Same old OU

BY GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Sunday, January 25, 2009
1/25/09 at 2:44 AM

NORMAN — It sure seemed like Baylor wanted to make Saturday different than the last 32 years.

The Bears brought fans, for one thing, about 50 in green-and-gold-striped referee shirts hollering in an upper corner of the Lloyd Noble Center. Then there was the noise made by Baylor coach Scott Drew, when he came bounding down the steps from his locker room right before tipoff.

"Woooo!" he screamed to no one in particular while clapping his hands. "Let's go!"

A half-hour later, though, it was obvious nothing had changed. Oklahoma was on its way to a 95-76 thrashing, its 29th consecutive victory over the Bears since Dec. 6, 1977, and the only yelling being done was by the OU students behind the north basket.

"Same-old! Bay-lor!" they chanted, the game about to go to halftime with OU leading 58-31.

The differences between the 19-1 Sooners (5-0 in Big 12 play) and their visitors (15-4, 3-2 Big 12) were as obvious as ever. For starters, OU didn't treat defense like a 5-year-old treats cough medicine.

"We were pretty good offensively," said Taylor Griffin, one of four Sooners in double figures with 18 points, "but the key to it was we made a conscious effort to stop them."

Baylor came in the best-shooting team in the Big 12 Conference. It left after making 28 of its 81 shots.

Curtis Jerrells got 26 points, but he went 1-for-9 in the difference-making first half. Jerrells and fellow guard LaceDarius Dunn, who added 20, were all the Bears had. As for OU?

"Everybody was involved and everybody was playing well in the beginning," Blake Griffin said.

Griffin scored six of his team-high 20 during an 8-0 run which provided an 8-5 lead heading into the first TV timeout.

Willie Warren scored eight of his 17 during a 13-4 run which put OU up 21-13. Juan Pattillo contributed a dunk, a three-point-play, a steal, and a behind-the-back set-up of Blake Griffin during a 19-3 run toward halftime.

Pattillo? The junior-college transfer who had played a total of four minutes before Saturday?

"I thought he was all in coming into this game, and he showed that by what did yesterday in practice," OU coach Jeff Capel commented. "He was flying around."

It makes it pretty tough when one team has both the best player on the floor — Griffin was clearly that Saturday, with 17 rebounds and four assists to go with his 20 points — and the X-factor nobody saw coming.

Of Griffin, Drew said: "Blake continues to show why he's the best player in the country."

Of Pattillo, Drew said: "I thought he really gave them good effort, on the defensive end especially. That was something we weren't prepared for."

A lot of other stuff looked pretty familiar.

The Bears still sink or swim by the 3-pointer. They were 12-of-33 Saturday, and 5-of-17 during a costly first half. They still show much less interest in defense, proven by the fact that OU shot 67 percent from both the field (20-of-30) and 3-point range (6-of-9) in the first half.

"I am really proud of this win," Capel said. "That was maybe as complete a first half as we've played all season long. The way we shot it, the way we moved the ball and, really, the way we defended."

Guerin Emig 581-8355
guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

OU's Taylor Griffin blocks the shot of Baylor's Curtis Jerrells on Saturday in Norman. Griffin had four of the team's five blocks and scored 18 points in the Sooners' win. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World