An interesting night of Bedlam
Bedlam basketball wasn’t an epic Monday night, but it was interesting. I’ve sat through enough 54-43 Bedlams to appreciate the 89-81 game won by the Sooners. A few thoughts:
* Juan Pattillo is a difference-maker for OU. Not a difference-maker the way we usually think of them, which is star power, but Pattillo could be the difference in making the Final Four or not. Pattillo enhances the OU bench, both inside and, in certain situations, on the perimeter. It’s hard for depth-challenged teams to make the Final Four. With Pattillo, depth does not seem an OU issue.
* The OSU decision to open Gallagher-Iba Arena to anyone brave enough to show up was masterful. Gallagher otherwise would have been no more than half full, thanks to the icy conditions. But the open gates brought in students and fans who raised the atmosphere to Bedlam-worthy.
* I don’t think I’d ever seen an individual outrebound an entire team. Then I almost saw it twice in two days. OU’s Courtney Paris had Texas outrebounded until the final minutes of their game Sunday. Then Blake Griffin outrebounded OSU 19-18 Monday night.
* OSU has great pieces, but without any threat in the middle, offensively or defensively, the Cowboys will be hard-pressed to win consistently. Ryan Wright, who now is OU’s No. 4 post player, would be OSU’s starting center.
* Here’s how strong are the Sooners: their two wings, Tony Crocker and Willie Warren, combined for more fouls (six) and turnovers (five) than field goals (four), and the Sooners committed a season-high 23 turnovers, yet OU won by eight on the road against an arch-rival.
* Keiton Page is fun to watch; he had 15 points off the bench for OSU. Truth is, all the Okies played well. For the Cowboys, Obi Muonelo had 15 points and no turnovers, and Nick Sidorakis hit a big 3-pointer that drew the Cowboys within 63-61 down the stretch. For the Sooners, Cade Davis was solid off the bench (five points on 2-of-2 shooting, three rebounds). Taylor Griffin, too, with seven points, five assists and four rebounds. And Blake Griffin did a thing or two.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
“Here’s how strong are the Sooners” Nice one, Berry. Oh and what are your thoughts about the “cheap shots” leeved against the entire OSU basketball team from the officials. I know complaining about that is typical, but can you explain 5 team fouls within the first 2 minutes of the 2nd half?
Mason – I think the officials were concerned about losing control of the game. As I thought they had on a couple of occasions in the first half. I am not sure which calls you objected to, but all seemed to be legit fouls. 5 in that time frame is a lot, but as an official if you see a foul you should call it. Considering the play in the first half, I can see where they would make these calls. Any response about Kirkland and Moses?
The first one was legit, but not nearly what he has seen before. And Ford did what he should have, by sitting him down nearly the entire game. The second was a joke. Even the announcers said that Griffin was acting.
Besides the fact that Griffin made a point of “mad dogging” and staring down players every chance he got. A great college player he is, but his attitude left me feeling a little less enthused he might end up with the Thunder.
And while of course our post play leaves a lot to be desired Berry, no way is OU’s fourth guy OSU starter at center. Moses has played really well lately, and maybe should be starting.
Jason, you may want to actually try and watch the game without crimson colored glasses. Have you tried that? Griffin is a good actor. The first foul was certainly cheap and Kirkland needed to sit out the rest of the game. The second was a joke, and was Griffin was trying to see if Kirkland would put a shoulder into him so he could fall back. What a joke of a call, the TV guys noticed it as well.
As for the rest of the game, both teams were playing physical basketball, I have no idea what calls on Eaton and Moses were “cheap” in your book. I would think you maybe do not watch alot of basketball.
Jacob – your are right, I should probably watch more MMA if I plan to watch the Cowboys anymore this year. Maybe you should watch the game again. Moses stepped on Crocker intentionally after Eaton was fouled and crashed into Crocker. Eaton then threw a cross body block on Crocker later in the game on a handoff near the time line. Ford ran out on the floor protesting the call – which was called, correctly, against Eaton.
Why was Kirkland in at the end of the game? Even by your own admission you said he should be sitting. Makes me wonder why Ford put him back into the game. I haven’t even mentioned the two-handed shove Terrel Harris laid on Taylor Griffin’s dunk. It was called an intentional foul, correctly. I don’t ever remember Shawn or Eddie’s team ever taking shots like I saw last night. And, I think we can all agree, the Sutton teams played very hard.
Ford has a lot of energy, and I like that. However, I wonder how much his players were coached to play like they did last night?
Jason- watching last night’s game leaves me wondering how coincidental it could be that for the second straight matchup b/t the two teams an OSU player has gone after Blake Griffin. I vaguely recall Adams last year slamming Griffins head into the floor. And then last night getting slapped like a B in the back of head by a player who wasn’t even on the team last year. Makes me think that Griffin probably is the grade A punk that he appears to be while playing. People don’t head hunt for no reason.
Only a classless Aggie could watch an OU player get cheap shots put on him for two years in a row and then have the stupidity to blame it on the Sooner. Jealousy is not a pretty thing, Robert.
Hey G Man…maybe you should take off your crimson-colored glasses. It’s not about being an Aggie or a Sooner. Players should just take care of business without staring other players down and walking around like a cave man or like he’s the biggest, badest thing out there. That’s called arrogant and hard to watch. I hope he does not become a Thunder because I don’t know if I could cheer for that every game.
Have you aggies ever noticed that Blake gets “cheap shots” all the time? it’s called, “we can’t defend him, so let’s cheap shot him”. Blake is a man against boys and that’s what boys do when they’re getting whipped up on. Ford has a long road to ho after ticking off the refs by submitting tape after one week of coaching in the big 12. Not a bright move. The refs called the fouls because the ags came out playing intense defense, however, there are rules and playing intense is one thing. Hacking the crap out of your opponent is against the rules….
did anyone notice the turnovers blake griffin had at bedlam
i think he played lousy at first and took breaks on defense
Well Berry you point out the obvious once more! No one denies that OU has a good team this year, final four is a stretch of the imaginatiion but a good shot at sweet sixteen. Certainly Travis Ford is going to be a very good coach at OSU but let’s give him at least his “first” recruiting class before we give too much credit to a junior and senior laden OU team which will fall off dramatically come next year, if Capel even sticks around that long. No one denies OSU has it’s woes in the middle. The only center we had left and he wasn’t even a true center, more of a small forward. Today, OU can enjoy the Griffin brothers, the Paris twins; tomorrow, it’s back to reality for OU!
Yeah! Alls I can say is that Ginger must have found a friend on the island, and I don’t think it was Gilligan, the Professor, the Skipper or Mr. Howell!!!
I have noticed the sort of what I will refer to as “stoic” behavior by Griffin. It probably is the number one reason why he gets targeted a lot. There are plenty of players that are difficult to defend so saying what wkb said is just ridiculous. Anyone who has played the game knows that this kind of stuff is part of the game. The ones who have the thicker skin can compete and the rest resort to “equalizers”. While some call him arrogant and punk and claim they will not cheer for him if he plays for the Thunder – “Boomers”( There count that as some one else using Boomer),I would expect the vast majority to get over a tough loss at home and check back into the reality of the whole thing – The Sooners have an extremely good team this year.
I like Fran Fraschilla, but he has some kind of obsession with the idea of players “flopping” on fouls, so the fact that he suggested Blake might have acted a bit on that late foul means nothing. He mentions “flopping”, and usually more than once, in every single game he covers.
Fran floated the notion that BG might have flopped in the first half, too, but then he went on to admit that Griffin had taken a hard foul and that it was a good call, just like the late one was.
On the late foul, Kirkland blatantly sought out the contact, going out of his way to lower his shoulder and plow into Griffin. There was no strategical purpose for it — the game was out of hand, and the foul occurred well away from the action. Even if Griffin did exaggerate his reaction to the contact, there was no excuse for Kirkland’s actions.
Deep down, osu fans know that several of their players resorted to dirty play on Monday, so now they’re rushing to blame the victim. It’d be funny if it weren’t so typical.
As for OU falling off next season, Coach Capel has a great recruiting class coming in next year, with two possible McDonald All-Americans in it, and Tony Crocker, Willie Warren, Cade Davis, and Juan Patillo all return, along with some talented bench players who will be ready to contribute, too.
The Sooners will be just fine.
Oh, and you might want to check the Cowboys’ starting lineup on Monday. Two seniors, two sophomores, and a junior.
OU’s starting lineup included two seniors, a junior, a sophomore, and a true freshman.
Yes, OU’s sophomore will likely be leaving after this season, but osu fans just WISH they had that kind of sophomore on their team.
And osu’s upper classmen haven’t enjoyed great success against the Sooners. Eaton and Harris are currently each 1-6 against OU, and Obi “Big Talk” Muonelo is 1-4 (and all three players will likely be saddled with another loss in Norman, come March 7).
Blake Griffin played in exactly two of those games, and he was hobbled by an injury in one of them. So any Cowboy fan who hangs his hopes on Griffin’s departure leading to a steep decline in the Sooners’ basketball fortunes is asking for disappointment.
Hmmm…Mr. Brett- I’m not sure what game you were watching but it looked like to me that Kirkland was getting in position for the inbounds pass and happened to run into Griffin who, yes, “flopped” if you will in over exaggeration. To say that he “blatantly sought out the contact” is a rediculous statement. Why would he do that after having to sit out the whole game due to the first infraction. I don’t think that Kirkland did anything intentional. I just think it was another way of everyone, including the officiating, the protect the beloved “best player in America”. And I’ll be honest to your follow-up comment. If we DID have that kind of a sophomore on our team, I would WISH for him not to be a walking ego. I would much rather have a less talented player who plays hard than a player who is so good that his attitude sucks.
Blake Griffin has handled cheap shots all season long with patience and dignity. Not once has he retaliated. If sending someone a look is now considered an attitude problem then I think the game is on the right track. Interesting that anyone would assume Blake has any attitude problems when all we hear is how hard he works, how easy he is to coach and what a great personality he has. I think fans of losing intstitutions often like to ease the pain of losing by making unfounded, ridiculous (that’s how it’s spelled) statements about the opposing teams best player.
When you can show me one single story about any thug like behavior or attitude on Blake’s partm, and not just an opinion from an OSU fan, then I will reconsider my position. The world of sports is filled with players that don’t respect the gifts that have been given them. Don’t hate on players that do the right thing because they are really good.
Thanks Christy. I’ve always wondered how that word is spelled. Maybe you’re right. He probably is a good kid but he still rubs me the wrong way. He could be the nicest person in the world to those who know him but still appear to be an ego when you only see him on the court. I played sports my whole life and I’m not saying it is right, but people don’t usually cheap shot for no reason. And when you see it at that level of sports it’s usually because someone is mouthing off(FYI since you probably never played a sport in your life).
Berry what were your thoughts about the “cheap shots” leeved against Blake and Tony Crocker last night? Do you think Travis Ford encouraged those acts in any way? I realized he pulled Kirkland after the initial “T”, but when he entered the game in the last couple of minutes, he intentionally fouled Blake Griffin. Additionally, I thought Moses and Eaton also committed fouls you might consider borderline “cheap”.