Player of the Year
Postseason awards
Blake Griffin may be the best thing that’s ever happened to Oklahoma basketball.
And that’s saying something. It’s not like the Sooners were devoid of hoops history before Griffin arrived on campus in 2007. Waymon Tisdale was a three-time consensus first-team All-American. Billy Tubbs’ 1987-88 squad was one of the sport’s glorious up-tempo teams. Kelvin Sampson led the Sooners to the 2002 Final Four.
Sure, it’ll always be a football school. But coach Jeff Capel says Griffin’s breakout 2008-09 season has helped change all that. Heck, freshman Tiny Gallon said he’d never even heard of OU until Griffin.
And now? Capel has a permanent sales pitch.
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Monday erased any lingering doubts about Blake Griffin’s importance to Oklahoma. Back-to-back losses will do that.
Not that the No. 3 Sooners are a lost cause without Griffin. They showed as much during Monday’s 87-78 loss to Kansas. They jumped out to an early lead and when they started to struggle, they showcased an aggressive, pressing defense and even displayed some impressive outside shooting.
But without Griffin, Oklahoma’s merely a good team.
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DeJuan Blair could be the most crucial post player for a national champ since Sean May.
At the least, Blair is trying to join the likes of Kevin Love, Greg Oden and Glen Davis as big, bruising rebounding machines who helped propel their teams to the Final Four.
But if the Panthers hope to cut down the nets in Detroit come April, May would be the ideal.
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The setup: Connecticut’s ranked No. 1. The Huskies (21-1) just dismantled No. 5 Louisville on the road, prompting some to wonder if the merry-go-round atop the rankings is over. They’re balanced, experienced, efficient on offense and defense and figure to a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance.
The question: If UConn is the nation’s best team, should its best player garner Player of the Year talk?
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Old school refrain: The best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. And sometimes, they become really good sophomores.
Example A: Arizona State’s James Harden.
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Stephen Curry effectively started the Player of the Year debate Tuesday. Scoring 44 points against the No. 12 team will do that.
It’s an amazing thing, too. Oklahoma keyed on Curry from the start. It didn’t matter. The guy is just good.
Still, Davidson may need some marquee wins for him to snag the hardware.
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Plenty of opinions accompany the Player of the Year race. Yet, there’s rarely little disagreement when all the awards are handed out.
This isn’t one of those seasons.
Much like the J.J. Redick-Adam Morrison debate in 2005 (they shared the Wooden and Naismith awards but Redick won everything else), or when T.J. Ford (Naismith, Wooden), David West (AP, USBWA, Rupp) and Nick Collison (Coaches) split the six major awards in 2003, I doubt there’ll be a consensus when it comes to deciding between Michael Beasley and Tyler Hansbrough this season.
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