Gary Parrish

DETROIT -- Blake Griffin will hold a news conference later Tuesday to announce his intention to enter the NBA Draft.

"(There will be) no surprises," a source close to the OU program told CBSSports.com early Tuesday. Consequently, Griffin has played his final game for the Sooners, who rode the CBSSports.com National Player of the Year to the Elite Eight of this season's NCAA tournament.

Griffin averaged 22.7 points and a nation-leading 14.4 rebounds as a sophomore.

The 6-foot-10 forward will almost certainly be the No. 1 pick in June's NBA Draft.

Here's Friday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: Congratulations to Blake Griffin (for winning the straw poll). I heard he is staying. Is that true?

-- Killac

Stay?

Stay where?

At best, Griffin will stay at Oklahoma for another six or eight weeks. After that, he'll be gone, and if somebody really told you otherwise you should stop listening to them. Forever. Because they don't know what they're talking about.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette's Michael Rothstein conducted his final straw poll for National Player of the Year.

Predictably, the winner was Oklahoma's  Blake Griffin.

But would you believe it was unanimous?

Thirty-five writers from around the country -- including yours truly -- were asked to submit a ballot featuring three players, and all 35 ballots had Griffin at the top. Davidson's Stephen Curry finished second; Pitt's DeJuan Blair was third. That's exactly how my ballot looked, for those wondering. To see the full results, just click this link .

Blake Griffin met with doctors again Wednesday and even shot a little, but the Oklahoma star still has not been cleared to return to contact drills or live action, OU coach Jeff Capel told CBSSports.com late Wednesday night.

"Right now we still have no clue (if he'll play Saturday against Texas Tech)," Capel said by phone. "It takes time, and we're not going to do anything to rush it. We want him to be OK before he plays again or before we even put him in a position to practice with us again."

Griffin suffered a concussion in the first half of Saturday's loss at Texas, then missed Monday's loss at Kansas that dropped the Sooners' record to 25-3 overall, 11-2 in the Big 12. The 6-foot-10 sophomore is the overwhelming favorite to be the National Player of the Year and top pick in June's NBA Draft, but for now he's still sidelined with lingering effects from a freak mishap.

"He's getting better," Capel said. "But it's a slow process, and we don't want to speed it up."

As this season rolls along, you just watch, the conversation about who should be the National Player of the Year -- not to mention the top pick in June's NBA Draft -- is going to intensify primarily because people are starting to recognize the impact Hasheem Thabeet has on both ends of the court. That 25-point, 20-rebound, nine-block performance Saturday against Seton Hall certainly helped. But the biggest thing aiding the Connecticut junior is how opposing Big East coaches are singing his praises, one after another.

The other day, it was Jim Boeheim.

This weekend, it was Bobby Gonzalez.

"I don't know ... a more dominant guy than him in the country," Gonzalez said after his Pirates lost to UConn. "He, to me, is the No. 1 player in America. ... If I was an NBA franchise I would take him No. 1 in the draft."

In other words, watch out Blake Griffin.

Hasheem Thabeet is coming for you!

The 7-foot-3 center is now averaging 13.5 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.4 blocks for the No. 1 team in the country while Griffin is averaging 22.8 points, 14.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks for the No. 2 team.

My suggestion: Let them decide it in the NCAA tournament.

Preferably, in the national title game.

Against each other.

Blake Griffin is running away with the National Player of the Year award.

That's what the results of a straw poll conducted by Michael Rothstein show. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette writer reached out to 55 media members from across the country (myself included), and 51 of them placed Griffin at the top of their ballot (myself included).

The top three in order were ...

1. Blake Griffin (Oklahoma)

2. Stephen Curry (Davidson)

3. Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina)

Click this link to see the full results.

The request came from Michael Rothstein of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

It was simple.

Rank the top three National Player of the Year candidates

Turns out, Michael is conducting a straw poll with various media members, one he plans to do every couple of weeks for the rest of the season. He'll publish the poll the day after we submit ballots, which means he should have it all put together by tomorrow, and I'll be sure to relay the results. In the meantime, I figured I'd give you the three names I submitted, then list a few other players who deserve a mention.

So here goes ...

1. Blake Griffin (Oklahoma)

2. Stephen Curry (Davidson)

3. James Harden (Arizona State)

A few other players who deserve a mention (in alphabetical order): Jeff Adrien (Connecticut), DeJuan Blair (Pittsburgh), Trevor Booker (Clemson), Jon Brockman (Washington), Derrick Brown (Xavier), Nick Calathes (Florida), DeMarre Carroll (Missouri), Sherron Collins (Kansas), Darren Collison (UCLA), Dante Cunningham (Villanova), Toney Douglas (Florida State), Devan Downey (South Carolina), Tyreke Evans (Memphis), Jonny Flynn (Syracuse), Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina), Luke Harangody (Notre Dame), Manny Harris (Michigan), Gerald Henderson (Duke), Jordan Hill (Arizona), Matt Howard (Butler), Ty Lawson (North Carolina), Kalin Lucas (Michigan State), Eric Maynor (VCU), Jerel McNeal (Marquette), Jodie Meeks (Kentucky), Greg Monroe (Georgetown), Kyle Singler (Duke), Tyler Smith (Tennessee), Jeff Teague (Wake Forest), Hasheem Thabeet (Connecticut),  Evan Turner (Ohio State), Terrence Williams (Louisville), Sam Young (Pittsburgh).

Thoughts?

Apparently dunking and rebounding and leading a team to a possible Final Four isn't enough for Blake Griffin. Now he also wants to answer questions from readers -- just like I answer questions from readers -- via Blake's Mailbag at SoonerSports.com, meaning the sophomore star is so good at his normal job that he's trying to prove he's pretty good at mine, too.

What a show-off.

(No wonder opposing teams are always taking cheap shots .)

Seriously, it's a neat deal.

The first edition was posted Thursday with fans quizzing Griffin about everything from his brother, his car and the chances that he'll return to school. The All-American forward even finds time to poke fun at Sarah Palin, which is always fun. So I encourage you to check it out at this link and submit appropriate questions, like ...

Dear Blake: Why are you trying to dominate internet journalism with a mailbag? You don't see Gary Parrish trying to dunk on Damion James, do you?

Possible new slogan for the Big 12: Record-breaking years ... every year!

That was my first thought when I saw that Oklahoma's Blake Griffin had another huge game Saturday, that he seems capable to break the league records set last season by Kansas State's Michael Beasley, who broke the records set the season before by Texas' Kevin Durant. Griffin's 35-point, 21-rebound effort against Gardner-Webb means the sophomore is now averaging 26.0 points and 19.8 rebounds through four games, which is insane and enough to make him the (very) early season leader for National Player of the Year honors.

Next up is a trip to New York, where the Sooners will meet UAB in the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-off.  The stage at Madison Square Garden will give Griffin the stage he deserves to further establish himself as the likely top pick in next June's NBA Draft, and Mike Davis, if you're reading, my advice is to double the post.

Actually, go ahead and triple the post.

Better safe than sorry.

The AP All-American team looks exactly like the CBSSports.com All-American team.

But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be some debate.

The reality is that when I put together my team the only must-have-players were Tyler Hansbrough, Stephen Curry and Luke Harangody. I can't understand why any ballot wouldn't include those three names, but I can't understand a lot of what happens on AP ballots. So whatever. As for Blake Griffin and Darren Collison, yes, I also featured both. But I considered teams without those names and actually almost went one of the following:

G: Darren Collison (UCLA)
G: Stephen Curry (Davidson)
G: James Harden (Arizona State)
F: Luke Harangody (Notre Dame)
F: Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina)

Or ...

G: Stephen Curry (Davidson)
G: James Harden (Arizona State)
F: Tyler Smith (Tennessee)
F: Luke Harangody (Notre Dame)
F: Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina)

To be clear, I love Griffin and Collison. But Collison's dreadful Final Four appearance is something I nearly couldn't get out of my head, and though Griffin was dominant as a freshman his numbers weren't quite as good as Hansbrough's or Harangody's. So that's why I considered dropping one or both for Harden and/or Smith. But in the end, I think I got it right. And I think the AP voters got it right, too.

So good for me.

And good for them.

And we'll just have to argue some other day.

One of the things Willie Warren said in our conversation the other day is that he committed to Oklahoma, at least in part, because he wanted to play with Blake Griffin, which makes sense. I mean, a good guard always benefits from a dominant post presence, Mike Conley and his million-dollar contract being a solid recent example. So Warren saw Griffin at OU and committed to OU. But as last season progressed and Griffin showed his ability on a national stage it became apparent he was a guaranteed lottery pick, and that's when Warren figured Griffin would be gone before he ever arrived on campus.

"I expected him to leave," Warren said. "I actually think he's crazy for not leaving."

For the record, so do I. In fact, that's what I wrote three months ago (I actually used that same word, crazy, in a column). But that's neither here nor there anymore. As it stands, Griffin is back and Warren is with him, and those two could form the nation's best inside-outside duo.

"Oh yeah," Warren said. "I think we will."

Here's Tuesday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: Did you hear about Blake Griffin getting in trouble?

-- T.J.

I got home late Monday, saw this note and immediately searched for the story. At that point, I had not heard about Blake Griffin getting in trouble. So I was a little surprised and curious.

Was it a DUI?

Or a bar fight?

Or some other typical charge?

Actually, no.

Turns out Griffin was ticketed for ... urininating on a bush!

Seriously, the guy took a piss outside and some cop slapped him with an "outraging public decency" charge, which is ridiculous on many levels. I mean, how on earth can it be illegal to whiz on a bush, particularly in Oklahoma? And what is it with this state anyway? First, Eddie Sutton is videotaped peeing outside of a middle school in Stillwater a few years ago, and now Griffin is ticketed for peeing on a bush in Norman. Apparently, the yearning to pee outside is overwhelming in Oklahoma, and this really doesn't bode well for me considering I'll be in Norman next week.

(Note to self: Pee inside at all costs.)

Anyway, mark this down as no big deal for Griffin.

Far as I'm concerned, when you gotta go you gotta go.

And it's just a shame the Oklahoma police don't understand this basic concept.