Quickie Recap 12.4: Even a “bag-tag” won’t slow down Griffin, 8 is greater than 9

Every man feels his pain

Who would attack the “manhood” of arguably the strongest player in college basketball? Enter Leonard Washington…exit Leonard Washington. Not only is Leonard Washington mentally inferior, he also still believes it is acceptable to play the elementary school “bag-tag” game.

After Blake was able to get over that not-so-loving feeling, he was able to convert 11 of the Sooners final 21 points, leading them to a 73-72 victory. The Sooners are now 7-0 and looking very nice.

Texas was able to give UCLA their second loss in the early season, as part of yet another inter-conference series. AJ Abrams led all with 31, with a tie-breaking three ball with just under three minutes left.

UCONN quietly avoids a monumental upset from the Buffalo Bulls, their only true non-conference road game. This begs the question if the Huskies are ready for the Big East grind, which is sure to be tagged as ‘historical’ before this season is over.

Quickie Recap 11.28: Sooners win NIT, G’Town-UT shoot it out

Blake Griffin: All-American, bully who throws balls at his peers

It’s only the Preseason NIT, but it might carry more weight than its sister tournament held in March. Oklahoma took home the trophy tonight over Purdue. Blake Griffin adds more hardware to the Blake and Taylor Griffin trophy mantle, taking home Tournament MVP honors.

It’s no secret that freshman in Madison Square Garden can get a little caught up in the moment, and we saw that in this game. Down 83-80 with nine seconds left, Purdue’s Freshman PG Lewis Jackson froze in the middle of the lane like a early teenage boy forced to slow dance. He panicked and threw the ball directly out of bounds, which ensured victory for the Sooners.

We’ve got to think this infuriated Purdue’s Namanja Calasan, a guy we’re already handicapping as the “2031 Suburban Indianapolis Adult Men’s League MVP.” After playing his bum off the entire game and getting slapped around by the better Griffin, he has to settle for some sort of moral victory. For the record, since he’s really good, let’s note that Griffin put up 18 and more importantly had 21 “window cleans.”

Down in Disney Tennessee and Georgetown put on a shooting clinic, essentially playing 40 minutes of L-A-K-E-B-U-E-N-A-V-I-S-T-A-F-L-O-R-I-D-A (that’s ‘Horse’ but much longer, obviously) before the Vols finished off the Hoyas, 90-78. Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field but the Vols just made more of ’em, and got the victory. Props to ESPN for breaking the Lane Kiffin new hire story during a Tennessee basketball game. Always love to have something like this provoke John Sciambi into a conversation with Fran Fraschilla about his Heisman favorite. We’d rather hear Dicky V talk about the Tampa Bay Rays, or even his analysis of President elect Barack Obama naming his cabinet. That’s just our take.

Tennessee now will meet Gonzaga in the finals. The Bulldogs brought Gary Williams and his Maryland Terrapins back down to earth, after they took down Sparty of Michigan State in the quarterfinals. Maryland never led in this game so there’s no point in overanalyzing. Maryland’s consolation prize: We’re not really sure.

Quickie 11.18: Babyfaced Curry gets 44 in loss, Griffin looks like “Man Among Boys”

Curry with the floater, he's nasty

Four or five years ago you would not have been surprised to read an ESPN Bottom Line: Oklahoma 82, Davidson 44. However, add in Stephen Curry, son of former NBA sharp shooter Dell Curry (arguably one of the top moustaches in the NBA), and you get those 44 points (from him alone) plus some, a career high for the Junior.

Our first Top 25 match up of the early season pitted #14 the Sooners from Oklahoma (3-0) and the #21 Curry Davidson Wildcats (2-1) in Norman, Oklahoma. The Wildcats were down as much as 21 points but as we all found out in March, never count out Davidson, NO MATTER WHO THEY PLAY. It took 29 shots for Curry to get his 44 but he did finish a non-super-human 6-15 from behind the arc. Only one other player finished in double figures for the Wildcats, Andrew Lovedale had 10 points.

As for Griffin and his Sooner’s, a lot of power forwards in the Big 12 probably did not get a good night sleep on Tuesday night. Nightmares of Griffin’s groin region flying over their face ambushed their REM sleep. At one point last night Fran Fraschilla (actually) added something to the color commentary of the game, when he compared Blake Griffin to Amare Stoudemire. Griffin led the team in all five major statistical categories…WOW…finishing with 25 points, and a modest 21 rebounds…sarcasm anyone? Also impressive was Sooner freshman Willie Warren, who finished with 20 points.

The Sooner’s looked impressive, and despite the comeback last night, they were able to shut the door on Davidson and take care of business. Don’t write Davidson off yet, last year they suffered an eerily similar loss to North Carolina early in the season by the same margin (4 points), and ended up being the Cinderella of March.

A great game yes, but you can bet it was just the appetizer for what’s to come in Norman. Saturday, undefeated #2 Texas Tech rolls into town trying to hold on to their Big 12 title hopes against the #5 Sooners. This game is definitely on par, in terms of hype, with the USC-Ohio State and any SEC game this season.