Oklahoma basketball fans are still buzzing about the ‘Big Monday’ battle royal with big, bad Kansas.
And, believe me, there are quite a few Kansas followers who will admit the outcome of that game could easily have gone the way of the guys in crimson and cream.
That is a truly scary thought if you are a fan of the perennial Big 12-champion Jayhawks, but for Sooner fans, the one thing they can take away from the loss to Kansas is that OU is definitely for real this season and a big-time, legitimate contender to stop the Jayhawk stranglehold on the conference crown in basketball.
About as thrilling a game as you could hope to see – in person or otherwise – the first Big 12 “Big Monday” game of the season will be a difficult act to top. Sooner fans are hopeful that the next “Big Monday” game featuring Oklahoma, two weeks from now, will have a better result.
For that contest, the Sooners will have to go on the road again, this time to Ames, Iowa, where another ranked conference opponent, Iowa State, and raucous hostile crowd will be waiting. The Cyclones will have redemption in mind, having lost at Oklahoma last weekend in the conference opener for both teams.
By the time the next Monday night game for Oklahoma rolls around, on Jan. 18., the Sooners’ first five games in their conference schedule will have included games against top-ranked Kansas and two against the Cyclones, the team other than OU expected to compete for the Big 12 title this season. And the one game remaining with Kansas will be at Lloyd Noble Center.
Not that the remainder of the Sooners’ 2016 conference slate won’t pose it share of challenges, but looking ahead the final two-thirds of the schedule sets up very favorably for coach Lon Kruger’s team.
That’s the forward-looking perspective, but while it’s still fresh in our minds, here is a look in the rear-view mirror at the five plays I would consider the most significant in Monday nights’ dramatic triple-overtime game at Kansas:
Wayne Selden’s three-pointer to give the Jayhawks their first lead. Oklahoma had jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead on a three-point shot by Buddy Hield followed by a Ryan Spangler layup to take something out of the crowd. The Jayhawks inched their way back, however, and with 16:22 to go in the opening half, Wayne Selden hit a long three-pointer to give the Jayhawks their first lead in the game and put the highly partisan, capacity KU crowd right back in the game. The Sooners briefly regained the lead at 9-8 on a steal and breakaway lay-in by Jordan Woodard, but that was erased on a subsequent three-pointer by KU’s Brannen Green to put the Jayhawks up 11-9. Kansas would hold on to the lead, which at one point was stretched out to 11 points, for the next 12 and a half minutes of the first half.
Back-to-back three-point shots by Jordan Woodard in the closing seconds of the first half. With 1:46 remaining until intermission, Frank Mason put Kansas up 40-32 with his only made three-point shot of the night. Seven seconds later, Buddy Hield countered with a three-pointer for the Sooners, cutting the Kansas lead back to five. The Jayhawks came up empty on their next two trips down the floor, and the Sooners made them pay. Jordan Woodard hit back-to-back three point shots from the left wing and, just like that, an eight-point Kansas advantage had evaporated into a 41-40 Oklahoma lead. Hield would add on three more points with free throws right before the first half buzzer, and the Sooners took a 44-40 lead to the locker room at halftime.
Ryan Spangler three-pointer to put Sooners up by 10 in second half. With just a little more than three minutes gone on the second half, Ryan Spangler stepped back behind the three-point line and drained the shot to put Oklahoma ahead by 10 points, the Sooners’ biggest lead of the game, at 54-44. That was Spangler’s second three-pointer within two minutes. He had made one on a previous second-half possession that put OU up 49-42.
Missed free-throw by Khadeem Lattin with :02 left in regulation. With seconds winding down in regulation, the game tied at 77 and Kansas holding for the last shot, the Jayhawks’ Frank Mason missed a layup attempt on a shot that looked as if he might have been fouled. That was a no-call by the officials. Instead, they whistled KU’s Landon Lucas for an over-the-back foul of Oklahoma’s Khadeem Lattin on the rebound. That sent Lattin, a 54-percent foul shooter, to the free-throw line at the other end with two seconds on the clock and a chance to win the game for the Sooners. KU head coach Bill Self used a time out in an attempt to freeze the foul shooter. Lattin’s free-throw attempt clanged harmlessly off the back iron, sending the game to the first of what would be three overtime sessions, a first at historic, 60-year-old Allen Fieldhouse.
Kansas’ steal of Buddy Hield’s in-bounds pass with :15 remaining in 3rd OT. Back and forth the game went for three overtime sessions. The game was tied seven times during the extra 15 minutes of play. Kansas held the lead five times in the three overtimes, and Oklahoma led four times. With 15 seconds left in the third overtime, however, Oklahoma had the ball out of bounds trailing by a single point, 107-106 with plenty of time on the clock to set up a shot to win the game. Frank Mason of Kansas was guarding Buddy Hield on the inbounds pass. Mason managed to deflect Hield’s attempted throw-in to Isaiah Cousins and steal the ball, ending any realistic chance the Sooners had to win the game. The Sooners were forced to foul Mason, who went on to drop in both free throws and extend the Kansas lead to 109-106. Oklahoma still had nine seconds to work with. This time, however, the Sooners’ only hope was to gain a tie and send the contest to a fourth overtime. OU had the right guy taking the final shot, but Hield’s hurried three-point attempt was off the mark for one of the few times all night. A classic, 55-minute showdown between a couple of No. 1 teams had come to a dramatic end with Kansas holding serve on its home hardwood, a place where the Jayhawks have lost but three times in the last 145 home appearances dating back to 2007.