It's been awhile since the last episode of the Sooner Sports Notebook, but it's been pretty busy in the basketball department lately. Both the men's basketball team and the women's basketball team have advanced to the Sweet 16 in their respective brackets. Oklahoma is one of 6 universities this year who have advanced both of their basketball teams to the Sweet 16. The others include Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Purdue and Michigan State. So, a big congratulations to our men's and women's basketball teams!

Up Next In The Tournaments:

MBB: Friday at 6:40 PM versus 3-seed Syracuse, CBS
WBB: Sunday at 8:30PM versus 4-seed Pittsburgh, ESPN2

I previewed the Syracuse matchup already, and tried to take a look at where we might be able to match up with them well. We have lots of notes today so we'll jump right into it. All the good stuff after the jump (click the link below)

A couple of great articles hit the web in the past 24 hours about Blake Griffin. The first is by Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated who takes a look at how Blake has responded to all the cheap shots he's taken this year. The second is by Andy Katz of ESPN talking about how Jeff Capel and the Griffin family has kept Blake well grounded despite all the NBA hype. Both are worth your time.

The Norman Transcript discusses how to beat the 2-3 zone. Awesome, they should share that with the coaching staff.

Analysis galore: Sporting News, CBS Sports Edge, USA Today, Sports Illustrated.

Some thoughts from Syracuse: Tulsa World, The Daily Orange, Syracuse Post Standard.

In perhaps a preview of the Naismith Award, Blake Griffin took home the Adolph Rupp Award, which is basically just a different award for the same thing - the nation's top basketball player. Congrats to Blake.

The baseball team is still on a tear. They are 21-5 and have won 3 straight and 14 of their last 16.

Around The Big 12 Blogosphere

• Bill Self took home the 2009 Henry Iba Award (Rock Chalk Talk).
• Breakdown of the Mizzou-Memphis Sweet 16 matchup (Rock M Nation).
• The Nebraska football preview is in full swing at Corn Nation. This reminds me that I have to continue my little football preview series (look for that later).
• An analysis of the Longhorns basketball season over at Burnt Orange Nation. A good read if you like reading up on rivals.

Checking In On "The Other Tournaments"

• Baylor has advanced to the NIT semifinals in New York City. They were on a tear in the Big 12 tournament and I'd hate to be facing them right now. They will play the winner of St. Mary's and San Diego State.
  
• On the other half of the bracket, Penn State knocked off Florida to advance to the semifinals. The Nittany Lions will play the winner of Kentucky and Notre Dame (likely to be a pretty good game).
• And the newly invented CBI tournament is in its semifinal stages. Oregon State had a buzzer beater finish against Vermont, but I think the only reason they showed that on ESPN is because their coach is related to the first family. Anyways, the semifinal matchups are UTEP vs. Richmond and a Pac 10 rivalry of Oregon State and Stanford.