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Rough and tumble
Griffin expects jabs, low blows

Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, shooting the ball over Gardner-Webb's Joshua Henley earlier this season, says of recent attacks during games against USC and Utah: "I've taken a lot more than what people have seen." Ty Russell/For The Tulsa World

 
By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Published: 12/20/2008  2:24 AM
Last Modified: 12/20/2008  2:34 AM

 NORMAN — Maybe Blake Griffin ought to show up for tonight's 9 p.m. All-College Classic game against Virginia Commonwealth wearing a mask and with a foreign object embedded in his trunks. They could turn out the Ford Center lights and have him emerge from a spotlit smoke machine, with Rob Zombie blasting from loudspeakers.

You get the feeling Griffin is more pro wrestler than basketball player, after watching USC's Leonard Washington punch him in the groin Dec. 5, then Utah's Luka Drca trip him from behind while running downcourt last Saturday. It is an unsettling trend.

"Both incidents, you hear that they were accidents. But it's not an accident," said Jeff Capel, coach of the No. 4 10-0 Sooners. "And so I am very concerned."

What's worse?

"I've taken a lot more than what people have seen," Griffin said. "It happens almost every game. Sometimes it's more subtle."

Unfortunately, the Sooners should expect much more of the same.

Opponents stoop to such tactics — Blake's older brother, Taylor, calls them "personal attacks" — when they're physically overwhelmed. Griffin, a 6-10 250-pounder averaging 23 points and an NCAA-leading 15 rebounds, is simply overwhelming.

"He plays with the most force as anybody in college basketball," said Utah coach Jim Boylen, who suspended Drca for two games as a result of last week's flagrant foul.

That presence is most responsible for those NBA scouts who flock to OU games, and for Griffin's place atop
2009 NBA mock draft boards all over the Internet.

Still, there is more to the sophomore power forward than brute strength, more to him than what he showed during a surface-scratching freshman season in which he averaged 15 points and nine rebounds.

"He's improved a lot," Capel said. "It's his ability to score in different ways. Last year he scored basically in the paint on layups and dunks. This year you're seeing him shoot jump shots. He's expanded his game to 17 feet. He's hit two 3s. He's showing a different variety of post moves.

"He's always been a very good rebounder, but I think he's taken it to another level this year. We've allowed him, when he boards, to initiate the fast break himself. I think all of those things are a result of him being in better shape."

Griffin is a better player in better shape, and he possesses a better attitude. Had opponents punched and kicked at him last year, he might have punched and kicked right back.

"I think it would have been different," Taylor Griffin said. "That just shows how far he's come. He's harnessing that and turning it into something positive and moving on. It's a hard thing, but he's handling it well."

It's a coolness that teammates marvel at.

Asked if he'd have a hard time managing what Griffin has, guard Willie Warren said: "Honestly, being a freshman? Yeah."

After Drca's goon turn, Warren, in fact, did retaliate. He drew a technical foul for pushing the guilty party.

Griffin, meanwhile, got to his feet and walked it off, fully aware that his preeminent place in college basketball means there is likely more where that came from.

"Is it hard? A little bit," he said. "But at the same time, I feel like they're playing an individual game with me, trying to get me to lose my cool, trying to get me to foul. I don't want to lose that game. Now I kind of expect it.

"I can take whatever they've got. Just keep it comin'."

Player of the year: Griffin or Hansbrough?



Is Oklahoma sophomore Blake Griffin on his way to unseating North Carolina senior Tyler Hansbrough (at right) as national player of the year? Here’s a statistical comparison:

GRIFFIN CATEGORY HANSBROUGH
23.1 Points per game 22.3
15.1 Rebounds 7.5
2.5 Assists 0.5
1.1 Blocks 0.7
1.9 Steals 1.0
67.5 Field goal percentage 51.3
61.5 Free throw percentage 88.5
2-of-3 3-pointers 2-of-4




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

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3 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!
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Arbythree, Tulsa (12/20/2008 8:42:41 AM)
Blake Griffin is a class act and one of the best, if not the best. players in the NCAA. The only way to stop this player is to foul him or worse and even then, he still makes the opponent look like he should not be playing in college.

Blake is a cut above the rest!
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tulsaOUfan, Tulsa (12/20/2008 9:10:21 AM)
omar doesn't know what he's talking about, as do most OU detractors who can't stand to see their success. I've been to several OU games and watch them on TV every chance. Arbythree is right. All the OU players play with class.

Major kudos to the Utah coach who suspended his player for dirty pool. Too bad the USC coach doesn't believe in discipline. But, then again, he probably told the player to take the dirty shot.
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Scritchner, Tulsa (12/20/2008 11:17:02 AM)
It's funny. I don't think these two could or would critize OU if their lives depended on it. They'd "sooner" renounce their faith before their Sooner pride.

I agree that Griffin is a very dominating player. It would be a great injustice if his name wasn't near the top in the Player of the Year lists. I do however think that much of OU's success this season will ride on his shoulders. If he can stay healthy and consistent OU will go deep in the tourney and most likely take the Big 12.
 

 
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