Bracket picks: Wetzel | Dodd | Mejia

Hollis Price shot two of 11. Ebi Ere was two of nine. The entire Oklahoma team could manage only 32.8 percent shooting and the game was taking place inside deafening, emotional Gallagher-Iba Arena. The opponent was fired up archrival Oklahoma State.

Coach Kelvin Sampson directed his Sooners to the Big 12 tourney title and now sets his sights on the West Regional.(AP)

With its two leading scorers delivering little on offense against an excellent team, the Sooners should have been cooked. Instead, it made three defensive stands in the final minute of play, tied the game and got off a good last-second shot to try to win. It didn't go in and OSU won this tremendous contest five minutes later in overtime, but sometimes you find out more about a team when they lose than you do when they win.

"I thought we played soft," Sooners coach Kelvin Sampson said.

That ought to tell you about Sampson's expectations, because the Sooners were anything but soft. They were tough, physical, determined, gritty and got 27 points and 11 rebounds from Aaron McGhee. This was a great performance by any standard but Sampson's. Despite the loss.

It is why Oklahoma is going to win the national championship.

Overshadowed nationally by Duke and Maryland, overlooked in their own conference by Kansas and Bob Knight at Texas Tech, the Sooners have quietly put together the fiercest, most balanced, hungriest team in the country. Its 64-55 victory Sunday over Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament championship game was no fluke. That's how good OU is. That's how tough the Sooners can get.

Oklahoma's defense holds opponents to a meager 64.0 points a game. Its high-powered offense, which features four double-digit scorers, goes for 78.2 a night. The Sooners (27-4) can beat you ugly -- like beating up KU on Sunday -- or it can go pretty, say the 96-78 February track-meet romp over Texas.

Oklahoma can overwhelm you despite a player or two having an off night, a secret to tourney success. When Price, the speedy guard averaging 16.6 points a game, is off, then maybe McGhee, the muscular power man going for 15.0 and 7.8, will step up. Or maybe it will be Ere, the smooth junior-college transfer hitting for 14.5 or Jason Detrick, another quick wing that gets 10 a night.

Each of those players has led the team in scoring, putting up 20 on a different night. None seems to care who gets the job done. A team that Sampson makes hold hands during breaks in practice is beyond tight.

"That's the thing about this team, we really don't care," said McGhee, the one-time Cincinnati Bearcat. "We want to win. That's it. The numbers don't mean anything. Whoever is hot, we go to."

This is a special group. Price is the nicest player off the court in the country, despite having the instincts of an assassin in late-game situations. Ere is a budding superstar who shuns media attention and still longs for the anonymity of junior-college ball -- "I loved it, both teams would get about 100 shots up and there were no reporters." McGhee, a straight bruiser, loves doing the dirty work.

Then there is a collection of great players Sampson runs in and out of the game. The Sooners have eight guys averaging over 20 minutes and zero complaints a game. That's unselfishness.

Oklahoma was given a No. 2 seed and put in the toughest region, the West. But don't think the slight has any validity. This Selection Committee was clueless and admitted seeding the Sooners before the Big 12 title game even took place.

Not that it will matter. This is a team that beat KU by nine on a neutral court (and lost by only seven in Lawrence) and drilled Maryland by 16 back in December.

It is a team that looked impressive even in its losses.

This is the 2002 version of the 2000 Michigan State Spartans, the 1999 Connecticut Huskies.

Balanced, hungry, together and defensive-minded, with great guard play, excellent bench coaching, four game-breaking scorers, good size and exceptional depth. OU has all the answers.

In three weeks, it will have the title to prove it.