Buddy Hield's performance in 3 OT thriller launches POY campaign

Buddy Hield was smiling a lot after Monday night's thriller, mostly because Buddy Hield smiles a lot regardless of the circumstances. He's just a big smiler. In fact, Buddy Smilesmight be his nickname if he ever ends up in a Martin Scorsese film for some reason.

But deep down, Buddy Smiles was hurting.

Behind that smile, he was hurting.

He told CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd as much before leaving Allen Fieldhouse.

"I have to go the rest of my life saying I never won in that place," Hield said outside theOklahoma locker room. "It's going to hurt my heart forever. ... I could have done better."

Perhaps -- if only because any time you miss 10 shots and two free throws, technically speaking, you could have done better ... even if you made 13 shots and 12 free throws and finished with a career-high 46 points. And Hield's five turnovers, including the one in the final 10 seconds of the third overtime, were not ideal. But that's nitpicking, frankly. Just nitpicking. Because Buddy Hield was awesome in OU's 109-106 triple-OT loss at Kansas

• Gonzaga 109, Michigan State 106 (Nov. 22, 2005)
• Oklahoma State 105, Texas 103 on (Jan. 17, 2007)

If you're a college basketball fan, and you were old enough to watch games the week of Thanksgiving back in 2005, you likely remember both of these matchups. The first was in the Maui Invitational, where Adam Morrison, with long hair the soon-to-be most-famous mustache in sports, scored 43 points in 52 minutes while making 14 of 28 shots in a win. The other was at Gallagher-Iba Arena, where Kevin Durant, a future NBA MVP, scored 37 points in 52 minutes while making 13 of 31 shots in a loss.

So one guy won.

The other guy lost.

And, really, that's beside the point.

Because the point is this: Morrison and Durant were awesome in triple-overtime thrillers that garnered lots of attention, and they both went on to be National Player of the Year.

Morrison won the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 2006.

Kevin Durant won all of the awards in 2007.

So is Buddy Hield next?

It's hard to say for sure. But Hield now undeniably has his signature game -- a signature game that was a lot like Morrison's signature game and Durant's signature game -- to launch a real campaign, and he has the necessary numbers, too.

Hield is averaging 26.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists. He's shooting 50.2 percent overall, 50 percent from 3-point range. He's shooting 89.8 percent from the free-throw line. And he's doing all of this for a Power 5 school ranked second in

• Gonzaga 109, Michigan State 106 (Nov. 22, 2005)
• Oklahoma State 105, Texas 103 on (Jan. 17, 2007)If you're a college basketball fan, and you were old enough to watch games the week of Thanksgiving back in 2005, you likely remember both of these matchups. The first was in the Maui Invitational, where Adam Morrison, with long hair the soon-to-be most-famous mustache in sports, scored 43 points in 52 minutes while making 14 of 28 shots in a win. The other was at Gallagher-Iba Arena, where Kevin Durant, a future NBA MVP, scored 37 points in 52 minutes while making 13 of 31 shots in a loss.
• So one guy won.
  The other guy lost.
  And, really, that's beside the point.
  Because the point is this: Morrison and Durant were awesome in triple-overtime thrillers that garnered lots of attention, and they both went on to be National Player of the Year.
  Morrison won the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 2006.
  Kevin Durant won all of the awards in 2007.
  So is Buddy Hield next?
  It's hard to say for sure. But Hield now undeniably has his signature game -- a signature game that was a lot like Morrison's signature game and Durant's signature game -- to launch a real campaign, and he has the necessary numbers, too.
  Hield is averaging 26.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists. He's shooting 50.2 percent overall, 50 percent from 3-point range. He's shooting 89.8 percent from the free-throw line. And he's doing all of this for a Power 5 school ranked second in the CBS Sports Top 25 (and one), point being that Hield is on a nationally relevant team that's on national television a lot, which is typically a prerequisite to winning national awards.
  So, yeah, LSU's Ben Simmons will remain a candidate -- as will Providence's Kris Dunn, Michigan State's Denzel Valentine, North Carolina's Brice Johnson, Maryland's Melo Trimble, Iowa State's Georges Niang, so on and so forth. But Buddy Hield is the dude now.
  And we'll likely always remember Jan. 4, 2016 as the night that became clear.
• Because big efforts in triple-OT thrillers have a history.
  And history says they can lead to big things.