From: John Razook
To: Shawn Badgley
Time: 11:54pm, Jan. 22
I’m drained. Exhausted. My nerves are shot, Shawn, and there’s nothing to be done about it. Whisky might help me, I suppose, though a high-powered horse tranquilizer is probably more along the lines of what I need now, after watching yet another nail-biter of a game from Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla.
This time, the game was Bedlam, the name given to the series that pits the University of Oklahoma Sooners against in-state foe the Oklahoma State University Cowboys. It’s been an interesting week for the Cowboys. Two games – first, last week’s epic game against the Texas Longhorns and now tonight’s game against the Sooners – saw the Pokes escape with narrow victories that were sandwiched around a crushing defeat at Texas A&M.
Tonight it was Byron Eaton, he of the 40-foot miracle shot against UT, who proved to be the hero. Eaton scored 17 points, and the Cowboys needed every one of them to withstand a late Sooner rally, as the Pokes’ two leading scorers, Mario Boggan and JamesOn Curry, were held to a combined 25 points – 16 below their combined average.
Yes, the Cowboys held on to win, 66-61. But it was another head-scratcher of a performance by the OSU team. The Cowboys had a nine-point lead late in the game but couldn’t put the scrappy Sooners away. OU certainly deserves credit for the comeback. Jeff Capel is doing a great job with the team he inherited, a team that was ravaged by defections following the disaster that was the end of the Kelvin Sampson reign. Personally, I am troubled by the Cowboys’ lack of killer instinct. In my mind, good teams put the nails in the coffin when they sense they have a team on the ropes. Forgive me for the horrible sports clichés there – and there are two of them – but it goes without saying that dominant teams refuse to let their opponents get back into games with a flurry of three-pointers, as the Sooners did tonight. Dominant teams continue to put points on the board, which OSU failed to do. This is hardly the first Oklahoma State team to suffer from this horrible affliction – and an affliction it is. It will continue to haunt the Pokes – mark my words.
The thing that interested me most about the game isn’t even related to basketball. Rather, it has to be the strange and bizarre enigma that is Capel’s mustache. Is it there or is it not? To me, it looked like Capel might have had a half-stache, an eerie look on any man, let alone one coaching big-time college basketball on national television. His usual barely there, close-to-the-lip, pencil-thin mustache did appear to show up in certain lighting. However, at other times, whether it be lighting or camera angles or something more heinous (an attempt to hide the ugly truth by the ESPN TV crew?), it looked as though the OU coach’s mustache disappeared altogether. In the end, I came away convinced that Capel does in fact have a half-stache, a curious look of a line of hair on the left side of his upper lip.
Truly weird.
What is Capel trying to accomplish with this? Does it inspire greatness in his team? Fear in his opponents? I’ll admit, if I were on the court, I’d be a bit distracted, glancing at the OU sidelines each time I ran by, trying to figure out whether or not the coach was really sporting a ‘stache. If I were OSU coach Sean Sutton, how would I feel shaking hands – before and after a game – with a man who couldn’t decide whether or not he wanted to wear a mustache – a bold move no matter how worn – and so decided to wear half of one? Would it alter my coaching strategy? What would I make of the mind of my coaching adversary? If he were capable of deliberately shaving his face in such a manner, what else might he resort to?
I suppose that about does it for now, amigo. My head hurts. I’m a betting man, Shawn, and I can’t resist the opportunity to bet outrageous sums of money on OSU, especially when they are taking on the Sooners. I know many Sooner fans, and even call a few of them friends. If there’s one thing you can count on in life, though, it is that OU fans will be overconfident as to their team’s chances. They are easy prey, and can be picked off like baby rabbits. This game rattled me, and I can think of nothing else to contribute to our hoops discussion. The ball, as they say, is in your court. Rest assured, I’ll have more to say later, if only about this downer of a Super Bowl we’re faced with.
ok for now,
jhr
This article appears in January 19 • 2007.