KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Figuring Oklahoma's chances of success in the NCAA Tournament sounds like a math problem. Blake Griffin is the constant. The Sooners' guard play is the variable.

A victory away from being ranked No. 1, the Sooners lost four of six as their lineup was fractured by Griffin's absence due to a concussion.

And over the last three games, Oklahoma's perimeter players - Austin Johnson, Willie Warren and Tony Crocker - have impersonated brick layers, shooting 22.2 percent (12-of-54) from 3-point range and 35.2 percent (24-of-68).

If the second-seeded Sooners are going to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, regaining their shooting touch will be a top priority in their opening-round game against 15th-seed Morgan State Thursday in Kansas City's Sprint Center.

"I believe in my team," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said during Wednesday's news conferences. "There was talk in December about our guards not being good enough and then we started playing well and were on the cusp of being No. 1. We're fine and will be fine."

In addition to the shooting woes, the Sooners have been sloppy. Over their last seven games, they're averaging over 16 turnovers per game.

Despite the negative numbers, Oklahoma's players remain convinced and confident.

"We know better than anybody what this team can do," Taylor Griffin said. "Everybody outside the program can talk as much as they want but in the end everybody, coaches, staff, players, we know exactly what we can do."

Executive privilege
Oklahoma's late-season slump has made the Sooners feel like they're on the bottom of the world's biggest dog pile. Even President Obama, while filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket for ESPN, downgraded OU because it only uses seven players.

The President's comment was relayed to Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel during Wednesday's news conferences in Kansas City and Capel was asked if he wanted to "comment on American economic policy."

"I was hearing that all year back in Oklahoma, that we don't play enough guys. ... I'll let President Obama stick to running the country and I'll try to coach my team to the best of my ability."

Asked if the Sooners were playing the disrespect card because of their No. 2 seed, Oklahoma's Blake Griffin pointed out the team had one famous supporter.

"I was watching SportsCenter and saw the (actor) Samuel L. Jackson had us in the national championship game in his bracket," Griffin said with a smile.

The Boise boys
Missouri hoped that it would be sent to Kansas City for its opening weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the Tigers will travel 1,500 miles to Boise, Idaho, to face Cornell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament

“Boise sounds good,” Missouri point guard Zaire Taylor said. “I want to go to all 50 states, and I can’t see myself going to Idaho for any other reason.”

“I’m excited to get out there and play some games, watch some basketball, see the beautiful city of Boise, Idaho, and get a baked potato," Missouri's freshman Kim English said.

Budding rivals
When Tennessee and Oklahoma State meet in the first round Friday, there could be some bad blood boiling. The Volunteers and the Cowboys played during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons with each team winning once. Both games were chippy.

In the first meeting won by the Cowboys, OSU's Marcus Dove was undercut and suffered a broken pelvis. The next season when Tennessee won by two points in Nashville, there was considerable trash talking coming from the Vols and their fans.

"I’m definitely going to take into consideration all the things they did to us when we were there,” Oklahoma State senior point guard Byron Eaton said. "They beat us, and they talked bad to us.”

Playing hooky
Kansas faces North Dakota State in the first round Friday. The school is located in Fargo and the Bison figure to have a large following - an estimated 12,000 fans - in the Metrodome in Minneapolis, which is just over a 3-hour drive.

Jayhawks sophomore center Cole Aldrich figures to have a personal rooting section. He played at Bloomington Jefferson High School, which is about 10 minutes from the Metrodome.

Jeff Evens, Aldrich's high school coach, has told his principal he plans to sneak out of school to attend the 11:30 a.m. game. Evens' team will be playing Eden Prairie Friday night in a sectional championship game.

Head games
It has been the year of the concussion in college basketball. Texas junior center Dexter Pittman suffered a mild concussion when his head collided with the hip of Baylor's Tweety Carter last Friday. Pittman says he's feeling fine and Texas coach Rick Barnes believes Pittman will be ready to play against Minnesota.

Also this season, Oklahoma's Blake Griffin missed almost two full games and Duke's Nolan Smith has been out since colliding with a Maryland player after both suffered concussions.

Layups
* The United States Basketball Writers Association announced its all-American teams Monday. Oklahoma's Blake Griffin was a first-team selection and Kansas' Sherron Collins was a second-team choice.

* Texas has set the date for its match up with North Carolina next season. The Longhorns will face the Tar Heels on Dec. 19 in the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium - the first college basketball game played in the facility that will host the 2014 Final Four. The two teams meet again in the 2010-11 in Greensboro and are working on a home-and-home series.

* Kudos to Stephen F. Austin of the Southland Conference. The school is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance. The Lumberjacks are coached by Danny Kaspar, who spent some time as an assistant at Baylor.

* Two Big 12 teams are playing in sites where the ticket demand will be high. Texas is in Greensboro, N.C., along with North Carolina and Duke. Oklahoma State is in Dayton along with Ohio State, Louisville and West Virginia.

* Kansas has been knocked out of tournaments recently by schools that start with the letter "B" - Bucknell, Bradley and Baylor. The Kansas state senate even went so far to pass a symbolic resolution that prohibits the Jayhawks from playing a "B" school in March. While the Jayhawks are playing North Dakota State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it's worth noting that their opponents' mascot is the ... Bison.

* Missouri faces Cornell in the first round. The Big Red's leading scorer is junior forward/guard Ryan Wittman. His father Randy was a starter on Indiana's 1981 national championship team.

* Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, who becomes a member of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Committee this summer, is in Kansas City "shadowing" committee member Laing Kennedy, the Kent State athletic director. The NCAA has incoming members of the committee follow a current committee member to start their indoctrination.

* If you want college basketball, Kansas City is the place to be. Not only will there be six NCAA Tourament games (four Thursday, two Saturday) at the Sprint Center, the NAIA Division I Men's Tournament started Wednesday at Municipal Auditorium, which is three blocks from the Sprint Center. The NAIA tourney is wall-to-wall ball with 31 games in six days. The eight-game first rounds Wednesday and Thursday begin at 9 a.m. with the last game scheduled for 10:30 p.m.

* Former Kansas star Jeff Boschee, the school's career leader in 3-pointers, is a North Dakota native. He grew up about 75 miles from Fargo, the home of the North Dakota State team that will face the Jayhawks in the first round. “I was excited when (North Dakota State) won their conference tournament and was hoping they’d upset somebody (in NCAAs). After I saw they were playing KU ... I don’t want them to upset anybody,” Boschee told the Lawrence Journal-World.

Numbers to note
* Over the last six seasons, the Big 12 has the best NCAA Tournament winning percentage (64.2) with a 52-29 record. The Big 12's 52 victories is second to the Big East's 60.

* Since 2000, a conference has placed six or more teams in the bracket 34 times. The Big 12 has done that seven times, which ties the Big East and Southeastern conferences for the most "six packs."

* Kansas has lost two of its last three games and in those three games the Jayhawks have shot 41 percent from the field, 30 percent from 3-point range and were out-rebounded twice.

* Sophomore Dogus Balbay and freshman Varez Ward are the only Texas players who haven't played in an NCAA Tournament game. The other Longhorns have played in 43 NCAA games.

Final say
"A guy got hot, a guy got really hot and we ran out of bodies to guard him. He scored from everywhere on the court ... this corner, that corner, top of the key, on the block, going right, going left, I don't care what Fran Fraschilla says."
Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon disagrees with ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla, who said that the Aggies failed to properly guard Texas Tech's Mike Singletary, who scored a Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Championship record 43 points last Wednesday

“There’s an underlying maturity that goes along with a group of guys that have gone through everything as a team. We’ve played against Wisconsin in front of 18,000 in the Kohl Center. We’ve also played at New Jersey Tech where there was a badminton tournament going on. We’ve done everything except for playing against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament in front of 35,000 people.”
North Dakota State coach Saul Phillips on his team's starting lineup that features four fifth-year seniors who are 23 years old

"We won't be intimidated. That definitely won't happen. "Our motto is we don't really care where we play. Just give us two baskets and a ball and that's it."
Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman, whose team's non-conference scheduled included games with Utah, Ole Miss, DePaul, Washington and Maryland

“Everyone who plays college basketball hopes spring break is non-existent.”
Most college kids are on spring break and partying hardy but Oklahoma's Taylor Griffin doesn't mind that he's not on vacation