Kelvin Sampson had to make a decision. Did Oklahoma’s basketball coach want to take his poison by tablet or by capsule?
If Raef LaFrentz was a tablet and Paul Pierce a capsule, then Sampson swallowed the capsule.
“You have to take either Pierce or LaFrentz away,” Sampson said. “You can’t take away both. We decided to take away LaFrentz. We knew we had to keep the ball out of his hands, and our kids did a good job on him.”
But Pierce scored 31 points, including 15 in a row during one second-half stretch that buried the Sooners’ comeback bid. Pierce made 14 of 17 shots and only a couple were crips in Kansas’ 83-70 home-finale victory.
“Paul Pierce is a pro,” Sampson said. “Why couldn’t his mother have flown in today, and got lost on the way to St. Louis instead of Topeka?”
Sampson was jocularly referring to Saturday when Pierce’s mother, Lorraine Hosey, arrived for the second half of the Iowa State game after missing the Lawrence exits on the Kansas Turnpike.
Mrs. Hosey was there for the opening tipoff on Monday night, sitting about 10 rows behind the Oklahoma bench and wearing a Kansas jersey with No. 34 on it.
“He didn’t get a lot of easy baskets,” Sampson said of Pierce. “He hit 12 tough, tough shots.”
Meanwhile, LaFrentz settled for 15 points and 10 rebounds in his last game in Allen Fieldhouse.
“(Kansas) has two of the top five picks in the draft … hopefully,” Sampson said smiling. “You can read between the lines on that.”
Pierce, a junior, hasn’t announced his plans for next season, but it was obvious the Sooners had seen all of him they wanted to see.
“He got on a run,” OU guard Michael Johnson said. “He came out shooting.”
Added center Evan Wiley: “I ain’t ever seen Pierce do anything like that. He just came to play. He’s an All-American and he played like one.”
Oklahoma came to play, too, and that’s what pleased Sampson.
“I can’t tell you how well and how hard this team played,” Sampson said. “I don’t know if I’ve had a team play this hard. I think the story is my kids and how well they played.”
One statistic leaped out at Sampson.
“To have only 12 turnovers playing in this environment. That’s how well we played,” the OU coach said. “I’ll take 12 turnovers every year. That’s outstanding.”
OU guard Corey Brewer, who had been averaging 25.1 points in Big 12 games, settled for 15 on Monday night. Brewer missed nine of 13 shots.
“I thought he played great,” Sampson said. “Don’t judge him by how many points he scores or by his statistics.”
Oklahoma fell behind by as many as 19 points in the first half, but cut the deficit to five with about 13 minutes remaining.
“It was 50-45, then I looked up and it was 60-48,” Sampson said. “Kansas … I can’t say one thing that hasn’t been said about them. Roy (Williams) has kids we’d all like to coach, but I wouldn’t trade any of my kids. Maybe I’m emotional now, but this may be my favorite team.”
Oklahoma, now 19-9 overall and 10-5 in the conference, will conclude the regular season Saturday at Texas Tech.
“It’ll be another Senior Night for us,” Sampson said.
Not that Sampson expects to see another flower-strewn “love-in” like he saw Monday night in Allen Fieldhouse.
“I’ve seen some celebrations, but my goodness,” the OU coach said, smiling. “It was knights and saints out there.”
