This scene was the worst case scenario for Oklahoma basketball fans
Oklahoma was already facing an uphill battle Monday night at Allen Field House but with an injury to Blake Griffin early in the game the Sooners were like lambs led to a slaughter.
Without their leader in scoring, rebounding and in steals Oklahoma found themselves down by 20 at the half and then on to an 85-55 loss which was the most lopsided loss to the Jayhawks since 1978. The Sooners were out rebounded by 9 (38-29), had 11 turnovers and shot just below 33% from the floor Monday night. That is a performance that won't beat most teams in the conference much less the best team in the country.
The question on the minds of OU fans now is how long Blake Griffin will be out? He is set to under go and MRI on Tuesday for what had been diagnosed earlier as a sprained left knee. The results of the MRI will tell the story of how bad the damage is and how long the Sooners will be without their star.
In the meantime with Texas Tech, a trip to Baylor, Oklahoma State and another trip to college station on tap for the Sooners over the next three weeks the pressure is back on the guards to carry the team. Now more than ever it is crucial that they take care of the ball and create shots off the dribble. Longar Longar's 21 points against the best team in the country proved that he is capable of scoring down low against just about anyone and with all due respect to Oklahoma's future opponents it'll be a while before they face another team with post players of the same caliber of Kansas. So if the guards are on then Longar should be able to continue to put up points and hopefully clean the boards at a little better pace.
Without Blake Griffin a 3-1 record over that stretch would be excellent, 2-2 would be acceptable and 1-3 or worse would be tragic to a team that had showed so much promise coming into conference play.
UPDATE: Blake Griffin's MRI showed that he suffered from a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. He'll be out three to four weeks.
"Blake's injury affects our frontcourt depth, but it also presents an opportunity for other guys to step up. They have to be ready. We're not going to make any excuses."