Sooners garner little support in Washington

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A month ago Oklahoma was 25-1 and a victory away from being No. 1 in the nation.

Now, no less an authority than President Barack Obama is disparaging the Sooners' chances of making much of a splash in the NCAA tournament.

"The problem with Oklahoma, they have the player of the year but they play, like, seven guys. I think you start getting worn down," the President told ESPN.

So would Sooners coach Jeff Capel care to comment on American economic policy?

"I was hearing that all year in Oklahoma, that we didn't play enough guys," Capel said with a slight smile. "So I'll let President Obama stick to running the country and I'll try to coach my team to the best of my ability."

The Sooners possess the most dominant inside threat in the country, the nation's leading rebounder and just about everybody's choice for player of the year in 6-foot-10 sophomore Blake Griffin.

And no one is expecting the No. 2 seed Sooners (27-5) to have difficulty in the first round today with 15th-seeded Morgan State (23-11) and coach Todd Bozeman, who has resurrected his once-dead coaching career.

But Oklahoma rarely is being mentioned as a strong Final Four candidate. The Sooners have lost four of their last six, including a 71-70 setback to Oklahoma State last week in the opening round of the Big 12 tourney.

It seemed as though they lost their rhythm when Griffin went out for two games with a concussion and haven't been able to find it.

"We just needed to get back to playing how we were in the beginning of the season and early in the conference games," said Griffin, who averaged 21.9 points and 14.3 rebounds and set the Big 12 season record with 444 boards. "I think we've done a good job. I think it's more about just really getting back to everybody playing the way they were and everybody understanding what they need to do."

Capel admitted he spent the past week working hard on both the mental and physical aspects of the game.

"Probably an equal amount of both things," the third-year Oklahoma coach said. "We obviously started preparing for Morgan State."

Griffin may be the Sooners' best player, but he's not their only good one. Big brother Taylor Griffin will pose another challenge as Morgan State makes it debut in the NCAA tournament. Willie Warren averages 14.7 points and was a unanimous choice as Big 12 freshman of the year.