SportsDay's All-Big 12 men's basketball team
11:13 AM CDT on Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Never mind the double-doubles and the dunks and the domination.
The play that might have epitomized Blake Griffin's season came about 40 feet away from the basket – and out of bounds. In his first game back after suffering a concussion, Griffin went sprawling over the scorers' table at Texas Tech trying to save a loose ball.
"When you have your best player – and a guy who I think is the best player in the country – selling out on each play like that, it's pretty neat to see," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said.
Although he was projected as an NBA lottery pick after last season, Griffin returned to Oklahoma for his sophomore year.
He didn't disappoint, leading the Big 12 in scoring (22.1 points per game) and the country in rebounding (14.1 per game).
His 40-point, 23-rebound game in his first meeting with Texas Tech prompted Red Raiders coach Pat Knight to compare him to the title character in the Terminator movies, an unstoppable, robotic assassin.
Despite being the target of every opposing defense, Griffin has been remarkably consistent. He had 13 games of at least 20 points and 15 rebounds this season.
"He understands that the other team is going to send everybody at him," Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said, "and it doesn't seem to bother him."
Some skeptics thought they might discover just how good a coach Self really was this season, with Kansas having seen the starting lineup of a national championship team depart.
Those people were right.
In a season filled with coaches who met or exceeded expectations, nobody did a better job from the ground up than Self.
Rebuilding around point guard Sherron Collins and emerging big man Cole Aldrich, Self ran Kansas' streak of consecutive conference titles (outright or shared) on his watch to five.
"It's still Bill and Kansas," Texas Tech coach Pat Knight said. "They just reload every year."
At times, Warren was a playmaker.
Other times, he was a scoring machine.
For most of the season, Warren was whatever Oklahoma needed him to be, one reason the Sooners finished second to Kansas in the Big 12.
Warren wisely spent most of the season deferring to conference player of the year Blake Griffin. When Griffin missed 1 ½ games with a concussion, Warren showed that he could lead a team.
Against Texas and Kansas, Warren totaled 50 points and hit 50 percent of his shots. He added nine assists.
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