The University of Oklahoma’s basketball team made all Sooners proud on Saturday by handily defeating the Oregon Ducks in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen by a score of 80 to 68 in a game in which they never trailed. Being an alumni and fan of all Sooner sports, I felt a measure of redemption in such a thorough manhandling of the Ducks. Even though it was in another sport at Oregon’s home stadium going on ten years ago, I vividly recall how the home team managed to rate a favorable call of recovering an onside kick of which the Ducks never had possession. That bit of home cookin’ set up their go-ahead score as time wound down. Given there is no honor among thieves, that is one OU defeat that has stuck in my craw ever since.
Saturday’s vanquishing of the Ducks in basketball does absolutely nothing to change history but it sure does take the sting out it. Looking ahead, OU secured its first Final Four berth in over a decade and only its fifth in school history. The Sooners (29-7) will play Villanova in Houston next Saturday to decide who will play the winner of the Syracuse-North Carolina match for the 2016 National Championship. A national championship in basketball has always eluded the Sooners but this could be our year behind the leadership of Coach Lon Kruger and senior Buddy Hield.
Buddy HieldHield sure lit up the scoreboard in the route of the Ducks with 37 points including eight 3-point shots. He became the second leading scorer in Big 12 history during the first half, behind Baylor’s LaceDarius Dunn. OU got a stellar performance from all the starters and a fair amount of help from the bench in this display of offensive firepower. The Sooners led by 18 at the half and never looked back.
One fact of note with this Sooner victory: Oklahoma is the first school to have its football team and basketball team in the Final Four playoff of the respective sports in the same academic year. Given some of the ugly things that have tainted the reputation of the school and state over the past year such as the SAE fraternity mess and any one of a number of other problems facing the citizens of Oklahoma, it is nice to see that OU athletics is doing something right. All I have left to say is on to Houston and the Final Four! BOOMER SOONER!!!
Oklahoma defeats Oregon 80 to 68 to advance to Final Four