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Lob Stilly? Would you rather be there or Bracketville?
Published: 2/27/2012 1:57 PM
Last Modified: 2/27/2012 1:57 PM

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I think this whole "Lob Stilly" thing is sort of Lob Silly.

What is Lob Stilly? Even Oklahoma State basketball coach Travis Ford did "say what?" double takes when the Lob Stilly phenomenon was first mentioned to him.

Now that Ford has been enlightened, here's an explanation for everyone else:

The Los Angeles Clippers go by the alias of "Lob City." The nickname got its origin when star point guard Chris Paul was traded from New Orleans to the Clippers. When Blake Griffin found out about the trade, he allegedly chest-bumped teammate DeAndre Jordan and said "Lob City!" in anticipation of all the lobs-for-dunks he would be receiving from Paul.

OSU has dunkers aplenty. The Cowboys have dunked 77 times this season. Michael Cobbins leads the team with 25 and Markel Brown (he’s a SportsCenter highlight waiting to happen) is close behind with 21.

Somewhere along the line, someone decided the OSU hoops team was the heartlands version of Lob City -- or, in this case, Lob Stilly, with Stilly being short for Stillwater.

There are tweets about Lob Stilly. There are Lob Stilly t-shirts. The kids seem to like it, and usually I would say more power to them for finding a way to enjoy the best years of their lives.

But here’s my problem with Lob Stilly: Barring a big surprise, OSU will finish with a losing record for the first time in 24 years. This is a program that has been to Final Fours and now some folks seem quasi-giddy about Lob Stilly?

Ever seen an NFL game where one of the teams scores late in the fourth quarter and the touchdown-maker still does an end zone dance even though his team is down by 20 points? That’s what Lob Stilly reminds me of.

Make you a deal: Win or lose, show some gumption Monday night against Kansas. Put up a fight Saturday in a regular season finale at Kansas State. Shorthanded or not, try to somehow, someway find a way to extend a school-record streak of 23 winning seasons.

The only thing really worth celebrating is winning. Everything else is just a slogan on a t-shirt.

You know who else thinks that? The guys in Lob City. ESPNLosAngeles.com reported that some of Lob City’s residents aren’t keen about the nickname.

"That's not what we're about,” Griffin said. “Before the game we're not going out thinking, 'All right, its Lob City tonight.' We're just trying to win games and trying to get better."

Said Paul, "It's something we can't control. We are a complete team, and we want to continue to be a complete team. That's the only way we're going to win games. It doesn't matter if you get 10 lobs and lose the game. It's all about winning at the end of the day."

Amen. I'm sure OSU players place a priority on winning, too. But -- my opinion -- Lob Stilly is only something to be celebrated if it is a pit stop on the way to Bracketville.



Reader Comments 2 Total
4200011l (12 months ago)
Anything to get kids in GIA - attendance including students has been awful lately.
AdMan (12 months ago)
So you say, since you suck you can't hang your hat on anything? Lob Stilly is more for the fans than the team.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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