The Morning According to Us: The Curious Case of Courtney Paris

Behind perhaps the most interesting story of college basketball in March 2009 (sorry, Arizona fans).

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Here.we.go.now.

If you'd like to read an ESPN The Magazine feature on Courtney Paris (with a video) from earlier this year, please click on this link.

CBS won't broadcast the most dramatic game this weekend. ESPN2 will. We're not homers; this is absolutely legitimate: no one in college basketball has ever made a promise as bold as Oklahoma's Courtney Paris. If the Sooners don't win the national title, Paris will pay out her scholarship.

She said it first on Senior Day, and has repeated the claim many times since. Oklahoma President David Boren thinks she's quite serious. Paris has checked with university officials to make sure a potential repayment wasn't in violation of NCAA rules. It's not. And so now the fun begins.

Paris is a senior, an All-American, and the No. 1-seeded Sooners have more or less coasted through their first two rounds of tourney play. Sunday night, though, they face Pittsburgh, a 4 seed with a 25-7 record and one Shavonte Zellous, whose game is as fluid as, well, her name on your tongue. (Say it aloud: Sha-von-tay. You can't help but smile.) The Panthers will be the Sooners first formidable opponent.

We'd argue that no promise in the history of sportdom has ever been as audacious. Joe Namath's guarantee in Super Bowl III was a savvy media ploy, a projection of cool: it fit his image to say something like that. We'd also argue that no statement has ever been as brave as Paris'. Ronnie Lott's plea to just lop the damn pinkie off was a testament to his toughness as a player, and something Courtney Paris certainly heard about in her youth: her father is Bubba Paris, after all. But Lott knew he would suffer few repercussions for the amputation; it was just the tip of the pinkie, remember. Courtney Paris, by contrast, has guaranteed to win not one game, like Namath, but six. And unlike Lott, she places her future in somewhat grave danger for her audacity.

There's talk that this might be just the motivation the Sooners need to win a championship. But this might be motivation enough for the likeliest of all title opponents, too: Mr. Geno Auriemma and his undefeated Huskies will be waiting at the end of this magical ride.

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