Different directions
The Sooners get into the NCAA Tournament, and the Cowboys are going to the NIT.
NORMAN — Trae Young couldn’t bear to watch.
Sitting with his Oklahoma teammates on the floor of the Lloyd Noble Center, the Sooner superstar looked everywhere but the giant television screen in front of him. He looked at the empty seats above and around the arena behind him and finally at the floor below him.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Show was must-watch TV for the on-the-bubble Sooners — but Young couldn’t bring himself do it.
“I’ve been very comfortable throughout this whole process,” Young said, pausing, “until the last minute.”
And those minutes were clearly agony for Young, who bent over at the waist, put his elbows on his knees, cupped his hands around his eyes and prayed.
Those divine desires were answered. Oklahoma is in.
A team given up for dead not so long ago is alive. Alive and well? We'll see. But at least alive. Having won just two games since the start of February, many wondered if the Sooners could sneak into the field. Many more thought they’d be one of last teams into the tournament at best, relegated to The First Four games in Dayton.
Instead, they are a No. 10 seed, facing Rhode Island and drawing a winnable game.
New life abounds. Now, what will the Sooners do with this opportunity? Will they figure out a way recapture the enchantment of the first half of the season? Or will they continue a free fall that befuddled pundits near and far? There’s reason for hope. “This group’s obviously played much better basketball than we did in the last month,” Sooner coach Lon Kruger said.
And the Sooner slide coincided with the back half of the Big 12 schedule. Teams that got a second crack at OU did a much better job in the rematch, and that was primarily because defending Young wasn't like trying to hold mercury in your hands. They figured out ways to defend the freshman phenom, ways to minimize the damage that he could inflict.
The result was a Sooner offense that hit a wall. The tempo slowed. The production stagnated.
But in the NCAA Tournament, OU has a chance to play a team that doesn’t know its every move. Is that a relief?
“I’m not gonna say it’s a relief,” Young said. “The relief now is that it’s 0-0 and everyone has the same record.”
Even though neither Young nor his teammates would cop to such things, playing new opponents isan advantage. There’s no doubt Rhode Island has seen lots of Trae Young. Everyone on Planet Earth has seen lots of him.
But it’s one thing to see him on TV or on film. It’s something else entirely to be on the court with him trying to keep up with him.
How do you prepare for his speed? His skill? His range?
If Young can get defenders scrambling, that only opens up the floor for Christian James and Brady Manek and Kam McGusty and the rest of the Sooners. Hit a few shots, roll up some points, and maybe the Sooner Magic returns.
But the truth is, what these Sooners do is entirely up to them. Will they prove right the naysayers who contend they didn’t really deserve an at-large bid much less No. 10 seed? Or will they seize the opportunity that they’ve been given?
Only the Sooners can answer that.
But at the very least, they understand they have been raised from the dead. That was evident in their reaction to their selection. Khadeem Lattin did a couple salsa dance steps. Jamuni McNeace bearhugged Rashard Odomes. James kept saying, “Still breathin’.”
“Hey,” McNeace said, breathlessly, “I was a little scared there.”
But even as the Sooners celebrated in those moments after the announcement, Young didn’t move. He stayed bent over, elbows on knees, hands around eyes.
When he finally stood and looked at the giant screen, his fists were clenched, his jaw steeled.
“We in now,” he said, smiling.
What they do with this new life remains to be seen, but this much we know— Resurrection Sunday came early at OU.