Sooner Fans, don’t miss this number 24

Sooner fans first.  College basketball fans second. And sports fans, all sports fans, third.  Please note: A special player from the Bahamas, that being the one and only Buddy Hield, is balling on the court in Norman, Oklahoma. Players like this deadly three-point shooter don’t come around often.  I could have said “three-point gunner” but that would not describe this wonderful talent that has given four years of excitement to the fans of the Sooner Nation. He is not a shot-a-minute player like the fabulous Stephen Curry was at Davidson. He is a team player, exclusively playing the college game correctly, in step with his floor mates.  He is not a gunner, but in the college game, more deadly from the three than the best NBA three point gunner in history. Yes, Hield  is better than Mr. Curry when he was in college

Mr. Buddy Hield  is not your typical  “player of the year” in another way.   He is not hated as Oklahoma’s last John Wooden winner, the name of the trophy that Hield will have in his showcase later this Spring.  No, Blake Griffin was not liked in Lawrence, Ames, or Austin.  Sure, during a game on the road the opposing fans try to give Hield the business, but in truth, they are just not into it. You don’t give opposing players standing ovations like the one Hield got in Lawrence after a historic game.  That just doesn’t happen. Now I will give the crowd, whatever there is of it, in Stillwater, credit as orange to them is their blood color always.  Red, even Buddy Hield red, won’t get a standing ovation there, ever.  But Buddy is different.  Griffin, also loved by Sooner fans, didn’t give of himself as Hield has, in regard to OU.  Buddy Hield is a four year man, rare for greatness in college. Four years toiling down the Loyd Noble  in high gear.  As it will settle later, at the end of this current season, somewhere between a 3rd  round NCAA tournament game and the National Championship game for the Sooners, the last chapter of this great’s college career will be written.  Yes, Sooner National loved Wayman Tisdale, the one and only Wayman Tisdale. To this day, till the end of time.  But in five, ten, fifteen years, Sooner fans, and fans across the college world quite possibility will think of this “Buddy” in the same way as number 23 in your all-time Sooner program.  Number 24 is special, real special.  Don’t miss it.

If you are a Sooner fan, a college basketball fan, a sports fan, find a ticket before this number 24 has played his last game for Oklahoma.  You will never forget what you see and in time you can tell someone that you watched a great one, the best player in college basketball for his time.