I remember vividly the first time I realized Blake Griffin was something special.
I was probably a little late to the party in all honesty. It was the Elite 8 of the 2009 NCAA Tournament — so Griffin technically hadn’t been named national player of the year yet — but he had already finished a regular season in which he averaged 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds per game while shooting 65.9% from the field. At 20 years old, he was already a man among boys.
But back to that Elite 8 game. The Sooners were playing North Carolina, a Tar Heel team that brought back every rotation player from the 2008 Final Four squad, one that was an overwhelming favorite to win the national championship and went on to become the third team ever to win every tournament game by double digits.