In facing off tomorrow night for a spot in the Sweet 16, UCLA and Oklahoma look like opposites, on paper.
The guard-heavy Bruins feature a star senior in Charisma Osborne, and five talented freshmen, lead by scoring machine Kiki Rice, who were the No. 2 recruiting class coming into the program. With eight newcomers, they worked to learn each other, and had some stumbles in the midst of Pac-12 play. But in the conference tournament they took down favorite Stanford in the semifinals to advance to the championship game, where they lost to Washington State.
Against Big Sky champs Sacramento State in game 1 of the NCAA Tournament last night, UCLA played looser and more relaxed than they had all season in running to a 67-45 win. All but one of the 10 who took the floor scored, and they executed and defended consistently from wire to wire.
The Sooners feature a veteran trio that has played together for five years under two different coaches: Madi Williams, Taylor Robertson and Ana Llanusa. They have a cast that can shoot the lights out, and which is excellent in transition.
In the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament, Oklahoma stumbled. Against Portland in the first round this weekend, they let the Pilots’…
