Missouri State Bears vs. Oklahoma Sooners: NIT 1st Round Prediction & Game Preview - 3/15/2022

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, OK

Where to watch: ESPN

DraftKings:  Oklahoma -6.5, 137.5

BetMGM:  Oklahoma -6.5, 138.5

Caesars: Oklahoma -6.5, 138

Missouri State: 23-10

Oklahoma: 18-15

I'm going to be honest with you. I have never once watched the Missouri State Bears play this season.

 

But for a group that won 23 games this season, it has to be a pretty decent basketball team to get into the night, even though they're taking on the Oklahoma Sooners in the first round. Missouri State actually finds itself in the Missouri Valley Conference, which makes a whole bunch of sense at the end of the day.

 

Missouri State finished fourth in the conference this season, but it was Loyola Chicago Ramblers that wound up winning the conference and punching a ticket back to the NCAA tournament. But when you take a look at Missouri State and see the body of work that it put together to get to this point, the success of this program is hindered on Isiaih Mosley.

 

Moseley leads Missouri State in scoring at 20.1 points per game. Not only that, he's been able to shoot 50.2% from the field and 90.7% from the free throw line. You want to talk about a model of consistency, Mosley definitely fits that mold period last season he averaged 19.7 points per game while shooting an astounding 50.5% from the floor. This season he has shot 50% from the floor, 43% from 3-point range, and nearly 91% of his free throws.

 

I have no idea where this puts him in his NBA likelihood, but it is very interesting to see a kid not only stay consistent with his shot selection and his ability to knock shots down, but somehow find a way to get better at it each and every season in his three collegiate years.

 

If Missouri State is going to have a chance to pull off the upset in the first round of the NIT, this is the guy that needs to get it done. And if it comes down to free throws, you do not want him to be at the line with the game on the line. He's made 93% of his free throws on the road this season. That is absurd.

There are plenty of teams within the realms of this tournament that can be argued that they really should not be in the tournament based on other teams who were left out. And in the case of the Oklahoma Sooners, they just happen to fit that mold.

 

It ultimately does help that being in the Big 12 in a conference that has plenty of teams in the NCAA tournament, that a team with 18 wins can easily get into the mid tier tournament. But Oklahoma actually had a strong finish to the season, especially in conference play, that gave them the chance to show that they should continue playing basketball.

 

Oklahoma knocked off Baylor in the Big 12 tournament the other day and then took Texas Tech to its limit in losing only by 1, falling short of a chance at the Big 12 title. The Sooners are led by Umoja Gibson, who has averaged 12.5 points on 42.4 percent shooting. Gibson had 16 points in the 1-point loss to Texas Tech in the conference semifinals.

 

Gibson had a chance to win the game at the buzzer off a missed free throw from his teammate, but couldn’t get a shot off. 

 

"I was just trying to get downhill and attack the defense," Gibson said. "Obviously I tripped up and fell."

 

Such is life in the Big 12, right?

 

"This league is like none other," first-year Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said. "There's no bottom — it's every night — and you're playing against top-level teams, and we've competed every night. We've won those games. I've been in the NCAA Tournament. I've advanced in the NCAA Tournament. I know what an NCAA Tournament team looks like and this is an NCAA Tournament team."

Normally when you get a team like Missouri State that has one star, there usually isn't enough in the tank to get over a veteran laden team that's in a much better conference. As much as I would like to see the underdogs win this kind of a match up, I think Oklahoma ultimately pulls it out. There are much more experienced team in a much better conference and I think the matchups suit Oklahoma better in this one. Oklahoma by 10

Missouri State is 1-5 ATS against Big 12 opponents.

The over is 15-5 after Missouri State plays a conference game.

Oklahoma is 13-9 ATS as a favorite this season.

Oklahoma is 1-1 ATS in an NIT game since 1996.

PG: LuCye Patterson

SG: Ja'Monta Black

SF: Isiaih Mosley

PF: Donovan Clay

C: Gaige Prim

PG: Umoja Gibson

SG: Jordan Goldwire

SF: Jalen Hill

PF: Jacob Groves

C: Tanner Groves