Sooners minus Blake silence their critics

By John Rohde

Published: March 6, 2008

STILLWATER — Oklahoma remains unbeaten without fab freshman forward Blake Griffin.

Not bad for a team that supposedly can't win without him.

The depleted Sooners went into Gallagher-Iba Arena on Wednesday night and snapped Oklahoma State's five-game winning streak with a 68-56 victory on Senior Night.

They did this with Griffin back in Norman, receiving treatment on his injured right knee.

The last time Griffin was out of uniform on game day, OU posted a 63-61 victory over Texas Tech in Norman on Jan. 19.

But the Sooners didn't stand a chance of winning Wednesday.

"We knew that without Blake that everyone was going to kinda doubt us,” OU senior guard David Godbold said. There was no "kinda” about it.

Didn't seem logical to expect the hot-and-cold Sooners to win in Stillwater with the Cowboys riding an illogical winning streak that included upset victories at No. 16-ranked Texas A&M and Missouri, and home victories over Baylor and No. 4 Kansas.

In the end, OU seniors upped their four-year record against OSU to 6-2.

Before the game, Godbold told fellow senior Longar Longar, "It's kind of like a Senior Night for us at another place.”

The entire team picked up the slack without Griffin, most notably sophomore guard Tony Crocker, who scored a career-high 25 points and went 5 for 5 from 3-point range.

"Over the years I've seen situations like this before, where somebody's best player is out and all of a sudden the other guys on the team elevate their game and come out and play at a high level,” OSU coach Sean Sutton said. "I mentioned Crocker as somebody that could be really dangerous in this situation.”

In OU's previous contest played without baby brother, Taylor Griffin collected 16 points and 12 rebounds against the Red Raiders.

On Wednesday, he had 10 rebounds and nine points (all in the second half).

Blake Griffin's first injury was a sprained left knee in the Sooners' 30-point loss at Kansas on Jan. 14.

He was expected to miss 3-4 weeks and instead missed one measly game.

Griffin suffered torn cartilage in his right knee last Saturday in a home win against Texas A&M, then had arthroscopic surgery on Sunday. He isn't expected to return to action until next week's Big 12 Tournament at Kansas City, Mo.

Don't bet on it.

The tough-as-nails, 6-foot-10, 243-pounder might be dunking on his older brother in this afternoon's practice.

"Don't be surprised if he plays Saturday (against Missouri),” OU coach Jeff Capel said, not joking.

Capel said he received a text message earlier on Wednesday from Griffin, who was begging to play.

"That's why we left him back home,” Capel said, fearing Griffin might jump off the bench and check himself into the game without permission.

Though their victory came against a 12-loss OSU team, what the Sooners achieved before a crowd of 13,459 was still admirable.

Even with an unacceptable home finale loss against Missouri, OU would still likely become the first Big 12 team to receive an NCAA bid with an 8-8 conference record.

"You look at our strength of schedule, you look at our RPI, you look at all those things and it's at a very high level,” Capel said.

Though proud and pleased, the Sooners didn't exactly turn cartwheels after Wednesday's game.

"It's just a small step, really,” Godbold said. "We don't think of it that we did something great today.”

Great? Probably not.

But it was pretty darn impressive.

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