Forget about the past, Oklahoma's 2021 tournament will be a whole new adventure
For a veteran laden team, the Oklahoma Sooners have oddly little NCAA Tournament experience.
Only Brady Manek and Austin Reaves have seen the floor in the big dance, and the minutes Reaves logged came for the Wichita State Shockers.
The lack of tournament experience isn’t due to a lack of success, however.
The core of this Oklahoma team would have been seasoned in last year’s tournament had it not been scrapped as the Coronavirus pandemic began to grip the nation.
Contributors Kur Kuath, Alondes Williams, Umoja Gibson and Elijah Harkless all transferred into the program, and weren’t on the floor two years ago when OU knocked out Ole Miss in the program’s first 8-9 game, before hanging tough with eventual National Champion Virginia.
Austin Reaves and Alondes Williams
Pool photo / Ty Russell
But in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, played in the shadow of the pandemic, complete with a bubble and protocols galore, prior experience may mean less than ever.
“Having experience is always better than not,” Sooner head coach Lon Kruger said in a video press conference on Wednesday. “I guess now whether it makes as much difference in this year because of COVID, hard to say.”
Kruger outlined the experience teams have gone through during this regular season as a more important indicator of having been tested.
“I think throughout the year the older teams have had a little better understanding of the need to be flexible and versatile and respond to whatever you need to given the kind of day to day existence, if you will,” he said. “But as it relates to the NCAA Tournament, having gone through the Big 12, these guys understand how tough every game is going to be, and I think teams in leagues like this are certainly battle tested and challenged pretty much in every way.”
Between Reaves, Manek, Williams and Kuath, the Oklahoma senior class has logged 143 starts over the last two seasons alone, bringing plenty of experience to the table this weekend.
They’ll need it too, as OU will have to replace the production of sophomore guard De’Vion Harmon, who will miss the first round after testing positive for COVID-19 upon entering the tournament bubble on Monday.
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Throw into the mix Gibson and Harkless, who acquitted themselves well despite only having this one season of Big 12 experience under their belts, and the Sooners may have the tools to weather the postseason adversity.
Saturday, Reaves will take the court in the tournament setting for the first time in three years. In his sophomore year at Wichita State, the Shockers crashed out of the tournament in the opening round, falling to the Marshall Thundering Herd.
The year prior, Reaves was a part of a Shocker squad in a similar situation to this year’s Sooners. No. 7-seed Wichita State dispatched of the 10-seeded Dayton Flyers, before pushing the No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats to the brink in the second round.
Should the Sooners get past Missouri, they’ll have an even taller task ahead of them, in the form of the No. 1 overall Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Austin Reaves
Pool photo / Denny Medley
Reaves’ past with Wichita State introduced him to the ethos surrounding the postseason, but it won’t play a major role in shaping this year’s tournament run, he said.
“That was a long time ago and honestly I didn’t play that much, so I mean I’d say it’s a little different, but just having a little bit of experience at the same time helps,” Reaves said.
When the lights turn on and OU’s 2021 tournament run begins on Saturday, Reaves said he has plenty of faith in his teammates to show out for the biggest game of the season.
“Me and Brady have both been in the tournament and in situations playing big time games, but I mean honestly, these guys are all gamers,” he said. “They’re all ready at any time and they’ll take on any challenge, whatever stage it is. There’s really not much to be said because we’ve got all the confidence in them.”
