KANSAS CITY — There’s no other way to slice it but to acknowledge that Oklahoma and Kentucky, who tip at 8:04 p.m. today at Sprint Center hoping to reach the Final Four, are unlikely combatants.
Kentucky was picked to finish 11th in the 12-team SEC. The Sooners were picked to finish fifth in the Big 12. And OU has been without Whitney Hand since late November. Heck, OU has lost 10 games. Yet, here the Sooners and Wildcats are.
Explaining why, in detail, would demand an encyclopedic answer. Yet both coaches offered a real clue, speaking about the committment of their players.
“These guys have great eyes. They’re full of faith and belief and committment and they lock in on me in huddles. They listen. They buy into everything. They buy into one another. They buy into our coaching staff,” OU coach Sherri Coale said. “I always tell my point guards that point guards arrive at the gym with their teammates’ best performance in their eyes. This is a team that (does that) player for player … It’s just passed along, one to the other, and I think that’s something special that keeps us playing.”
Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell gave his version of the same quote. The question was about defense, but his answer spoke to more.
“The reason we have progressed and we’re in the position we are now is because they never grew weary of the fundamentals … I’m talking about late in the season, we’re still doing 30 minutes of defensive fundamental footwork every day. It’s just the same drills every day,” he said. “It would be very easy for them to complain or moan and grown or to just kind of get through a drill and there are just so few times I have ever had to stop and say, ‘Look, this is not the kind of effort we’re looking for.’ I’m taking about very, very few times over a long, hard season.”
Common opponents
OU and Kentucky have five common opponents: South Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Nebraska.
The Sooners are 2-3 in those games, losing to Georgia (62-51 in Athens), Tennessee (96-75 in Knoxville) and Nebraska (80-64 in Norman). OU beat South Carolina (75-67 in the Virgin Islands) and Arkansas (87-86, in overtime, in Norman).
The Wildcats are 4-4, splitting two meetings with Georgia (a 61-60 overtime loss in Athens; a 64-48 victory in Lexington), beating Arkansas twice (69-52 at home; 71-57 away), losing to Tennessee twice (81-65 away, 70-62 at home) and losing to South Carolina (79-71 in Columbia). They beat Nebraska 76-67 to get to tonight’s game.
Turning points
As has been well documented, the Sooners’ growth accelarated following a 75-57 Lloyd Noble Center loss to Texas. One more clunker followed, a month later at Texas A&M, 78-55 loss. Yet again, OU came back stronger and has played very well since ripping apart Bedlam rival Oklahoma State 95-62 on March 7.
Kentucky opened the season 9-0 with a cupcake schedule that included Tennessee Chattanooga, Moorehead , McNeese State and Florida A&M.
Then the Wildcats played last season’s national runner-up, Louisville, and throttled the Cardinals 101-67.
If that proved what they could do, they made it a habit after opening SEC play 1-2 by winning eight straight conference games, topping quality teams like LSU, Mississippi State and Georgia along the way.
Fans atwitter
Departed Oklahoma men’s point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin may have announced his plans to turn pro on Facebook, but the Kentucky women are using the social networking site as a receptacle of adoration for their tournament run.
Starting guard Keyla Snowden, according to backcourt mate Amani Franklin, had 99 messages after Sunday’s victory over Nebraska. Franklin had “about 50,” guard Amber Smith had 14, forward Victoria Dunlap had only seven, but guard A’Dia Matthews reported her message count to be “in the 30s.”
Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com
