Former Sooner raiding Oklahoma
Defensive tackle Calvin Barnett, a player Rivals.com tabbed as the best in Oklahoma, spurned Oklahoma State on signing day for Arkansas.
His recruiter? Former Oklahoma quarterback Garrick McGee, now the offensive coordinator for the Razorbacks under Bobby Petrino. McGee, a graduate of high school football powerhouse Booker T. Washington in Tulsa, helped the Hogs grab give of the top 35 recruits in Oklahoma. The five were as many as Arkansas signed from in-state.
From the Arkansas News:
“One of the things when I first got the job that was important to me was to try to get Garrick down here,” Petrino said Wednesday. “He can walk in there and basically knows just about everybody in the city of Tulsa and that certainly helps.”
McGee also corralled former OU commit Jarrett Lake, a linebacker from Jenks in Tulsa. If his comments on Wednesday are any indication, his impact in the Sooner State could only widen.
“I’m going to try to branch out this year and get into Oklahoma City,” McGee said. “Get on the other side of the state and get us some kids from that side of the state.”
Blake Griffin Night set for Tuesday
Oklahoma will host “Blake Griffin Night” during Tuesday’s game against Texas Tech at the Lloyd Noble Center.
The first 4,000 fans will receive a Blake Griffin poster, and the first 2,000 fans will receive a scratch card. Of the 2,000, 100 will feature Griffin’s logo and give the recipient access to a private, postgame meet-and-greet with Griffin.
Each fan at the meet-and-greet will receive an autograph, a photo, and a Blake Griffin hat. Here’s a video of Griffin talking about designing his new hat.
At halftime, Griffin will be presented with the NCAA Sportsmanship Award and serve as honorary shot coach for a fan who will attempt a half-court shot for $10,000.
Griffin won every major national player of the year award as a sophomore in 2008-09, averaging 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds, which led the nation. He was selected No. 1 overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in June’s NBA Draft.
Griffin played during the preseason, but has missed all of this season with a knee injury.
Sooners host Florida State on Sept. 11
Florida State released their 2010 schedule on Thursday, putting a date on their trip to Norman to face the Sooners.
The Seminoles and Sooners will play at Owen Field on Sept. 11, a week before Jimbo Fisher hosts Brigham Young in his first season as head coach.
Oklahoma has yet to announce the dates of its 2010 non-conference schedule, but it will also host Air Force and Utah State. The Sooners lone road game before conference play will be a trip to Cincinnati to face the Bearcats.
Here’s how the conference schedule looks for 2010:
Oct. 2 – Texas (Dallas)
Oct. 9 – OFF
Oct. 16 – Iowa State
Oct. 23 – at Missouri
Oct. 30 – Colorado
Nov. 6 – at Texas A&M
Nov. 13 – Texas Tech
Nov. 20- at Baylor
Nov. 26 or 27 – at OSU
Sam Bradford pays the Gatorade Lab a visit
Former Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford paid the Gatorade Performance Lab at the Super Bowl a visit earlier this week and got to test out all kinds of futuristic-looking fitness equipment.
All photos courtesy of Gatorade. Click any photo for a higher resolution version.
What Sam is not doing: Waking from a four-month cryo-sleep after midseason shoulder surgery.
What Sam is doing: Taking a turn in the Bod Pod, which analyzes body composition.
What Sam is not doing: Being measured for the helmet on his space suit.
What Sam is doing: Getting fitted with the equipment for a caloric expenditure test, which does exactly what you think. It measures how many calories the body loses during exercise.
What Sam is not doing: Being force fed Gatorade’s new G Series, which is three different drinks for before, during and after competition.
What Sam is doing: Taking part in a caloric expenditure test.
For more photos and a brief video, head to Sam Bradford’s page on Gatorade’s Web site.
Bradford says he’ll be 100 percent for Pro Day
Sam Bradford stopped by the Dan Patrick Show this morning and gave a brief update on his recovery from shoulder surgery last fall.
He said the shoulder is still healing, but he should be 100 percent by OU’s Pro Day and that the injured portion of his shoulder could be stronger than before when everything is fully healed.
“We’re on a throwing program and my last throwing session consisted of 50 balls at 30 yards,” Bradford said. “And those were ropes; those felt good.”
Capel’s Shot: 15 Years Later
Nice story in the Charlotte Observer today about Jeff Capel’s halfcourt shot against UNC in 1995.
Today marks the 15th anniversary of one of the most memorable games in college basketball’s signature rivalry.
Though the Tarheels went on to win, Capel’s shot sent the game into double overtime. The shot made that Feb. 2, 1995 game on of just three in 227 meetings to go past a single overtime.
“Some people think that may be the biggest rivalry or one of the best games in sports, period,” Capel said. “And for a guy that grew up in that state and when I was younger dreamed of going to North Carolina — and then when I was older chose to go to Duke over North Carolina — to have a moment in that game that people remember is pretty neat.”
Sooners lead Big 12 in Combine invites
Nine Sooners, the most of any team in the Big 12, were invited to the NFL Scouting Combine from Feb. 24-Mar. 2 in Indianapolis.
Oklahoma was followed by Texas (7) and Oklahoma State (6).
The Sooner invitees:
- junior QB Sam Bradford
- senior RB Chris Brown
- senior LB Keenan Clayton
- senior FB/C/RG/TE (no, seriously) Brody Eldridge
- junior CB Dominique Franks
- senior TE Jermaine Gresham
- senior CB Brian Jackson
- junior DT Gerald McCoy
- senior LT Trent Williams
OU 89, Iowa State 84: TMG, Shooting the 3 and Craig Brackins
When Tommy-Mason Griffin is hitting his shot with consistency, he’s close to unguardable. When its falling almost every time it goes up, like last night, defenses just don’t have a chance. Before the game against Texas Tech, Mason-Griffin told Willie Warren he was going for 30. He just missed, with a then-career-high 26 points. With Crocker out, 30 points was a modest estimate when he shoots it like he did last night.
He can create space, most often with his jab step and pull up, and the elevation on his jumper makes his lack of height a non-factor on offense. So far this season, I don’t think he’s even come close to getting a jumper blocked. Defensively, he’s still not fantastic, but he’s probably shown as much improvement as any one else on the team.
On Tuesday, Warren compared him to Jameer Nelson. Definitely apt.
Who knows what’s in the 5-11 Mason-Griffin’s future? But 10 or so NBA scouts watched last night’s game, and I’m sure Warren isn’t the only one who saw the similarities. Nelson, at 6-0, developed into an All-Star in just five seasons.
As a senior at St. Joseph’s, Nelson won the Wooden and Naismith Awards scoring 20.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists, three steals and shot just under 40 percent from 3-point range.
I’m not going to get carried away with what’s basically just three games where he’s looked like the best player on the floor. But in the seasons that follow, does anyone think it’s THAT outlandish that Mason-Griffin could average near the same?
- Oklahoma finally got some threes to drop in the first half, but they cooled off considerably toward the end of the game. Hitting eight of their first 11 gave them confidence everywhere else on the floor, but when they stopped dropping, Iowa State started chipping away at the lead. The Sooners finished 3-of-15 to shoot 11-of-26 from three for the game. It’ll be interesting to see how they shoot it on Saturday at Nebraska.
- Iowa State’s Craig Brackins probably lost some money by coming back. He passes the eye test better than almost any other player in college basketball, but his production has dropped almost five points and two rebounds. Marquis Gilstrap’s arrival is part of that, and Brackins’ assists are up, but games like last night show why he’ll have some growing up/toughening up to do once he gets in The League.
Ryan Wright defended him pretty well, but NBA defenders are going to be a liiiiiittle better. Even when Andrew Fitzgerald was on him, he never tried to dominate. He settled for jumpers instead of banging down low and getting himself a short jump hook and taking advantage of his touch around the goal, which might be better than any big man in college basketball.
Brackins might have been a lottery pick last season. With guys like Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins, Kansas’ Cole Aldrich and Georgetown’s Greg Monroe possibly in this year’s class, its going to take a lot for him to do that now.
- Mason-Griffin is playing a lot of minutes, and if he can keep this up with any consistency, it’s only going to make it more impressive. He sat one minute against Texas A&M, and played 43 minutes in an overtime win over Oklahoma State. He sat the first half against Baylor, but in the five games since, he’s played 202 minutes. That’s a lot. But the way he’s playing, the Sooners need it.
He expels a lot of energy with his jumpshot, and on nights like last night, cramps (both calves and his right hamstring) aren’t very surprising. I’m just surprised he never looks like he’s losing his legs on his shot.
Warren’s NBA stock? Polarizing.
Warren's become one of the most polarizing prospects in the upcoming NBA Draft.
Wall is a Blake Griffin-esque lock to be the No. 1 pick, but here’s what one NBA exec told Thomsen about Warren:
“If a team needs a big, they’ll take Aldrich; if they need a point guard, they’ll take Willie Warren,” an executive said. Though Warren is listed as a shooting guard for Oklahoma, he has the potential to shift to the point in the NBA. “He is talented, he’s quick, he can shoot it, and I think he can be a ‘1.’ If he was in last year’s draft with all of those point guards, I don’t think he would be rated this high. But this year, after John Wall [and potentially Evan Turner], there is no other point guard. So he is going to benefit from the timing of the draft.
“But I will say,” continued this exec, “a lot of [NBA] guys are down on Warren because of questions about character. [Oklahoma coach Jeff] Capel benched him one game this year and, instead of saying he had a headache or he’d banged his knee in practice, he chose not to explain it. Obviously there’s some friction there, and the team is not as good without Blake Griffin. But Warren is a talented guy and, at the very least, he’s going to be a top-10 pick.”
For the record, Warren said he was held out because he didn’t practice on the Sooners’ off day before beating winless Nicholls State in the fifth-place game of the Great Alaska Shootout.
NBADraft.net projects Warren as the No. 20 pick to the (ha!) Oklahoma City Thunder, where he’d join former VCU guard Eric Maynor, who has Capel’s fingerprints all over his game as well.
The Thunder won’t be drafting another athletic 1 or 2, but plenty of NBA teams will, and Warren is becoming one of the more polarizing prospects in the upcoming draft. (All this, of course, assuming he leaves.)
The dividing line among his national perception appears to be clear. NBA writers and execs are singing the sophomore’s praises. Those who get paid to watch college basketball say they don’t see it.
Today, rather harshly, I might add, Seth Davis shot back at Thomsen:
• I saw my colleague Ian Thomsen quoted some NBA scouts pegging Oklahoma guard Willie Warren as high as No. 4 in this year’s draft. That truly boggles the mind. Warren is barely looking like a pro right now, much less a top-five pick. I suggest those scouts DVR a couple of Sooners games before recommending to their bosses that they make that investment.
Personally, I don’t think anything he does at OU short of an off-court incident will make his stock drop past the first round. A dynamite second half of the season might make it skyrocket.
There’s no way to know what kind of NBA player Warren will be, but that won’t stop people from debating it from now until June.
(Or maybe next June?)
Follow me on Twitter: @DavidUbben
Texas Tech 75, OU 65: On close losses, TMG, and a Pledger apology
Oklahoma already dug itself a hole with five non-conference losses.
Losing close games like this, especially in winnable road games, only digs that hole deeper.
Two games ago, an NCAA Tournament berth looked like somewhat of a possibility. After an 0-2 road trip, that window is slowly closing. I can’t imagine there’s going to be a lot of conversation on the flight back to Oklahoma City.
Why Oklahoma has executed so poorly late in close games is a mystery. They didn’t have a field goal in the last 3:49 of tonight’s game, and didn’t have one in the last 3:45 of Tuesday’s loss. Good luck winning many games in conference doing that. That’d be tough for any team.
- Oklahoma’s best offense for most of the game was Tony Crocker and Tommy Mason-Griffin taking their man 1-on-1, and either trying to score or dishing. Down the stretch, that meant forcing a few shots because the Sooners’ big men weren’t able to handle passes down low. When easy dunks and/or layups become turnovers, that’s frustrating for guards, and they’ll start to stop dishing it, if only for the rest of the game. It looked like that definitely happened after Tiny Gallon and Ryan Wright couldn’t convert from close to the basket, fumbling at least a few passes.
With Willie Warren on the bench, and no post presence to speak of, 36 shots combined for Mason-Griffin and Crocker is just fine.
- We ran this story on Dec. 17 about Steven Pledger and his penchant for the trey ball.
Since it ran, he’s 7-for-40 (17 percent) from 3-point range. Whoops. Sorry about that.
He at least looked somewhat comfortable on Saturday, more so than he did against Texas A&M. Still didn’t knock down a shot. Not much else to do but keep shooting when he gets a good look.
- There’s no such thing as an easy road win in the Big 12, but some are certainly easier than others. Texas Tech would be one of those. Oklahoma needed this win badly, and didn’t get it. They have two more games (Nebraska and Colorado) where they’ll have another good shot at getting a win. Can’t repeat this performance and think they’ll leave Lincoln or Boulder with a win.
