Big 12 Basketball: Where are Trae Young and the Sooners ranked after the WVU loss?
The most anticipated matchup on Saturday’s slate of games wasn’t just between two top-10 teams in Oklahoma and West Virginia, but particularly between the best point guard on offense in Trae Young, and the best point guard on defense in Jevon Carter.
When it came to who won the battle, the stat sheet would say that the Sooner got the better of the Mountaineer. But Carter used his physicality to get in Young’s head and forced the freshman phenom to take ill-advised shots.
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He still got 29 points, albeit inefficiently. But let’s not forget the other Sooners, including the starting frontcourt of Khadeem Lattin and Brady Manek who combined for just five field goal attempts and were thoroughly outplayed by the West Virginia bigs. For Manek in particular, it was the polar opposite from the game earlier in the week against Oklahoma State. The freshman had a season-high 28 points on 9/11 shooting.
One player who needs more playing time is Jamuni McNeace, who had 12 points and eight boards in 29 minutes off the bench, and was the only Sooner big to show up in the WVU game.
In the week, Oklahoma gave up 89 points in both games. In the win, the team had 109 points, and only 76 in the loss. The overall defense probably is what it is, so it’ll be the offense that determines this team’s destiny.