AUBURN HILLS – The Pistons held training camp in the shadow of the Big House last month and that sparked the idea for Blake Griffin – a big-time college football fan from his days growing up in Oklahoma, where Sooners football is a religion – to attend a football game there.
So on Saturday night, with Dwane Casey giving the Pistons a day off after playing three games over the previous five days and with three days off before Wednesday’s regular-season opener, he did.
“Oklahoma, the tailgates and the stadium is a little crazier, a little more chaos,” he said after Sunday’s practice. “But the fans, the size, the amount of fans – it was a pretty awesome experience.”
Griffin had a little history with Michigan, leading the Sooners to a 73-63 win in the 2009 NCAA tournament to put Oklahoma in the Sweet 16. They’d eventually lose to North Carolina one step from the Final Four. Griffin put 33 points and 17 rebounds on the Wolverines in John Beilein’s second season when he had to send an overmatched freshman, Zach Novak, up against Griffin, who was a few months away from being the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NBA draft.
Griffin went to Ann Arbor with two of his childhood buddies and spent part of the game on the sideline and part amid the 111,360 who packed Michigan Stadium to see the Wolverines crush Wisconsin 38-13.
“It was great,” Griffin said. “We had a really good time. It was definitely a cool experience. Nice to cross off the bucket list.”