Tulsa World: Sooners begin life after the Griffins

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Sooners begin life after the Griffins
New frontcourt is motivated to prove its worth at OU.

OU's Ryan Wright tries to keep control of the ball as Chad Posthumus of UBC defends. Nate Billings/The Oklahoman

By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Published: 11/14/2009 2:24 AM
Last Modified: 11/14/2009 6:44 AM

NORMAN — There is a sense that when Blake Griffin left Oklahoma, he took the Sooners' entire frontcourt with him. It's what happens when a national player of the year towers over his team, and all of college basketball for that matter.

Fact is, OU's 2009-10 roster does include forwards Ryan Wright, Andrew Fitzgerald, Orlando Allen, Kyle Hardrick and Tiny Gallon, a McDonald's All-American expected to start today's 1 p.m. season opener against Mount St. Mary's alongside Wright. The numbers may not be there — Gallon, Fitzgerald and Hardrick are freshmen, while Wright and Allen both averaged 1.8 points spot-playing behind Blake and Taylor Griffin last year — but the motivation certainly is.

"I think we have to prove something, and I think we're willing to prove something," Wright said. "The bigs are taking it as a challenge. A lot of people probably think we can't rebound without Blake Griffin, and are probably going to be weak down low. So I think we're taking it on ourselves to prove to everybody that we can rebound, that we can provide some offense down there, and we can defend."

Right now, the Sooners will take defense and rebounding.

The Griffin brothers accounted for a little over half of OU's 1,402 boards last season. Where the Sooners get the Griffins' 716 is a major concern of coach Jeff Capel's.

That's where Gallon comes in. He averaged 10 rebounds at prep power Oak Hill Academy last year, and he says he can average "10 or 11" for the Sooners.

"But he's got to be willing to be physical," Capel said. "Right now that's probably his biggest adjustment, just how physical it is at this level. This is probably one of the first times consistently that he's played against guys his size or who are bigger than him."

Something else Gallon might eventually deliver is consistent low-post scoring. Right now, however, it's hard to figure how OU comes up with that.

"Going into the first game, I don't know. I just don't know," Capel said. "We have some guys who have been able to score, not consistently, but they've been able to score in practice. But until you go against someone else, you don't really know. It's something that's going to evolve.

"But the last thing those guys should worry about is scoring. If they learn to focus on the other things, they'll score."

It's something Wright, one of OU's two scholarship seniors, understands.

"There's a whole bunch of different ways we can score and be effective this year." he said. "On the run, catching passes off (guards') dribble drive, screening to get them open, which will draw double teams on them and get us open. A lot of our offense is going to come from our guards creating."

It will also come from their forwards finishing — like when Fitzgerald outran British Columbia down the floor after the Thunderbirds made basket in the Nov. 3 exhibition, and Willie Warren spotted him for two easy points.

Starting this season-after-Griffin, all of the attention shifts to Warren, Tony Crocker, Tommy Mason-Griffin and OU's backcourt. But an important fact remains.

"It's not just going to be the backcourt that's the heartbeat of this team," Warren said. "Everybody has to contribute."

Guerin Emig 581-8355
guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer

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