OUSKINS
3/6/2010, 02:10 PM
Man, I really felt for Crocker today. I'm pretty sappy and emotional anyway, and Senior Day in basketball always tugs at the heart strings a bit because in basketball you get to "know" the players so well. I purchased season tickets in Capel's first year, which was also Crocker's first year. He was the only one of the recruits to stick around after Sampson left.
Crocker wasn't overly gifted physically, but he wound up having a really nice career at OU despite being forced into some roles for which he probably was not best suited. Most importantly, Crocker gave OU fans some serious highlight-reel memories during his 4 years. The "Baylor Miracle" is still my all-time favorite moment at the LNC... just an awesome experience to be there. And Crocker also stepped up and had a huge game in Stillwater when Blake was out with an injury. To cap it off, Crocker had the game of his life against Syracuse in the Sweet 16 last year. He definitely tended to disappear at times with his scoring and his confidence seemed to waver quite a bit, but all in all, he was a very good Sooner.
He fouled out today and his face told the story of the season....tears were streaming down his face, but he looked much more frustrated and angry than sad. I'm sure it sucks for a guy who played on some pretty good teams to go out on such an incredibly lousy note.
I'll save my final review of the season and season grades until the season officially ends after we're elminated from the B12 tourney, but I wanted to be sure and give Crocker a proper "send off." He didn't deserve to go out like this.
Depending on the outcomes today, it looks like we'll probably be matched up with OSU on Wednesday night. That would at least make the game mildly interesting-- always fun to beat OSU and it would be nice to end this dreadful losing streak (longest in school history now I believe) before next year starts. Having said that, I don't see us winning to say the least...and if Tiny is out (injured today) then it could get really ugly.
Probably only one game left for us Sooner fans for this year....thank heavens.
Crocker wasn't overly gifted physically, but he wound up having a really nice career at OU despite being forced into some roles for which he probably was not best suited. Most importantly, Crocker gave OU fans some serious highlight-reel memories during his 4 years. The "Baylor Miracle" is still my all-time favorite moment at the LNC... just an awesome experience to be there. And Crocker also stepped up and had a huge game in Stillwater when Blake was out with an injury. To cap it off, Crocker had the game of his life against Syracuse in the Sweet 16 last year. He definitely tended to disappear at times with his scoring and his confidence seemed to waver quite a bit, but all in all, he was a very good Sooner.
He fouled out today and his face told the story of the season....tears were streaming down his face, but he looked much more frustrated and angry than sad. I'm sure it sucks for a guy who played on some pretty good teams to go out on such an incredibly lousy note.
I'll save my final review of the season and season grades until the season officially ends after we're elminated from the B12 tourney, but I wanted to be sure and give Crocker a proper "send off." He didn't deserve to go out like this.
Depending on the outcomes today, it looks like we'll probably be matched up with OSU on Wednesday night. That would at least make the game mildly interesting-- always fun to beat OSU and it would be nice to end this dreadful losing streak (longest in school history now I believe) before next year starts. Having said that, I don't see us winning to say the least...and if Tiny is out (injured today) then it could get really ugly.
Probably only one game left for us Sooner fans for this year....thank heavens.