Kansas Overcomes Griffin-Less Oklahoma

Say what you will about the Kansas Jayhawks.

Say they are overrated. Say they play in a weak conference this year. Say they beat the Sooners without the leading candidate for player-of-the-year and arguably the best player in the nation.

Just don't say they can't overcome tremendous odds.

Picked in the preseason polls to finish tied for third in the Big XII, Kansas now sits alone atop the standings in the Big XII conference.

After losing all five starters from last season's national championship team and over 80 percent of their scoring output, Coach Self has his Jayhawks looking to snag their fifth consecutive Big XII title with five new starters and only one major contributor returning from last year's team.

The scene was set in Norman for a showdown between the league's top two records.

Oklahoma was coming off a huge loss in Austin against the Longhorns, one in which they not only lost the game, but lost their best player to an unfortunate concussion.

Kansas was coming off two straight victories over Kansas State and Iowa State after a hard-fought, last-second loss to Missouri in Columbia.

Both teams went in at 11-1 in conference and were looking for the lead in the Big XII.

This game had all the makings of the Big XII game of the year so far and it did not disappoint, as Oklahoma jumped out to an early 22-8 lead.

With Willie Warren commanding the game early and breaking Brady Morningstar's ankles on nearly every possession, it looked as if the Sooners wouldn't miss a beat without their star player Griffin.

After a time out, Coach Self decided to switch the defensive assignments up and stuck Sherron Collins on Willie Warren, a move that would ultimately determine the outcome of the game.

From that moment on, Kansas went on a tear both offensively and defensively. Kansas went on a 28-7 run to end the half on a Tyrel Reed three-point shot to make it 36-29.

Tyshawn Taylor's first half was one of the best performances the freshman has had all season.

Driving, penetrating, and shooting from beyond the arc, it seemed as if he couldn't miss, at one point being perfect from the field and from the line.

But this game was a tale of four quarters instead of two halves. In the first quarter, OU dominated the game and Kansas had no answers.

Whatever they tried seemed to fail while Oklahama could do no wrong. In the second quarter, the shoe dropped and Oklahoma found itself unable to score, unable to defend and unable to stop the bleeding.

Things continued this way through the third quarter of the game, when at one point Kansas had a seemingly insurmountable 20-point lead with just over 10 minutes to play in the game.

That's when things got interesting. After battling back into the game, the two teams traded off three-pointer after three-pointer.

Incredibly, they seemed to be stepping back further and further from the three-point line, culminating in about a 28-footer from Collins to put the Jayhawks back up six, after the Sooners had cut the 20-point lead to three.

From there, the Jayhawks never looked back, and ended up winning by 9.

This game was not expected to be as exciting without Griffin, but in some respects it may have ended up being more exciting. 

Oklahoma's guards may not have shined nearly as bright with Griffin, and the game flow and tempo would have changed dramatically with the Sooner big man in the contest.

Though the alternative would have been to see the Aldrich/Griffin matchup many fans of both teams would have liked to see, what we ended up with was a near instant classic in intensity.

Both teams seemed to want to win more than the other, neither team gave up after falling behind big, and both teams should come out winners at the end of the day.

Kansas knows it can beat top teams on the road, after struggling with it early in the year.

Oklahoma knows that it can play serious hoops even without Blake Griffin. With Blake Griffin, they have to like their chances against anyone at any time.