Special season for Sooner sports

We’ve passed Valentine’s Day, so the school sports calendar is 51/2 months old. And the three primary sports at OU, the three sports that draw the biggest crowds, are a combined 59-5.

That’s ridiculous. The football team went 12-2, played for a national championship and finished fifth in the polls. Jeff Capel’s men’s basketball team is 25-1, ranked second nationally and headed for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Sherri Coale’s Sooner women are 22-2, ranked second and also headed for a No. 1 seed.

OU has had some sensational school years. In 2001-02, both basketball teams reached the Final Four, and the football team went 11-2 and finished No. 6 in the polls. In 1987-88, both Barry Switzer’s football team and Billy Tubbs’ basketballers played in national-title games (both lost), but the women’s basketball team was a non-factor regionally, much less nationally.

But this school year is just silly good. Five losses by mid-February? This is a special season for all things Sooner. An NCAA championship in basketball — a longshot for the women, since UConn seems dominant; a possibility for the men, since no clear-cut favorite exists — would lift this athletic season to the greatest in school history, and it might deserve that distinction anyway.