OU basketball notebook: Chipped off the old block
BY GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Sunday, February 24, 2013
2/24/13 at 6:07 AM
Related Story: OU blasts Baylor, 90-76
The only thing that went wrong for Oklahoma during its 47-21 first half barrage Saturday was Je'lon Hornbeak's injury.
The freshman guard chipped his two front teeth after he smacked his face against the Lloyd Noble Center floor 11:51 before halftime.
"Me and (Baylor's Gary) Franklin got tangled up a little bit," Hornbeak said. "I ended up losing my footing and tried to break the fall with my teeth."
He was in pretty good spirits in postgame, despite some discomfort. He seemed more worried about the fact his old friend, Baylor center Isaiah Austin, was teasing him about the accident, and that it had happened in front of family members.
"My granny always told me to wear a mouthpiece," Hornbeak said. " I'd be like, 'Granny, don't worry. I'm not gonna chip my teeth.' Today would be the day they come to this game. I ended up chipping both teeth.
"They're mad at me. They said they paid too much money for those teeth."
Hornbeak returned to the lineup in the second half and finished with 13 points, his most since scoring a career-high 14 against West Virginia Nov. 25.
He said he plans to wear a mouthpiece from now on.
Nothing new on Hield: Starting guard Buddy Hield sat out his third game since breaking a bone in his foot against TCU on Feb. 11. The Sooners still don't expect him back before whatever postseason appearance they make.
"Buddy is working hard and badgering Alex (Brown, the team trainer) every day to do more," coach Lon Kruger said. "I'm sure Buddy wants to be back sooner rather than later, but we'll not rush that. We'll make sure he's healthy."
Another tough outing for Cousins: Freshman point guard Isaiah Cousins was hoping to bounce back from his turnovers meltdown at Texas Tech. It didn't exactly happen, however.
He missed all four of his shots, picked up four fouls and turned the ball over three times in nine minutes off the bench.
"We all still believe in him, no matter what anyone else says," encouraged Sam Grooms, who has thrived while taking Cousins' minutes the last three games. "We've got a couple practices to the next game, so we're going to push him up as much as we can.
"I'm going to do whatever it takes to try to get him going again, because we need him, point blank."
