if repost, just delete
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=92&articleid=20100107_92_0_NORMAN407680
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=92&articleid=20100107_92_0_NORMAN407680
Sooners aim to earn back locker room, practice gear
By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Published: 1/7/2010 4:32 PM
Last Modified: 1/7/2010 4:38 PM
NORMAN — Just two days before the start of the Big 12 Conference season, Oklahoma has literally lost its identity.
When the Sooners report to practice, they must dress someplace other than their own locker room. They’ve been banned from the premises. Then, when they suit up, they can wear whatever T-shirts and shorts they can find, as long as they don’t include “Oklahoma,” “OU” or “Sooners” on them.
It has been this way since an 83-69 loss at Gonzaga Dec. 31, a barely-competitive game that ended as freshman Tiny Gallon walked off the free throw lane before teammate Andrew Fitzgerald had shot.
The team calls it “D block,” and considers it absolutely necessary, given the occasionally careless ways of OU’s 9-5 season.
“We’re not playing like an Oklahoma team,” guard Willie Warren said, “so we don’t deserve an Oklahoma locker room.”
As for the practice gear?
“Have to earn it back,” said coach Jeff Capel, who Warren said is going without OU gear as well. “I’m looking for a lot of stuff, how we approach things, how we practice, our attention to detail. It’s not necessarily about just winning. It’s about doing things the right way and conducting yourself the right way. And having pride. Having pride in what we do, having pride in everything we do.
“If we do that, we’ll earn the right to wear (Oklahoma) on our chest again.”
Games, out of respect to protocol, appear to be an exception.
“If we could not wear it in games, I wouldn’t wear it in games,” Capel said. “But we’ve
gotta wear jerseys, I guess.”
“We still play for OU, we’re just taking a different approach to some stuff,” senior Tony Crocker said. “We’re trying to get everybody back on the same page.”
Even if that means dressing together in the Lloyd Noble Center’s cramped officials locker room. Or, as Crocker has done, straight out of a duffel bag he carries around “like I’m going to the rec center.”
It isn’t the first time coaches have tried this tactic. Tom Izzo kicked his Michigan State Spartans out of their locker room a couple seasons ago. Pat Summitt booted her Lady Vols of Tennessee just last year.
And while there is shock value to the method, the idea is to generate results from it. The Sooners, it might be noted, are 1-0 since moving to their new digs.
“If we keep winning,” Warren said, “I’d love to stay in D block.”