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| 79 | When you're playing the fourth-best team in the country and you're staggering like we've been staggering, then it's extra special. | 72 | |
By Dan Wetzel; Feb. 14, 2002; SportsLine.com Senior Writer
From tip to court-storming they brought the Orange Thunder, that improbably loud wave of searing noise, emotion and energy that will loosen your earwax and make you acutely aware you are in Gallagher-Iba, smack dab in the middle of college basketball at its very best. When Oklahoma -- hated, fourth-ranked Oklahoma -- was finally toppled, 79-72 in overtime, the Oklahoma State students came flooding down the bleachers, the pep band broke into double time and Eddie Sutton looked up and thought back.
Forty-four years before he was the young player, not the old coach, and it was second-ranked Kansas, with Wilt Chamberlain, that went down in overtime, not OU. But everything else was the same. The thrill, the noise, the undergrads dancing on the Gallagher-Iba floor in lost emotion. Sutton's smile, Sutton's satisfaction, the hop in Sutton's step was the same. It was 1958 all over again. "You know what the chancellor did after that win?" Sutton asked. "He cancelled classes the next day. You won't see that any more. But tonight was a big thrill for me even though I've coached a long time. This was special. This was really special."
Things don't always change quickly in Oklahoma and for that reason it's a state that takes more than its share of cracks from around the country. But sometimes change isn't so welcome either and there is something wholly wonderful about a game like the one OU and OSU staged Wednesday night in this historic arena. It was the 200th time these two schools had matched up and it meant as much as the first. It didn't matter OU was ranked so high, or State was reeling so hard. It was of no concern the Cowboys were without their star (Maurice Baker) and the Sooners had an immovable, unstoppable post player in Aaron McGhee.
This is what they call bedlam out here among the pumping oil derricks, the flatlands and the cattle ranches. And when bedlam hits Stillwater, when the Orange Thunder rocks the plains, when maroon and orange stare each other down, it's the same as it ever was. And hopefully will forever be. "I've coached a lot of basketball games," said Sutton, who recorded his 698th victory. "But I don't think you'll ever see a game where two teams played any harder than that." This is a rivalry that isn't as hot as Carolina-Duke, isn't as famous as Louisville-Kentucky. Neither game this year was even broadcast nationally, which is too bad for the nation. But you can't play it harder, you can't play it better, you can't make it mean any more. This was college basketball perfection.
OU played the perfect villain for the Stillwater crowd -- too big, too fast, too talented for slumping Oklahoma State, minus its best player, to realistically beat. The Cowboys were ranked 16th, playing at home, the best arena in college basketball, and it was the Sooners that were the favorites. OU plays a physical style, but so does OSU. This was a game that featured three near bench-clearing brawls ... in overtime alone. But Oklahoma State is an emotional team, a streaky, surging group in every way. It can rattle off 13 consecutive victories to start the season and slide to 3-5 in its last 8. It can get pushed around by Texas Tech, then fire back from 15 down. "We have some very emotional players," Sutton said.
But emotion can go the right way, especially when 13,611 fans are screaming for you. Every time Oklahoma powered its way into the lead, the Cowboys surged back, riding a helter-skelter perimeter defense, a ton of double teams and its jet-quick point guard Victor Williams. "There is quick, then there is Victor Williams," said Sampson after, shaking his head.
Every time that crowd roared, hitting decibel levels that make a jet engine sound like Church music, the Cowboys' emotion rode right on with it. "When the crowd's emotion gets going like that, you go too," said guard Melvin Sanders, who harassed OU's swift Hollis Price into 2-of-11 shooting. In the end the Cowboys survived into overtime and surged one final time, got one final streak, ended up winning by seven. In a game they absolutely needed and their fans absolutely wanted, they brought it big at the most important times. "You can't describe the feeling," said sophomore Ivan McFarlin of his game-clinching open-court steal, sprint and dunk into a sea of Orange behind the basket. "I was about to cry."
He wasn't the only one. Tears of joy, tears of frustration where shed all over the state. That's bedlam. It might not be known everywhere, but it doesn't make it any less special, any less significant. Out here in this little town on the big plains, in an ancient arena that has seen so many great ones, they staged another. Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, same as it ever was.
