4 Takeaways From Day 3 of the 2026 College Basketball Crown

T-MOBILE ARENA (LAS VEGAS) — As Oklahoma center Mohamed Wague extended an arm to help lift teammate Derrion Reid off the floor, a smile stretched across his face. “That’s my block!” Wague shouted, lobbying for another tally on the stat sheet. Reid could only laugh in response as Wague hauled him to his feet. Seconds earlier, the two collided near the rim for what looked like a joint rejection of an attempted layup by Baylor guard Isaac Williams IV. It was unclear whether Wague or Reid had been the one to actually swat the shot, but with a double-digit lead in the waning moments, the Sooners were comfortably in position to enjoy the comedy of a two-man block. The official scorekeeper ultimately credited Wague with the stuff, but by that point, the Sooners had done enough to punch their ticket to the championship game of the second annual College Basketball Crown, pulling away from Baylor down the stretch for an eventual 82-69 win. Oklahoma will now face West Virginia on Sunday afternoon with $300,000 in prize money on the line (5:30 p.m. ET on FOX). The Mountaineers defeated Creighton, 87-70, in the second semifinal. Here are my takeaways from Day 3 of the College Basketball Crown: 1. Unprecedented era for Creighton comes to an end Only Doug McDermott, the Bluejays’ head coach, knows exactly when the hollow reality of Saturday’s outcome washed over him for good. Perhaps it happened when West Virginia forward DJ Thomas, who only averages 6.3 points per game, spun and twisted through the lane for a layup that extended the Mountaineers’ lead to nine with 12:13 remaining. Or maybe the recognition set in when guard Honor Huff ran a beautiful pick-and-roll with center Harlan Obioha that resulted in a traditional three-point play, pushing the margin to 14 points with 10:03 remaining. If it wasn’t either of those moments, then surely he knew it by the 5:18 mark when Huff buried a stepback 3 from the left wing that pushed Creighton’s deficit to 14, forcing McDermott to hang his head and turn around for a slow walk toward the bench. “I’ve been thinking about it,” McDermott said in the postgame news conference, “but you don’t ever want it to end. You’d like it to end with a win, especially for the guys. This team has been through a lot this season, and they’ve stayed incredibly close and they’ve had each other’s back during some really difficult times.” A blowout loss in his final game did little to overshadow the enormity of McDermott’s success in 16 seasons with the Bluejays. He tallied 366 victories with a .659 winning percentage. He made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances. He reached three Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight. He won a Big East championship and three Missouri Valley Conference tournament titles. He produced six NBA Draft picks. When news of McDermott’s impending retirement went public last month, the school announced that associate head coach Alan Huss would take over once the season concluded. In Huss, the Bluejays are now elevating one of the more respected assistant coaches in the country. He began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant at New Mexico (2014-17) before joining McDermott’s staff for a seven-year run (2017-23) that included five trips to the NCAA Tournament. Huss was named head coach at High Point ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. He spent two seasons with the Panthers, one of which included an appearance in the Big Dance, before returning to Creighton as the heir apparent. He has immense shoes to fill. “When [McDermott] announced his retirement, I sent him a long text,” Oklahoma head coach and Creighton alum Porter Moser said in response to my question about the legacy McDermott built at Creighton. “And I said, ‘As a colleague: Congratulations, man. Congratulations on a Hall-of-Fame career. Congratulations on everything you did.’ And then I said, ‘As a former player who wore that Bluejay jersey: Thank you for elevating the program. Thank you for everything you’ve done, you know, putting that program in the national spotlight and making it that kind of a name.’ “Great man, great coach.” 2. West Virginia flexes ferocious defense In contrast to Oklahoma, which arrived at the College Basketball Crown with the best offense in this year’s field, the Mountaineers came into the event far more accomplished on the opposite end of the floor. West Virginia entered Saturday’s semifinal against Creighton ranked 17th in the country in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, and flashed its prowess in a throttling of the Bluejays. Creighton shot 42.9% from the floor and 31.3% from beyond the arc in the opening half — numbers that would be considered on the low end of acceptable for most offenses — but what happened around the rim told the real story. As West Virginia racked up 22 points in the paint and made 10 of 14 shots on layups or dunks, the Bluejays were hardly able to get close to the rim. They only generated four layup attempts in the entire half, making three of them, and did not record a dunk. “I just think we did a really good job of showing our hands,” West Virginia forward Brenen Lorient said in response to my question about the defensive effort. “Coach [Ross Hodge] emphasized just staying solid and showing our hands and limiting the catch-and-shoot 3s.” That effort matched the ferocious defensive style West Virginia has played all season under Hodge, formerly of North Texas. Hodge’s group entered the weekend ranked 12th nationally in opponent 2-point field goal percentage, limiting foes to a paltry 45.9% on attempts that originate inside the arc. The Mountaineers successfully protect the paint as well as anyone in college basketball. Their challenge now will be facing an elite Oklahoma offense that has flashed an ability to score both inside and out. 3. Sooners solve tricky 1-3-1 zone to pull away from Baylor Everything about the tenor of Saturday’s semifinal matchup between Baylor and Oklahoma changed when the Bears shifted their defensive philosophy. Having watched his defense get shredded to the tune of 45 points on 51.4% shooting in the first half, Baylor head coach Scott Drew instructed his team to unfurl an aggressive 1-3-1 zone after the break. He deployed 6-foot-9 center Caden Powell along the baseline and allowed athletic guards Tounde Yessoufou and Cameron Carr — both potential first-round picks in the NBA Draft — to stymie huge swaths of the 3-point line with their imposing wingspans. The effect was equal parts profound and immediate. Dysregulated and disoriented, the Sooners misfired on 10 of their first 14 field goal attempts to begin the second half. A double-digit advantage seemed to shrink in an instant once Baylor ignited from beyond the arc, with Carr and Williams combining to hit three triples in a little less than four minutes. And once Yessoufou flew coast to coast for a transition layup after pinning a blocked shot against the glass, the Bears climbed in front by a point with 13:16 remaining. “We knew Baylor was a championship program with Scott [Drew], a Hall-of-Fame coach, that they’d come out in the second half and give it everything they had,” Moser said during the postgame news conference. “They punched us in the face the first five minutes.” Once the under-12 media timeout came and went, Moser’s team began exploiting some of the cracks in Baylor’s zone. Oklahoma found creative ways to isolate Powell or fellow big man James Nnaji alone in the post, which created several easy baskets from close range. The Sooners enjoyed a run of eight made field goals in 11 attempts to reclaim control of the game, surging in front with a lead they would never relinquish. They outscored the Bears by 13 points over the final 10 minutes. “I thought we just stayed with it,” Moser said in response to my question about finding late-game success. “We made some shots, kept with what we were doing and you’re going to have that against a zone. The thing about the zone is you’ve just got to stay aggressive, stay confident in it. You can’t get hesitant. We were getting the ball where we needed to in the middle. I thought they did a really good job.” 4. Xzayvier Brown continues strong tournament run for Oklahoma Oklahoma guard Xzayvier Brown played a key role as the Sooners erased an eight-point second-half deficit against Colorado on Wednesday, forcing overtime and holding off the Buffaloes. He scored 11 of his 17 points after the half to ensure that the Sooners, who entered this year’s event as the overwhelming favorite to cut down the nets, avoided an upset in the quarterfinals. Two days later, Brown played even better in the victory over Baylor, pairing the same scoring punch he packed earlier in the week with remarkable efficiency and distribution. He poured in 16 points in the first half alone, beguiling the Bears from all parts of the court: He hit a pull-up jumper from the left baseline, an easy transition layup ahead of the pack, a leaner through contact in the lane to produce a traditional three-point play and a triple from beyond the arc. Brown scored or assisted on exactly half of his team’s 18 field goals in the opening half, which speaks to his all-around floor game. He also shot 5-of-5 from the free-throw line as the Sooners built a 10-point halftime advantage. “X has been great for us all year,” forward Tae Davis said in response to my question about Brown’s performance. “A floor general, he does it in every way. It’s huge for us because he does so much on both ends of the floor. He creates, and he can create for himself. So that’s just been a huge boost for us in every game.” Brown’s impact was felt even amid a relatively quiet second half in which he went more than 13 minutes without scoring another point. His 3-pointer from the right wing with 4:37 remaining extended Oklahoma’s lead back to double digits and all but assured the Sooners a spot in the championship game. He finished with a game-high 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists. 4½. What’s next? Here are a few storylines to watch ahead of the championship game: Oklahoma vs. West Virginia (Sunday) — With eight wins over their final 11 games heading into the College Basketball Crown, the Sooners were always the most popular choice to reach the championship game and, ultimately, win it. An overtime scare against Colorado in the quarterfinals gave way to a much more controlled victory over Baylor in the semis. Now, Oklahoma has a chance to cut down the nets on Sunday after being arguably the biggest snub from this year’s NCAA Tournament. West Virginia, meanwhile, rallied back from an eight-point deficit in the closing moments against Stanford to force overtime and survive the quarterfinals. From there, the Mountaineers picked apart Creighton in a dominant semifinal victory that limited the Bluejays to just 33 points in the second half. Now, the stage is set for a championship game between the tournament’s best offense (Oklahoma) and its best defense (West Virginia).