Maybe a young Kansas University fan knew what was best for Oklahoma on Sunday.
With much approval and a hardy round of laughter from the all-adult audience surrounding him, a preadolescent boy shouted to Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson to “take it like a man” moments after Sampson was issued a technical foul with just more than eight minutes to play in KU’s 79-58 men’s basketball victory over OU at Allen Fieldhouse.
Sampson, KU coach Bill Self and players from both teams agreed that Sampson’s infraction — which came moments after Sooner center Jabahri Brown was whistled for his fifth foul — didn’t determine the outcome of the game.
But a 20-9 run — including a 5-0 spurt in the first 12 seconds following the technical — certainly changed the context of the game from a 10-point game to a circus-like Jayhawk celebration.
“It took one of their big bodies out of the game and maybe added a little emotion to our crowd,” said KU’s Keith Langford, who certainly did his best to fire up Jayhawk faithful after the technical when he turned an Aaron Miles lob pass into an awe-inspiring alley-oop dunk.
Jeff Graves and Wayne Simien then provided what may have been the biggest second-half highlight when Graves flicked a no-look pass over his shoulder to Simien for a slam.
Sampson — who was reprimanded by Oklahoma and the Big 12 Conference after making critical comments about the officiating in Wednesday’s 94-87 overtime loss to Colorado — offered no explanation of what affect the technical might have had on his team’s fourth straight loss.
“They didn’t tell me what the technical was for,” said Sampson, whose squad cut a 13-point deficit it accumulated in the game’s first 71/2 minutes to 40-38 on a Jason Detrick basket with 17:41 to go. “I have nothing else to say about the officiating.”
It appeared that it was Brown, not Sampson, who was doing the most protesting as he flailed his arms in the referee’s direction, prompting KU’s Michael Lee to give the “T” sign to the capacity crowd.
“I really don’t know what happened,” Brown said. “At the time I was frustrated, and then all of the sudden they were shooting free throws.”
Sampson played down OU’s fifth loss in seven games. The Sooners fell to 16-9 overall, 6-8 Big 12.
“It is not as bad as you think,” said Sampson, whose squad finishes the regular season with home games against the Big 12’s two worst teams in Texas A&M and Baylor this week. “If we can go home and win the next two and finish up strong in the tournament, we will be where everybody else is.”
But that’s not exactly the standards the Sooners have been setting for themselves, considering their average of 28 victories a year over the last four years — and a Final Four appearance two years ago and Elite Eight finish last season.
The Sooners have suffered two, four-game losing streaks for the first time since the 1980-81 season — then-coach Billy Tubbs’ first year at OU.
“If we win these last few games and win at least one game in the Big 12 tournament, I will be surprised if we don’t go to the NCAA Tournament,” said Sampson, who has qualified all but one of his 10 teams since becoming the Sooners’ coach in 1994.