Waiting for Blake
By John Helsley
We wait for news on the availability of Blake Griffin.
And in this case, no news definitely is not good news.
Blake wasn’t ready to go against Kansas Monday night. And his father, Tommy, said his son was “nowhere near ready.” With the Sooners stuck in their first two-game losing streak of the season, there’s an urgency — although not at the risk of his health — to get the big man back and get the Sooners back to winning.
Concussions are a tricky issue. Unlike a sprained ankle or twisted knee, the symptoms aren’t always clear. You can’t apply ice or tape or stitches or easily recognize the healing.
There are tests, reliable tests. Still, there’s uncertainty, too. And there’s an inclination to err on the side of safety with any injury to the head.
For those who saw Griffin on the bench Monday night, he was clearly still suffering from some post-concussion struggles. He plugged his ears when the LNC got too loud. He sat down and rubbed his face after he got a little too excited.
In the case of a mild concussion, which is what Blake’s injury has been termed, the “normal” time before a return to activity is a minimum of one week, although it can last longer.
So we wait for news.
The Sooners are due in Lubbock Saturday to take on the struggling Red Raiders of Texas Tech. Will Griffin play? Will he reprise his “Terminator” role of the first meeting between the two teams?
Or will it be up to Willie Warren and the other Sooners to right the ship?
Time, agonizingly, will tell.
Big Monday for OU
By John Helsley
The Sooners didn’t play Monday night and won’t play again until Saturday, at Texas. Still, it was a big Big Monday for OU.
Thanks to Pittsburgh.
Pitt’s 76-68 upset of No. 1 Connecticut provided answers and opportunity for the Sooners.
With the top spot in the polls now available, all that stands in the way of the Sooners moving to No. 1 is that trip to Austin. We’re not here to say getting past the Longhorns will be easy, but it doesn’t shape up as the feared road game it once did. The Horns have been struggling, losing by 15 to A&M Monday night. Crowds are down at The Drum, too. While rooting and ranting against the Sooners might make it a must-see event Saturday, we’re guessing not.
In UConn’s loss, center Hasheem Thabeet managed just five points (on 1-of-5 shooting) and four rebounds. Maybe that’ll change the tune of Dick Vitale, who had suddenly taken to praising Thabeet as the Player of the Year in college basketball. C’mon, Dickie V, why no love for big Blake Griffin? You snubbed him on your preseason All-American teams and you’re overlooking him now. And that’s hard to do when the kid’s going for 40 and 23 in a Big 12 game.
The Sooners, too, should learn a thing from Pitt in the event they meet up with UConn and Thabeet later on. The 7-3 center had been a matchup nightmare on the defensive end, but Pitt’s DeJuan Blair took it to Thabeet with a new tact. Rather than go over Thabeet, Blair went at him with power and force — hello, Blake Griffin – resulting in 22 points, 23 rebounds and a foul out of the Huskies post man.
“I did a little research,” Blair said, “and it you go against a shot-blocker, you’ve got to body him up and get him off balance so he can’t jump. The only time he blocked my shot, I was fading away and I got the ball right back and went right into his chest and got the and-one.”
Blake Griffin, take notes.
Dickie V, take notes.
Sooner fans, take note — you could be cheering the nation’s No. 1 team by the next Big Monday.
Free tickets: Love the concept
Gotta say, love the idea by the people at OU to offer incentive-based free season tickets to students for men’s basketball.
Attracting students to games has been a problem, for some mysterious reason, dating way back. Lloyd Noble isn’t at the center of campus, but it isn’t a gas-guzzling excursion, either. And the product has been good, great at times, with the potential for the latter high for this fast-approaching season.
But rather than complain and do nothing, a group led by ticket manager Billy Ray Johnson gathered and got creative. And they came up with a calculated plan that refunds students the cost of their season tickets ($130), provided they — or a stand in — attend at least 16 games.
Make it to at least 14 and the school gives back 50 bucks.
It’s a move to put butts in seats. Simply giving season tickets to students up front, which some schools do, doesn’t guarantee that.
For OU, it’s not as much about the money, as it is the energy and atmosphere boost that students provide.
And a full and frenzied LNC could help recruiting, whether drawing prospects or keeping coach Jeff Capel on board if/when so-called basketball schools come calling.
– By John Helsley
Monday’s links
* University of Texas newspaper columnist takes a swipe at Stoops.
* ESPN blogger Tim Griffin (who does a great job of linking to our stuff) gets some link love back. Here’s his State of the Big 12.
* Some in Iowa still dream at night that Bob Stoops will come be their head coach.
* Update on basketball newcomer Ryan Wright, who will try to fill in for Longar Longar.
* Reaction to Jarboe continues here, here, here,
* Bleacher Reporter gives it up to Sam Bradford.
* Even with Keith Nichol sitting on the bench, Michigan State thin at QB.
* Local scribe talks with new OU wide receiver Jameel Owens of Muskogee.
Men’s hoop: Capel Q&A
SoonerSports.com has a good summer Q&A with basketball coach Jeff Capel here.
Among the highlights:
How does Blake Griffin’s decision to return affect this team and the program as a whole?
“It affects it a lot, in so many positive ways. If you look at the landscape of college basketball, how many guys came back that were definite top-10 picks? None, except Blake Griffin. That means we’ll have one of the top players — if not the top player — in the country returning. Also, hopefully it gives more attention to our program and will spark more interest in it. I think we’ve already seen that nationally with some of the publications and what people are thinking about us. For our team, it should give us confidence.
“Also, it should help us on the recruiting front — kids knowing that they can come here and develop into a pro, into a potential lottery pick, which is what Blake will be. So it helps us in so many different ways.
“Blake makes the game so much easier for his teammates. As good as he was last year, we expect him to be even better this season because of how hard he’s been working and how determined he is to become a better player. Because of his size, his speed, his strength, he’s a guy teams have to gameplan for. At the same time, our other guys getting better helps make the game easier for Blake. So it goes hand in hand. I think he understands that now. The maturity level of his game and of him as a person has grown dramatically since the end of last year.
Basketball: ESPN ranks OU 12th in ‘prestige’
In an objective “prestige” rating system of NCAA Division I men’s basketball programs since the start of the 1984-85 season (when the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams), ESPN.com this week ranked Oklahoma No. 12.
Assigning point values for various successes and failures (for example, one point for a 20-win season, five points for a 30-win season, minus-three points for a losing season, etc.) and for individual player honors (five points for an AP first-team All-American, three points for a second-team All-American, etc.), the Web site calculated the Sooners’ point total at 221 for the past 24 seasons. That figure ranked ahead of every Big 12 program with the exception of Kansas, which finished with a No. 3 ranking.
Hoops happenings
So these are the dog days of summer.
Hardly dull days, not for the OU men’s basketball team.
Lots of news. Good news.
* Item: Sooners release non-conference schedule, which could feature as many as 11 teams that played in last year’s NCAA Tournament. There’s some good games, some tests, too. But for a team expected to challenge in the Big 12 and nationally, it’s nothing that can’t be navigated. Games at Arkansas and Tulsa are intriguing. USC visits Norman, yet it’s far from the O.J. Mayo-led Trojan squad that beat OU in SoCal last year. The highlight of the sked, however, is the NIT Season Tip-Off, which should send the Sooners to Madison Square Garden around the Thanksgiving Holiday. OU could win the thing.
* Item: Blake Griffin is named to Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook’s Preseason All-America Team. Get used to the honors. While the Blue Ribbon nod is Griffin’s first, there will surely be more to come. He is, after all, projected to be the first player taken in next year’s NBA Draft by some.
* Item: Sooners get a commitment from Houston point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin. This is a big commit, and not just because Mason-Griffin is the No. 5 point prospect in the country according to ESPN.com. It’s big because Jeff Capel’s been coveting a standout point man for his offense. And now, apparently, he has one. And he has a key piece to plug in if/when Griffin leaves for the NBA after this season.
– By John Helsley
Basketball: Willie Warren video
Now that we can embed video on the blog, here are some Willie Warren highlights. Enjoy.
Davis in a boot
By Jake Trotter
OU hoops guard Cade Davis is currently wearing a boot due to a stress fracture in his foot.
But Davis should be fine in time.
And the injury hasn’t kept him from working on his shooting, even against the advice of coach Jeff Capel.
Recently, Capel saw Davis shooting in the gym despite the injury.
Capel asked Davis to check with the doctors to see if that was OK.
The training staff said Davis shouldn’t be running around shooting, but that he could work on his free throws.
During Monday’s Tip In dinner/end-of-year banquet, Davis relayed this news to Capel at the podium after receiving the most improved player award.
Davis, however, also said that he didn’t need to work on free throws.
Capel jokingly agreed.
Davis made 23 of 23 free throws last season.
Pat Forde’s Best/Worst case for Sooner hoops…
By Jake Trotter
ESPN.com’s Pat Forde went through the entire tourney, listing best and worst-case scenarios for each team. Check out his take on OU, especially the final line…
Best Case: Blake Griffin flexes and everyone else backs off, as the Sooners muscle their way to a regional final for the first time since 2002. David Godbold, whose 3-point percentage has declined every season, shoots it like he’s a freshman again in a second-round upset of Louisville. Not even an Elite Eight loss to North Carolina can dampen the enthusiasm for next season with Griffin back.
Worst Case: The medical miracle falls apart. Griffin’s surgically repaired knees go out on him and Longar Longar’s fractured leg bone brings him to a halt. Sooners miss shots, struggle for offense and are run out in the first round by Saint Joseph’s. Then Texas wins it all, Jeff Capel takes the South Carolina job and Bob Stoops loses out on three top recruits.
