By Ron Griffitts
Contributing columnist
In a battle between two teams whose states bordered each other, the Oklahoma Sooners (35-3) coached by Billy Tubbs met the Kansas Jayhawks (26-11) coached by Larry Brown in Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri on April 4, 1988.
The Sooners defeated Chattanooga 94-66, Auburn 107-87, defending champion Louisville 108-98 and Villanova 78-59 to get to the final four where they got past Arizona 86-78 in the semifinal.
The Jayhawks got past Xavier 85-72, Murray State 61-58, Vanderbilt 77-64 and Kansas State 71-58 to get to the final four where they defeated the always tough Duke 66-59.
Oklahoma was led by 6’ 11” junior center Stacey King (22.3 ppg, 8.5 rpg), 6’ 8’’ senior forward Harvey Grant (20.9 ppg, 9.4 rpg), 6’ senior guard Mookie Blaylock (16.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 5.9 apg), 6’ 1” senior guard Ricky Grace (14.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 7.4 apg) and 6’ 5” senior forward Dave Sieger (10.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 3.5 apg).
Kansas was led by 6’ 10”senior forward Danny Manning (24.8 ppg, 9.0 rpg), 6’ 4” junior forward Milt Newton (11.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and 6’ 3” sophomore guard Kevin Pritchard (10.5 ppg).
In a close game, the two teams were tied at the half 50-50. But the Jayhawks, behind Danny Manning, made 63.6% of their field goals in the game compared to 42.9% for the Sooners. The Sooners fell behind by six points midway in the second half, but led by Mookie Blaylock, pulled to within one at 78-77 with 40 seconds remaining in the game. Manning, however, made two free throws and the Jayhawks pulled away at the end to win 83-79.
The Sooners made 10 three point field goals compared to 4 for Kansas which helped keep them in the game. But, the big difference was Danny Manning who made 13 of 24 from the field for 31 points, pulled down 18 rebounds, had 5 steals and 2 blocked shots on his way to the game MVP award.
Milt Newton added 15 points and Kevin Pritchard 13 for Kansas while for Oklahoma Dave Sieger had 22 points, Mookie Blaylock and Harvey Grant each had 14, Stacey King had 17 and Ricky Grace had 12.
Oklahoma has not been back to the NCAA final since 1988 while Kansas was back in 1991.
Danny Manning. Mookie Blaylock, Stacey King and Harvey Grant all went on to distinguished careers in the NBA.
Statistics for this article were from sports-reference.com and YouTube.com.
