After Kansas dismantled Missouri on Sunday, OU’s hopes of winning the Big 12 regular season outright were virtually dashed.

Last week, Kansas put a major damper on the Sooners’ chances by storming into Norman and defeating the Blake-less Sooners 87-78, effectively giving themselves a two-game edge over second-place OU.

Then, they dominated Missouri 90-65 yesterday, putting the Sooners in an almost impossible situation to claim the title outright.

It wasn’t what the doctor ordered for the Sooners, who, after their win Saturday in Lubbock against Texas Tech, needed to win their final two games and have the Jayhawks lose two of their last three.

Now, OU must win at Missouri and against Oklahoma State at Lloyd Noble Center next weekend and have Kansas lose at Texas Tech and inside Allen Fieldhouse against Texas.

Like I said, it’s nearly impossible.

But forget about it, the outright conference championship is overrated.

Yes, I said it: The conference championship gets a trophy in the case and bragging rights among the other teams in league, but it doesn’t matter.

There are bigger and better things OU needs to worry about down the stretch.

What are they?

A No. 1 seed, for starters.

It starts Wednesday with Missouri. Win that game, beat OSU, then win three games in the conference tournament to ultimately become tournament champions, and that No. 1 seed will be there for the Sooners.

That could send OU to Kansas City for the first and second rounds and possibly to Memphis for the regional.

That wouldn’t be too bad, would it? It’s a pretty good route to Detroit and the Final Four.

And then there’s the National Championship.

You see, there’s a pattern forming here.

The Sooners can start putting themselves in position to win in the NCAA Tournament, and that is far more important than having a conference trophy in the case. Who wouldn’t want the National Championship trophy instead of the Big 12 trophy?

The Sooners have everything it takes to win the National Championship, from Griffin to the good post play around him, to great guards like freshman Willie Warren, sophomore Cade Davis, senior Austin Johnson and junior Tony Crocker, who can step up and hit big shots when called upon.

So, really, the important thing now is controlling the things the Sooners can control, and that’s winning the remaining games on their schedule.

It doesn’t matter if Kansas wins the conference championship.

They probably don’t have the caliber of team to win it all again, but the Sooners do, regardless of whether they win the outright conference title or not.

-Joey Helmer is a journalism senior.