Cocky Sooners hoping to silence Allen crowd

By Gary Bedore     Feb 2, 1988

When an Oklahoma basketball player looks into the mirror, he likes what he sees.

“If you are quiet and not conceited, you’ll not make it at Oklahoma,” said Sooner guard Ricky Grace. “You must have an ego. We all feel we have something to prove.”

“If you don’t have a big ego, you have nothing to shoot for,” added forward Harvey Grant.

The big, bad, run-at-the-mouth Sooners, who the past several years have backed up most of their boasts, will bring their massive egos to town for Wednesday night’s Big Eight clash against Kansas.

Tipoff is 8:05 p.m. before the usual sellout at Allen Fieldhouse. A live telecast is available on channels 13 and 41.

Apparently, KU’s fans fire up the seventh-ranked Sooners, 18-2 overall, 4-1 in the Big Eight. KU, losers of three straight games, owns a 12-7 mark, 1-3 in the league.

“When the fans cheer, it gives me more incentive to shut ’em up,” said Grace, who averages 14.4 points a game. “There’s no greater feeling than to go in an opposing gym and have it silent.

“Of any place we play, I like to silence the people of Kansas,” he added. “I’d rather lose to anybody else but Kansas. The tradition is there, like OU-Nebraska football. It’s there for Oklahoma-Kansas basketball.”

One of the Sooners’ top threats, the 6-8 Grant, also gears up big-time for KU.

“I was very close to going to Kansas,” said former Independence juco standout Grant, averaging 22.9 points and 11.7 boards in this year. “If I went to Kansas, the things I accomplished last year would not have been noticed with (Danny) Manning and (Kevin) Pritchard. I’m happy with my college choice.”

Grant, quite a force along with 6-10 junior Stacey King (19.5 points, 8.0 boards), has enjoyed participating in the many blowouts OU’s recorded the past season and a half. Surely you haven’t forgotten the 152-84 clubbing of Centenary and the 151-99 blistering of Dayton.

Whenever possible, the Sooners, who average 107.2 points to opponents’ 78.5, show no mercy. Last week, they outran rugged Iowa State in home and home battles, 109-86 and 96-91.

“We see a team is pretty tired and we keep on coming. We’re like a bunch of sharks who smell blood,” Grant said. “If we have someone down by 19 points we want to get them down 29.”

Their point totals are helped by the three-point shot. OU has hit 142 of 411 three-pointers compared to KU’s 24 of 90. Three Sooners – Grace, Mookie Blaylock and Dave Sieger – have hit more three-pointers than KU’s entire team. Grace is 42 of 120, Blaylock 38 of 112 and Sieger 31 of 85.

The players follow orders of highly-successful coach Billy Tubbs, who admittedly likes to see his team set records.

“I think the coach’s personality is reflected in the team,” said Grace, who is joined in the backcourt by Midland, Texas, juco transfer Blaylock. Blaylock, who has averaged 17.7 points this season, played in the same backcourt as KU’s Lincoln Minor at Midland.

“Coach Tubbs is very confident, so the players are confident. We feel we’ll beat anybody 20, 30 on a given night.”

Tubbs, who has compiled a 183-69 mark through 8 1/2 years with six straight 20-win seasons at OU, in fact, likes to talk about “crushing” teams. Criticism about running up the score doesn’t faze the man who has won at least 20 games in every season at Oklahoma except his first, 1981.

“He’s fun going. You love to go to practice. You know you’ll have fun,” said Grant of Tubbs. “He’s a helluva guy. Very humorous.”

“He’s everything I heard he was and more,” Grace said. “I still enjoy listening to him tell stories, just being Billy Tubbs.”

The Jayhawks will try to ignore any possible on-court taunts from the Sooners.

“Every team has guys that do that (brag),” said guard Jeff Gueldner, who scored 10 points in six minutes of work in Saturday’s loss to Kansas State. “You can’t think about the way they act. You take care of your own business. Oklahoma plays so well.”

There is a good chance Oklahoma will, like the many other teams KU’s faced lately, pack a zone in on center Danny Manning. OU used some zone against ISU Saturday.

“It’s tough. Danny has three guys around him,” KU guard Pritchard said. “Teams are playing zone, so I have to show more responsibility. I need to step forward and hit the shots. I was three for 12 (versus KSU) shooting 15 footers. I have to hit those.”

Notes

The last seven KU-OU games have been decided by seven or fewer points, and three of the last four by a basket…Kansas is the only Big Eight team never to score 100 on Oklahoma, while OU has reached the century mark on KU just once…Freshman Mike Masucci is expected to start in place of Chris Piper. Masucci hurt his ankle at Monday’s practice but it wasn’t serious…

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