Chill out, Rock Chalkers
My column about the Oklahoma-Kansas game has caused a few Jayhawk fans to get their feathers ruffled.
Some took exception with my belief that the Sooners would’ve won by double figures had Blake Griffin be able to play. Others thought I was wrong in my critique of Cole Aldrich.
Hey, it’s a free country. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. But that means I am, too, and I stand by what I said — the Sooners would’ve dominated with Griffin and Aldrich wasn’t as eye-poppingly good as I thought he would be.
Here’s why the Sooners would’ve beat the Jayhawks by double figures — it’s not only that Griffin would’ve scored a bunch of points and snagged a bunch of rebounds, but it’s also that he would’ve settled down his sidekicks. The biggest problem the Sooners had Monday night was that Austin Johnson and Tony Crocker looked like they did three years ago, not like they have the first three-plus months of the season. They threw the ball away. They missed shots. They never settled down.
The truth is, they were trying to do too much in Griffin’s absence.
With Griffin on the floor, they stay within themselves and do only what they can do. Monday with him on the bench, they tried to do things that they aren’t capable of.
It was a recipe for disaster.
A healthy Blake Griffin wouldn’t have just added his bit to the Kansas game. He’d have helped his teammates along, too.
As for Aldrich, I just wasn’t wowed by him. Yes, he put up some nice numbers. Maybe my expectations are too high. Maybe my expectations were of someone as good as Blake Griffin.
Truth is, Aldrich is a nice college center, but Griffin is a beast. My guess is that I spent the whole night thinking about how Griffin would’ve absolutely shredded a front-line as depleted as OU’s was, first by a superstar’s absence, then by big brother Taylor’s foul trouble. The younger Griffin would’ve scored 40 points and grabbed 30 rebounds.
That might be hyperbole, but then again, maybe not. The guy has been spectacular all season, and such crazy numbers are not so ridiculous with him.
All of this might only ruffle more Jayhawk feathers, but I’ll say this much — I’ll be darn interested to see what happens if these two teams cross paths in the Big 12 Tournament.
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