OU was without Elijah Harkless
I hate to make this too much about OU but to ignore the fact that the Sooners were without point guard Elijah Harkless would be leaving out a huge key to this game. No, had the senior who averages 10 points a game played, OU still would not have won given how they played as a whole. But his absence sure did make it much easier for the Red Raiders to guard the Sooners.
Harkless’ season ended last week due to an undisclosed leg injury. At the time, he was handing out 1.7 assists per game and pulling down 4.1 rebounds while playing just under 30 minutes per contest.
While the California native is not a potential All-Big 12 honoree, he is a good player who did much of the dirty work for OU. What’s more, his ability to create off the dribble and find open shooters was a central component of the Sooner attack.
When Tech lost in Norman, Harkless had a nice 13-point, 3-rebound game, which was overshadowed by Gibson’s 30-point outburst. It was one of 15 double-digit games of his 2021-22 season.
To understand what Harkless meant to the Sooners, just look at what has happened in the two games since he went down. OU lost those two contests (the first being at Iowa State) by an average of 22.5 points. Prior to that, the Sooners were coming off of two-point losses at Kansas and against Texas as well as their win over the Red Raiders.
The book on the Tech defense is that do break it down, a team must have a point guard who can get offense off the dribble. That was what Harkless could do and without him in the mix, OU has struggled to find any scoring punch. Thus, his absence was felt on Tuesday night, even if most fans in the arena didn’t even know he was missing.