OU blog: The final
score might not reflect
it, but this was a
bad Bedlam loss for the Sooners.Related Stories:
Travis Ford wore the blazer Monday night to honor the memory of Kurt Budke, the OSU women's basketball coach who died in a plane crash last November.
Budke created a stir when he donned an orange blazer for a women's Bedlam game in 2008. On the night he made the fashion statement, his team ambushed a sixth-ranked OU team in Stillwater.
Ford told his players that story before tipoff and asked them to represent OSU in the right way.
"It was a special moment," senior guard Keiton Page said. "We were all pretty excited about it."
Then players made certain Ford was dressed for success, playing aggressively and leading almost from start to finish in a 72-65 OSU triumph. After the game, Ford said Budke's widow, Shelley, was brought into the locker room so she could be presented with a game ball.
Le'Bryan Nash, challenged by coaches to show the kind of athleticism that permitted him to win the slam dunk contest at the McDonald's All-America game, matched a career-high with 21 points in his Bedlam debut.
Only two OSU players (Keiton Page, Markel Brown) had ever played in a Bedlam game, so Ford had to get his team up to speed about the importance of the rivalry. Nash should have known plenty about it since he is the younger brother of former Cowboy point guard Byron Eaton.
And, staying with the brother subject, Nash said this: "You don't want to be the little brother (in a rivalry), so we came out here and played hard."
It was accomplished with a combination of the usual (solid defense) and unusual (efficient offense).
In three Big 12 games this season, the Cowboys allowed opponents to shoot 39.6 percent (Texas Tech), 30 percent (Texas) and 32.4 percent (OU).
"(Defense) is something we take a lot of pride in," Ford said.
"In the past it has gotten overlooked. It's not now because we can't score. Everybody used to think all I did was offense and my teams have always scored a whole lot of points. ... But, the people who know us, we probably spend 70 or 80 percent of our time on defense every day. Our offense shows that at this point."
Ford said his team's offensive spacing was poor in a Saturday loss at Texas. His staff tweaked some things and it resulted in more cutting, 13 assists (third-highest total this season) and enough drives to the basket to help the Cowboys go to the free throw line 30 times (second-highest total this season).
OSU cracked the 70-point barrier for the first time in eight games. But the Cowboys' last field goal came with 7:20 remaining and OU rallied to get as close as five points with 33.7 seconds left.
Cezar Guerrero, Brian Williams (who finished with 13 points) and Page (who scored 18) combined to go 6-of-6 at the free-throw line to seal Ford's 50th homecourt win.
OU dropped to 10-5 and 0-3 despite getting 18 points each from Carl Blair and Romero Osby.
For more
OU players, coaches question the Sooners' effort. B4OU notes: Reserve guard Carl Blair a rare bright spot. B4
OSU notes: Public address announcer loans Ford a blazer. B4
OU up next
vs. Kansas State12:30 p.m. Saturday
Noble Center, Norman
TV: KTUL-8
Radio: KTBZ am1430
OSU up next
at Baylor4 p.m. Saturday
Ferrell Center, Waco, Texas
TV: ESPN2-26
Radio: KFAQ am1170
Original Print Headline: Orange power
Jimmie Tramel 918-581-8389
jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.com
Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20120110_93_B1_CUTLIN896025&rss_lnk=2
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