Oklahoma Basketball: Keys to beating Virginia in Round of 32

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 22: Kristian Doolittle #21 of the Oklahoma Sooners drives to the basket against Dominik Olejniczak #13 of the Mississippi Rebels in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: Rashard Odomes #1 of the Oklahoma Sooners reacts after a play in the second half against the Mississippi Rebels during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

No. 2 take advantage of the mix-matches

Christian James and Brady Manek got much needed help from teammates Rashard Odomes and Kristian Doolittle in round one, and will need for that help to continue to be there. Odomes and Doolittle had a field day exploiting mix-matches on the offensive side of the ball, something that Virginia does struggle with at times. Smaller and quicker guards have been seen to have an easier time to penetrate their pack-line defense which isn’t ideal. Once you get penetration into the pack-line defense, defenders have to collapse, leaving guys open for three.

Spreading out the pack-line, creating isolation situations, and using smaller and quicker guys to take defenders one on one really hurts Virginia.

I expect Kristian Doolittle to once again do a lot and exploit the Cavs defense. He has been red hot in his last few games. Here’s some stat lines from his last five:

15 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists on 62.5% shooting against West Virginia on the 2nd.

24 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 assists on 63.6% shooting against Kansas on the 5th.

14 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists on 63.6% shooting against Kansas State on the 9th.

18 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists on 42.9% shooting against West Virginia in the Big-12 championship, and most recently a 19 point, 15 rebound, 5 assist game in the first round while shooting 60% from the field.

If Oklahoma’s guards can penetrate the defense, and the team create enough iso situations they can easily hang with the very efficient Cavaliers.

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