Double-double Trouble

COURTNEY PARIS'S fondest memory since arriving at Oklahoma six months ago isn't her first double double (24 points, 10 rebounds in 20 minutes against Wisconsin- Milwaukee on Nov. 11) or her 18th and most recent (18 points, 14 rebounds against Texas A&M on Saturday). Nor is it any of the record five times that the 6'4" freshman has been named the Big 12 Rookie of the Week. Her favorite moment came in early September, on the first day of the team's preseason conditioning program. After a full hour of lunges, sprints, agility drills and assorted other tortures that make up Oklahoma's training regimen, Courtney and her 6'3" twin sister, Ashley, thought they were going to keel over and die. � "That was the toughest thing I've ever been through in my life, but it was also the best thing about being here so far," says Courtney. "Ash and I had never done anything like that before, and we were falling down everywhere. Our teammates were just as tired as we were, and we were bigger than they were, but they held us up. I'll never forget that. I would do anything for those girls." � Courtney has done plenty already.

In 21 games through Sunday she is the major reason the Sooners have made the jump from a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 club to one with a shot at the national title. Oklahoma, which finished 17-13 and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season, started 7-0 in the conference and 17-4 overall, moving up to No. 11 in the nation-its highest ranking since the final poll of 2002. Courtney's 21.2 points, 14.8 rebounds and 3.19 blocks per game were tops among freshmen nationwide, and she led the Big 12 in all three categories. A precocious and charismatic player reminiscent of former Sooners great Wayman Tisdale, who led the nation's freshmen in scoring and rebounding in 1982-83, Courtney has helped drive attendance at Sooners women's home games to an alltime high average of 6,316 and rising.

"Everybody in Norman loves the twins," says junior forward Krista Sanchez. "They're really good, but they are also funny and humble and hardworking. Nobody wants to miss them in action."

Much was expected of the towering daughters of former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Bubba Paris, especially from Courtney, who was USA Today's 2005 national high school player of the year out of Piedmont ( Calif.) High. She had little trouble adjusting to the college game, but opponents have struggled to adjust to her. "I've seen a lot of different defenses," says Courtney, who decided in grade school to model her game after Shaquille O'Neal's and has since earned the nickname Baby Shaq. "But I've been able to do what I've done all my life."

And that's dominate in the paint. With her preternatural poise, powerful 225-pound body, nimble feet and "vacuum hands," as Southern Methodist coach Rhonda Rompola calls them-"If you throw the ball anywhere near her," Rompola says, "it gets sucked right in"--Courtney has statistically outperformed the three All-America post players she's gone head-to-head against this season: Jessica Davenport of Ohio State, Sophia Young of Baylor and Tiffany Jackson of Texas.

"I have never coached against anyone who is so confident and so dominant," says Rompola, whose Mustangs yielded 19 points and 20 rebounds to Courtney in her second game as a collegian. "If I were coaching in the Big 12, I'd be hoping she'd declare herself eligible for the [ WNBA] draft. She's the type of player you can't stop."

At the same time Ashley, the quieter, older twin (by two minutes) who was Blue Star's eighth-best prospect in the recruiting class of '05, is having what would typically be considered a very good freshman season. Averaging 21.5 minutes per game off the bench, she has contributed 6.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and three double doubles at forward. But she doesn't mind that Courtney gets most of the publicity. "She's my sister," says Ashley. "Even if she weren't on my team, I'd want her to get attention. I'm a lot of things, but jealous isn't one of them."

Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale says it's important for those inclined to compare the twins to understand the differences between the two. "Ashley is not an underachiever; she's normal," Coale says. "Courtney is just extraordinary. She has these physical gifts, but she also has that unflappable competitive mentality that separates the great players-the Cheryl Millers, the Chamique Holdsclaws, the Diana Taurasis-from the really good players." According to Coale, Ashley has a better perimeter game and is a better face-up shooter than her sister. "We'd like to see her extend that part of her game."

Courtney says she gets her unshakable confidence from her dad, who as a Michigan freshman in 1978 started two games at tackle. The twins also get much of their size and athleticism from Bubba, who was 6'7" and weighed well over 300 pounds when he won three Super Bowl rings with the 49ers in the '80s, but he doesn't take much credit for their prowess on the court. "I was a 20-20-20 man in high school basketball: I played when we were 20 points up, 20 points down or with 20 seconds left," says Bubba, who nevertheless is the point guard for a team of retired 49ers who play in charity games. The twins' 6'1" mom, Lynne Harris (she and Bubba divorced in 1993, and each remarried), didn't play sports, but her three older brothers got athletic scholarships to college. One of them, Leonard Gray, was a forward for the Seattle SuperSonics in the mid-'70s.

Not surprisingly, all five of Bubba and Lynne's children played college sports. David, 22, was a forward on the Cal basketball team the past three seasons; Austin, 20, played wide receiver for one season at St. Mary's ( Calif.) before football was dropped there; and Brandon, 19, was a walk-on reserve fullback at UCLA as a freshman in 2004.