T-MOBILE ARENA (LAS VEGAS) \u2014<\/strong> As Oklahoma<\/a> center Mohamed Wague extended an arm to help lift teammate Derrion Reid<\/a> off the floor, a smile stretched across his face. “That\u2019s my block!” Wague shouted, lobbying for another tally on the stat sheet. Reid could only laugh in response as Wague hauled him to his feet. \u00a0<\/p>\n Seconds earlier, the two collided near the rim for what looked like a joint rejection of an attempted layup by Baylor<\/a> guard Isaac Williams IV. It was unclear whether Wague or Reid had been the one to actually swat the shot, but with a double-digit lead in the waning moments, the Sooners were comfortably in position to enjoy the comedy of a two-man block.\u00a0<\/p>\n The official scorekeeper ultimately credited Wague with the stuff, but by that point, the Sooners had done enough to punch their ticket to the championship game of the second annual College Basketball<\/a> Crown, pulling away from Baylor down the stretch for an eventual 82-69 win. Oklahoma will now face West Virginia<\/a> on Sunday afternoon with $300,000 in prize money on the line (5:30 p.m. ET on FOX). The Mountaineers defeated Creighton<\/a>, 87-70, in the second semifinal.<\/p>\n Here are my takeaways from Day 3 of the College Basketball Crown<\/a>:<\/p>\n Creighton head coach Greg McDermott speaks at a news conference after a semifinal game against West Virginia. (Photo by Candice Ward\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n Only Doug McDermott, the Bluejays’ head coach, knows exactly when the hollow reality of Saturday\u2019s outcome washed over him for good.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps it happened when West Virginia forward DJ Thomas, who only averages 6.3 points per game, spun and twisted through the lane for a layup that extended the Mountaineers\u2019 lead to nine with 12:13 remaining. Or maybe the recognition set in when guard Honor Huff<\/a> ran a beautiful pick-and-roll with center Harlan Obioha<\/a> that resulted in a traditional three-point play, pushing the margin to 14 points with 10:03 remaining. If it wasn\u2019t either of those moments, then surely he knew it by the 5:18 mark when Huff buried a stepback 3 from the left wing that pushed Creighton\u2019s deficit to 14, forcing McDermott to hang his head and turn around for a slow walk toward the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I’ve been thinking about it,” McDermott said in the postgame news conference, “but you don’t ever want it to end. You’d like it to end with a win, especially for the guys. This team has been through a lot this season, and they’ve stayed incredibly close and they’ve had each other’s back during some really difficult times.”<\/p>\n A blowout loss in his final game did little to overshadow the enormity of McDermott\u2019s success in 16 seasons with the Bluejays. He tallied 366 victories with a .659 winning percentage. He made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances. He reached three Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight. He won a Big East<\/a> championship and three Missouri Valley Conference tournament titles. He produced six NBA Draft<\/a> picks.\u00a0<\/p>\n When news of McDermott\u2019s impending retirement went public last month, the school announced that associate head coach Alan Huss would take over once the season concluded. In Huss, the Bluejays are now elevating one of the more respected assistant coaches in the country. He began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant at New Mexico (2014-17) before joining McDermott\u2019s staff for a seven-year run (2017-23) that included five trips to the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n Huss was named head coach at High Point<\/a> ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. He spent two seasons with the Panthers, one of which included an appearance in the Big Dance, before returning to Creighton as the heir apparent.\u00a0<\/p>\n He has immense shoes to fill.\u00a0<\/p>\n “When [McDermott] announced his retirement, I sent him a long text,” Oklahoma head coach and Creighton alum Porter Moser said in response to my question about the legacy McDermott built at Creighton. “And I said, \u2018As a colleague: Congratulations, man. Congratulations on a Hall-of-Fame career. Congratulations on everything you did.\u2019 And then I said, \u2018As a former player who wore that Bluejay jersey: Thank you for elevating the program. Thank you for everything you\u2019ve done, you know, putting that program in the national spotlight and making it that kind of a name.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n “Great man, great coach.”<\/p>\n Jasen Green of the Creighton Bluejays shoots against Brenen Lorient and DJ Thomas of West Virginia. (Photo by Candice Ward\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n In contrast to Oklahoma, which arrived at the College Basketball Crown with the best offense in this year\u2019s field, the Mountaineers came into the event far more accomplished on the opposite end of the floor. West Virginia entered Saturday\u2019s semifinal against Creighton ranked 17th in the country in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom<\/a>, and flashed its prowess in a throttling of the Bluejays.\u00a0<\/p>\n Creighton shot 42.9% from the floor and 31.3% from beyond the arc in the opening half \u2014\u00a0numbers that would be considered on the low end of acceptable for most offenses \u2014 but what happened around the rim told the real story. As West Virginia racked up 22 points in the paint and made 10 of 14 shots on layups or dunks, the Bluejays were hardly able to get close to the rim. They only generated four layup attempts in the entire half, making three of them, and did not record a dunk.<\/p>\n “I just think we did a really good job of showing our hands,” West Virginia forward Brenen Lorient said in response to my question about the defensive effort. “Coach [Ross Hodge] emphasized just staying solid and showing our hands and limiting the catch-and-shoot 3s.”<\/p>\n That effort matched the ferocious defensive style West Virginia has played all season under Hodge, formerly of North Texas. Hodge\u2019s group entered the weekend ranked 12th nationally in opponent 2-point field goal percentage, limiting foes to a paltry 45.9% on attempts that originate inside the arc. The Mountaineers successfully protect the paint as well as anyone in college basketball. \u00a0<\/p>\n Their challenge now will be facing an elite Oklahoma offense that has flashed an ability to score both inside and out.\u00a0<\/p>\n Derrion Reid of the Oklahoma Sooners shoots against Obi Agbim of the Baylor Bears. (Photo by Candice Ward\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n Everything about the tenor of Saturday\u2019s semifinal matchup between Baylor and Oklahoma changed when the Bears shifted their defensive philosophy. Having watched his defense get shredded to the tune of 45 points on 51.4% shooting in the first half, Baylor head coach Scott Drew instructed his team to unfurl an aggressive 1-3-1 zone after the break. He deployed 6-foot-9 center Caden Powell<\/a> along the baseline and allowed athletic guards Tounde Yessoufou<\/a> and Cameron Carr<\/a> \u2014 both potential first-round picks in the NBA Draft<\/a> \u2014 to stymie huge swaths of the 3-point line with their imposing wingspans. \u00a0<\/p>\n The effect was equal parts profound and immediate. Dysregulated and disoriented, the Sooners misfired on 10 of their first 14 field goal attempts to begin the second half. A double-digit advantage seemed to shrink in an instant once Baylor ignited from beyond the arc, with Carr and Williams combining to hit three triples in a little less than four minutes. And once Yessoufou flew coast to coast for a transition layup after pinning a blocked shot against the glass, the Bears climbed in front by a point with 13:16 remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We knew Baylor was a championship program with Scott [Drew], a Hall-of-Fame coach, that they\u2019d come out in the second half and give it everything they had,” Moser said during the postgame news conference. “They punched us in the face the first five minutes.”<\/p>\n Once the under-12 media timeout came and went, Moser\u2019s team began exploiting some of the cracks in Baylor\u2019s zone. Oklahoma found creative ways to isolate Powell or fellow big man James Nnaji<\/a> alone in the post, which created several easy baskets from close range. The Sooners enjoyed a run of eight made field goals in 11 attempts to reclaim control of the game, surging in front with a lead they would never relinquish. They outscored the Bears by 13 points over the final 10 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I thought we just stayed with it,” Moser said in response to my question about finding late-game success. “We made some shots, kept with what we were doing and you\u2019re going to have that against a zone. The thing about the zone is you\u2019ve just got to stay aggressive, stay confident in it. You can\u2019t get hesitant. We were getting the ball where we needed to in the middle. I thought they did a really good job.”<\/p>\n Xzayvier Brown of the Oklahoma Sooners dribbles against the Baylor Bears. (Photo by Candice Ward\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n Oklahoma guard Xzayvier Brown<\/a> played a key role as the Sooners erased an eight-point second-half deficit against Colorado<\/a> on Wednesday, forcing overtime and holding off the Buffaloes. He scored 11 of his 17 points after the half to ensure that the Sooners, who entered this year\u2019s event as the overwhelming favorite to cut down the nets, avoided an upset in the quarterfinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two days later, Brown<\/a> played even better in the victory over Baylor, pairing the same scoring punch he packed earlier in the week with remarkable efficiency and distribution. He poured in 16 points in the first half alone, beguiling the Bears from all parts of the court: He hit a pull-up jumper from the left baseline, an easy transition layup ahead of the pack, a leaner through contact in the lane to produce a traditional three-point play and a triple from beyond the arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brown scored or assisted on exactly half of his team\u2019s 18 field goals in the opening half, which speaks to his all-around floor game. He also shot 5-of-5 from the free-throw line as the Sooners built a 10-point halftime advantage. \u00a0<\/p>\n1. Unprecedented era for Creighton comes to an end\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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2. West Virginia flexes ferocious defense<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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3. Sooners solve tricky 1-3-1 zone to pull away from Baylor<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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4. Xzayvier Brown continues strong tournament run for Oklahoma<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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