NORMAN, Okla. -- On tape after tape, day after day, the image of Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury appeared in the Oklahoma film room.

In an on-court postgame interview after the Bulldogs' 54-45 win over the Sooners on Dec. 28, Stansbury had delivered the words that no Oklahoma player should ever hear.

"It came down to the toughest team tonight," Stansbury said flatly. "Mississippi State was the tougher team."

What may be dismissed as clichéd coach-speak in most college basketball corridors resonated in Norman like a judge slamming down his gavel on a life sentence.

Playing tougher than Oklahoma, a team that literally elbowed its way into the college basketball elite? No one outkicks the Rockettes, outspends the Yankees or outmarries J. Lo.

"That stabs you in the heart a little bit," Sampson says. "Stansbury was right. That was the thing that was discouraging."

So when the ball dropped on 2002, the enigmatic Sooners made some of the soothsayers look like they had dropped the crystal ball with their preseason predictions.

Sure, OU rung in 2003 at 7-2, but they'd picked up no quality wins (RPI 61) to earn their No. 9 ranking and, more importantly to Sampson, developed no tangible identity.

They have quickly taken care of that problem.

After overpowering No. 3 Connecticut 73-63 on Tuesday night and gritting past then-No. 14 Michigan State 60-58 on Saturday, Oklahoma (9-2) established an indelible identity -- toughness. Or, rather, reestablished its image by devouring loose balls, crashing the offensive boards and winning games ugly.

And, no doubt, the Sooners played both games with Stansbury's words reverberating in their minds. OU saw the clip of Stansbury's declaration over and over… 10…15…20... 25 times.

OU didn't even watch a grain of film from its 100-64 waxing of UNC Ashville, which followed the Mississippi State loss. Instead, the 17 turnovers OU committed and Stansbury's indictment kept popping up on screen.

"It's true," says OU star Hollis Price. "The toughest team will win. Tonight (against Connecticut) we were the toughest team, and Saturday we were too."

And with Colorado visiting Norman on Saturday to kick off Big 12 play, the ninth-ranked Sooners are bubbling with confidence and momentum. And like most losses before conference play, OU's early defeats to Alabama and Mississippi State are fluttering away as distant memories.

"Those losses were good for us," says Sampson, quick to remind folks that this isn't the BCS. "Let's say we were 11-0. I'm telling you that would be the most fools gold 11-0 ever. We needed to get our butt beat. We needed to be humbled."

But OU bounced backed, just like Sampson hoped. Senior Ebi Ere carried the Sooners in the Michigan State game with 21 points and Price rang up a career-high 33 against Connecticut.

But the defining moment came when OU senior point guard Quannas White hobbled back from a sprained MCL in his left knee to help OU seal the game.

After colliding knees with UConn's Shamon Tooles in the first half and needing two people to help him off the floor, White made a startling return. As he sat on the bench in the second half wearing a knee brace, UConn twice whittled OU's 20-point lead to five.

White made himself available on an only-if-needed basis, and Sampson sent him hobbling into the game with 3:41 remaining and OU leading just 57-52.

Immediately fouled on a rebound, White calmly drained both ends of a one-and-one. The shots quelled the momentum UConn had mustered after stringing together a 19-4 run.

And after piloting the Sooners to victory, despite the fact OU scored just two field goals in the last 15 minutes, Sampson greeted White with a bear hug when the guard left the game with 34.2 seconds remaining.

"I had planned to send him in for a minute or so, just to rest (backup) Blake (Johnston)," says Sampson. "That plan got ditched real quick."

White should be fine, as he expects to play Saturday against Colorado. OU should be too -- just ask Michigan State assistant coach Brian Gregory, who came up with a scary conclusion in the film labyrinth of Michigan State's practice facility: "They have a great chance to be better than they were last season."

While pointing out the obvious reason for the Sooners' milquetoast start -- the loss of bruising forward Aaron McGhee -- Gregory also sees improvement in the Sooners' transition game, offensive rebounding and execution.

And as someone that's watched the Spartans make three Final Four runs, Gregory can pinpoint one irrefutable reason that the Sooners will play deep in March -- they have three senior guards.

And in OU's win over the Spartans in Oklahoma City on Saturday, the Sooner defense simply overwhelmed sophomore Chris Hill down the stretch, forcing him into turnovers and bad shots.

"We had freshmen and sophomores getting their asses kicked," says Gregory. "That's going to happen. To have three seniors like they do, you don't really see that anymore."

For OU to reach New Orleans, it will need improvement from its role players. Sampson isn't too concerned about White, Ere, Price or junior Jabahri Brown, all veterans. He describes his team like a crew coach would describe his shell.

He says that the four veterans are all rowing at the same speed. But with freshmen Kevin Bookout and DeAngelo Alexander lagging behind, and redshirt sophomore Johnnie Gilbert still coming back from a freak Jet Ski accident, the whole operation fails to move smoothly.

Since Sampson decided to redshirt senior guard Jason Detrick, a move that would have been endlessly second guessed had White's injury been serious, he'd rode Alexander hard in practice. Sampson preached OU's selfless, team-first style, frequently requesting Alexander remove his head from his posterior.

Slowly, the talented 6-5 guard from Oklahoma caught on. He began showing up 40 minutes before practice to get taped instead of 15 and sacrificing his body for loose balls in practice. It showed against Connecticut, when he sprinted the length of the floor and took a crushing charge from Ben Gordon.

But the freshmen flashes also showed, as he missed all four of his 3-pointers and had Sampson saying "he picked the wrong night to play like a true freshman."

As for Bookout, the 6-8, 270-pound man-child, he looked frozen against Alabama and Michigan State, grabbing two rebounds in 55 combined minutes.

But against Connecticut he came out and played with a veteran's aplomb, as Sampson scripted the first four plays to run through him. Bookout's early activity inside stymied Connecticut center Emeka Okafor, and his five rebounds and two steals failed to indicate the passion with which he played.

Sampson still predicts great things for Bookout, who struggled shooting from the field (2-7), once he starts using his massive frame and relies less on finesse. "It's like a millionaire applying for foodstamps," Sampson says.

Bookout's also getting toughness lessons from OU senior Jozsef Szendrei.

"I try to tell him, 'It's okay to hurt people,'" Szendrei says. "I try to get him to understand that guys like Mario Austin and Al Anagonye throw elbows. He's got to get dirty, nasty and learn to use that big body of his. I'm OK if he breaks my nose. I hope he gives me 20 bruises every day in practice."

That is the Sooner attitude. The same one that Sampson says keeps popping up everywhere he looks.

"It's almost everyone is trying to be like us now," Sampson says. "I've heard the words that we use more than ever."

But at least in film sessions this week, the Sooners won't be hearing them from Stansbury.

Pete Thamel is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com and ESPN Magazine. He's a freelance writer based in Bartlesville, Okla., where he's writing a book about NAIA basketball. His e-mail is vpthamel@yahoo.com.