Basketball slogan suggestion: 'At least we're not Nebraska'
Published: 2/16/2011 8:20 AM
Last Modified: 2/16/2011 12:53 PM
Nebraska is in town tonight. Finally, Oklahoma basketball followers have an excuse to say, "Well, at least we're not them."
There isn't a lot of life pulsing through the Lloyd Noble Center any longer. Fans will show up, but only if they can see Sam Bradford, get Chewbacca's autograph, or get in free.
It's a virus afflicting the Sooners, and the state's other three major college programs as well. Maybe someday college basketball will be a big deal around here again.
Until then, at least OU, OSU, TU and ORU can say they get the basics right. That's not the case up in Lincoln.
This week, Lee Barfknecht began his Omaha World-Herald column by writing: "Nebraska basketball has a hard enough time being taken seriously without suffering the self-inflicted embarrassment that occurred Saturday night against Oklahoma State."
Barfknecht proceeded to rip Nebraska officials who booked The Shim Shams, "a group of elderly women dancers," for halftime entertainment. Then he went after the Huskers' public address announcer for mispronouncing players' names and reading scores backward.
"Think this stuff would fly in football?" Barfknecht wrote. "Not a chance. Yet durable mediocrity too often passes for the norm around NU basketball."
No doubt OU basketball comes in a distant second behind Sooner football. Always has, always will. That's the way it should be, honestly.
But I don't think we've reached the point Barfknecht did before typing a column entitled "Stale antics making a sham of Husker hoops."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
