KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Getting banged around is one thing. Going airborne over an opponent’s shoulders from a judo flip is another.
Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel was still talking Friday about the takedown of his player, sophomore forward Blake Griffin, in the second half of Thursday night’s 82-54 victory over Morgan State in a first-round South Regional game.
Griffin, the unanimous Big 12 player of the year and a candidate for national honors, said some soreness remains in his tailbone but will be fine for today’s game against 10th-seeded Michigan.
Capel said he saw a TV replay of the takedown, which resulted in the ejection of Morgan State’s Ameer Ali. Initially, Capel said he only saw the incident out of the corner of his eye.
“It was awful,” Capel said. “Blake was very, very fortunate. After I left (the interview room) last night and went back to the locker room, the TV was on and they showed it. It just made me even more angry.
“That doesn’t need to be in our game. One of the things it could do is make the really elite players not want to be in college long for fear of getting hurt.”
As always, Griffin took the high road Friday and said he believes Ali did not intend to hurt him.
“Pretty much we got tangled up,” Griffin said. “He took it a little personally. I think he just kind of got caught up in the heat of the moment.”
Griffin finished with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Another day at the office for the 6-foot-10, 251-pounder — except for getting launched.
As a marked man, Griffin has suffered a concussion, needed stitches to close a cut on his chin and was elbowed below the belt.
“He gets hit like that all the time, and it’s not called,” Capel said after Thursday’s game. “I know he is a difficult guy to officiate. (An opponent has) to be physical with him because he’s so physical. But it’s borderline ridiculous.”
