On This Day in OU Hoops History: Blake Griffin Too Much for Michigan
Oklahoma’s 2020 college basketball season came to an unceremonious and premature end when the NCAA declared this year’s tournament would not be played due to measures intended to stop the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Sooners just might have assembled the kind of team — a Big Three scoring triumvirate and a collection of young, athletic talent — that could have possibly made a good postseason run.
This team’s resume will always be incomplete.
Instead of using three weeks this spring to witness OU basketball history, SI Sooners will relive it. From now until April 4 — the date that was supposed to be this year’s Final Four semifinals — we’ll look back on Oklahoma’s most memorable NCAA Tournament games from that date in history.
MARCH 21, 2009
(2) OU 73, (10) Michigan 63
Blake Griffin was bloodied and bent, but he never bowed.
Not when he got flipped head over heels in a first-round victory over Morgan State. And not when he got knocked around by Michigan.
Griffin was indomitable again, piling up 33 points and 17 rebounds in a 73-63 victory over the Wolverines in the second round of the NCAA South Regional in Kansas City.
OU hadn’t been to the Sweet Sixteen in six years, but with the national player of the year on their side, they weren’t heading home this time.
“He's a fantastic player on a fantastic team,” said second-year Michigan coach John Beilien.
Griffin scored 20 points in the second half to help the 29-5 Sooners pull away to a Sweet Sixteen matchup with Syracuse in Memphis.
“This was so much fun,” Griffin said. “This is what we play for and it’s just fun when everybody is playing well and everybody is doing their thing.”
Griffin was certainly doing his.
He hit 14-of-20 field goals and tied Michael Beasley’s Big 12 Conference record with his 28th double-double of the season.
Freshman Willie Warren scored 16 and sharpshooter Austin Johnson 12. They combined to bury 6-of-13 from 3-point range.
“The main reason I was successful was because of how our guards played and everyone else played,” Griffin said. “It makes it real easy on me because they have to spread out a little bit, they can't just sink in.”
DeShawn Sims and reserve Anthony Wright had 14 points for Michigan (21-14), which hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in 11 years. The year before, the Wolverines lost a school-record 22 games.
Michigan trailed by just one at halftime but early in the second half OU was up 13.
It was Griffin’s thunderous, rim-rocking, one-handed fast-break slam over Zack Novak that put the Sooners ahead 57-45 with 9:23 to play.
Still, the Wolverines rallied to within 58-55 with six minutes left.
That’s when Griffin took over again, scoring seven of OU’s next 12 points. The Sooners also got a 3-pointer from Johnson and were on their way to Memphis.
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