Doolittle’s broken nose not a problem

Oklahoma greatly enhanced its case for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament with a 73-62 win at No. 20 West Virginia Saturday and a 65-51 win over No. 22 Texas Tech last week.

ESPN was projecting the Sooners to be a No. 10 seed before Tuesday night’s home game against Texas. Those two wins put OU (18-11, 8-8 in the Big 12) in fourth place in the conference. A win against Texas or a victory at TCU Saturday would give Oklahoma a 9-9 conference mark – a key element for the NCAA Selection Committee.

“How you finish will determine who goes and who doesn’t,” said OU coach Lon Kruger.

OU plays at TCU (16-13, 7-9 in the Big 12) Saturday at 5 p.m. on ESPN2. OU beat TCU 83-63 in their first meeting.

The West Virginia win was a big lift, especially since it was only the second home loss for the Mountaineers (who fell to No. 1 Kansas).

OU’s Kristian Doolittle, who had surgery on his broken nose two days before the West Virginia game, scored 19 points.

“We didn’t know how he was going to feel going in,” Kruger said. “He was great.”

“You have a guy like Doolittle who can score inside and out so you put a smaller guy on him and he puts them on his back and scores,” said West Virginia coach Bo Huggins said. “Then you put a bigger guy on him and he stands off of them. The whole deal was the bigs were supposed to crowd him and not let him get a good shot  there and then not foul him. It didn’t work.”

Brady Manek scored 15 points, Austin Reaves had 13 and Jamal Bieniemy added 11 points for the Sooners, who ended a six-game road losing streak.

“I think right now our guys are feeling good about what they’re doing,” Kruger said.

West Virginia has lost six of the last seven games while shooting just 22% from three-point range. The Mountaineers have missed 50 free throws in that seven-game stretch.

West Virginia (19-10, 7-9 in the Big 12) played at Iowa State Tuesday night and will end the regular season by hosting No. 3 Baylor.

“I think they understand where we are,” Huggins said. “We need to go to Iowa State and win. We need to come back here and beat Baylor and then we need to go to the conference tournament and win some games.”

ESPN is projecting West Virginia to be a No. 7 seed with an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.