OU hosts Griffin, others in alumni game

When you read the words "Blake Griffin" and "Oklahoma alumni basketball game," you assume there must be some YouTube clips out there. Surely Griffin, who was in attendance Saturday in Norman, Okla., for the Sooners' new reunion weekend, took the opportunity to do something crazy. Maybe he brought another Kia to dunk over. Maybe he reprised his famous forehead dunk. The possibilities are endless.

Alas, bad news, folks: Griffin was merely an attendee at Saturday's festivities. But he was joined by more than 100 fellow Oklahoma alums for the Legends Alumni Game, a new Kruger idea designed to unite the program in the midst of its recent struggles and bring former players and coaches back on campus to foster a sense of recurring community. Kruger even got two of his OU predecessors -- Kelvin Sampson and Dave Bliss -- to coach the two alumni teams. Quite a tandem, that.

Anyway, it sounds like a fun event. Quannas White and Hollis Price -- the backcourt from Oklahoma's run to the 2002 Final Four -- played on opposite teams, while everybody hobnobbed around and talked about the positive communal feeling Kruger was trying to inspire. The only letdown? Griffin never suited up. If there's one thing the NBA lockout is truly robbing us of, it's a year of Griffin's dunk-on-everybody's-head prime. In a few years, he'll have to round out his game, he'll stop destroying everything in his path, and I'll look back in anger on this day, when we could have been watching a Griffin alumni game highlight reel with our morning coffee. Talk about a missed opportunity.

Update: In case you wanted a few more details, Oklahoma has you covered here. Turns out, Griffin's duty was limited to throwing up the tip-off during the game's second half. Such a bummer. Oh, and if there's a more unintentionally funny photo than this one on the Internet today -- yes, it's a picture of Sampson and his players holding the trophy in celebration after the game -- I haven't seen it.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/34721/ou-hosts-griffin-others-in-alumni-game

Jhan Marinez Anibal Sanchez John Baker Brad Davis Logan Morrison Mike Stanton