Year of the rookie

OU's Griffin just one fab freshman

Oklahoma's Blake Griffin deflects a shot from Mount St. Mary's Sam Atupem in this file photo from Jan. 7. Griffin, just one of many ballyhooed freshmen in the Big 12, will face Kansas University tonight at Allen Fieldhouse.

Two years ago, as the Kansas University basketball team hit the road in the Big 12 Conference, newspaper after newspaper would hype that night’s game with stories on the Jayhawks’ talented freshman class visiting for the first time.

Now, Kansas is on the other end of those stories. Oklahoma power forward Blake Griffin, coming off a 27-point, 14-rebound effort in Saturday’s two-point loss to Kansas State, tonight becomes the first freshman of many elite recruits from the Big 12 to test his game against the conference’s best team.

“OU has a bona fide superstar in Blake Griffin, as evidenced how he played yesterday,” KU coach Bill Self said Sunday, the eve of tonight’s Big Monday showdown at Allen Fieldhouse. Tipoff is 8 p.m., with a live telecast on ESPN (Sunflower Broadband channels 33, 233).

A 6-foot-10 native of Oklahoma City, Griffin is far stronger than most freshmen and has many other qualities not normally associated with inexperienced players. He’s a gifted passer out of double-teams and from the perimeter, has nifty inside moves that result in scores with either hand and has great hands and natural rebounding instincts.

In the past four games, Griffin is averaging 22.3 points and 11.5 rebounds.

“He is getting better and better,” Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. “I think he is just starting to scratch the surface of the player he can become. His adjustment to college basketball wasn’t as fast as some of the other tremendous freshmen throughout the country.

“Maybe part of that comes because he didn’t play against great competition in high school.”

Not surprisingly, Griffin didn’t know what it was like to battle constantly because it wasn’t required of him to dominate in high school.

“Before his senior year and during that season, all I talked to him about was learning to play every possession,” Capel said. “He is getting closer and closer to understanding that right now.”

Kansas State first-year coach Frank Martin relies most heavily on freshmen. Joining national Player of the Year candidate Michael Beasley are forward Bill Walker, granted freshman status based on a medical red-shirt rule, small forward Dominique Sutton, point guard Jacob Pullen, shooting guard Fred Brown and power forward Ron Anderson.

Martin knows better than anyone that in many ways a freshman still is a freshman, no matter how talented. Getting them to defend aggressively on every possession is a particularly difficult challenge for a coach.

“Getting a young player to play consistent, period, is the most difficult thing right out of high school,” Martin said. “Most come to Kansas State, or any other Big 12 school, used to shooting the ball every time. They are put on the worst offensive player on the other team because their coaches don’t want them to exert energy and (get into foul trouble) playing defense against the other team’s best player. I know, I coached in high school for 15 years. I saw that a lot.”

Whereas Beasley (32 points, 11 rebounds) usually guarded Griffin, Capel had Griffin checking Walker (22 points, one rebound). Griffin’s defensive ability isn’t as far advanced as his offensive and rebounding skills, but Capel isn’t complaining.

“He’s leading us in scoring, rebounding, field-goal percentage, blocks and steals,” Capel said. “The impact he has had on our program has been tremendous.”

The same can be said at Oklahoma State for James Anderson, a 6-6 Junction City, Ark., native and former KU target averaging 16.5 points. Baylor’s 6-4 LaceDarius Dunn of Monroe, La., is the conference’s second-best three-point shooter, hitting half of them. DeAndre Jordan, Texas A&M’s 7-foot center from Houston, averages 10.5 points and 7.2 rebounds.

“There are some really good young players in our league,” Self said. “Really good. It bodes well for our league having such good young talent in the league.”

Or does it?

“That good, young talent, unfortunately for our league, will not be here, a lot of them, because they will be good enough to move onto the next level relatively early in their careers, some of ’em,” Self said.

Griffin, whose older brother Taylor is a junior for the Sooners, likely won’t have a junior season in college. Self and the rest of the Big 12 coaches can worry about that later. For now, they are more concerned with how to stop him as a freshman.

Hack-a-Blake is one option. Griffin shoots just .591 from the free-throw line, and with senior Sasha Kaun and freshman Cole Aldrich coming off the bench, KU has more front-court depth and more fouls to use than most teams.

Then again, Griffin made both free throws Saturday with 47.9 seconds remaining to pull OU within two points. Griffin tied the game by stealing a pass intended for Walker at the top of the key and dribbling it in for a one-handed dunk with 24 seconds left. K-State won it when Griffin left his man, Beasley, to try to take a charge on Pullen, who got the assist on Beasley’s game-winning bucket.

Griffin, Pullen and Beasley, the central figures on the game-deciding play, all are freshmen.