Tip Time: 2:35 pm CST

Location: Lubbock, Texas | United Spirit Arena

TV: ABC - Regional Coverage

Radio: KOKC AM 1520 in Oklahoma City, KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa

Series: OU leads 28-16

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records. --William A. Ward

The Oklahoma basketball team has experienced some adversity lately. Hopefully, they are going into the stretch run with the mindset of William A. Ward, who was a sportswriter many many years ago. We shall see how it all plays out, but a solid win today would go a long way towards putting some of that adversity behind them.

In any event, the stretch run got me thinking about the tournament, and how the Sooners can avoid an upset. Every team has certain weaknesses, and a big part of the tournament is who you draw - not just the particular region, but the subregionals of 4 or 8 teams that you get lumped together with. If there are a couple of bad matchups for a team in their subregional, that's when they get upset.

The weaknesses and more thoughts after the jump (click the link below).

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The Sooners have lost two games in a row without star forward Blake Griffin at their disposal. Now, they've got the big man back and hopefully will be ready to make a statement to the conference and the country that they are back on track. You have to question though if there will be any rust and if there is will Blake's hunger to get back on the court and make a statement?

Even if there is some rust Tech should be the team to shake it off against. The Red Raiders have lost five games in a row and 9 of their last 10. They are just ahead of last place Colorado in the conference standings. Earlier this season Blake Griffin went off for 40 points and 23 rebounds against Tech as the Sooners manhandled them in Norman.

The Red Raiders have three guards who score in double figures led by John Roberson's 14.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 6.5 assists. Just behind him is Alan Voskuil who is shooting 45% from three-point range. Voskuil scores 13.9 points and pulls in 4.1 rebounds per game. Nick Okorie is the final part of the guard trio. He scores 11 points per game.

In the post freshman Robert Lewandowski was stoked about having the opportunity to, "hold his own" against Griffin two weeks ago. Now you have to think that he's just hoping to survive without being posterized. Lewandowski is averaging 7 points and 4 rebounds per game while shooting 59% from the floor.

Interesting Subplots

There will be so many side stories going on Saturday afternoon that the game itself almost takes a backseat. We've already discussed Blake Griffin's return and the questions surrounding his performance after taking a week off but consider these two angles from a Red Raiders standpoint.

• Attendance - In just a brief period of time Texas Tech went from being a team that was ultra competitive to one of the worst teams in the conference. This is what happens when you sell your soul to the devil or Bobby Knight as he's known around these parts. The fans are taking notice and the word pathetic doesn't describe the crowds that are showing up in Lubbock these days.

Oh Yeah, Like Father - Like Son

• Pat Knight vs. Officials - Let me preface this by saying that I believe that the officiating in the Big 12 is the worst among the major conferences and the Big 12 should be embarrassed with the crews that they are putting on the floor. Now, with that out of the way Pat Knight's behavior has been something that only a father could love. If that father just happens to be the devil or Bobby Knight as he's known around these parts. Today's game marks little Knight's return to the floor after a suspension that was the result of an ongoing feud between himself, the officials and the conference. Can't wait to see what happens when that first bad call is made.

That huge gust of wind that blew threw the metro area about thirty minutes ago was a collective sigh of relief among Sooner Nation. Blake Griffin has finally been cleared to play and will take the court tomorrow in Lubbock against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Obviously this means that the Sooners once again have a decided advantage over Tech and it also means that we can quit trying to figure out who OU has left to put on the floor since Pittillo was suspended. Game on!

Remember back in elementary school, when you would play "telephone". One person would whisper something to another person, and then that process was repeated another 20 or 30 times. By the time the message had been passed that many times, it was something completely different. Anyways, the point of the game, I think, was to teach you to avoid using second or third hand information if possible. And that brings me to the first note:

• Rumors have been flying about the Sooner basketball team lately on various message boards related to injuries and suspensions. Let's be clear with what has been made official and is known: Ray Willis is out indefinitely on suspension, Kyle Cannon was dismissed from the team, Juan Pattillo received a one game suspension from Capel for violation of team rules. On the injury front, Blake Griffin has a concussion and may or may not play. Austin Johnson has been bothered by back spasms lately. He is a projected starter, but if he plays like he did against KU, then his minutes may be limited. Anything else is a rumor, and without any way of verifying it, you should probably ignore it.
• So basically, we will be without our "sixth man" and perhaps Blake Griffin. No status report, so it's beginning to look like it will be a game time decision. I'm alright with that, as it will give Texas Tech less time to gameplan against us either way.

With all that out of the way, it's time to get to the more interesting stuff. Here are today's interesting nuggets or facts:

• On only one day in February in men's college basketball has there not been an upset (February 20). On every other day this month we've seen an upset. Now I see why they call it the dog days of the college season.
• Say what you want about Blake, but I think Austin Johnson is the pulse of the team. We need him healthy to be successful. In our 3 losses, he shot only 5-22, was 0-9 from 3 point range. In fact when Austin fails to hit a 3 in a game, our games are usually uncomfortably close. It's not his scoring volume, but he is usually clutch. Get better Austin!
• Speaking of AJ, he's 12th nationally in assist/turnover ratio. Impressive.
• Cade Davis' minutes have been on a steady decline all season. It's really unfortunate because he improved his game a lot this season and especially his defense. He's a spark plug.

So this guy who goes by the screen name, "dishingoutdimes" starts ripping up the FanPosts and FanShots sections with excellent post. Every time he posted I found myself bumping it to the front page because it was of such good quality. I shot him an email and now he's become the newest content contributor to Crimson and Cream Machine.

You've been enjoying his posts for the last few days now so I asked him to say a few things to introduce himself.

"Hi, I'm Alex. I was born in Wisconsin and so Wisconsin sports teams are a part of my blood. However, I'm also a huge Sooner fan. I tend to follow football most extensively, but I probably know the game of basketball the best. I used to play a little basketball (not in any organized fashion, but more like recreational leagues). I enjoy major league baseball but have never really followed college baseball. That being said, I've still been to a few college baseball games, as well as a few minor league and major league games. I'm probably most loyal as a fan to the Oklahoma Sooners and to the Green Bay Packers. My favorite Sooner players right now are Travis Lewis (because he plays with a lot of passion), Danielle Robinson (yes I follow women's basketball too, and she is an extremely talented player), and Taylor Griffin. I usually don't pick the obvious or popular choices for "favorite players" I tend to enjoy role players or unsung heros that play their hearts out and do lots of things that don't necessarily show up in the stat line. As far as what I'll contribute to the site - I am a stat nerd. I enjoy digesting lots of stats and information and spitting out analysis. A couple recent losses by the Sooner basketball team got me a little fired up, but generally I'll just tell it how it is, post interesting stats or quotes, and try and shed some light on things that aren't looked at as much."

Welcome to the Machine, Alex. Keep up the great work!

• Headline right now: Juan Pattillo suspended for the Texas Tech game. Kudos to SoonerDutch for the FanShot.
• Also, let's shine the spotlight on a good FanPost - an article about Bennie Owen - courtesy of SoonerNews.com.
• I wish I could say no news is good news, but it's really not. Nothing new on the Blake Griffin front, despite predictions that we would know today. At least he's shooting around.
• Speaking of Blake Griffin, he's a finalist for the Oscar Robertson award.
• Ruh, roh. Take it for what it's worth (a message board post), but according to "OUFtball" on OUhoops.com:

Cary Murdock said he just left the LNC after talking to Jeff Capel. Coach said not a day has gone by since the Texas game that Blake has not vomited and was dizzy. They have not been pleased with the results of the tests they have given him. They will announce Friday if he will play Saturday.

• After he wrote a criticism of the OU basketball team yesterday, Jeff Goodman writes an excellent article about how Sam Bradford and Blake Griffin have had a friendship for longer than you might think.

Alarming Thought Of The Day

If Blake Griffin is out for the Texas Tech game, we will be left with 4 big guys: Taylor Griffin, Ryan Wright, Orlando Allen and Beau Gerber. This is thanks to Kyle Cannon's dismissal and Juan Pattillo's suspension.

Additionally, assuming Ray Willis is not activated, this would leave OU with only 10 active players on Saturday, 7 of whom play meaningful minutes on a regular basis, and only 2 forwards/centers who play meaningful minutes.

That could be big trouble.

Courtesy of notnothing.net. Create your own bracket by clicking here.

I found this posted on a few forums and I remember using this last year. Whoever got this up at notnothing.net is a genius and has already caused me to waste a lot of time playing around with different scenarios.

Anyways, if I picked the remaining games seriously, I got the above bracket. Anyone got anything different? Feel free to post it in the comment section below.

Image from daylife.com, which posted the AP Photo from Sue Ogrocki.

According to Fran Fraschilla during the Texas-Texas Tech game (which was alarmingly close), Blake Griffin's status for the Tech game on Saturday is expected to be made known on Thursday.

Of course if you're a fan of gossip and rumoring, there's a thread up on OUhoops.com that discusses this at length. There are a few people on there that claim they know he's been cleared to play. However, since nobody listed any credentials or official sources, I wouldn't take that as gospel just yet.

In any event, it sounds like we'll know sometime tomorrow. Boomer!