Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma basketball: Sooners squandered their best opportunity to win a national title

By Chip Rouse

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Jarrett Culver #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders holds the official game ball in the first half against the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Jarrett Culver #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders holds the official game ball in the first half against the Virginia Cavaliers during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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At no time in the 111-year history of men’s Oklahoma basketball have the Sooners had a better chance of capturing a national championship than in 1987-88.

The 1987-88 NCAA national championship game between No. 4 Oklahoma and unranked Kansas represented two extremes of emotion for me personally.

On one hand, it was the most euphoric I have ever felt about OU’s chances of winning a national championship in a sport other than football.

In my heart and mind, there wasn’t any way the Sooners could lose. They had been dominant all year, averaging more than 100 points per game, had beaten five ranked teams on the way to 35 wins and had already beaten Kansas twice that season. It was the closest you could get to a sure thing. Or so I thought.

My emotional makeup after “Danny and the Miracles” had pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the entire tournament — and on its biggest stage, the national championship game — was as if I had been hit over the head and experienced blunt-force trauma. To twist the famous World Series call by legendary broadcaster Jack Buck, “I couldn’t believe what I just saw.” No way Kansas could beat this Oklahoma team.

But that’s exactly what happened, giving credence to the time-worn sports cliché, “any team on any given day.” Oklahoma was undeniably the better team, but Kansas was the best team on that particular day, which just so happened to be 32 years today (April 4, 1988).

Since that best and worst of days over three decades ago, I have been going through my own version of the five stages of grief.

First it was outright shock, then disbelief. The disbelief phase endured for over a year; in fact, part of me is still at that stage.  I’m still in denial that the greatest of all the Oklahoma basketball teams before or since could deny me the thrill of witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime Sooner national championship in basketball, and I’ve been angry ever since.

I candidly don’t think I’m ever going to be able to accept the fact that Oklahoma lost that game.

I have appeased myself over the years by believing that had that 1988 championship matchup between OU and Kansas been staged 10 times, the Sooners would have won nine of the 10.

Using the simulation model available through WhatIfSports.com, I set out the other day to validate my hypothesis. The results were even better than I imagined. Over 10 consecutive simulations matching 1987-88 Oklahoma and 1987-88 Kansas, on a neutral court, the Sooners by no fewer than 11 points in all 10 games.

Here were the final scores of the 10 games: 106-78, 105-96, 89-78, 94-77, 101-87, 105-91, 100-77, 105-89, 118-91, 107-95. That’s an average margin of victory of 17.3.

Now that’s something I can accept.

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