KANSAS 87, OKLAHOMA 78

Game Over

It was a valiant comeback attempt, but Sherron Collins' cold-blooded three-pointers kept the Sooners at bay.

Collins scored 22 in the second half, Taylor scored a career-high 26 points and Cole Aldrich pulled down a career-high 20 rebounds.

It was a great game, Kansas' players just made more clutch shots down the stretch. Hopefully we get to see this one again in Oklahoma City with a healthy Blake Griffin.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Basketball vs. Oklahoma

A photo gallery of the Jayhawks 87-78 win over Oklahoma Monday night in Norman.

That's all from the Lloyd Noble Center. Check back to Kansan.com for full coverage tomorrow.

KANSAS 77, OKLAHOMA 71

2:21 left in the first half

Sherron Collins is absolutely cold-blooded. Oklahoma charged back and Cade Davis has been pipin' hot, but Collins just goes down and keeps draining three after three. He has three of them in the last three minutes.

This one's going to come down to the end, and that's amazing considering how far down the Sooners were midway through the second half.

I just hope this doesn't come down to a foul.

KANSAS 62, OKLAHOMA 56

6:43 left in the second half

With 13 minutes left, it looked like Oklahoma might be done. With less than eight to go, the Sooners are very much alive here at home.

Their full-court pressure is killing the Jayhawks.Little-used Cade Davis has come alive for Oklahoma with two straight three-pointers to cut the deficit to six.

Kansas needs to slow the game back down, or else Willie Warren is likely going to finish what he started.

KANSAS 54, OKLAHOMA 38

11:38 left in the second half

The crowd is getting pretty upset about the calls against Oklahoma, yet Kansas has three more team fouls in the second half.

I'll admit that one of them, a push on Taylor Griffin, was absolutely the wrong call. The rest of them have been decent calls. The Sooners and their fans are focusing too much on the calls not going their way.

KANSAS 43, OKLAHOMA 35

15:51 left in the second half

Most of Kansas' players have been in foul trouble tonight, with three major exceptions: Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor.

Everybody else who's played has at least one, and a few have three or more. Aldrich just picked up his first.

Technically you could say Kansas is in foul trouble, but when it's those three who are the exceptions, it may not be so bad after all.

KANSAS 36, OKLAHOMA 29

Halftime

With Tyrel Reed's three-pointer in the waning seconds, Kansas has now made a bucket in the final seven seconds of the first half in nine of its last 10 games. I defy you to find any team that can claim that.

Looking at the rest of the first half, what a fantastic show of freshmen. Kansas' Tyshawn Taylor and Oklahoma's Willie Warren combined for 28 points in the opening half.

Down low, Cole Aldrich is dominating with eight points and nine rebounds while Taylor Griffin played limited minutes because he picked up three fouls.

Kansas has all the momentum, and Sherron Collins only has four points. Yikes.

KANSAS 26, OKLAHOMA 24

3:57 left in the first half

Deficit erased.

Kansas used a 16-0 run to climb back into the lead, thanks mainly to 13 points from Tyshawn Taylor and seven rebounds from Cole Aldrich.

It started with Aldrich's second basket of the game, then Taylor hit his first of three consecutive three-pointers. Sherron Collins is still scoreless, which is actually scary news for Oklahoma considering the junior guard almost always goes on a hot streak sometime during the game.

Warren is back in the game, and he needs to reclaim the momentum to get his team back on track before halftime.

OKLAHOMA 22, KANSAS 13

7:09 left in the first half

Willie Warren is better than advertised, which is really saying something.

The sensational freshman scored 27 against Texas Saturday night, and tonight he's already 4-of-6 from the field for 10 points. He's putting on a dribbling show every time the Sooners are on offense.

Kansas is guarding him with Brady Morningstar, who hasn't been bad, but Warren is hitting just about everything he wants to.

Tyshawn Taylor just hit a three-pointer and it's a big play for Kansas. It needs a few more outside shots to jolt the offense.

OKLAHOMA 12, KANSAS 8

11:43 left in the first half

Mario Little has broken out of shooting slump, but it took an off-balance turn-around jumper to make it happen.

Either way, the scoring has slowed down a bit, only because Oklahoma hasn't finished on the last couple of possessions.

For Kansas, it needs to start hitting some outside shots to relieve the pressure on Cole Aldrich underneath. He's been a non-factor thus far.

OKLAHOMA 10, KANSAS 6

14:59 left in the first half

This is going to be a very high-scoring affair if these teams keep even close to this blistering pace.

Both teams are moving up-and-down the court with ease and Oklahoma already has a couple of big plays. The first was a dribbling exhibition by Willie Warren, who then finished with a layup. On the next possession, Warren found Taylor Griffin wide open in the corner and the senior drilled the three-pointer.

The Sooners are hitting threes early on, which will force the Jayhawks to loosen up their inside defense. That means more one-on-ones against Cole Aldrich, which could get the big man in foul trouble.

8:05 p.m.

Before I get to the prediction, I've got to comment on Blake Griffin's attire.

Now, obviously the guy isn't used to wearing anything but a uniform on game day, but is a suit too much to ask for?

Griffin is rocking a suit jacket (with some strange design on the back) and a pair of jeans. Case Keefer pointed out that they are very nice jeans, but come on. Suits are baller, and I'm sure he'd look good in one.

Now that that's out of the way, on to the game.

Oklahoma is at home, and it nearly came in undefeated in Big 12 play after rallying at Texas. Still, the Sooners lost, and I don't think they can beat a talented team like the Jayhawks without their best player.

Cole Aldrich will have a double-double, Sherron Collins will score 18-15 points and Kansas will escape with a 77-72 victory.

7:50 p.m.

We know that Blake Griffin won't play, but what does that mean for Oklahoma?

As I see it, it means that one of two players will need to play the best game of his career. Those two are freshman guard Willie Warren and senior forward Taylor Griffin.

Warren exploded for 27 points after Blake went down against Texas. If he plays like that again, then Oklahoma can rely on him to hit some outside shots, which will open up the interior for Taylor and Juan Pattillo.

However, Kansas coach Bill Self prepared two defensive game plans for tonight's game. The first was designed to slow down Blake inside. Since he's not playing, Self will use the other, which is focused on slowing down Oklahoma's dynamic freshman guard.

If the latter, which I think it will, then Warren will need an inside presence to step up and hit some difficult shots to make the defense back off the perimeter. That's where big brother Taylor comes in.

With Blake out, Taylor is likely to see nearly twice as many touches in the post. If he can do something with those early in the game, then Kansas' defense will have to sag off to help the post, and that's when Warren becomes really dangerous.

Will either of those scenarios happen? Who knows, but one of them is going to have to if Oklahoma is going to win this game.

Either that or an unknown like Austin Johnson will just have to explode for 30 points.

7:35 p.m.

Much like their football team, the Sooner basketball team makes the best use of its JumboTron in the hours before the game.

Obviously it's not actually up to the team, but I'll give them credit anyway.

At the football game, they have the Oblivious Cam. You can find out about that three quarters of the page down here.

For the basketball game, white Gameday shirts were placed on every seat in the Lloyd Noble Center. That's not strange, in fact Allen Fieldhouse does the same thing.

The difference is that Oklahoma's big screen searches for people who don't have the shirt on — and don't look like they want to put their shirt on — and leave them on camera until they put it on. This form of public peer pressure ensures that Oklahoma's white-out will be a resounding success.

Baylor should take some notes.

7:15 p.m.

On the way down to Norman, ESPN Radio confirmed my fears: Blake Griffin isn't going to play tonight.

The presumptive Player of the Year will miss his first game of the season because of a concussion that he suffered in the first half of Saturday night's game against Texas. It's great news for the Jays, but it takes a lot of luster off this game.

I've already heard a plethora of 'yeah, buts' followed by some cockamamie reason why this game will still be great. Save it.

If you remove the best player in a game, there's no chance that it will be as good as it was going to be.

To clarify, that doesn't mean that tonight's game won't be exciting or close. But what does that really mean when the entire offense of one team is watching from the bench.

If Kansas wins, then it's tainted because it didn't have to play Oklahoma at full strength. If the Sooners win, then it's a damnation of the Jayhawks because they couldn't take care of business.

Somehow, Oklahoma is still a favorite in this game. As far as I'm concerned, Kansas shed it's underdog status as soon as the news about Griffin hit the airwaves.