JimBob
03-22-2009, 07:25 AM
Cowboys are set to face Pitt's big man
OSU to rely on experience with Griffin against Blair.
By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 3/22/2009 3:46 AM
Last Modified: 3/22/2009 3:53 AM
DAYTON, Ohio — Oklahoma State is the only team in the country unfortunate enough to cross paths with potential national player of the year Blake Griffin three times.
Isn't there something in the Eighth Amendment about cruel and unusual punishment?
Apparently not.
Height-deficient OSU will encounter the beast of the Big East, Pittsburgh center DeJuan Blair, in a second-round NCAA Tournament game Sunday.
Blair is "only" 6-foot-7, but weighs 265 pounds and has a 7-foot-2 wingspan.
Nicknamed "Big Fella" and ranking perhaps as the biggest bruiser to hail from Pittsburgh's Schenley High School since Bruno Sammartino, Blair is more than capable of picking on someone his own size. He dropped 22 points and 23 rebounds on Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet and 23 points and 22 rebounds on Notre Dame's Luke Harangody.
Now Blair faces OSU, alias the little team that could.
Blair is 30 pounds heavier than anyone on the Cowboy roster. He has every reason to believe he can throw his weight around. Maybe he admits that when reporters aren't around. But, of course, he's never going to say it in a press conference because it would be perceived as bulletin board material.
"They've got a good post player in (Marshall) Moses," Blair said when asked about facing an opponent with a height shortage.
"He's getting better every game. And I feel he's a good player also. So I'm just going to keep playing, and I ain't going to change for nobody. I think every big man I play is good from now on. From now on, every team we play is going to be an excellent team. So I'm just going to go hard, like I went hard every other game. It's just another game."
Another game? OSU hopes Blair doesn't construct another game like the one he had against the Cowboys last season. He feasted for 20 points (on 8-of-10 shooting), 10 rebounds and five blocks in an 85-68 Panther victory.
But maybe the Cowboys have faced enough big men since then that they have gotten smarter, if not taller.
OSU coach Travis Ford said his players "learned a little bit about ourselves" each time the Cowboys squared off against Griffin this season.
"I think we got a little bit better maybe each time we played him," Ford said.
Griffin averaged 29.5 points and 16.5 rebounds in two regular season Bedlam clashes. He was limited to nine field goal attempts in a Big 12 Tournament loss to the Cowboys.
Blair and Griffin are two totally different players, according to Terrel Harris.
"Blake is more explosive and exciting and can put it on the floor, more like Amare Stoudemire," the OSU guard said. "Blair is more of a Charles Barkley type and uses his body."
Pitt forward Tyrell Biggs said Blair is difficult to defend because he is physical and nimble.
"You don't see a lot of big men like that," Biggs said. "Most of them are lethargic, or kind of slow. But he is quick on his feet and that makes him a tough match-up."
Ford said Blair is an "incredible" rebounder who is virtually unstoppable around the basket.
"Hopefully our guys can learn from the history and learn from the experience of playing against some other great players and use that for our advantage tomorrow," Ford said.
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UPSET CITY
Sunday’s two NCAA Tournament games at the UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio, will be the 81st and 82nd NCAA contests in the facility’s 40-year history. It is the most NCAA games of any active arena.
Over that history, UD Arena has hosted some considerable tournament upsets and Cinderella stories. Oklahoma State, the eighth seed in the East Region, seeks to add another chapter to that history against top-seed Pittsburgh in Sunday’s second-round game.
A look at some of those upsets: 1975: Kentucky upends an undefeated Indiana team, 92-90 in overtime, in the Mideast Region final. The next year, Indiana completed the last undefeated season in major college basketball history.
Over that two-year span the Hoosiers were 63-1.
1981: Top-ranked DePaul loses 49-48 to St. Joseph’s on a last-second layup in Mideast Region second-round game.
1985: Villanova’s run to the national title starts in Dayton with a last-minute 51-49 win over Dayton in the Southeast Region first round, and then the Wildcats posted a 59-55 second-round upset of topseed Michigan.
1992: Midwest Region topseed Kansas falls 66-60 in second round to ninth-seed UTEP.
2006: George Mason’s improbable run to the Final Four starts in Dayton with wins over East Region sixth-seed Michigan State (a Final Four team the year before) and third-seed North Carolina (the defending national champions).
— BY MATT DOYLE, World Sports Writer
OSU to rely on experience with Griffin against Blair.
By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 3/22/2009 3:46 AM
Last Modified: 3/22/2009 3:53 AM
DAYTON, Ohio — Oklahoma State is the only team in the country unfortunate enough to cross paths with potential national player of the year Blake Griffin three times.
Isn't there something in the Eighth Amendment about cruel and unusual punishment?
Apparently not.
Height-deficient OSU will encounter the beast of the Big East, Pittsburgh center DeJuan Blair, in a second-round NCAA Tournament game Sunday.
Blair is "only" 6-foot-7, but weighs 265 pounds and has a 7-foot-2 wingspan.
Nicknamed "Big Fella" and ranking perhaps as the biggest bruiser to hail from Pittsburgh's Schenley High School since Bruno Sammartino, Blair is more than capable of picking on someone his own size. He dropped 22 points and 23 rebounds on Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet and 23 points and 22 rebounds on Notre Dame's Luke Harangody.
Now Blair faces OSU, alias the little team that could.
Blair is 30 pounds heavier than anyone on the Cowboy roster. He has every reason to believe he can throw his weight around. Maybe he admits that when reporters aren't around. But, of course, he's never going to say it in a press conference because it would be perceived as bulletin board material.
"They've got a good post player in (Marshall) Moses," Blair said when asked about facing an opponent with a height shortage.
"He's getting better every game. And I feel he's a good player also. So I'm just going to keep playing, and I ain't going to change for nobody. I think every big man I play is good from now on. From now on, every team we play is going to be an excellent team. So I'm just going to go hard, like I went hard every other game. It's just another game."
Another game? OSU hopes Blair doesn't construct another game like the one he had against the Cowboys last season. He feasted for 20 points (on 8-of-10 shooting), 10 rebounds and five blocks in an 85-68 Panther victory.
But maybe the Cowboys have faced enough big men since then that they have gotten smarter, if not taller.
OSU coach Travis Ford said his players "learned a little bit about ourselves" each time the Cowboys squared off against Griffin this season.
"I think we got a little bit better maybe each time we played him," Ford said.
Griffin averaged 29.5 points and 16.5 rebounds in two regular season Bedlam clashes. He was limited to nine field goal attempts in a Big 12 Tournament loss to the Cowboys.
Blair and Griffin are two totally different players, according to Terrel Harris.
"Blake is more explosive and exciting and can put it on the floor, more like Amare Stoudemire," the OSU guard said. "Blair is more of a Charles Barkley type and uses his body."
Pitt forward Tyrell Biggs said Blair is difficult to defend because he is physical and nimble.
"You don't see a lot of big men like that," Biggs said. "Most of them are lethargic, or kind of slow. But he is quick on his feet and that makes him a tough match-up."
Ford said Blair is an "incredible" rebounder who is virtually unstoppable around the basket.
"Hopefully our guys can learn from the history and learn from the experience of playing against some other great players and use that for our advantage tomorrow," Ford said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPSET CITY
Sunday’s two NCAA Tournament games at the UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio, will be the 81st and 82nd NCAA contests in the facility’s 40-year history. It is the most NCAA games of any active arena.
Over that history, UD Arena has hosted some considerable tournament upsets and Cinderella stories. Oklahoma State, the eighth seed in the East Region, seeks to add another chapter to that history against top-seed Pittsburgh in Sunday’s second-round game.
A look at some of those upsets: 1975: Kentucky upends an undefeated Indiana team, 92-90 in overtime, in the Mideast Region final. The next year, Indiana completed the last undefeated season in major college basketball history.
Over that two-year span the Hoosiers were 63-1.
1981: Top-ranked DePaul loses 49-48 to St. Joseph’s on a last-second layup in Mideast Region second-round game.
1985: Villanova’s run to the national title starts in Dayton with a last-minute 51-49 win over Dayton in the Southeast Region first round, and then the Wildcats posted a 59-55 second-round upset of topseed Michigan.
1992: Midwest Region topseed Kansas falls 66-60 in second round to ninth-seed UTEP.
2006: George Mason’s improbable run to the Final Four starts in Dayton with wins over East Region sixth-seed Michigan State (a Final Four team the year before) and third-seed North Carolina (the defending national champions).
— BY MATT DOYLE, World Sports Writer