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Sooner04
2/6/2010, 08:51 PM
On a day when the greatest basketball player in the history of the University of Oklahoma was honored our Sooners dug down deep and provided a truly fitting performance. We did not play great, and we were fortunate UT couldn't find the ocean from a boat when it came to foul shots, but sometimes that's what it takes to win on a day when you KNOW you're going to win. Just one of those feelings that today would be different. Smiles on the faces of players, smiles not seen during stretches of adversity. Hustle, relentless hustle. It was just our day because it was Wayman's day. Those guys out there channeled what they'd learned over the last couple of years regarding the man whose 23 was spotlighted today. Do your job, play hard, have fun and, when things are going well, smile.

Check.
Check.
Check.
Check.

Wayman Tisdale would've been proud.


The script was familiar to those who've followed our team at home this year. Stellar play followed by tomfoolery. Cerebal stretches followed by brain farts so ridiculous they'd surely take years off the end of any good coach's life. But the familiar script turned as cliche as any old flick where the guy gets the girl because the good guys found a way to win. We needed this win because the season really could've tanked without it. Now that we've got it we still see a team that's 4-4 with winnable games ahead. Unfortunately some of those are on the road.

It would be nice to take some of this when we travel. Things like double-doubles from Ryan Wright and Cade Davis. Things like only four turnovers in a half. Things like assassin-like shooting from the outside. We show that stuff in flashes but why can't we sustain it? It boggles the mind. We were tougher than Texas for the vast majority of the game. We would not allow them easy buckets. We'd send them to the line and they'd provide the bricks, but when we let our guard down, just a little, they roared back by getting into the lane and converting when we reverted to timid.

I've seen so many things I "think" we can build on only to be fooled into searching for an oasis in the Sahara. The team we saw today can win in the Big 12. You don't just beat Missouri and Texas without being competent. Maybe it just takes an odd spark, but I saw some things today that reeked of spunk. Ryan Wright missed a dunk in frighteningly similar fashion to the one Ebi Ere missed that ended up costing us the 2003 Texas game on Senior Day. But this group got through it. We missed two crucial boards on clanked free throws that Texas turned into five points, but this group got through that too.

This group can get through a lot. Now they need to believe it themselves.


SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 22 [And he shall be Levon]
2nd - 26 [And he shall be a good man!]
3rd - 14 [sorority girl puking on College Ave.]
4th - 18 [spit]


LEADING SCORERS:
24 - Tommy Mason-Griffin
20 - Cade Davis
11 - Ryan Wright [monster effort]

LEADING REBOUNDERS:
14 - Ryan Wright [absolutely MONSTER effort]
10 - Cade Davis [the Pride of Elk City]


PLUSES:
1. Ryan Wright: It was as if he was body snatched for 150 minutes and given hands. Tough boards? He got them. Running hooks? Bingo. I hate those "senior" cliches coaches always throw around, but I'll go ahead and borrow that one for today. That was a senior performance. That was going out there and getting it done. We'll need two or three scoops of that next week.

2. Cade Davis: 20 and 10 and he pointed to the heavens as he strolled to the post-game handshake line. He really set the crowd ablaze by running down Damion "Judas" James and fouling him on that breakaway in the first half. It was going to be that kind of day, Texas, what do you have in guts this afternoon? Not enough, obviously. I would like the Cade Davis who used to hit free throws to please return, though. STAT!

3. Tommy Mason-Griffin: True freshman, who goes for 24, and he's only the third best thing to come out of today? 'Fraid so. If only for that hideous three he took on the 4-on-1 break he might've bumped up to #2. Man, that was a bad shot selection. Oh well, I'll get over it. Kid will be miles up the all-time scoring list by the time he's done.

4. Willie Warren: Took one shot and made it. Desperately needed when you consider Texas had morphed into a locomotive down the stretch. They were breathing on us, but WW turned them back with that bucket.

5. Steven Pledger: Nine points and four big boards. He got an earful on a couple of occasions, but he was big down the stretch.


MINUSES:
1. Keith Gallon: It was a game for grown men down low, and Gallon brought milk and cookies.

2. 2nd Half Free Throws: Very, VERY lucky to not be haunted by those. Luckily our opposition clanked and clunked their way around right along with us. When the 2008 Memphis Tigers look up and say, "damn, these guys suck" you KNOW you are a bad free-throw shooting team.

3. Damion James: Judas.


I could go on and talk about how we're now 13-9 and 4-4 in the conference with some chances to make noise ahead but I'm not going to do that. I'd like to talk about Wayman Tisdale one more time. You know you're important when the fanbase changes your first name to your middle and gives you a brand new one in its place up front. I'm of course referring to his universally-known name in Soonerland: Wonderful Wayman Tisdale.

Wayman played in 104 games at Oklahoma. He scored more than 30 in 33 of those contests.

Wayman is #1 on the all-time scoring list at Oklahoma and is 380 points ahead of #2, Jeff Webster, even though Wayman played in 28 less games.

Wayman scored more than 50 three times, with a career high of 61. Only one other Sooner, Brent Price, has ever broken the 50-point barrier.

Wayman's career record at OU is 84-20 with a mark in Big 8 play of 36-6.

Wayman won the conference in '84 and '85. Wayman won the conference tournament in '85 too.

Wayman scored in double figures in every game but one in his Sooner career. The one time he didn't? Kansas, 1985. You know what? We won.

15 different men have scored more than 40 points in a game at OU. Wayman is the only one to do it more than once, and he did it five times.

Wayman was a consensus All-American in '83, '84 and '85, the first to ever receive such an honor as a true freshman, sophomore and junior.

Blake Griffin won every honor known to man last year, but if you doubled his points scored in two years he'd still be 105 points short of what Wayman put up in three.


It was said time and time again today, but I think it bears repeating because it's as true a statement as you'll ever hear: there's only one Wayman Tisdale.

R.I.P., Wayman. I still miss you.


Thank you for your time.

OKC-SLC
2/6/2010, 09:42 PM
good jorb.

badger
2/6/2010, 09:51 PM
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/PlantB/2009/PlantB20090517_low.jpg
They showed his wife near the end of regulation when the students were chanting 'texas sucks.' She was all smiles. I bet Wayman is smiling extra in heaven today.

JLEW1818
2/6/2010, 11:22 PM
i missed the game. why did Willie not start? or play much?

tdsooner1321
2/6/2010, 11:30 PM
i missed the game. why did Willie not start? or play much?

Ankle was still bothering him. They didn't expect him to play at all but he told Capel he wanted try to play just before game time

yankee
2/6/2010, 11:32 PM
i missed the game. why did Willie not start? or play much?

ankle was clearly bothering him. he didn't start, and when he came in during the first half he had to leave pretty early because his ankle was really bothering him. however, he gritted through it during the last few minutes of the 2nd half, and that was really impressive to see that.

JLEW1818
2/6/2010, 11:33 PM
I could be totally wrong.... but i don't see the difference he makes....

Sooner98
2/6/2010, 11:38 PM
i missed the game. why did Willie not start? or play much?

Injured ankle

Sooner98
2/6/2010, 11:40 PM
err...nevermind

yankee
2/6/2010, 11:45 PM
I could be totally wrong.... but i don't see the difference he makes....

even if he struggles shooting the ball, he attracts alot of attention from defenses meaning other guys get better looks. honestly, without him in...our offense can really implode. cade and TMG have been our offense as of late, but cade, as much as i love his play, is a very streaky shooter...and TMG is a true freshman, although he hasn't played like one as of yet. i feel more comfortable when willie is in the game, that's for sure.

Ton Loc
2/7/2010, 12:19 AM
It was a good day -

A good man was honored.
The team played hard.
The crowd cheered with no concern of the team's record.
Damian James was reminded he was a traitor.
And Texas sucked.

A few of thoughts from the top of section S2.

The entire OU crowd pulls for Tiny not to screw up. It really seems to kill everyone every time he makes a mistake.

TMG is a man. A very, very quick man. He embarrassed every texan who tried to guard him.

I don't know how it looked on TV, but the refs made some really horrible calls. I'm pretty sure someone threw a paper plate at one of them.

Finally, some fans started to leave with 5 minutes left in the game. I let them know how pathetic they were, and probably embarrassed myself, but I think I may have kept a few other people in their seats. Seriously, we left after the school song an it still only took 15 minutes to get to the highway. What is that important that you need to leave early and miss the best part of the game.

Eielson
2/7/2010, 12:19 AM
I could be totally wrong.... but i don't see the difference he makes....

He makes a difference. Not usually positive, though.

JLEW1818
2/7/2010, 12:21 AM
he just looks like a very average college basketball player

soonerbub
2/7/2010, 01:08 AM
Great recap.

Great game.

For some reason I had a really good feeling going into today. I'm sure that reason was Wayman. I know I bitch a lot about this group but today they represented very very well.

It also really irritates me because if we played like this EVERY day, we would be around 7-1 in the league. If we give this kind of effort the rest of the year (minus Tiny 'cause he just ain't gonna do it) I'll be happy. Play like today and we could easily finish 11-5--but at least we know we have a fighting chance.

All in all today was about Wayman. We all know he was smilin' down today

BOOMER

oh and texass SUX

Collier11
2/7/2010, 02:32 AM
Two points,

1) Willie is best when he lets TMG or run the show like he did last year with Blake, I think he is starting to realize that

2) Blake posted tonight that Wayman was the greatest Sooner ever, gotta love the respect from one Sooner to another

allanace16
2/7/2010, 04:49 AM
2) Blake posted tonight that Wayman was the greatest Sooner ever, gotta love the respect from one Sooner to another

This. It really warmed my heart to see that as well as B Griff's exchange with KD on Twitter. Man, I feel so bad, cause when I truly wanted to give up on Sooner Basketball, they put in a performance like this that reinforces why I love it so much (even more than OU football, if that's possible). I still can't believe Wayman's gone. Unfortunately I feel that I still have appreciated Wayman the jazz musician more than Wayman the OU superstar basketball player. I got to meet him a couple of times before he passed, and what an amazing man and ambassador for this state. I can't imagine how big the smile he has in heaven right now after such a performance by this squad. Let's hope this is a turning point in the season for OU hoops, cause it's the type of performance I expected out of this team all year long. Not perfect, but great enough to make a lot of noise in CBB this year.

stoopified
2/7/2010, 11:51 AM
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/PlantB/2009/PlantB20090517_low.jpg
They showed his wife near the end of regulation when the students were chanting 'texas sucks.' She was all smiles. I bet Wayman is smiling extra in heaven today.That cartoon is awesome,I have to print it off.

SCxxSOONER
2/7/2010, 12:43 PM
He makes a difference. Not usually positive, though.

I think him just being in there helps the team, sometimes he looks like the best player in the country sometimes not so much.

Eielson
2/7/2010, 03:18 PM
I think him just being in there helps the team, sometimes he looks like the best player in the country sometimes not so much.

I've never seen him look like the best player in the country.

Collier11
2/7/2010, 03:29 PM
Kansas last year is one example off the top of my head

birddog
2/7/2010, 05:13 PM
it really doesn't matter. TMG looks like he'll be the leader of this team for a few years. WW, not so much.

Eielson
2/7/2010, 08:17 PM
Kansas last year is one example off the top of my head

I'm pretty sure Collins showed him up, but I may be wrong.

Collier11
2/7/2010, 10:33 PM
you asked where he played like the best player in the nation, in that game he did

Eielson
2/7/2010, 11:24 PM
you asked where he played like the best player in the nation, in that game he did

Like I said, I felt Collins outplayed him. Statistically there wasn't much difference between Warren and Collins, but I felt that Collins came up with a big play everytime his team needed it.

Regardless, Aldrich was the player of the game. If Warren wasn't the best player in the game, he wasn't the best player in the nation.

Collier11
2/7/2010, 11:30 PM
your thought process is broken

badger
2/8/2010, 11:50 AM
btw, on TMG...

Rookie of the Week again, beyonces!
Link (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20100208_298_0_Oklaho391058)

...sooner
2/8/2010, 11:54 AM
btw, on TMG...

Rookie of the Week again, beyonces!
Link (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20100208_298_0_Oklaho391058)

oooh yessssir! :) yay tommy!

OUSKINS
2/8/2010, 04:25 PM
My email for this week..

First of all, for those who haven't heard, Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald (both of whom may have had their best games of the year on Saturday) celebrated the win Saturday night by getting cited (not arrested) for petty larceny at Dillards at the Sooner Fashion Mall. Lovely. More on that at the end...

First the game....home vs. road is a pretty wide gap for most teams, but for OU it's just absurd. We are fairies on the road and junkyard dogs at home. Our effort on Saturday was unreal-- guys were flying, diving, etc. from start to finish.

The pre and in-game Wayman ceremonies were just awesome. Very classy without going overboard-- I think my suspicion that he was the greatest/most popular athlete in school history got some backing on Saturday. Crowd was excellent. Response was great-- from both the fans and the team. One of the top 3 best atmosphere games since Capel has been here.

No need to keep saying it over and over...TMG is a star. He is a star right now and assuming he keeps his head on straight, he'll only get better.

Cade isn't a star obviously, but he's certainly turned himself into something other than "just" a hustle-guy. Again, I point to guys like Cade and Longar as examples of marginal recruits reaching their potential under Capel.

TMG and Cade ran the show in the first half, but they were both totally gassed by the ten minute mark in the second. Both were dragging and cramping. We needed some guys to step up and while it wasn't real pretty, I thought Pledger, Fitz, and especially Ryan Wright stepped it up. Best game of Wright's career, no doubt.

We really were going on fumes the last several minutes and I didn't know if we'd be able to hold on....Willie and Crocker are both a shell of themselves due to injury and Wright and Crocker both fouled out. Willie earned some respect from me on Saturday....the coaches ruled him out in the morning, but he asked to suit up and play if needed....he couldn't do much, but he gave guys some rest and the one shot he took was arguably the biggest shot of the game.

The one guy on our team who didn't belong was Tiny....everyone else came to play and he was in never-never land. Coaches have a LOT of work to do on Tiny this off-season to get him to reach his potential-- which is substantial.

10-27 from the FT line, Texas? Wow, that is beyond embarrassing. But it's who they are-- they were one of the worst FT shooting teams in the country coming in and they fell even further. No chance to for them to make any noise come March if that doesn't get significantly better.

The "traitor" chants for Damian James were music to my ears...glad he fouls out, misses 10 FT's, and loses his last game at LNC.

Not exactly sure what to think of this win...we were set up nicely with KU on deck for Texas and Wayman's celebration. It was a tough spot for the Horns and we took advantage. It was a much needed win, because we now at least have a true high-quality W on the ledger. We jumped up about 15 spots in the RPI and could easily crack the top 50 in the coming weeks...which is saying a lot from where we were.

I think we "clinched" an NIT berth on Saturday, barring a total meltdown. May not be very exciting for most, but it matters to me...I'm cool with the NIT if you have a young roster and things steadily improve. I guess we still have an outside shot at the Big Dance, but I think we'll need to go 6-2 the second half of B12 play and considering we're going to lose at Texas and at KU, I don't think we'll go 6-0 in the other games. MAYBE we sneak into the Dance if we go 9-7 and have a good showing in the conference tourney.

I'd like to turn my attention to Texas Tech Tuesday night and OSU on Saturday, but our brainiac freshmen won't let me do that.

Instead, we're dealing with their stupidity.

1. Shoplifiting is dumb.
2. Shoplifiting if you are a 6'7 black guy is dumber.
3. TWO black guys shoplifting together is dumbest.

They might as well have walked into Dillards with a sign that read, "PLEASE watch us closely."

I want Capel to react quickly and punish them--suspensions for sure, but I don't think this is cause for dismissal-- just a big strike against both of them. As far as I know, neither have any "strikes" against them yet, so I can handle giving them a second chance here. But wow, how moronic can you be? On Wayman Tisdale day no less.