Jan 13th 2009 12:00AM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Blake Griffin is, in all likelihood, in the middle of his farewell tour, folks, so enjoy him while you can. Jeff Capel, Oklahoma head coach, did just that Monday night as the insanely talented sophomore picked up his NCAA leading 14th double-double to lead the Sooners over Rick Barnes and the Texas Longhorns in a decisive 78-63 win.

ESPN’s broadcast got particularly spicy around halftime when Barnes decided to call his starters out for not trying hard enough on the floor; certainly they could have played better, but a strong first half effort from Griffin and the Sooners — Texas ripped off an 11-1 run in the middle of the first half to close the gap — nearly put this one away before it could ever get good.

What it says about these two teams — and the upper echelon of college basketball — is that, despite the fifth and eleventh overall rankings, respectively, Oklahoma is currently the team to beat in the Big 12, and, I’m sorry, but right now it’s just not that close. Now maybe that gap shortens when the show rolls to Austin, but Oklahoma’s effort probably makes any coaches who put them below two loss North Carolina feel a little awkward.