NCAA Tournament First Round: (8) Oklahoma (15-10) vs (9) Missouri (16-9) prediction and college basketball game preview.
Oklahoma vs Missouri Broadcast
Date: Saturday, March 20
Game Time: 7:25 pm ET
Venue: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN
Network: TNT
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Oklahoma vs Missouri Game Preview
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Why Missouri Will Win
This is a weirdly successful team … at least somewhat.
No one could’ve known it at the time, but Mizzou started out the season against five straight teams that ended up in this tournament – Oral Roberts, Oregon, Wichita State, Liberty, and most impressively, Illinois – and went 5-0. But the team didn’t improve from there.
It was just as likely to get rocked by a bad Mississippi State or clunk against Georgia as it was to beat an Alabama or Florida, mostly because there wasn’t any consistency.
However, this is occasionally a flaky-good team with the ability to get on the offensive glass, the D to keep most teams from getting hot on the outside, and with just enough pop from three to matter.
It’s one of those teams that sometimes can somehow find ways to win.
Speaking of maddeningly inconsistent …
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Why Oklahoma Will Win
Oklahoma lost five of its last six games with the only win coming against a miserable Iowa State. It shot well in the losses, was great on the free throw line, and yet it couldn’t seem to come up with a key defensive stop to save its regular season.
The talent and upside are there, though.
While Missouri struggled way too much to get past a bad TCU in the Big 12-SEC challenge thing in late January, on that same day Oklahoma beat Alabama.
But the wheels came off soon after. Out of the team’s last four wins, three were against Iowa State.
So what does any of this possibly have to do with being able to win?
Again, it’s not like the team was totally awful. As long as it’s shooting well, it can get through this. It’s better on the free throw line than Missouri, it’s far better on the offensive glass, and it’s stronger from the outside.
– College Basketball Experts Picks For Oklahoma vs Missouri
What’s Going To Happen
Someone has to win this.
Oklahoma committed the fewest fouls in the Big 12, and Missouri committed the most fouls in the SEC. Oklahoma is solid on the free throw line, and Missouri is meh.
Don’t be stunned if the flaky-weird team that ends up winning this ends up taking out Gonzaga in the next round, but first, these two should put on a hard-fought fun show that’s dead even until the end.
Oklahoma vs Missouri Prediction, Line
Oklahoma 74, Missouri 70
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Line: Oklahoma -2, o/u: 141
ATS Confidence out of 5: 3
Must See Rating: 3.5
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