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Touches of class from Kansas
Published: 2/24/2009 12:14 PM
Last Modified: 2/24/2009 12:14 PM

Last night a raucous crowd at the Lloyd Noble Center had to feel sick. If ever a year set up for Oklahoma to unseat Kansas atop the Big 12 Conference, this was it. The Jayhawks are far better than anyone expected, and they look nothing like the disjointed bunch that lost to Massachusetts in mid-December.

Still, they are no match for a Sooner team centerpieced by the best player in college basketball. Not in Norman. If Blake Griffin plays, and is healthy, OU beats KU Monday night. You're delusional if you see it otherwise.

Sherron Collins may have won last night's game, but Griffin's absence gave the Jayhawks a chance in the first place. Maddening, if you're a Sooner diehard.

Not that I expect this to make anyone feel better, but at least the Jayhawks knew as much.

Cole Aldrich, who grabbed every rebound with Griffin out of uniform, went on and on in the postgame press conference about big Blake. They've known each other for years after starring on the AAU and prep allstar circuits, and Aldrich wasn't just making a respectful reference when he wished Griffin a healthy recovery. It was completely genuine, as was Aldrich's lament that he didn't get the opportunity to play against someone of Griffin's stature.

KU coach Bill Self followed, and the first thing he said was, "Let's call it like it is. We caught an unbelievable break tonight." He followed that with a wish his team gets a chance to play against Griffin at the upcoming Big 12 tournament.

The Jayhawks weren't about to forfeit the victory that just put them in the Big 12's driver's seat. They have worked as hard to improve as much as anyone in the country since the beginning of the season. And it's not like it was their fault Griffin was knocked out of action down at Texas.

But to say there was no place for an asterisk in Monday's result? Wrong. Some Kansas fans and columnists would have you believe otherwise, but ask the Jayhawks themselves. They knew it.

And they showed a lot of class to let everyone know they knew it.

-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer



Reader Comments 6 Total
Arbythree (4 years ago)
Nice, well-written article. Hats off to Kansas for the class they showed following the game.
TulsanBornTulsanBred (4 years ago)
This loss hurt more than any other basketball loss I've experienced in the last decade. The clouds parted for the chosen fan base once again and God beamed his grace on Sherron Collins and Toupe Self. I'll take this "class" notion with a grain of salt coming from a KU grad, since no class was shown by the "chosen ones" following the game. I love the opportunity to perpetuate Kansas arrogance, its the worst that I have experienced in the Big 12, thats inclusive of Aggie or Bevo. Bitter? You bet.
jimmytx (4 years ago)
I know this comment will draw a lot of heat. But Griffin's inclusion deciding the game isn't a done deal. If you look at the numbers KU did an excellent job of letting certain players step up and fill in the void from a points and rebounds perspective and making others play below their usual level.

Willie Warren: +7.4 PPG over average

Juan Patillo: +8.7

Cade Davis: +6.6

Omar Leary: +4.6

Taylor Griffin: +2

That's 29.5 pts they produced beyond what they normally offer. Far more than Blake Griffin's 22 PPG.

OU averages 83 PPG at home and came up just 5 pts shy of that mark in last night's performance. And OU only allows 67 PPG while KU dished out 87 pts. At LNA. So before you go put an asterisk by the game in next year's media guide, take a look at how things actually played out. Colllins and Lawson produced 52 points which was a massive defensive breakdown by OU's backcourt. The only real question is how many boards Cole Aldrich would have gotten had BG been in. It wouldn't have been 20. But it would have probably been respectable. The game MAY have gone to OU. But given the actual numbers and not Sooner fan wishes, had OU won, it would have been very close.
TulsanBornTulsanBred (4 years ago)
That methodology of analyzing games is flawed. You can't use ppg as the sole metric for winning. You forget about the intangibles that having a Blake Griffin on the floor gives a team. Not only does he provide rebounding and points, but defense, spacing for guards to find shots and attracting fouls from the other team. KU played a great game, executed very well under pressure and got some big shots from their star. I hope I'll proved right come tournament time when our star returns.
jimmytx (4 years ago)
Actually, it works at all levels including rebounds and assists. The fact OU almost played up to average means that Griffin's production vacuum was filled. It is highly unlikely that the other players on the team would have produced as much had he been on the floor. Intangibles are fine. But at the end of the day points, rebounds and assists add up to the final outcome. The only real intangible question is to what degree BG would have affected Cole Aldrich's rebounding. I know most OU fans would like to think that he would have shut Aldrich down, but UNC fans said the same thing in the last tournament, much to their chagrin. Aldrich averages almost as many boards a game as Griffin. The asterisk comment is still really insulting and really overestimates what likely would have happened had BG been in.
TulsanBornTulsanBred (4 years ago)
If the vacuum was filled in your opinion, thats fine, but you still didn't address the defense provided by Blake. I'm not talking about shutting Aldrich down, but rather preventing penetration and kickouts to wide open threes (which OU allowed several). Plus I don't think you can argue that Blake is a player that makes everyone around him better, I mean the entire offense starts with him. Is it mere coincidence that Patillo's recent string of bad play has come at the same time that Blake has been out?

Maybe there shouldn't be an asterisk on the game, because excuses are excuses, but you do not give Blake enough credit for the vital role he plays on this team.

If you want proof on how important a single player is to a team, you have to look no further than right in your own backyard at UT. UT returned all starters except Augustin and the dropoff has been immense. Scoring offense statistics: with Augustin 75.6 ppg, without Augustin 73.5. So I guess the scoring gap was pretty much filled, but they have lost how many more games this year compared to last year?

Lets just hope that this becomes a moot point and the Sooners face KU and UT in the Big 12 with a HEALTHY Blake Griffin.
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OU Sports

Tulsa World Sports Writer Guerin Emig has covered University of Oklahoma football and men's basketball for the Tulsa World since 2004. He lives in Norman, where he keeps the fact that he is a University of Kansas graduate on the down low.

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Tulsa World Sports Writer Eric Bailey covered TU sports before coming over to the OU beat. He came to the Tulsa World in September 2004 after working eight years at the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. He attended Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Kansas, where he was a 1996 Chips Quinn scholar, a national award given to minority journalism students.

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