No. 7 seed Rhode Island (25-7) vs. No. 10 seed Oklahoma (18-13)
First round, Midwest Region; 12:15 p.m.
Oklahoma limps into the tournament surprisingly, after a hot start to the season evaporated into thin air. After only posting five losses in their first twenty games, the Sooners ended up dropping eight of their last eleven.
Star freshman Trae Young (27.4 pts, 8.8 assists) has been colder than ice in losses, but when he’s at his best he’s Curry-level entertaining. Despite a weak ending to the season, having a player the Caliber of Young saved Oklahoma’s bacon.
Young spoke on if he thought Oklahoma should’ve made the tournament with such a steep slide to close the year:
“At the Oklahoma State game, I knew we had a really good resume going into this. I thought we should be in but the rules changed a long time ago. I feel like we did a good job.”
The Dan Hurley-led Rhode Island Rams have reached the NCAA tournament for the second time in consecutive years, & are approaching this game knowing even though they had a much better season than Oklahoma, the Rams are still being looked at as underdogs by many.
Senior G Jarvis Garnett:
“Obviously we watch ESPN and pay attention on social media. We’ve heard a lot about them and know Trae Young is one of the best players in the country. We know they have guys that can play and we just have to go out and play our game.”
“We know we’re going to get everybody’s best shot and we won’t expect anyone to play down against us. We’re going to get their A-game and we will give Oklahoma ours.”