John E. Moore III/Getty Images. Pictured: De’Vion Harmon.
The Oklahoma Sooners will be missing a significant piece in De’Vion Harmon for at least their first two games, and the betting market is taking notice.
The Sooners were 2-point favorites against the Missouri Tigers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but as news spread of Harmon testing positive for COVID-19, the betting line was already moving. At DraftKings the line moved a half-point to Oklahoma -1.5. At PointsBet, the Sooners are -1.
Harmon is the team’s second-leading scorer with 12.9 points per game behind only Austin Reaves. He’s also second to Reaves in minutes per game, leaving 31.8 minutes per game for head coach Lon Kruger to replace.
According to Action Network college basketball staff writer B.J. Cunningham, Harmon is worth 1.33 points to the spread, making him the team’s second-most valuable player.
This won’t help a Sooners team entering the tournament on a skid, losing five of their last six games.
Kruger said no other Oklahoma player was in contract tracing. The NCAA announced on Wednesday that all 68 teams met the minimum protocol to continue in the tournament. No replacement teams will be used at this point. Should COVID spread and Oklahoma cannot play on Saturday, the game would be ruled a no contest with Missouri advancing.
The winner of Oklahoma-Missouri will most likely meet Gonzaga unless we see the biggest tournament upset of all time in the opening round.
