Blake Griffin Doesn't Deserve Obscurity

If there has been a more-underappreciated man in college basketball than Blake Griffin this season at Oklahoma, I am unaware of him. Consider this: Griffin, a 6-10, 255-pound post just closed out his regular-season sophomore campaign with a Big 12-record of 13 games with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds, including a conference first 40/20 game (40 points, 23 rebounds against Texas Tech).

To put that in better perspective, Griffin bested what Michael Beasley did just a season ago at Kansas State, when the freshman Beasley should've been the runaway national player of the year before becoming the second pick in the NBA Draft. Beasley lost last season's top honors to North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, then a junior.

The early returns for this season's player-of-the-year awards suggest that there won't be any such slight this year, despite Hansbrough's presence as the senior leader for the Tar Heels. Griffin just picked up a couple of citations as the best collegiate baller from Athlon and Foxsports.com.

Griffin's coach Jeff Capel hypothesized to me on Tuesday from his Norman, Okla., office phone why the applause for Griffin hasn't been as loud thus far as it has been for others, like Hansbrough last season. He pointed to geography.

"I'm from the East Coast, grew up in North Carolina and lived there my whole life until I became a coach and got to Virginia," Capel said. "I just don't think that people pay attention to basketball in this part of the country, I really don't think that national people really pay attention.

"People are saying our league is down and maybe that's why he's [Griffin] not getting the kind of recognition [as other players of the year]," said Capel, who starred at Duke. "But it's pretty obvious that the kid is the best player in the country."

More evidence: Griffin is first in the nation in rebounding (14.2 per game), third in field goal percentage (63.4 percent) and 13th in scoring (22.1 points each outing). Hansbrough last season in sweeping individual honors averaged 10.2 rebounds, 54-percent shooting and 22.6 points per game. Beasley grabbed 12.4 rebounds, shot 53.2 percent and scored 26.2 points each contest.

"He's doing most of this against double teams," Capel said of Griffin.

And when Griffin couldn't play two games late last month after suffering a concussion, Oklahoma couldn't win for just the second and third times on the year.

First game back, Griffin dove over the scorer's table for a loose ball, crashing into the stands. That prompted an observation of Griffin not unlike that bestowed upon Hansbrough his entire career: stick-to-itiveness.

"I think that play where he dove over the scorers' table opened up eyes around the country," Capel said. "The kid is the hardest worker I've ever been around, he really is, and I'm not just saying that because he's my kid. He went to San Francisco in the summer and worked out and trained and completely changed his body. He looks thinner and leaner. Instead, he's 15 pounds heavier [in muscle].

"He has a routine now where he's in the gym around 10 o'clock every morning and gets in shots and an extra lift," Capel said. "He's driven."

The Sooners are 27-4 behind him and toyed with the nation's top rank till Griffin's concussion.

Griffin has been overlooked before, relative to his peers. It is easily forgotten now that he was part of one of the finest basketball-playing high school classes in recent memory. Besides Beasley, it included Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love, J.J. Hickson, Kyle Singler, Donte Greene, Eric Gordon, and Jerryd Bayless, to name a few. Eleven from that class were drafted in last summer's NBA draft, nine in the first round. Rose, Beasley and Mayo went 1-2-3 and Love was fifth.

"He was never really thought of at the same level of some of the really elite players in his class," Capel said. "I think that drove him. Because I think he thought that if he was living in North Carolina or New York or Virginia or Chicago or someplace like that, he'd be on the same level. I think he felt slighted a little bit."

Griffin's revenge is Oklahoma's blessing.

Capel played in college with Grant Hill and against Tim Duncan, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison. He witnessed Beasley last year and Kevin Durant the season before. In Capel's mind, Griffin compares well with them all, and better at this age – he turns 20 next week - than most of them at the same. His only weakness is free-throw shooting.

Capel said he's only watched last season's player of the year on television.

"They [Hansbrough and Griffin] both play really, really hard," he said. "Both are physical. Both are great rebounders. Both are, from what I've heard in talking to Coach [Roy] Williams, incredibly driven kids.

"Blake is bigger, and definitely more explosive, and I'd say a little more skilled offensively, although Hansbrough has developed into a really good mid-range to college three-point line shooter. I'm not one of those guys who knocks Hansbrough, because I think the kid's gonna be a really good pro because he figures out a way to outwork people and be on the floor and be productive. I'm just biased. I like my kid better."

Blake Griffin certainly shouldn't be celebrated any less.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a frequent sports opinionist on other outlets. A former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News, he currently lives in Silver Spring, Md.