NCAA Tournament Big 12

So Blake Griffin is ready to make the jump now. The whole thing is nicely wrapped up with a bow for David Stern and Myles Brand, who should be high-fiving, lighting up victory cigars.

The Naismith Award winner, the nation's best college basketball player, is more mature for having stayed at Oklahoma for his sophomore year. He probably worked some education in somewhere, too. So yes, this worked out perfectly for him to jump to the NBA now.

Blake Griffin has been picking up hardware for the past few weeks (the Naismith, AP and CBS Awards spring immediately to mind) and, considering that he announced his decision Tuesday to enter the NBA Draft, it's safe to say he's going to be getting a pretty substantial pay raise as well.

Griffin called choice a "tough decision," but the reality is grounded closer in what Oklahoma Jeff Capel meant when he called the decision a "no brainer."

Shocking, right? Blake Griffin has been the dominant player in college basketball this year and he's won just about every individual award given. Now he can add the Naismith Award to the list.

Really, it never was any question. No player in college has been better this season than Griffin, the likely No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft. Even when he lost, he was spectacular. In the Sooners' final game of the season against North Carolina in the Elite Eight, Griffin scored 23 points and pulled down 16 rebounds, thoroughly outplaying Tyler Hansbrough in a matchup of player of the year winners.

Oklahoma's Courtney Paris will put her money where her promise is.

One month, and one season-ending Final Four loss to Louisville after saying she'd pay back the full cost of her scholarship if the Sooners failed to win a national title, Paris affirmed that a guarantee is a guarantee.

"I do make good on the guarantee," Paris said. "Not today, though. Obviously, I don't have $64,000 waiting, but I do make good on it."

And in the name of Joe Willie Namath, this couldn't be any more ridiculous.

During halftime of the thrilling Michigan State vs. Connecticut national semifinal, Chevrolet and CBS presented their awards for player of the year and coach of the year. To no one's surprise, Blake Griffin of Oklahoma took the honors from the player side, while Kansas' Bill Self won the coaching award.

Griffin, only a sophomore, was a monster for the Sooners this season. He averaged 22.7 points and 14.7 rebounds a game while shooting an unreal 65 percent from the field. He took the Sooners to the Elite Eight before losing to a much deeper North Carolina team.

Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel has been with the school for three years. For the third straight year, Capel will get a raise and extension after another successful season and plenty of interest from other programs -- again. Looks like Arizona fans can cross one more name off the list.

Capel disclosed that he has agreed to another raise and extension while in Detroit for the Final Four. He did not give any details on the money or length. The only reason why he decided to make it known was to stop the reports that he had considered the Virginia job, then Georgia and finally that he had been in negotiations with Arizona. This despite no program actually contacting Oklahoma for permission to speak with Capel.

It is no CBI or CIT title, but Penn State can claim an NIT Championship to top off the Nittany Lions' best season since the Jerry Dunn coached team went to the Sweet 16 in 2001. For the second straight year, the Big Ten can claim their conference won the NIT. Penn State knocked off Baylor, 69-63.

The Nittany Lions opened things up in the second half and withstood a far-too-late surge from the Bears, while both teams had to overcome sub-par performances from their star guards.

Everyone keeps tuned to sports sites and ESPNews for the latest plumes of smoke from Memphis and/or Lexington regarding John Calipari and whether he stays at Memphis or goes to Kentucky. The flip side is that the move has paralyzed nearly every other coaching search as programs and coaches in-demand wait to see what happens.

Oh, sure some little things have happened. Viginia Commonwealth has apparently hired Shaka Smart to be their next head coach. As with the last hire of VCU's former coach, Shaka Smart is a Florida assistant.

Everything else, though, appears to be on hold, if only for a moment.

During the NCAA Tournament, we NBA heads watch (almost) every game, judging the pro prospects of particular players. Inspired by our daily Doing Lines feature, Drooling Lines offers a daily summary of what the box scores tell us.

This song has been sung frequently, but in case you missed prior renditions ...

Ty Lawson -- ... no one has helped his NBA stock more this season than Ty Lawson. The tournament has been the same exact tune, with Sunday's killer Elite Eight performance the latest verse.

North Carolina could not stop Blake Griffin. But Griffin couldn't stop North Carolina.

The Tar Heels really did not contain Oklahoma's player of the year, despite a flurry of double teams. But they didn't have to, since the rest of the Sooner squad was never a factor. The game was effectively Blake Griffin versus North Carolina. As great a player as Griffin is, he could not beat all of North Carolina.

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