Not much hope left

By John Shinn The Norman Transcript

Norman — Oklahoma wrapped up its first losing regular season in 29 years with Saturday’s 69-54 loss to No. 23 Texas A&M.

What caused the Sooners to head south this season didn’t suddenly occur Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center. It had been building for months. The lack of a go-to scorer, lackluster team defense, poor rebounding and the inability to hold onto second-half leads all played a part in why the Sooners will enter the Big 12 tournament Wednesday at 13-17.

But what created all those issues was a lack of chemistry.

“You never sign a team. You sign individuals that you hope can become a team. That’s something we’ve struggled with all year,” OU coach Jeff Capel said.

Basketball is more complicated than putting five players out on the court and seeing what they can do. There has to be a reason they’re out there in the first place.

OU never solved that puzzle.

“We tried to do all that we could to mix well and have chemistry and to be successful,” senior guard Tony Crocker said. “We have good chemistry, like guys are friends, but I guess on the court we didn’t mix very well.”

The previous two seasons, creating chemistry didn’t require a doctorate.

Blake Griffin was an All-American power forward and everyone knew it. The offense went through him. The defense was set up because OU knew it had a great shot blocker in the paint and one of the college game’s best rebounders.

But OU didn’t have that kind of presence this season.

It thought it had a potential All-American guard in Willie Warren, but Warren, due to injuries and other issues, never established himself as OU’s true leader. Therefore, the Sooners never really had one.

Capel is big on defining roles. It’s not to pigeonhole players. They can expand and contract depending how each person plays.

But the first role has to be who the best player is and who the offense and defense is going to be centered around.

Winning teams never have a problem doing that.

OU didn’t the last two seasons. The great teams Kelvin Sampson had didn’t have a problem saying Hollis Price was their best player. Billy Tubbs’ teams in 1980s didn’t have an issue pointing to Wayman Tisdale or Mookie Blalock. The teams atop the Big 12 Conference this season don’t have any issue with it either.

The Sooners do.

“If I would have said earlier in the year that Willie was our best player, I would have three guys in the locker room that are upset,” Capel said. “We get into conference, and after five or six games, I say Tommy (Mason-Griffin) is our best player, you’re still going to have three guys that are upset in that locker room. It’s tough.”

Whether it was a matter of ego or something else, Warren, who won’t play again due to ankle surgery, Mason-Griffin, Tiny Gallon and Crocker, never bought in.

Warren really only played four conference games healthy and hasn’t been at full strength since January. Mason-Griffin and Gallon are both freshmen.

None could handle taking a reduced role that meant being anything else than the Sooners’ top scorer.

In Crocker’s defense, his play didn’t suffer on the defensive end. He was the only one of the four that gave as much effort without the ball as he did with it.

The rest had to score to be effective. It rendered the Sooners ineffective.

Capel refused to say this is a lost season. OU enters the Big 12 tournament as the No. 10 seed. It faces No. 7 seed Oklahoma State at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. He’s not ready to concede a loss and look to next season yet.

“I’ll worry about that when the season’s over with. My only focus is the Big 12 tournament,” he said. “You can ask me that if we lose in Kansas City.”

After 30 games, though, the 2009-10 regular season proved one very important thing: it takes the right chemistry to win the Big 12 Conference. The Sooners just don’t have it.

John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com’

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