The Big 12 needed more than a decade to produce an NCAA men’s basketball Tournament champion, when Kansas won last season.

If Oklahoma can somehow rediscover the chemistry that marked the first four months of the Sooners’ season, the Big 12 might be celebrating at Detroit’s Ford Field. While the Big 12 sent half its membership to the NCAA Tournament, OU represents the best hope for a repeat.

Kansas didn’t close well this season. At least the Jayhawks drew North Dakota State, not one of those troublesome private schools that begin with a “B,” like Bucknell or Baylor or Bradley.

Missouri worked its tail off playing Mike Anderson’s style in Oklahoma City. The reward? Well, Boise is supposed to be nice this time of year. Not.

Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State are all likely to hit second-round walls.

That leaves the Sooners.

Oklahoma’s problems lie between the ears, not with any team the Sooners might encounter before a potential regional final meeting with North Carolina.

We’re not talking about the concussion suffered by Sooners star Blake Griffin, although his injury signaled all kinds of strangeness.

The Sooners were playing for the nation’s No. 1 ranking at Texas when Griffin was injured in collisions with either Dexter Pittman or Dogus Balbay or a player to be named later.

“We were interrupted for a second,” Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. “We were playing so well. . . . That whole week, all we heard was, ‘You’re going to be No. 1 in the country.'”

Then Griffin, the double-double machine, got hurt, and A.J. Abrams outdueled Willie Warren down the stretch in a Texas win.

The following Monday, Sherron Collins of Kansas played the Abrams role as the Jayhawks won with Griffin sidelined.

While Griffin returned for the Texas Tech game, the Sooners still enter the tournament having lost four of their last six and without their mojo.

“Now we’re trying to figure out how to get this thing fixed,” Capel said. “It disjoints everything.”

Rumors of internal strife circulated, prompting Capel to try to dismiss them late in the season, with references to the dysfunctional 2002 Shaq-Kobe Lakers and Us Weekly magazine. People who weren’t lurking on message boards wondered about the fuss.

Actually, the solutions seem relatively simple if the Sooners stay focused and play like the team that won 25 of its first 26 games.

Start with getting Griffin more than the nine shots he took in the Big 12 tournament loss to Oklahoma State.

Add better guard play. Tony Crocker, Austin Johnson and Warren have combined to shoot 35.3 percent in the last four games.

Warren represents the biggest question mark.

The freshman scored 50 points in the Texas and Kansas losses, then disappeared. He has the ability to take over games and the temperament to disrupt chemistry.

“We just have to go out there and play our game,” Warren said Sunday. “Just do what we did during our 13-game winning streak and we’ll be just fine. We have to get the ball to Blake, and everyone else needs to make plays and feed off of what he does.”