All-Big 12 teams a joke, as always
As usual, the all-Big 12 women’s basketball teams are a total farce. Ten players were picked first-team all-Big 12.
The coaches like to think that 10 players were honored. In truth, no players were honored. We see this a lot on a variety of coach-selected teams. Rather than make tough decisions, the coaches punt. Rather than honor those truly deserving, they draw a bigger circle and sing Kum Ba Yah.
I don’t know why coaches do this. The all-Big 12 defense in football is likely to have 14 members. The all-Big 12 baseball team will have 11 position players. Coaches, who talk incessantly about decision-making, refuse to make a decision in this case.
If they don’t want to make those decisions, fine. Then don’t make them. Get out of the awards business. Get out of the voting business. We’ve seen enough out of the coaches poll in college football to know that coaches either don’t have the time or the guts to make cold-hearted decisions that must be made.
So who deserves to be all-Big 12? Well, Courtney Paris, obviously. And Baylor’s Danielle Wilson and Kansas’ Danielle McCray. Beyond that, it’s tougher. I don’t think I would vote for Andrea Riley; too much turmoil out of the OSU point guard, even though she leads the Big 12 in scoring. So go with Kansas State all-around point guard Shalee Lehning and Texas A&M’s do-everything Danielle Gant.
That’s three Danielles on the first team.
On the men’s side, the coaches took the high road and went with a first team: OU’s Blake Griffin, Kansas’ Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich, Iowa State’s Craig Brackins and Missouri’s DeMarre Carroll.
I would have preferred OSU’s James Anderson on the first team, probably at the expense of Aldrich, but the truth is, beyond Griffin and Collins, there are about seven or eight guys for whom you could make a good case. So no big criticism here.
At least the men’s coaches made a call. That’s more than you can say for the women’s.
Verdict is in: Big 12 divisions equal
The Big 12 basketball conference schedule is complete, and the verdict is in. The North and South tied. Each division was 18-18 against the other.
The North received three of the four byes — Kansas, Missouri and Kansas State – but also had two of the three worst teams in the league, Colorado and Iowa State.
After several years of South Division dominance, years in which KU jockeyed with Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State, even Texas A&M and Texas Tech to a certain extent, Missouri finally started carrying its weight. K-State, too — for my money, the coaching job of Frank Martin was every bit as impressive as that of Bill Self, or Jeff Capel, or Mike Anderson. I mean, you lose two NBA draft picks from a program that hadn’t done much in a decade before Michael Beasley and Bill Walker showed up, and still the Wildcats get the No. 4 seed in the Big 12 Tournament.
Anyway, the North Division this season is a little better than the South — at the top. But the North also is weaker at the bottom.
Colorado seems a hopeless case in basketball. But Iowa State should be better than 10th. The Cyclones have been surpassed by Kansas State, which is a bad sign for Iowa State.
The South has its own problems. Baylor was a preseason top-25 pick. Instead, the Bears finished 5-11 in the league and in ninth place.
How does the future look? Well, Kansas and Texas you always can count on. OU seems solid under Capel, and OSU’s fortunes suddenly appear brighter under Travis Ford.
Texas A&M could be due a plunge, when Billy Gillispie’s recruits run out. And Texas Tech doesn’t figure to be competitive in the near future under Pat Knight.
So it comes down to Missouri and Kansas State. If they can continue their current success, the Big 12 North rides high again. If not, the North will stumble.
I like Mizzou under Mike Anderson. I think he’s the real deal. I’m not optimistic about KSU’s future, but I wasn’t optimistic about KSU this year, and Martin proved me wrong.
Bedlam nuggets from Ford, Capel & Eaton
The Bedlam game Saturday was excellent basketball. Well played. Ferociously contested. A couple of epic performances. James Anderson scored 37 points, the most by a Cowboy in Bedlam since Leroy Combs 28 years ago, in an OSU rout at Lloyd Noble Center, a game I also covered. Blake Griffin had 33 points and 14 rebounds against the Cowboys, a feat most amazing in that it’s not looked upon as not that amazing.
Anyway, let’s get to some Bedlam leftovers.
* OSU coach Travis Ford said Griffin might be “the best player I’ve ever gone against as a player or coach.” That’s heady, heady praise. Ford played with Jamal Mashburn. He played against Christian Laettner and Shaquille O’Neal.
Here’s what I would say. Earlier in the year, I committed the heresy of suggesting that Griffin was just as dominant as had been Wayman Tisdale and Alvan Adams. It’s possible that I undershot Blake on that one.
* Ford said some interesting things about basketball in general that everyone should know and probably does know but might not remember as often as they should. “It wears on you when the other team is shooting 3-footers, and you’re shooting 3-pointers,” Ford said. “We’re doing everything we can to get shots off, because we don’t have Blake.”
That’s the complete truth. Easy shots are the key to winning basketball. OSU shot not only 3-pointers, but in-traffic 2-pointers. OU did, too, of course, but Griffin’s presence allows the Sooners to generally get easier shots.
“It’s a lot easier to score two feet above the basket,” Ford said. Excellent point. Shooting down at the basket is done AT the basket. And that’s the difference a Blake Griffin makes.
* OU coach Jeff Capel said this is “fun time.” He meant March. “The pressure,” Capel said. “I loved the pressure when I played. It’s championship time.” That’s what I love about the conference tournament. Sure, the Sooners — and Missouri and Kansas and probably some others — are in the NCAA Tournament no matter what they do in Oklahoma City, and the Big 12 Tournament performance can only impact their status so much. But the tournament setting itself prepares teams for the win-or-leave town format.
* OSU point guard Byron Eaton cracked me up with this quote about Griffin: “We did a great job on him. Everything was contested, except the five or six dunks he had.” Oh, I don’t doubt that OSU played Griffin tough, and Griffin after the game talked how height has little to do with how physical a game is, and that the Cowboys were plenty physical.
But you can’t take away five or six dunks. Griffin actually dunked only four times, but it reminded me of a legendary story around the office. Some big baseball argument broke out, and our Mike Baldwin argued against Nolan Ryan’s greatness. “You take away Nolan Ryan’s seven no-hitters and 5,000 strikeouts, and he was just another pitcher.” Well, yes. I would agree with that. But you can’t take away seven no-hitters and 5,000 strikeouts. They were what made Nolan Ryan great.
And you can’t take away Blake Griffin’s dunks against OSU. Take away two dunks, and that game’s in overtime. Take away three, and OSU wins. Griffin’s power and jumping and speed produce the dunks, and they make him what he is.
Emails in on OU hoops trouble & Travis Ford
The new emails are in, and they’re all over the landscape. OU basketball, OSU basketball, my BCS ideas and even the Thunder pre-game prayer.
Let’s start with college basketball. Brad wrote, “I don’t like not giving the Cowboys any chance tomorrow. I think it will be a game.
I think that all depends on whether Blake Griffin allows OSU to get a rebound.
Jerry wrote, “I know it’s been a long tough season, but I have believed all year long that both the men and women teams have been overrated! I do think they are good but they better get their crap together or they are done early! I hope I’m wrong.”
Well, when you’re ranked No. 2, it’s hard to be underrated.
Leonard wrote, “Do you have a sense the OU women are as crisp and as effective as the stretch where they played Tennessee? I cannot remember so many travel calls in a game, never mind too many turnovers, and less than 50 percent at the free-throw line for most of the game. Still a very fine team, but seem some edges are getting rougher than smoother.”
No, OU isn’t as crisp. Just like the last three years, the Sooner guards are wilting down the stretch.
Robert wrote, “I have been buying your paper since I came to Oklahoma. You owe me a favor. Somehow tell Blake Griffin to put his mouthpiece in or get one that is comfortable. This makes me sick .I am about to watch someone else play ball. The OU girls have to quit passing the ball on the floor to Courtney. She is not made to pick up the ball of the floor.”
I would think of some wisenheimer response, except my aunt told my mom that Blake Griffin needs a pacifier, to keep that mouthpiece where it belongs. So Robert’s not the only one bothered.
Jim asked, “So now is the just still out, as you said before on Travis Ford? He is 100 percent better than Sean in coaching and 1000 percent better communicating to the press, students and athletes. I love his style of running full time!! Only problem I have is that I wonder what he sees is wrong with Obi? Hope he does not break the kid’s spirit.”
I would say the jury has come in. And I also hope Obi’s spirit isn’t broken, but I fear that it is.
Jyme wrote, “Seriously, , just go ahead and write your, ‘Fire Travis Ford’ column. You know you want to. You had to take it easy with your negative spin when he was first hired, but now that he had his cussing moment, the gloves are off as far as you’re concerned. It couldn’t have worked out better for you I’m sure. I certainly don’t remember seeing you write this crap when Kelvin Sampson was at OU, or pre Bob Stoops era.”
Do you people have no idea how bad the Poor Aggie act looks? It makes you look pathetic. I have criticized every coach I’ve ever heard call one of their players a f****** idiot. And as for popping the OU football program pre-Stoops, you’ve got to be kidding. Ask John Blake or Howard Schnellenberger how easy I took it on them.
Gene wrote, “Can you explain why the Thunder should not release Robert Swift and then pick up an instructional league player for 10 days and take a look at the prospect? I know we have to pay Swift no matter what, but he is a definite distraction to the team and definitely to the fans. If he is going at the end of the year, why not get rid of him now and start taking a look at some new young blood for a cheap price?”
Easy question. Because there is virtually no young blood at center, for a cheap price or otherwise.
Chris wrote about my Thunder prayer column: “Anything mixing sports and religion can easily stumble from the straight and narrow, and I appreciate how elegantly you balanced the two.”
It wasn’t easy, and I was glad to get out of that one with limited collateral damage.
Michael wrote about my idea to give the Mountain West Conference an automatic berth into the BCS: “I have an even better solution. Have the Mountain West champ play the WAC champ at a neutral site in the region – such as Invesco Field in Denver – on the first weekend in December, with the winner receiving an automatic BCS bid. Here are all the positives: For the BCS, relieves some of the current criticisms without actually guaranteeing anything and preempts the screams of unfair from the equally-good WAC powers (usually Boise State or Fresno State). For the conferences, a guaranteed slot in a BCS game. Even with the money split 18 ways (the total number of teams in the two conferences, I believe), it’s still a nice piece of change. The BCS play-in game offers further national exposure for recruiting and another relatively big paycheck. If, as I expect to happen in the not-too-distant future, the Cotton Bowl becomes the fifth BCS bowl game, then the BCS should take the idea above one step further and do the following: 1. Name the play-in game winner the host school for the Fiesta Bowl; 2. Name the Big 12 champ the host school for the Cotton Bowl. This would make for easier travel for the fans of all three conferences involved, which should translate to better financial results for the two bowl committees and communities, and it would put the Big 12 on a par with the SEC and Pac-10 in terms of hosting a bowl that actually sits within its primary recruiting area.”
So, you want the Mountain West to compromise on my compromise, and you want the Big 12 champ to vacation in Dallas instead of Phoenix? Sounds like a longshot to me, but at least you’re thinking.
Richard wrote, “Whatever happened to the NCAA investigation of the USC football program? Is the NCAA ever going to rule on the Reggie Bush and assorted other infractions?”
Yes, just as soon it rules on allegations against Notre Dame from 40 years ago.
Back-to-back Bedlam basketball games?
Bedlam basketball takes place Saturday at OU’s Lloyd Noble Center. If the Sooners win, as expected, another Bedlam game would commence Thursday at the Ford Center.
An OU-OSU match in the conference tournament, which has happened only thrice since 1977, will occur if 1) heavy home favorites win Saturday (OSU at OU, Texas at Kansas, Colorado at Kansas State) and 2) OSU wins its first-round game in the Big 12 Tournament.
Here’s how. If Missouri beats Texas A&M on Saturday in College Station, Texas, the Tigers will be the Big 12′s No. 2 seed and relegate OU to No. 3. That also would drop A&M below OSU, giving the Cowboys the No. 6 seed. Seeds 3 and 6 are matched in the Big 12 quarterfinals, provided the No. 6 team survives its opening round game. If A&M beats Missouri, OU would be the No. 2 seed and OSU the No. 7, and those seeds also are aligned on the bracket, in the quarterfinals.
Remarkably, Bedlam in the Big 12 Tournament is rare. From December 1962 through December 1976, OSU and OU played six times in the Big Eight Holiday Tournament in Kansas City. But since then, the arch rivals have played only three times in the conference tournament:
* March 1985, OU won 116-91 at Norman, in the days when first-round games were played on campus sites.
* March 1995, OSU won 74-58 in the Big Eight semifinals, en route to the championship.
* March 1999: OSU won 60-57 in the Big 12 quarterfinals.
OU guards are reason for concern
Missouri whacked the OU basketball team 73-64 Wednesday night, and Jeff Capel kept a stiff upper lip about his team’s newfound slump. “We’ll figure it out,” Capel said. “We’ve been really good all year.”
Not so. The Sooners aren’t really good, or even a little bit good, in their last three games, and OU’s guards have gone completely in the tank.
Here’s how bad it’s gotten. Capel has benched one of his guards each of the last three games for long stretches, and the message hasn’t really gotten across.
Capel played Austin Johnson for only 23 minutes against Kansas, basically going with seldom-used backup Omar Leary down the stretch. Johnson has played just so-so the last two games, and he got hot late against Missouri to reach so-so status — 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting.
Capel pulled Willie Warren from the starting lineup against Texas Tech for disciplinary reasons, and Warren seemed to sulk in his 12 minutes. Didn’t even score. Against Mizzou, Warren, like his fellow guards, played like he was in quicksand: 35 minutes, four turnovers, 3-of-11 shooting.
Capel played Tony Crocker only 16 minutes against Missouri. Crocker had two points on 1-of-5 shooting.
The Griffin brothers came to play, combining for 30 points and 29 rebounds on 13-of-20 shooting, and though Blake Griffin had six turnovers, no one could claim he was anything but tenacious.
Not so with his teammates. The Sooner guards are in a funk, and they’d better get out of it quick. Some teams have righted themselves in the conference tournament, but most elite teams are playing well going into the post-season.
Of the four Final Four teams in our state the past 21 years, three were riding high going into the Big 12 Tournament. Billy Tubbs’ 1988 OU team, Kelvin Sampson’s 2002 OU team and Eddie Sutton’s 2004 OSU team also hit high gear in February.
Sutton’s 1995 OSU team had its rocky roads before catching fire in Kansas City, winning the Big Eight Tournament and zipping to the Final Four.
So it can be done. But OU’s guards had better start playing much better if the Sooners want to fulfill the expectations of what they created with their great play earlier in the season.
Big 12′s No. 4 seed? You’ll be surprised
Barring big upsets Saturday, the No. 4 men’s seed in the Big 12 Tournament will be a team with very little chance of making the NCAA Tournament: Kansas State.
The Big 12 looks to be headed for a three- or four-way tie for fourth place at 9-7, with Oklahoma State, Texas, Kansas State and, if it can beat Missouri on Saturday, Texas A&M.
Texas likely is in the NCAA Tournament, OSU looks solid for a berth and A&M could join that distinction with two victories this week. But KSU, with a dismal RPI of 73, is a longshot.
Yet in a three- or four-way tie for the No. 4 seed behind Kansas, OU and Missouri, Kansas State comes out the winner. OSU would lose the tiebreakers with Texas (better South Division record) and Texas A&M (the Aggies would have beaten a higher-placing North team), and KSU wins the head-to-head tiebreaker with either UT or A&M.
So OSU is likely to be seeded sixth or seventh in the Big 12 Tournament, sixth if A&M loses this week, seventh if the Aggies win out.
Such a scenario would make for an interesting Big 12 Tournament. If Kansas State beats Texas in a 4-5 quarterfinal matchup, the Longhorns would have the better NCAA Tournament resume’. But K-State would be 2-0 vs. Texas, with wins in Austin and Oklahoma City. That would give the NCAA committee something to think about.
At sixth or seventh, OSU is headed for a first-round game against Texas Tech or Iowa State, then a quarterfinal against Missouri or OU. That’s not a bad draw; the Cowboys would not play anyone until at least the semifinals that is on the NCAA bubble.
NBA: Sefolosha great pickup for OKC
Watching Thabo Sefolosha run all over the court, playing great defense, grab rebounds, take good shots, you realized that at the heart of the NBA is this truth: One’s man junk is another man’s treasure.
Two weeks ago, the Thunder traded the lower of its two first-round draft picks this summer to Chicago for Sefolosha. How could the Bulls, fighting New Jersey and Milwaukee for the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot, not want a player like Sebolosha.
Well, sometimes guys just don’t fit. Sometimes a roster is bloated with too many players of similar size and skill. Sometimes there’s a personality conflict. And sometimes an organization just moves on.
Some say the Bulls had too many wing players, but on the same day Chicago trade Sefolosha, the Bulls traded forSacramento’s John Salmons, who is very much like Sefolosha only with more offense and apparently a worse attitude.
I don’t know how to explain a team like Oklahoma City, which won three of its first 32 games, failed to find a way to use Joe Smith, who is not Karl Malone or Elvin Hayes but remains a fine player in his old age. OKC tried to trade Smith to New Orleans in the Tyson Chandler deal, and when that deal fell through, Smith eventually was just waived, as a personal favor to allow Smith to catch on with a contender.
Speaking of Chandler, let’s not get too analytical about Chicago’s trading practices. The Bulls are the franchise that 21/2 years ago decided they’d rather have Ben Wallace than Chandler, trading Chandler to the Hornets for PJ Brown and J.R. Smith. That’s a deal way worse than the Chandler-for-Chris Wilcox and Smith trade, when you factor in the expiring contract element.
So who knows? Sefolosha isn’t going to the Hall of Fame or anything, but he’s a heck of a role player. If you buy the theory that Sam Presti is trying to remake this team in the image of the Spurs — which I mostly do and mostly applaud — then Sefolosha could Presti’s Bruce Bowen.
Never underestimate the value of defense. Offense sells tickets and produces stars and gets guys to Springfield, Mass. But defense wins championships and lifts teams from struggling to successful. Sefolosha is a nice addition to OKC. A very nice addition.
Big 12′s final week offers intrigue for OU & OSU
We are down to the final week of Big 12 basketball, and intrigue is alive and well for both the Cowboys and Sooners.
A lot’s been written about OSU’s NCAA Tournament fate, but don’t rule out this last week affecting the Sooners:
* OU might need to win Wednesday at Missouri, or at least beat the Tigers in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals, to secure a spot in Kansas City, Mo., for the NCAA’s first and second rounds. KC is the closest spot for OU, but Kansas and Missouri have made cases to get sent to the Sprint Center, too, and there is room for only two Big 12 teams.
* The real cost of OU’s without-Blake Griffin-loss to Kansas was not the descent of the Sooners in the committee’s eyes, it was the ascent of the Jayhawks. KU is now a legit threat to get a No. 1 seed. Kansas is seventh in the latest RPI. An OU-Kansas final in the Big 12 Tournament could determine a No. 1 seed, and remember, the committee will have to digest it now, since the championship game has been moved to Saturday night instead of Sunday afternoon.
* OSU’s five-game winning streak has the Cowboys right in the thick of the NCAA Tournament talk, and OSU gets another contender, Kansas State, in Stillwater, on Tuesday night. The Cowboys can clearly lift themselves ahead of the Wildcats with a victory.
Both OSU and KSU are 8-6 in the league. K-State still hosts Colorado, so the Wildcats could lose at Stillwater and still tie the Cowboys, who finish the season at OU. But teams that finish 9-7 in the league are not created equally. OSU is currently 31st in the RPI — the Cowboys didn’t rise despite two victories last week, a good lesson in how the RPI doesn’t move much in March — and KSU is 73rd.
* OSU’s real competition is Texas A&M. The Aggies are 7-7 but this week play at Colorado and host Missouri. A&M is 35th in the RPI; if A&M gets to 9-7, they will have an RPI very close to OSU, will have the same conference record and will have beaten one of the league’s big three (Missouri), which OSU did not do.
If A&M sweeps this week, OSU might need the NCAA committee to select six Big 12 teams, which seems a stretch, though some say it will happen.
* Texas is for sure in, even though it figures to finish 9-7, which is where OSU, A&M and KSU all figure to be, too. The Longhorns have too many quality victories — OU, UCLA, Villanova, Wisconsin.
What it all means is this. Saturday afternoon during Bedlam, another game 350 miles south will have major impact on both teams. Missouri is in College Station, Texas, and the Sooners will be pulling for the Aggies to knock Mizzou out of Kansas City contention, and the Cowboys will be pulling for the Tigers to knock A&M out of NCAA contention.
Sturdivant: A memorable day with an ex-Yankee
Tom Sturdivant died Saturday, and the passing of the New York Yankee pitching hero from the 1950s reminded me of a great day a couple of years ago.
We brought in five former major leaguers to our office. Sturdivant, Don Demeter, Bobby Morgan, Cal McLish and Jim Gentile. The first four grew up in Oklahoma City, and Gentile has lived in Edmond for 30 years, though he grew up in San Francisco.
We talked about baseball in the innocent days of the ’50s and ’60s. Sturdivant was the only one of the five I really hadn’t talked to much before that. He was a delightful guy, full of laughter and still full of wonder at his major-league days. He seemed just as interested as I was in in hearing the stories about baseball legends, his eyes wide and sparkling.
Sturdivant, of course, had as many stories as anyone. His teammates were among the greatest names in baseball. Mickey Mantle. Yogi Berra. Whitey Ford. Sturdivant twice won 16 games, 1956 and 1957, for the greatest franchise in American sport, in that franchise’s greatest decade. His manager was Casey Stengel.
Sturdivant had a lot of tragedy in his life. He was in a car crash years ago that made his health deteriorate. This decade alone, both of his sons died. But Demeter, who also lost a son (former Yankee first-round draft pick Todd Demeter), is Sturdivant’s pastor, and friends say Demeter was a great counselor for Sturdivant.
Sturdivant died at the age of 78. He lived a full life, with great memories. I was blessed that he shared some of those memories with me.
