NORMAN, OKLA. — Inside the Oklahoma men's basketball weight room, Darby Rich keeps a close eye on Blake Griffin. He has to. If he doesn't, Rich says, college basketball's player-of-the-year-in-waiting will push himself too hard.
"He is a beast. He wants to lift as heavy as he can. He would lift super heavy with his legs on a game day, if you'd let him," says Rich, the team's strength and conditioning coach.
The Sooners don't need that, not now, in March, not two wins away from a Final Four and with Syracuse waiting for them Friday at Memphis.
So Rich watches, and when the sophomore finishes a workout and looks at the sheet of exercises and asks, "Anything else?" Rich gives his broken-record response: "No, Blake, not today."
That's what it's like to train Griffin, a 6-foot-10 forward who is all of 251 pounds, with barely 5% body fat. He is the strongest player for his age -- he just turned 20 -- the team's medical trainer, Alex Brown, has seen in 22 years with the program.
If there were weight-room records, Rich says, Griffin would be in the top three in every category.
If he could, Bob Stoops would borrow him in a minute.
"He'd be an All-American tight end if he wanted," the Sooners football coach says.
Griffin is flexible, thanks to daily stretches since seventh grade.
"His hamstrings go on forever," says Jennifer Sheppard, Griffin's Pilates instructor when he took the course last fall.
A dance instructor at Oklahoma, impressed by the big guy's limber limbs, even thought of casting Griffin in a modern dance piece. "I don't think [modern] is my style," Griffin says, laughing.
But it's his leap that drops jaws. Flat-footed, Griffin will put 38 1/2 inches of air between his size 17s and the hardwood; give him a running start and he'll tattoo the backboard at 12 feet 3 inches, rare air only players such as LeBron James and Dwight Howard -- players Griffin studies -- get to breathe.
"He's the fastest guy on the court, jumps the highest on the court, strongest guy on the court, great skills, great touch, great understanding, great attitude, great demeanor, and a great team player," Oklahoma State Coach Travis Ford said after Griffin had 33 points and 14 rebounds in a Big 12 Conference victory.
Though they say he's the hardest working "freak" athlete to hit Norman since Adrian Peterson, Griffin's work ethic worries his coaches because they fear he could burn himself out before his NBA career hits full stride. And that would be a costly mistake considering Griffin is expected to be the first pick of the next draft.
