Sooners are 10-7 in those games.
The Sooners have outshot their opponents in seven of their last nine games, including over both Colorado and Baylor in the College Basketball Crown. OU is 8-1 in those games.
Prediction
The Sooners have momentum on their side, plus an extra chip on their shoulder and something to prove for being the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament. They will finish out the season and The Crown with a victory.