Breaking News: Oklahoma's De'Vion Harmon out for NCAA Tournament
Oklahoma will be without sophomore guard Devion Harmon for Saturday's NCAA Tournament games in Indianapolis.
"De'Vion has tested positive (for COVID)," coach Lon Kruger said in a video press conference Wednesday. "So we'll be without De'Vion."
The 8-seed Sooners play 9-seed Missouri at 6:25 p.m. Saturday at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis. Harmon is second on the team in 12.9 points per game. He also averages 3.4 rebounds per game while ranking second with 51 assists and third with 27 steals.
De'Vion Harmon
Pool photo / Denny Medley
"He's had a great year," Kruger said. "Made tremendous progress. Players have this as a goal, to play in the NCAA Tournament. So it's so sad for De'Vion. Just heartbroken that he's not gonna have that opportunity this first weekend.
"So we challenged our guys to win a couple, I guess, so he can get back for the second weekend. But a lot of work ahead for that, for sure. But yeah, disappointed for De'Vion that he won't be with us."
If OU wins, the Sooners will likely play No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga on Monday.
Kruger said "you would assume" Harmon would be available for the Sweet Sixteen, "given the typical quarantine period" of 10-11 days.
Kruger said players were tested when the team landed on Monday evening, and the results came back Tuesday. The NCAA's plan was to isolate all players until the test results come back, so no one else tested positive or will be held out due to contact tracing, Kruger said.
There was a hope that Harmon's test was a false positive.
"It wasn't," Kruger said. "And so he really found out yesterday that he'll definitely not be with us.
"He's disappointed of course, but yet he's in quarantine now. So no one sees him. That's another tough 10 or 11 days for him as well. But as we've done on other occasions, other guys have to step up. We've had two or three other occasions where we've been without players. ... They get it. It's COVID and we've got that challenge again before us for Saturday. Missouri's very good, and they've got to step up and replace De'Vion's minutes and points and rebounds and all that."
Kruger said Harmon's minutes will likely be spread between a combination of Alondes Williams, Jalen Hill and Victor Iwuakor.
"De'Vion's feeling fine. No symptoms," Kruger said. "Nothing that would hurt him physically at this point. But the team's disappointing for him. Others have been through it, so they know how disappointing it is. They feel badly for him. But De'Vion's handling it about like you'd expect, very disappointed to not be playing and be there for his teammates."
This is a developing story and will be updated.
