NORMAN — They are so close. The Oklahoma men are so close to turning the program into something new and (more) exciting. So close to getting the win that makes everything different than it was the day before.
You wonder if it will ever come, but first-year coach Lon Kruger’s crew is knocking on the door.
The Sooners are so close, seemingly, to not simply changing its fortunes, but even the culture around the program.
Already it’s changed within the program. You can see that every time the players exit the Lloyd Noble Center floor only after slapping hands and offering thanks to the first row of fans, letting the loyalists know they’re a part of it, too.
But Tuesday night, in what turned out to be a 77-65 loss to sixth-ranked Baylor, there were these moments where it felt like something from long ago, something that predated even Jeff Capel’s one golden season, back to Kelvin Sampson’s glory years, when the Sooners were a top-10 and top-15 mainstay, even if they had a look of always climbing up that hill.
The crowd was small, estimated at less than 6,000, but it really wanted to believe.
The final was misleading.
This was no 12-point game.
OU pulled within a point twice, with 18:18 remaining on a Steven Pledger jumper, and again 59 seconds later on a Romero Osby dunk. Then, after falling behind by 13 points, the Sooners made it a two-point game, 62-60, with 4:42 to play on a Cameron Clark jumper.
Both times the Bears stuffed OU’s rally as if the Sooners were nothing but pests, a thorn in their side on an otherwise beautiful day. They just heated up all over again, part of shooting 54 percent on the night.
Still you wonder just how tough Baylor really is because the Bears were hotter than a firecracker to start and, just maybe, it’s OU’s game had they come out cold.
That doesn’t mean there’s any denying the otherworldly talent at Baylor coach Scott Drew’s direction. There were plenty of moments, too, that made you wonder how Kansas and Missouri ever beat the Bears, and how anybody else might the rest of the conference season..
Even as OU was right there. Even as the Sooners are tired of being right there and not one step beyond.
“We’re just on extra step away from everything,” said Pledger, who led with 17 points, but struggled from the 3-point line, hitting 3 of 9 when 5 of 9 might have made it a much different game.
Osby made a real good case that close doesn’t mean a thing, not now that the Sooners are deep in their conference schedule, when every failed opportunity offers them one less chance to figure it out in time for anybody to care.
“I feel like we’re making progress,” Osby said, “but a moral victory is not something you want to accept.”
The nice thing about the Big 12’s new round-robin format?
There are more opportunities to make your break. There are nine conference teams and if you fail to win a close one the first time around, you get another chance, home or away.
The rotten thing about the format?
Lose to somebody the first time around and you’ll soon be placed in a position to lose to that same team again.
It’s terrific when it’s Texas A&M, which comes to Lloyd Noble Center March 3, about six weeks after last Saturday, when the Sooners couldn’t close the deal before losing in overtime at College Station.
It’s a different deal when that team is Kansas, or Baylor, both of which have already won in Norman and likely can’t wait to meet the Sooners again in Allen Fieldhouse and Ferrell Center.
The Sooners are so close, but maybe so far away. They’re at Kansas State Saturday, at Kansas a week from today, then its Iowa State at home, then No. 2 Missouri.
They’re close.
But close is beginning to feel very hollow.
Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com
