Butt kickings are a part of sports. No matter who you are, compete long enough and you'll get taken behind the woodshed a time or six. Blowout losses have a way of sticking out in the mind above the fray of regular wins and losses, and chances are you remember yours. I know I'll never forgive Iowa Park for the 50-0 spanking it laid on my JV football team in my freshman year... and then the 42-0 follow up a year later.
Oklahoma's basketball team received a taste of dirt Saturday night in the worst possible time -- the Final Four, in front of 70,000 sets of eyeballs and millions more on national television. Villanova connected on more than 70 percent of its shots, turning a 17-16 early deficit into a 95-51 runaway. The 44-point margin is the largest in the 77-year history of the Final Four.
On top of the record result, the setting added insult to injury. The nature of the tournament means there's no tomorrow, no do-over, no chance to get that taste of dirt out of their moutn.
As the Sooners' head coach, Lon Kruger's job was to pick his 15 souls off the floor, to take them through their lowest moment and help them see the light of day. Here's what he said.