They are ranked No. 2 in the country, boast the nation's top player and have the best record of any Div. I team. So why is it that so few people believe that the Oklahoma Sooners have a chance to win the NCAA championship this season?
The faults that many find in the Sooners do not reflect what the team has done thus far this year. Oklahoma has taken care of its business on the court, currently sporting a 13-game winning streak since suffering its first and only loss of the season to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Dec. 30. Thanks to the Connecticut Huskies' loss to the Pittsburgh Panthers, the Sooners remain the only one-loss team in college basketball. They are also one of only three teams, along with the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Memphis Tigers, to sport an undefeated record in conference play. Barring an upset to an underachieving Texas Longhorns team, Oklahoma should ascend to the No. 1 ranking in the country for the first time since the 1989-90 team led by Mookie Blaylock held the top spot in the polls.
On top of the team's success, sophomore forward Blake Griffin is poised to be the No. 1 pick in June's NBA draft if he decides to declare. The 6'10" forward has punished his opponents, recording double-doubles in a school-record 22 games and averaging almost 23 points to go along with a NCAA-high 14.2 rebounds a game. His numbers have improved considerably since last year, and it is no small wonder that the native Okie is projected to be the school's first No. 1 pick, or at least the highest overall Oklahoma player selected since the immortal Wayman Tisdale went second in 1985.
The Sooners are by no means a one-trick pony, however. Coach Jeff Capel's team has one of the best freshmen in the country in guard Willie Warren, a scorer who complements Griffin's inside play with his outside scoring and is averaging nearly 15 points a game. For a freshman to come in and immediately establish himself as the No. 2 option on any team is significant, but it is particularly noteworthy when that team is playing as well as Oklahoma.
As a team, the Sooners are in the top 10 in the nation in both points per game and field goal percentage, and the strong offense is the main reason why Oklahoma is outscoring opponents by an average of 14 points a game. So, if the team has had so much success this season, what are all the naysayers jawing about?
The biggest thing weighing against Oklahoma is its relatively light schedule, which can largely be attributed to a number of teams in the Big 12 conference having down years, as the conference is most likely going to receive no more than five bids to the Big Dance.
The other two teams in the conference currently in the Top 25 are the No. 10 Missouri Tigers and the No. 18 Kansas Jayhawks, both of whom the Sooners have yet to play. Though the Tigers have benefited from the cream-puff conference schedule, going 9-2 to climb into the top 10, they are a highly unlikely championship team -- as are the Jayhawks, who lost most of last year's national championship squad.
On top of this, the Sooners' non-conference schedule, suspect to begin with, has lost some of its luster. Early opponents like the Southern California Trojans, one of the team's marquee out-of-conference matchups, have most likely played their way out of the tournament. A close victory over the Davidson Wildcats looked good on paper, but the Cinderella darling is not quite the team it was last season despite the presence of the nation's top scorer in Stephen Curry.
The Sooners' lone win over a current ranked team was an overtime victory against the Purdue Boilermakers in the final of the preseason NIT, and the Arkansas team they lost to is not a tournament contender at 13-10 and 1-9 in the SEC.
Besides the schedule, this Oklahoma team just might not have the depth to last through the Big 12 tournament and long into March. The Sooners' starting five has carried the load for much of the season, and they have only two players making significant contributions off the bench.
One of these players is 6-foot-6 forward Juan Pattillo, who has stepped up to be the catalyst off the pine that Oklahoma has lacked this year after transferring from junior college and starting out the season as a redshirt. Though Pattillo did not start playing significant minutes until the last seven games after sitting out the first 16 games of the season, he has scored in double figures in three of those contests and had his first double-double in a win over Baylor on Feb. 11th. His emergence gives the team another reliable option outside the starting five to go along with sophomore guard Cade Davis, but outside of these two the Sooners are still woefully thin.
With a couple of close games recently against the Big 12 bottom-feeders, there is room to question whether Oklahoma is good enough to get to the Final Four. Still, it is a testament to Griffin's consistency and the ability of his teammates to step up on any given night that the Sooners have not slipped up versus a lesser opponent.
Realistically, Oklahoma will go as far as Griffin will carry it, and his recent 40-point, 23-rebound effort versus the Texas Tech Red Raiders shows just what this sophomore is capable of. But great players can will a team only so far in March, and the Sooners will need to keep finding other guys every night to complement their cornerstone. If they can do that, it might just be enough to make Oklahoma a basketball school, for a little while at least.
