Griffin, Paris Grace SI Cover

Nov. 11, 2008

NORMAN, Okla - University of Oklahoma basketball players Blake Griffin and Courtney Paris have garnered quite a bit of media attention during their collegiate careers, but they hadn't graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. Until now.

Griffin, a sophomore on Jeff Capel's men's team, and Paris, a senior on Sherri Coale's women's squad, are one of six standout male and female duos featured on regional covers of the magazine's college basketball preview issue. All six pairs appear with the billing "DOUBLE TEAM" and were photographed by Robert Beck.

The five other player combinations featured are Briann January and James Harden of Arizona State, Rashanda McCants and Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina, Ashley Barlow and Kyle McAlarney of Notre Dame, Shavonte Zellous and DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh and Maya Moore and Hasheem Thabeet of Connecticut.

This week's issue (on stands Wednesday, Nov. 12) contains 42 pages of hoops coverage, including scouting reports for the top 20 men's teams, a five-minute guide highlighting players to watch and preseason All-America teams, as well as a projected field of 65 for the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

Sports Illustrated Cover Image

Griffin and Paris were both voted AP preseason All-Americans, marking the first time in school history that a men's and women's basketball player were both named to the organization's first-team preseason All-America squad the same year.

The OU men open the regular season Friday, Nov. 14, against Patriot League favorite American at 7 p.m. in Norman. The women's team hosts Oklahoma Christian Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. before starting its regular season Saturday against UC Riverside at 2 p.m. at Lloyd Noble Center.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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