Tilting at Windmills

Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup between your Oklahoma Sooners and the Syracuse Orangemen will be the third time the two schools have met, all in the state of New York. OU came out on the short end of two of those: the first was at Syracuse’s bandbox gym in 1949 before Tim Tebow commanded we cut holes in the peach baskets and before Wilt widened the lane; the second was the 2003 Elite 8 beatdown when not even Kelvin’s sending in YoYo Szendrei to knock Carmelo Anthony over the scorer’s table could keep OU from being sent home.

OU’s lone win in the series? The Tisdale-McCalister Sooners in 1984, running and funning their way to a 98-91 win in front of 22,000 booing fans at what was then the four-year-old Carrier Dome. Tisdale had 33 and 10 while Tmac poured in 26 (it definitely would have been more had there been a 3-point line). The best line of the day came from Tubbs himself, natch.

“We beat a great ballclub today from the almighty Big East, the greatest conference in the world.”

At the time, OU was trying to gain some national respect and got a lot of cred by beating the Cuse in their own house. On Friday, the Sooners will be looking for a different kind of respeck-propa. Some national love is there, but it sure seems like the majority of voices around the country aren’t giving OU much of a chance.

You could have admittedly included your’s truly in that group until getting my head on straight after the Michigan game on Saturday. Sure, Syracuse’s backcourt of Jonny Flynn and domestic abusing tough guy Eric Devendorf is solid, and great guard play has been poison to former PG Capel’s club. Flynn might be playing the best ball of any point in the tournament right now.

"I love you, you bitch!"

Cuse’s big man in the paint, Arinze On- … Oahu … Obi Erie … screw it, you know – the African guy – is a couple of tacos short of three bills on a 6’9” frame and can move his feet reasonably well, so he’s actually somebody who could at least make Agent Smith do the Time Warp before framing a new poster over him.

Turn to the basket, seal your man, pop, lock, finish at the rim.

But …

What exactly will Jim Boeheim’s squad do to counterpunch the Sooners dominant inside attack? Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Syracuse plays a 2-3 zone. By the way, the Cuse is going to pack down into a zone.

Oh, and in case you missed it, Boeheim loves to play zone.

OK, now that we’ve all finished our Western grip spanky-spank on Boeheim’s defensive genius, let me drop some knowledge on you:

Blake will get his. Oomfoofoo, Rick Jackson and Kristof Ongenaet (we’ll just call him “The Trappist”) are equal parts tall, thick and Belgian brewmaster. Jackson’s been in Boeheim’s doghouse lately, though, for having too many appropriately-placed vowels and consonants. They’ll have 15 fouls between them (last time I checked) and just a guess here, but I’m thinking they’ll start beating on Blake like Devendorf on a ho who talks to much.

Willie and AJ can’t get worn out on the defensive end so much that it takes away from their offense. Flynn will be a tough cover, let’s just get that out of the way. However, when AJ’s not suffering from a sprained ankle the back of Willie’s hand bad back, he’s as good of an on-ball defender and shot blocker as any guard left in the tournament. Willie needs to be able to spot the picks and fight through them or Flynn’s gonna pick and roll with one of the bigs all night. The Sooners will also need to rotate quickly on defense and give Willie and AJ lots of help so they don’t burn up their legs trying to keep up with the speed of Syracuse’s guard tandem.

Taylor has to continue playing well in his complimentary role. The Nattily-Attired One has been the primary beneficiary of his brother’s going offedness, averaging 12.5 points and 6 rebounds in the two tournament games. He helps the team best when he smartly goes straight to the rim whenever the ball gets to Blake in the post, many times finding his man is so concerned about not being the piss boy in another ESPN highlight reel that he forgets to block out.

"Yeah, give me pouty ... great! Now give me the come-hither ... super!"

So yes, I’ve come around. I was one of those in awe of the Cuse’s eleventy-million overtimes against UConn, but that was UConn. This is Oklahoma, dammit. The Sooners have not only a great chance to advance to the Elite 8, but they should definitely do it if they keep playing like they have the past week. It’s like Capel took the month of February to tear the team down and now he’s building them back up again. One triteism we know for sure: nobody wants to play the Sooners right now. More to the point, nobody wants to go against Blake Griffin. Ever.

If the Sooners are looking for motivation, they can find it in the fact that with a win on Friday, this club will be just the fifth Sooner team in school history, and the first in 20 years, to notch 30 wins. Not all into the whole history thing, man? Well, Boeheim will be going for his 800th school win and his third win in three tries against OU, and we know the CBS hyperbole machine will be cranked up to 11 for that stat.

Should all other motivation fail, maybe we can ferry Tubbs to Memphis on Friday to give us more pithiness about the largess of Big East basketball. That should do it.