Battle 4 Atlantis Championship Preview: Louisville vs. Oklahoma

On By Littum

Louisville Cardinals (5-1) vs. Oklahoma Sooners (6-0)

Battle 4 Atlantis Championship game

Playing time: 17:30

Location: Imperial Arena: Paradise Island, Bahamas

Television: ESPN

Announcers: Dave O’Brien (play-by-play) and Jimmy Dykes (analyst)

Favorite: Louisville with 3.5

Series: Oklahoma leads 3-1

Last meeting: Louisville won 78-48 on March 23, 2008 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Birmingham, Ala.

History of the series:

Expected starting lineups:

Louisville

  • G Chucky Hepburn (6-2, 190, Sr.)
  • G J’Vonne Hadley (6-6, 215, Sr.)
  • G/F Terrence Edwards Jr. (6-6, 205, Sr.)
  • F Noah Waterman (6-11, 230, Sr,
  • F Kasean Pryor (6-10, 225, Sr.)

Oklahoma

  • G Kobe Elvis (6-1,180, gr.)
  • G Duke Miles (6-2, 188, R-Sr.)
  • G Jeremiah Fears (6-4, 192, Fr.)
  • F Jalon Moore (6-7, 215, Sr.)
  • F Sam Godwin (6-10, 240, Sr.)

Statistics:

Relevant videos:

Season to date:

About Oklahoma:

One of the more unlikely conclusions to the Battle 4 Atlantis takes place Friday night when Louisville battles Oklahoma for the tournament championship. Neither were favorites in their first round, and neither was among the top three picks to win the tournament when they arrived in the Bahamas.

The undefeated Sooners advanced to the title game via narrow wins over Providence and Arizona. In both cases, OU had comfortable leads going into the closing minute before allowing things to get closer than necessary.

This feels like a make-or-break season for Porter Moser, who famously took Loyola to the Final Four in 2018 but has yet to lead the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament since arriving in Norman in 2021. OU was picked to finish 15th of 16 teams in the SEC preseason media poll, but have looked like a team poised to make far more noise than the last 48 hours.

While its schedule was easy before arriving at Paradise Island, Oklahoma has put up some eye-popping offensive numbers all season. The Sooners have scored 79 or more points in five of their six games and are in the top 80 nationally in shooting at all three levels (three, two, free throws).

Leading the way for OU so far this season has been the electric 6’4 freshman guard Jeremiah fears. The former four-star recruit is a threat to score from anywhere on the floor and enters Friday averaging 18.0 ppg. The most dynamic playmaker on this Oklahoma team, he has tallied 46 points and 12 assists in two Battle 4 Atlantis games so far. He’s also turned the ball over 11 times, which should have Chucky Hepburn and company licking their chops.

Senior forward Jalon Moore played two seasons at Georgia Tech before transferring to OU last season and is currently playing easily the best basketball of his college career. He is second on the team in both scoring (17.5 ppg) and rebounding (5.7 rpg) and is coming off a season-high 24-point performance in the win over Arizona. The 6’7 Moore is a capable outside shooter, but he does his best work inside the arc.

A couple of transfer screens – Kobe Elvis from Dayton and Duke Miles from High Point — also averages double figures in scoring and has the potential to go from deep if given too much space.

Sam Godwin isn’t much of an offensive threat, but is a very capable interior defender and does the bulk of the team’s dirty work on the glass.

Oklahoma won’t get up and down as much as Louisville does, but their half-court offense will look familiar. They will mostly play four out and try to stretch the opposing defense to create driving lanes or outside shooting opportunities. It has looked extremely fluid and efficient in the Bahamas so far.

While Oklahoma’s offense has been stellar so far this season, Moser is known more as a defense-first coach.

Oklahoma will play a hybrid style defense that uses elements from a variety of different philosophies. This makes them difficult to prepare for, especially with less than 24 hours or preparation time.

The Sooners will aggressively turn on screens against the ballhandler partly to create stealing opportunities, which they are very good at. Oklahoma ranks third in the nation in steal percentage and 22nd in turnover percentage. In a game where both teams have thrived on creating turnovers, the side that takes care of the ball best could ultimately decide who brings the tournament title back to their homeland.

Remarkable:

– In its history, Louisville has 31 regular-season tournament championships. The Cardinals had lost five consecutive regular-season tournament games before Wednesday’s win over Indiana.

—Louisville has an 8-2 record in Battle 4 Atlantis and is 6-2 in tournament games played in the Bahamas. The Cardinals made the championship game in both of their previous appearances: U of L lost to Duke in the 2012 title game and to Baylor in the 2016 title game.

—Louisville has 11 players who were on teams that played in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The roster has made a total of 14 NCAA Division I Tournament appearances at their former schools, playing in 20 NCAA Tournament games across their careers.

—Oklahoma is 6-2 all-time in Battle 4 Atlantis. The Sooners advanced to the championship game in 2014, falling to Wisconsin.

—ACC teams are currently 0-7 in games against SEC teams so far this season.

—OU is in the top 60 in 11 NCAA DI categories, ranking 12th in steals per game (11.0), 21st in free throw percentage (79.3), 36th in scoring margin (17.5), 37th in turnovers forced per game (16.0), 43rd in three-point percentage defense (27.5), 44th in turnover margin (4.0), 54th in effective field goal percentage (55.9), 54th in fastbreak points (15.0), 58th in three-pointers per game (9.7), 59th place in assists per game (16.3) and 60th in scoring defense (65.2).

—Louisville has a 256-80 record against non-conference opponents over the past 23 seasons (including postseason).

— The winner of Battle 4 Atlantis has won the NCAA Championship on two occasions: the Villanova Wildcats in 2017-18 and the Virginia Cavaliers in 2018-19.

—Under Porter Moser, Oklahoma is 9-1 in MTE play, including back-to-back championships at the 2022 ESPN Events Invitational and 2023 Rady Children’s Invitational. The Sooners finished 2-1 in the Myrtle Beach Invitational, sweeping East Carolina and Indiana State before a championship loss to Utah State.

— Before joining Oklahoma ahead of the 2023-24 season, senior Jalon Moore spent two seasons at Georgia Tech, where he played Louisville four times as a member of the Yellow Jackets and averaged 3.8 rebounds and 3.0 points in 12, 3 minutes per

-Louisville is 223-15 over the last 21 seasons and 4-0 this season when scoring 80 or more points.

-Louisville is 14-0 over the past 10 seasons when he has limited opponents to no more than one three-point field goal.

— Since 2004, Louisville is 130-0 when leading by more than 10 points at halftime.

-Louisville is 115-0 all-time when scoring 100 or more points in non-overtime games.

-Louisville has won 163 straight games when holding an opponent under 50 points.

Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Louisville 74, Oklahoma 73