By John Shinn

Transcript Sportswriter

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — There’s no consensus on which direction Oklahoma will take in the NCAA Tournament. Each team enters March Madness with the same aspirations. Eventually, the cream rises to the top and the rest floats to the bottom.

The Sooners are no different than any other team in the field of 64. But they have no doubts what will ultimately decide their fate.

“This time of year is all about seniors,” OU coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We’ll go as far as ours take us.”

A statement like Sampson’s pretty much lays it all out there.

OU’s fate rests in the hands of Taj Gray, Kevin Bookout and Terrell Everett.

Some would say that’s a lot of pressure to drop on their backs. But where else is the pressure supposed to go?

They are the leaders.

“Once they get going, everything else falls into line,” junior guard Michael Neal said. “They’re the head of the household and we follow them no matter what.”

They’ve been to the NCAA Tournament before and they were the reason OU was thought to be a Final Four contender.

But their up-and-down play, particularly from Bookout and Gray, is the reason OU (20-8) will take on No. 11 seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee (21-8) at 11:25 a.m. today in the Minneapolis Regional at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena as a No. 6 seed.

Last Friday’s performance against Nebraska in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Championship was indicative of what happens when OU’s guides get lost.

Bookout scored 10 points and pulled down eight rebounds, but only took seven shots while playing all 40 minutes in an 69-63 upset loss to the Huskers.

Gray scored just nine points, took just six shots and only went to the free-throw line four times.