With apologies to Tyler Hansbrough, the two best players in the country faced off in Norman, Oklahoma tonight when Blake Griffin and Stephen Curry led their squads onto the court. Curry poured in a career high 44 points for Davidson, but Oklahoma's depth and a monster performance by Griffin (25 points, 21 rebounds) in the paint were just too much and OU held on for the 82-78 win. Curry is remarkable to watch and is clearly the best guard in college this year. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we'll see a lot of what we saw tonight when Davidson faces top tier teams - it's just too much to ask for one player to be the primary point guard and playmaker and as well as the best scorer. While he drilled remarkable shot after remarkable shot, he just wasn't able to create easy shots for his teammates while also working relentlessly to get himself open.
Blake Griffin is an animal. It's really the only way to describe how he plays, his tenacity and relentlessly attacking play making him a total mismatch on the college level - he had 21 rebounds, Davidson's entire team had 26 rebounds. By controlling the entire painted area he created space for OU's shooters, and Willie Warren scored 20 points in giving OU the cushion they needed to pull off the victory.
After tonight it's clear that Davidson and Curry weren't a fluke last year, and that OU is going to be a serious threat to win the Big XII and make a deep tournament run this year. Both teams played at a very high level for an early season game, and both superstars delivered career high performances. Just a great start to the college basketball season - and when we are making lists of the best games of the year in a few months, this will be one I'll be keeping in the memory bank.
