Don't forget The Weeper leaving the bench to get in the face of a Kelvin's Krew member. That game was easily a Top 5 LNC memory for me.
Here's the Oklahoman from February 21st, 1995:
Sooners Rock Jayhawks Late OU Run Stops No. 1 KU
This, apparently, is how Oklahoma's basketball team and
fans would have acted back in 1988, if OU had beaten Kansas in the
NCAA championship game in Kansas City.
OU lost that game, of course, but the Sooners beat KU this time.
And even though it wasn't for a national championship, it sure
seemed like it late Monday night, after OU upset the No. 1-ranked
Jayhawks 76-73 at the Lloyd Noble Center.
This time, at game's end, OU's players and coaches were leaping
and shouting and high-fiving on the court. This time, OU's fans
were storming the floor, acting anything like a laid-back Sooner
basketball crowd. This time, the 25th-ranked Sooners upset KU
before an ESPN audience and OU's first capacity crowd (11,385) in
its last 22 home games.
The biggest victory of coach Kelvin Sampson's first Sooner
season ended just five hours after Kansas had been named No. 1 in
The Associated Press poll. And the victory came nine days after OU
had lost 93-76 at KU.
"I'd like to show a lot more emotion, but I'm a little under the
weather," said Sampson, who was congested. "But I can't tell you how
proud I am of these kids and how far they've come. " The Sooners
outscored KU 7-0 in the final minute. OU took a 74-73 lead with
45.6 seconds left on Ernie Abercrombie's first 3-point basket in 20
games, and his first 3-point attempt in 12 games.
"I was open, we were down by two, and I hit it," said
Abercrombie, who also had 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
"That couldn't have been me out there. "
OU forward Ryan Minor, the game's leading scorer with 28 points,
added two free throws, for a 76-73 lead, with 12 seconds left.
"It's the greatest feeling in the world," Minor said. "Kansas is
a very fundamentally sound team, and they play great defense. It
took a great effort from our guys tonight to pull this out. "
It was OU's first victory in five years over a No. 1-ranked
team. The Sooners beat two straight No. 1 teams, Missouri and
Kansas, on Feb. 25 and 27, 1990.
"We had a lot of guys step up and play well in key moments of
the game," said Minor, a 6-7 junior. "We've had our chances to beat
the No. 1 team before and never have. It feels great."
"This is a great win for coach Sampson and for the entire OU
basketball program," said OU guard Dion Barnes, the team's
second-leading scorer with 14 points. "It gets the tradition back
up and OU basketball back to national prominence. " The Jayhawks, who
also are ranked No. 1 by USA Today, had a chance to win or tie in the
final three seconds. But Jerod Haase missed a 3-pointer and OU guard
John Ontjes rebounded the ball, capping a 12-point, 11-assist game.
It was OU's second straight victory over a Top 25 team, two days
after the Sooners beat then-No. 9 (now No. 14) Missouri 94-89 on
Saturday.
With three games remaining in the regular season, an OU team
that was picked to finish sixth in the Big Eight is 20-6 overall
and 7-4 in the Big Eight. KU is 20-4 overall and 9-3 in the league.
The Sooners, who will end the regular season with three more
games against AP Top 25 teams, improved to 14-0 at home.
"We're not very big, and we're not particularly fast," Sampson
said, "but we have a big heart, and that's what you can never
measure. "
OU built three 13-point leads in the first half, and led 45-35
at halftime. But KU rallied for a six-point lead midway through the
final half.
"That's the No. 1 team in the country that we beat tonight,"
Sampson said. "We found a way to get up by 10 points and they found
a way to come back. They're a great basketball team, but you'd
better give our basketball team credit, too.
"We stayed together. We didn't panic. We penetrated and we made
plays." "Kelvin (Sampson) has just done a tremendous job with this group
of players," said KU coach Roy Williams. "In the first half, we
were outplayed in every phase of the game. I also think I was
out-coached by him in every phase of the game."
Minor's 3-pointer, giving him 20 points, gave OU a 48-35 lead
just 25 seconds into the second half. But KU came back big time.
The Jayhawks outscored OU 28-9 over the next 10 minutes to take a
63-57 lead with 8:46 remaining.
