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.
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.”
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.
Texas A&M 65, OU 62: Thoughts and observations
Tuesday night had to frustrate Oklahoma for plenty of reasons. The most frustrating aspect might have been playing by far their best game on the road and not being able to produce a win with that performance.
That said, the players didn’t look to be completely crushed after the game or angry at the loss. Not saying that’s a bad thing.
It’ll be interesting to see what they look like physically and emotionally against Texas Tech in Lubbock on Saturday.
A couple notes from the box score:
- Oklahoma was outshot 62.5 percent to 35 percent in the first half and only trailed by 10. Earlier in the season, if that had been the case, they might have been down 15-20.
- The game finished with 40 fouls, but 13 of those came in (I believe, but my notes are trapped elsewhere) the first seven minutes of the first half. Generally, I hate it when anyone complains about officiating, but I thought Tuesday’s game was somewhat inconsistent. Touch fouls on the perimeter and on entry passes were being whistled on one possession, and a player would get mauled by a defender on the way to the hoop and get no whistle on the next.
(Full disclosure: I got my officiating degree from the Let ‘Em Play School of Refereeing, so maybe I’m biased.) I didn’t think it necessarily swung the game either way, just thought it was inconsistent.
But, it’s never a good sign when, in a game that wasn’t that physical, two guys foul out and four others have four fouls.
Other thoughts:
- Not sure what was wrong with Steven Pledger. He had a really bad miss from the top of the key in the first half, airballed another 3 and missed a wide-open look from the right corner on a nice dish from Tommy Mason-Griffin late in the game. Finished 0-for-5, and didn’t score in 21 minutes. Surprising after a really solid game against Missouri after Tony Crocker’s injury forced him to play 38 minutes. He really just looked uncomfortable for most of the night. Maybe just a freshman pure shooter in the most intimidating atmosphere OU has played in this season on a goal he was unfamiliar with. Who knows.
- I don’t recall if the Sooners had a timeout left, but without NBA rules, I’m not sure why more college teams in Oklahoma’s situation on the final possession don’t set up a pass to halfcourt and then call timeout, rather than try to throw up a rushed 3-pointer from a full-court offense. It was a nice play set-up to get Tiny Gallon the ball in the middle of the floor, but I can’t help but think the result might have been better had he called timeout as soon as he got the ball.
(If they didn’t have one, disregard this in relation to the Sooners, and view it as a statement in relation to college basketball as a whole. That makes me feel better than admitting I wasted time writing this and you wasted time reading it.)
- Not sure why Andrew Fitzgerald didn’t get in the game with Ryan Wright and Gallon in foul trouble. There was a point in the second half where Gallon was exhausted, and Wright came in and picked up two fouls in like 30 seconds. Gallon came right back in. My guess is Fitzgerald just hasn’t impressed in practice lately.
- Tommy Mason-Griffin impressed pretty much everyone with his performance. Capel called him the best player on the floor, and I think it’d be difficult to find someone in attendance who wouldn’t agree. Can’t say enough about a freshman playing like he did in a tough atmosphere. He’s the reason the Sooners hung around in the first half.
Tony Crocker update (Q&A)
Crocker injured his right ankle early in Saturday's win over Missouri.
Crocker rolled his ankle in the game’s first few minutes, and briefly returned, but couldn’t continue. He’s expected to play on Tuesday against Texas A&M.
Before Monday’s practice, he offered an update on his status:
David Ubben: How’s the ankle feel two days later?
Tony Crocker: Pretty good, I’ve been taking some anti-inflammatories and icing it and getting treatment, so it’s good.
DU: How did it feel to try and return, were you just not yourself?
TC: Well, it was hurting real bad, just walking and stuff like that, so we took some tape off and re-taped it, and I was just sitting there and I really just wanted to play, because it’s my last year and I want to do everything I can to help the team win. But, it was better for me to sit off and just let the other guys play who could play. I just did what I could, and cheered for my teammates.
DU: What percentage were you at then, and what about now?
TC: Maybe at like, 50 when I tried to go back into the game. Now it’s at like 80-something now.
DU: What do you anticipate being able to do tomorrow? Will you be able to play 40 minutes if needed?
TC: Oh yeah, I’ll be ready. You know, like, if you’re playing a game and you tweak your ankle or something, it hurts for awhile and you have to walk it off. But once you start playing again, and get that adrenaline stuff working, you don’t really worry about it, so I’m not really worried about it for tomorrow. I’ll just keep getting treatment and get it taped and I’ll be ready to play.
OU 66, Missouri 61: Thoughts and observations
- I wouldn’t have guessed OU could lose the turnover battle 20-11 and beat Missouri. But, turnovers aren’t any good without scoring off them, like Missouri does to beat teams. Oklahoma actually had more points off turnovers, nine, to Missouri’s seven. That kept them in the game.
“I thought our transition D was pretty good,” said Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel.
Though the 20 turnovers weren’t as costly as they could have been. A lot of those were bad passes in half court sets, lost dribbles, carries, and traveling calls. As long as those turnovers are only costing two points instead of four, Missouri won’t run away. Get them stuck in the half-court like they were for plenty of Saturday’s game, and the Tigers become vulnerable very quickly.
- After a stretch of three or four quick turnovers against Oklahoma State, the crowd noticeably cheered when Capel benched Willie Warren for a few minutes. Capel said the coaching staff didn’t talk with him about it, but was happy with how he’d reacted to it, and shared a nice anecdote about his own college career.
“I got booed at Duke my senior year against Florida State,” said Capel, a former Blue Devil point guard. “And it crushed me that that happened. It turned out to be one of the best things that happened for me. My teammates rallied around me and I ended up having a great second half to my senior season.”
- Capel mentioned that Blake Griffin went through similar problems as a sophomore, but those were overshadowed by the team’s success and he had veterans around him like Austin Johnson and Taylor Griffin to help him get through rough patches.
“Blake also didn’t have the type of body language that Willie has had early,” Capel said. “When you’re looked at as one of the main guys, one of the best guys in the country, the microscope is on you. Expectations are greater. And now Willie’s in a different seat, he’s in a different spot. He’s in the spot Blake was in.”
The body language Capel referenced has been better in the past two wins for Oklahoma. Warren was visibly frustrated when Capel pulled him, but played well late in the game. He’ll need to keep being an active leader and keep his body language positive in a Sooner loss to really impress the fans who cheered when he exited against Oklahoma State.
- Rough game for Tommy Mason-Griffin, who had five turnovers in the first half and finished with seven. He had been playing well for the past 4-5 games, and as a freshman, it’s tough to get a point guard as young as Mason-Griffin to be as efficient as he had been for an entire season.
He’ll need a few more seven-turnover games before there’s any cause for real concern. Obviously, seven is a high number, but so is 20 total turnovers. Neither kept the Sooners from a win. Their defense gave room for that, something that probably wouldn’t have happened earlier in the season.
- Warren commented that the Sooners had a “huge chance” to make the NCAA Tournament. I’m not so sure just yet, but a win on the road at Texas A&M (who took No. 1 Texas into OT at Austin on Saturday) on Tuesday would be a nice step in that direction. Generally, an above-.500 record in conference play will put a team into The Dance, but with five non-conferences losses, and two really bad losses in that group, the Sooners obviously put themselves in a hole.
A 9-7 record in the Big 12 would put the Sooners at 18-12 and, by my guess, on the bad side of the bubble on Selection Sunday. 10-6 would impress the selection committee, and at that point, one win in the Big 12 Tournament would give them 20 wins and a more aesthetically pleasing resume.
The Sooners are talented enough to go 12-4 in conference, but they’ll need a few big road wins and to keep playing as gritty as they have in two really good wins against Oklahoma State and Missouri.
If they play like they did at times early in the season, 4-12 is possible, too.
That won’t be easy in the Big 12, but Texas Tech hasn’t looked very good early in conference play, and neither has Iowa State. As for the conference’s top teams, Oklahoma hosts Kansas State but plays Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. Its record in those two games, plus a pair against Texas will be a good indicator of whether or not they’ll make the tournament, as long as they play with at least some consistency for their remaining 13 games.
2-2 is a solid showing. 3-1 would be very impressive. 0-4 and the tournament starts slipping away. Outside of Kansas and Texas, though, the Sooners won’t run into many teams with more raw talent.
OU 62, OSU 57 (OT): Thoughts and observations
Maybe the best sign from Monday’s win was Willie Warren‘s determination. He didn’t play great, but he made several plays late when the Sooners needed them.
Those plays are even more impressive after the stretch he had early in the second half. Warren turned the ball over three times in a little over two minutes early in the second half and, visibly frustrated, got pulled for a few minutes.
After getting stripped on a fast break around the 10-minute mark, he didn’t turn the ball over again, and kept attacking the basket. He got to the free throw line a lot late in regulation, scored on a driving layup to put OU up five with under a minute to play, and got Tiny Gallon an easy layup to put OU up three in overtime.
“That’s his strength,” Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said.
Capel has repeatedly stressed that almost every time things have gone badly, his team has crumbled. Warren’s stretch of turnovers might have been the worst he’s played all season. He followed it up with some of his best play.
It’s only one game, so it’s hard to say things have definitively changed, but at least he showed he has the capability to bounce back after he plays poorly.
Capel’s mainly wants to see effort all the time from his best players. He knows they won’t play well all the time, and no one did tonight, but the effort was definitely there. Warren definitely showed it, even if the Sooners hadn’t come away with the win.
* Tommy Mason-Griffin is developing very quickly. Over the last four games, he has 21 assists and two turnovers. He’s also shooting 42 percent (8-of-19) from 3-point range.
“To play 43 minutes without a turnover with that kind of pressure is good,” Capel said.
He’s distributing the ball and knocking down shots when he needs to – exactly what good point guards do.
* I’m not sure I’ve seen a team consistently come away with clean strips on guys elevating like OSU did tonight. The crowd was complaining on a lot of those calls, and a few were probably fouls, but plenty were just great plays by guys with nice hands. No one’s done that to OU all season.
* A perfect storm produced by far the most emotional game for Oklahoma this season. It was a close, rough, up and down game against a rival and they avoided an 0-2 hole in conference play. Overtime always makes things more intense, and OU released a lot of the frustration that’s been building while they’ve struggled to go 1-3 in the past four games.
A few big plays produced a few signature chest pounds from Warren, and at the end, he ran to center court, popped his jersey, and if my lip-reading skills are decent enough, declared the Lloyd Noble Center his house.
I haven’t seen the deed on the arena, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of his statement, but he certainly meant it. Gallon practically skipped onto the court after the buzzer and embraced Warren in the middle of the floor also.
Two games into conference play, there’s no such thing as a must-win, but it was pretty clear the Sooners felt some urgency and being able to deliver on that sense had to feel pretty good.
* Wouldn’t expect anything else for Bedlam, but Monday’s crowd was loud for most of the game. OU hasn’t played in an atmosphere like that this year, and in such a draining game, that couldn’t have hurt.
“Our crowd helped us, that was a big plus,” Capel said.
* Bottom few paragraphs of my game story where I mentioned this got cut for space issues, but Oklahoma played some of its best defense in overtime. Marshall Moses scored on the first possession of the extra period, and didn’t have another field goal. Oklahoma State missed their last five shots of overtime.
“When you play defense, the scoring comes with it,” Gallon said.
* The Sooners winning after letting the game go into overtime had to happen for this team to keep its confidence. They could have lost this game and still had things click later in the season, but a loss after leading by five in the final minute to a rival at home had the potential to be a knockout punch for a team that was already struggling.
“It was eerily similar to some of our previous games when things weren’t going well,” Capel said. “The bottom fell out for us in the others, and even in this one we weren’t scoring but we were getting stops to keep it manageable. We finally started making shots and got on a run and took a lead.”
If the Sooners do turn it around moving forward, they’ll obviously point to this game, but within that, the final three minutes of overtime after Mason-Griffin gave OU the lead for good with a three has the potential to change the course of this season.
An in-depth analysis of a few favorite jams
As an additional element to today’s story on shattered backboards, we put together a list of some of the more notable ones in basketball history.
Here’s a closer look.
THE LEGENDS
Darryl Dawkins, Philadelphia 76ers, 1979
Here’s what separates Dawkins from every other dunker who’s broken a backboard:
Both times he does it, he knows he’s ripping the rim off the backboard. He’s not trying to score two points, he’s trying to cause destruction.
And that is fantastic. Even more fantastic? His dunk’s name:
“The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam.”
“The Tomahawk” and “The Honey Dip” should be ashamed of themselves.
Shaquille O’Neal, Orlando Magic, 1993
I’m not sure how the artist formerly known as The Shaqtus hasn’t shattered a backboard in a game. He probably did in high school. Dwight Howard broke a shot clock in last year’s playoff series against the Cavs, but I don’t think you’ll see anyone literally tear down a goal ever again. If they do, my money is on Dwight.
Michael Jordan, Some italian team, 1986
I really thought I knew everything there was to know about Michael Jordan. I’ve got the Sam Vincent trading card that caught MJ wearing No. 12 for a game in the 1990-91 season against the Magic. I know he scored 49 points in that game. I know his career high is 69 against the Cavs and that he batted .202 with the Birmingham Barons when he played AA minor league ball.
I did not know he shattered a backboard during an exhibition game while playing for an Italian team. Call it an error of my youth.
That said, I think he’s an outlier on this list, other than Dawkins. The rim he broke looked pretty shoddy. The best part is MJ gets almost none of the glass on him, but dumps it on a pair of poor, trailing Italians.
Darvin Ham, Texas Tech, 1996
The only impressive thing about Ham’s dunk itself is it came off a tip slam. It’s the venue that lands him on this list. Shattering a backboard in a postseason game against one of college basketball’s great programs and earning a spot on the cover of SI with one slam is unprecedented. The third-seeded Red Raiders won that game, 92-73, over the sixth-seeded Tar Heels to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, by the way.
Also, his last name is Ham. Delicious dunk all around.
Jerome Lane, Pittsburgh, 1988
Bill Raftery, I sense this dunk would have been prevented by a 2-3 zone with…mantomanprinciples. My real wish? Someone shatters a backboard at the 2010 NCAA Regional in Oklahoma City and I’m within shouting distance of Gus Johnson, who would, ideally, be assigned to call games here. Nirvana.
THE LOCALS
Tiny Gallon, Oklahoma, 2009 (barely)
It’s going to be hard for Tiny to shake not scoring, or touching the ball, for that matter, on the play. You just don’t see guys breaking backboards anymore, though, especially in nationally televised games. His reaction said, “I’m just as shocked as you are, except I have glass all over me.”
Jason Keep, Oklahoma State, 2000
I love that he knows exactly what he’s done, and takes pride in it. Solid fist pump, Mr. Keep. Points for dumping most of your glass on an opponent.
Bryant Reeves, Oklahoma State, 1995
I tried, unsuccessfully, to get Bryant to talk to me for this story. He loses points for not doing it in a game, but supposedly, he did it three other times in high school, so I’ll let that detail slide. I’m sure he wishes the shattered backboard had intimated UCLA a little more heading into the national semifinal. The No. 4 seed Cowboys were knocked off 74-61 by the eventual champs the next day.
Daniel Orton, Bishop McGuinness, 2008
I tried to keep backboards shattered in high school off this list, but if you can break one within a 10-mile radius of The Oklahoman tower, guess where it lands you?
Right here.
