The bedlam inside Bedlam

Sporting News, The, Feb 21, 2000 by Steve Harrison

Bedlam--the name for any Oklahoma-Oklahoma State show down --is as big as the regular season gets for the Sonners. Yet, it's one blip in the balancing act carried out by the Oklahoma coaching staff.

Oklahoma basketball coach Kelvin Sampson is pacing.

There are 13,280 people in Lloyd Noble Center on this Saturday afternoon, the most ever. But down here, behind the cruder blocks and the red steel door, the Sooners locker room is almost silent. You can hear only two things--ceiling fans whistling and shoes crunching on dirty red carpet.

The Sooners are on the floor warning up for Oklahoma State, and there isn't much left for Sampson to do. There is no more film to watch. Nothing more to tell the players. Recruiting and radio call-in shows are an after thought. Preparations for Monday's game are on hold. As Sampson has been known to say. "The hay's in the barn now."

So he keeps pacing.

Sometimes he pauses to read the scouting report or look at the red digital clock counting down to tip off. Only 15 minutes left. Then he stops to pick up empty Gatorade cups and dirty towels, serenely folding them neatly, placing them in an orderly pile. It was a strange moment: One of America's best basketball coaches doing laundry.

"Either way it's just a game, right?" Sampson says, finally breaking the silence with a rare grin.

Two hours later, after Oklahoma State had beaten Oklahoma, 74-71, holding off a frantic Sooners rally, the pregame locker room scene seemed surreal--perhaps what a groom must look like moments before he marries the wrong girl.

Though this was a big game--and Oklahoma State was the second-best team the Sooners had faced, after Cincinnati--it still was only one game in a 29-game regular season, a season that, for any college team, can only be described as lunacy.

Lunacy as in taking the university's plane to a junior college in Kansas to check out a recruit in the middle of preparing for two basketball games at once--Oklahoma flew Sunday to Nebraska for a Monday night game. As in radio-call in shows and phone calls at night to high school kids. As in running hard practices ... and simply running to get it all done.

They call it Bedlam. That's the name the people in Oklahoma attach to games between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, whether it's football, basketball or wrestling. And if you listen to locals, Bedlam is something akin to Armageddon--except with a point spread.

Last Saturday's basketball game arguably was the biggest ever. Oklahoma was 19-3 and ranked 16th in the country; Oklahoma State was 19-2 and ranked 13th. It was only the fifth lime the two had met while both were ranked in the Top 25. On the second weekend in February, with Tulsa also in the national rankings, the state of Oklahoma was basketball capital of the world.

Sampson and his staff had prepared for Oklahoma State for three long days, and they were confident--justifiably so--they could win, especially playing at home. And because they have a damn good team.

In fact, moments before the Sooners had left the locker room to warm up, Sampson told them: "You are a good team. You've proven that to a lot of people, and now you can be great. Don't be afraid of being great. You have my permission to be great. "

And they were. For the last 23 minutes of the game.

But how could they prepare for Cowboys guard Doug Gottlieb--a horrific shooter of legendary proportions--sticking a jumper for the first two points of the game? How did they know Eduardo Najera, OU's best player and folk hero from Chihuahua, Mexico, would be uncharacteristically confused by an Oklahoma State double team?

And how could they know the Cowboys would race out to a 20-point first-haft lead?

Thursday

"There is a difference between hearing and listening," Sampson is saying, sitting in a small chair. "And you should listen to coach Sampson, because I'm going to ask you questions."

Sampson came to Norman six years ago from Washington State. He has led the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament five straight times, including last year's Sweet Sixteen run. He will lead them to another this year, maybe with as high as a fourth seed. From there, who knows? This Sooners team reminds some of the 1988 Kansas national championship team, which had one great player--Danny Manning--and a decent supporting cast. But is Najera good enough to lead Oklahoma deep into the tournament?

Last year's tournament run--in which Oklahoma beat fourth-seeded Arizona and then UNC-Charlotte--fueled rumors Sampson would leave for another job. The current speculation: When Lute Olson retires at Arizona, Sampson replaces him. Or Roy Williams will replace Bill Guthridge at North Carolina, and Sampson will replace Williams at Kansas.

For now, he is in the gym at Washington Elementary School in Norman, and he's holding a children's book called I Have Heard of the Land, a story about the Oklahoma land rush. The school's fifth-grade class is on the floor, sitting cross-legged, staring at the coach.

Sampson and some of his staff are here for The Sooner Reading Program, which Sampson started when he arrived at OU. Once a week during the season, the Sooners visit a school and read to the kids. On the drive back to campus, Sampson hints that, yeah, it's a tough obligation to meet sometimes--especially during the middle of the season, when you were in Kansas recruiting the night before--but he says it's good for the students--and better for his players.