OU Sooner Basketball
April 7, 2009
As I do every year, I have spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks keeping up with the annual college basketball tournament known as “March Madness”. I graduated from the University of Oklahoma (OU) and have been a huge fan of Sooner athletics for the last ten years. I have heard the joke often that the only two sports that matter at OU are football and spring football, but OU’s basketball coach Jeff Capel is determined to change that. He has greatly improved the program after coaching there just three years; this year, it was fun to be a Sooner basketball fan again.
At the end of football season, after the devastating loss in the BCS Championship game, OU’s basketball team had only one loss and was ranked #6. Blake Griffin, the sophomore forward, was leading the team incredibly well and was being included in player-of-the-year discussions. OU dominated the first half of their Big XII schedule, moving as high as #4 and being included in number-one-seed discussions for the tournament. It was very exciting.
And then, in a game against bitter rival Texas, Blake Griffin suffered a concussion. He missed the rest of that game against Texas, and OU lost for just the second time all season. Griffin then missed the next game, which the Sooners lost to Kansas. Even with him back, they suffered; the rhythm of the season had been interrupted. They finished off the regular season with another loss to Missouri and a narrow victory against Oklahoma State, and then they lost their first game in the Big XII tournament. In just three short weeks, the season that had seemed so promising (with a Big XII Championship and a #1 seed in the tournament) came to a grinding halt.
It was still a great season. Blake Griffin won the Naismith Trophy, making OU the first school to have the Naismith and the Heisman Trophy winners in the same academic year. OU got a #2 seed and won three games in the tournament. The Sooners lost to North Carolina (the eventual national champions) in the Elite Eight, finishing 30-6 with a #7 ranking. North Carolina played incredibly well throughout the tournament, steam-rolling all their opponents: the OU game was their closest finish, which they won easily by twelve. Congratulations to coach Roy Williams and the Tar Heels for a great season and their second national championship this decade.
Blake Griffin announced that he’s leaving college early to play in the NBA. It’s hard to blame him, but he will be missed. Next year will probably be a bit of a rebuilding year, but I’m hopeful for great things from Capel and the Sooners in the near future. I now have a few months to get caught up on some of my other activities until football season starts with OU playing BYU here in Dallas in September. Boomer Sooner!