Month: September 2023

I watched all of the GOP ‘debate’ last night televised from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. What a complete waste of two hours of my life.

Of those seven people on that stage… Chris Christie is the only one of two I will mention on my blog this evening with any degree of a positive response. The other six were a collective disgrace of historical proportion.

And here’s the thing …… Donald Trump wasn’t even there. So any of you who think the instant Donald Trump either loses this next election or is put in federal prison where he belongs and who think our country will find its way back are delusional as a group.

Our country is broken…maybe beyond repair.

How does a rational human being respond to Mike Pence? After almost being hung on January 6th by Trump’s Pround Boy thugs and 91 federal indictments later on POTUS 45….Mike Pence with a straight face says he’ll vote for Donald Trump if he’s the eventual GOP candidate.

I mean, seriously…wow. How does a rational adult even respond to that level of thinking?

What the GOP should have done last night was put Adam Kinsinger, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, Bill Cassidy, and Lisa Murkowski on that stage and show our country what it means to have the balls to say the difficult truth.

What a shame….this GOP doesn’t even grasp its own history…let alone that of our country. Lincoln would be aghast.

You cannot sustain a democracy if your citizens don’t even know who they are and how they fit into this delicate thing called America.

Every past and living Republican president not named Donald Trump cringed through those two hours last night in Simi Valley. I assure you of that salinent fact.

I’m done for tonight.

Peace.

MJ

I guess Damian Lillard got traded to the Milwaukee Bucks today in a three way deal between Portland, Phoenix, and Milwaukee. I’ll go into this later in greater detail as to how I see the trade. Jrue Holiday for me is really the only other player involved in this trade who I think moves the potential championship needle. The two big guys…in my book are valued very low for their lack of TSNS and just basically their will to win and raise their games at the goal acheiving portion of the season.

Cam Johnson might be the only other living body in this trade I might want on the Warriors.

I love Jrue Holiday. I’m wondering to myself since Jrue was a UCLA kid if there’s any way Mike Dunleavy Jr. could get rid of the high maintenance Chris Paul and make Jrue a Warrior just like me. I think Jrue is around thirty-three and he in no way needs to be wasting the next few years involved in a Portland rebuild.

I might send Mike Dunleavy an email…what could it hurt?

I’m locked and loaded for this GOP farcical debate tonight in California with Trump doing his own thing in front of Proud Boy Nation in Detroit.

The fact Sam Presti gave his pre-season Thunder State of the Union in no way interests me. I’m a Warriors’ guy. I like teams who try to win. Period. I don’t have five additional years of rebuild in my forcast.

My scathing take on these GOP debates oncoming next on the Oklahoma leader of world news and sports….okcthunderground.com.

MJ

I had a great week-end. I think I watched parts of eight different games after watching the entirety of OU’s solid 20-6 road win over a decent Cincinnati Bearcat ball club.

It was a good day. Maybe not so good for Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman, but, you know…shit happens.

From my view…OU is coming along very nicely and getting better every week. That’s what you want as a coach. To win…and incrementally get better every week with greater attention to cleaning up the parts of your game which are holding you back a bit.

I think in OU’s case right now…that’s primarily the offensive line coming of age each week as a collective unit. As an OU fan/blogger…I don’t worry about this because I believe OU has the best offensive line coach in the nation in Bill Bedenbaugh.

I’m loving what I’m seeing from OU’s defense. The tackling is night and day more efficient over what it was last season. Yards after point of intial contact is much improved as well. The third down problems on getting off the field is much better.

OU’s defense is better, bigger, faster, and smarter than it was a year ago. In four games…the Sooners have given up 34 points…total. This is what Brent Venables wants…..complimentary football where OU doesn’t have to go out there and score 45 points every week like it was during the Lincoln Riley era at OU.

Now…OU may need to score a bunch to run with Texas in two weeks, but you shouldn’t have to score that many points every week.

Iowa State comes to Norman this week-end and in the Matt Campbell era they always play OU tough to the end. In the last three games in Norman, OU has gone 2-1 versus Iowa State…but collectively been outscored 104-101 by the Cyclones. These guys aren’t like O State…they come to Norman expecting to win the game and that’s a credit to their coach and players.

I mean…they’ll play that funky 3-5-3 defense and try to make OU make a mistake in front of them. If OU wants to win this game with a ‘comfort level’ they better be prepared this Saturday is all I’m going write.

My OU players of the Game last Saturday were Dillion Gabriel and the immensely improved Danny Stutsman.

So…OU needs to have a great week of practice and get locked in for what should be a tough football game and not just a walk thru before the Red River Rivalry.

I think I’ll blog about the second GOP presidential debate tomorrow night.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

MJ

This is a huge game for the Sooners today in Cincy. This is huge. This is where OU shows it’s on the path back to national elite relevance or it isn’t. This is a road game you have to go out and play well and win.

I’m going OU 34-23.

Not just for this year, but for the future ability to recruit nationally elite talent in the NIL-Portal era. This is where you show Jackson Arnold and other SEC level talent that OU is still a place to consider.

Lest we forget…OU was 3-6 in Big 12 play last year in the most disappointing football season since John Blake’s final season. OU only beat O State, Kansas, and Iowa State. SEC football only has Vanderbilt as a bye. Just saying….. Kansas currently the direction of Coach Leopold. Th battle for Big 12 Patsy of the Year could well be decided in Ames today and the Sooners can only play those two teams once apiece this season. Just sayin. Phone home, Boone.

I don’t think think this is hyperbole on my part…this game could define the Brent Venables era at Oklahoma. Heck…it could define Joe C.

As Berry Tramel once wrote at the end of the John Blake area…’Just because you work at a Taco Bell…doesn’t mean you should be managing a Taco Bell.’

If you look at the video I posted above… the coaching faces have changed. Only Patti Gasso remains as a current coach at the U of O. Sure….Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops still remain close to the program, but let’s be brutally candid on here…the current faces of the University of Oklahoma are Patti Gasso and Joe C….and in that order.

Not a doubt in my mind on the above paragraph.

As long as Jeff Lebby spreads out his offensive touches and doesn’t revert to SMU form I feel okay about the OU offense. This is where we start to find out if the OU defense is improved or has just played three straight dogs.

That’s it for me today. There are great games all across the country today excluding the one to be played in Ames, Iowa.

I don’t think Team Prime can win at Oregon without Travis Hunter so I think that train hits a bump today. Ohio State-Notre Dame should be a telling game as should Ole Miss at Alabama. And on the Big 12 front….UCF at Kansas State and BYU at Kansas. Plus…the Florida State at Clemson game.

Enjoy the first official week-end of autumn college football.

I’m locked and loaded.

MJ

We’re not far away from mid-October and the start of the NBA season. At this point on the calendar I want to start dropping an NBA post at least every third day. I think I’ve almost seen enough college football and the NFL to get a pretty good feel about who’s going be left standing at the goal acheiving portion of the season.

For instance, Joe B and his Bengals better get their 0-2 act together this Sunday or it will be a cold, dark winter in Cincy football wise.

For instance, the SEC ain’t so bad this season primarily because the quarterback play in the league minus perhaps LSU is extremely ordinary. Georgia of course has defensive first round talent everywhere so they can maybe get away with this shortcoming. Maybe.

I think what I’d like to do on my blog this NBA basketball season is follow four teams primarily in the regular season from the Western Conference. These four teams will be the Golden State Warriors, the defending champ Denver Nuggets, the LA Lakers, and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

I’m just going to flow from team to team. This doen’t mean I think the Thunder are a top four team in the West, but it means I think their season will be interesting to observe and blog about without the fanboy bullshit you get on the Daily Thunder or blogs of that sort.

So this is my first entry of the basketball season with Pat Bev interviewing Draymond Green. The podcast covers Draymond’s new contract, the magic formula of the Warriors, why everyone hates Chris Paul, and why Draymond punched Jordan Poole and got Jordan’s very soft ass shipped to the Washington Wizards.

But more than that…this podcast is about the value of BBI or basketball IQ. It’s the only metric I’ll ever use on my blog…..my own metric which I use to evaluate limited players from Austin Reaves to Klay Thompson to Jamal Murray.

I’ve tweaked my metric to TSNS…Toughness, Smarts, Nasty, Soul of a player. How much and how badly do you want to win?

If you were to ask someone from the Thunder organization for the most intelligent takes…I would suggest Nick Collison be the teacher. In the history of the Thunder in Oklahoma City…I would grade Nick and Kevin as the two smartest players to play in Oklahoma City. Then maybe Derek Fisher. Then maybe Paul George, then Perk, and/or Carmelo or Russell on a calmer night (sigh). My take on James Harden has dropped dramatically these past two seasons.

Who are my five smartest players in the league currently? I’d go 1 LeBron, 2 KD, 3 Jimmy Butler, 4 Draymond, 5 Jrue Holiday, 6 Klay, 7 PJ Tucker, 8 Jamal Murray, 9 Austin Reaves, and 10 Lu Dort… if he’d remove some of the bad threes from his game.

Oklahoma City obviously isn’t a contender for the Western Conference…the other three teams are for certain. In Oklahoma City I’m looking at certain things…1 Chet Holmgren, 2 the Sixth Man and bench, 3 how much Josh Giddey improves his defense and perimeter defense.

And…what is the last piece for Sam Presti to put in place if it isn’t Josh Giddey?

If you want to learn the NBA game…I’d highly suggest this podcast because hate him or love him…Draymond Green is one tough, smart, nasty, soulful two-way basketball player.

Have a nice Week 4 college football week-end.

MJ

Damn…as Michael Gundy’s unofficial biographer… I forgot this is the 16th anniversary of the infamous Mike Gundy Rant directed at Jenni Carlson. Jenni per Mike Baldwin-Daily Oklahoman assist… wrote the infamous article the week after the horrific road loss at Troy State. A game in which Bobby Reid was replaced as the starter by white quarterback Zac Robinson.

It was alleged by Jenni that after the loss… Bobby Reid’s mother was hand feeding her son fried chicken after the game near the O State bus. Jenni used this snapshot in her piece to illustrate her take on Bobby Reid’s lack of toughness which lead to his benching even though we was being hailed as the next Vince Young.

Both Jenni and Mike Gundy became famous for this rant. So did Bobby Reid, but for all of the wrong reasons.

Bobby Reid was the black quarterback from Texas who was the national high school player of the year, or at least Texas his senior year of high school. This rant not only runied Bobby Reid’s football career… it went viral and became pretty much became Mike Gundy’s national brand moving forward.

Incredible as it may seem…The Rant is going viral again today. Sixteen years later.

This encourages me as the author of Mullet King: The Boone Pickens-Mike Gundy College Football Saga. It makes me think there’s still an audience for my book even though Mike Gundy as the head coach at O State has literally won nothing of note in his almost twenty year tenure at Oklahoma State.

At this summer’s Big 12 Media Week…Mike Gundy picked O State to win the Big 12 Championship. Go figure.

Anyway…Even though I somewhat bleed Crimson…an improbable O state championship at Jerry’s World would be the perfect ending for my story of how Mike Gundy in reality was the one who in fact leveraged T Boone Pickens and now has a current net worth of $16 million and an additional $25 million buyout on his current contact.

Not bad for a blue collar kid from Midwest City.

So…in the end there’s a oart of me which somewhat admires what Mike Gundy and his agent Jimmy Sexton have done here.

You would think after tax considerations and such….what Mike Gundy has in fact done with his New York Yankees job is create fourth generational wealth while never once winning the Big 12 Champion.

That my friends is monetary acumen and Midwest City Bomber hubris.

Note: I’ll shift the Draymond Green-Chris Paul podcast for tomorrow morning.

I’m off to the terrain bike, the weight room and basketball court. Have a great college football week-end.

MJ

Being a Stage 4 cancer survivor of sorts has become my full-time job. I’ve learned so much about myself in the past seven months it is truly incredible. I will never be the same person again regardless of how long I live.

It is simply one day at a time and never take a day for granted. Live every day to its fullest.

The entire holistic approach Dr. Showalter suggested I follow has fit me perfectly. I know I’m lucky and blessed. My grandson Robert turns four on Friday. I honestly didn’t know if I’d be around for this milestone. My birthday is just around the corner as well. I’m pinching myself and smiling.

Life is a journey and it can be brutally hard at certain junctures. But if you put you faith in God and work hard miraculous things can happen. They really can.

I will forever remember every patient at the Integris Cancer Center and how they’ve had to fight cancer in their own journeys. That part of all this will never leave me, nor will all the love and support I received from my family and friends.

Life is good.

I’m at peace.

I think my next blog post will be on Chris Paul and Draymond Green and how that might work for the Warriors this basketball season.

MJ

The Golden Buffs are 3-0 and headed to Eugene, Oregon this Saturday to play the highly ranked undefeated Ducks. Coach Prime will be without his best player in Travis Hunter…. who will miss the next three weeks due to a lacerated liver injury as a result of a dirty hit he took in the Colorado State game this past Sunday.

A completely dirty hit. Maybe even dirtier than the hit Dillion Gabriel took in the TCU game last fall which ‘almost’ made the Sooners’ third string QB General Booty a national brand. Oh…wait.

At OU you can be a third string QB who never plays, but still create a national buzz with your own underwear brand. That’s the NIL…that’s marketing.

I’m fairly certain the Colorado Golden Buffs will show up to play in Oregon this Saturday even without their Heisman candidate.

This man, this team, this recently dead football program is the buzz of this college football season. Football wise…it may even be a bigger story than the Aaron Rodgers injury.

My OU football crazy son in Denver and some of his OU buddies are already searching for tickets when Lincoln Riley and his USC Trojans invade Boulder later this season. Current price for a ticket within screaming distance of Lincoln Riley is $2,000.00. Upper level tickets are going for a thousand apiece.

If Brett Yormark offered to fly me to Ames and gave me a free fifty yardline ticket this week-end…threw in two-hundred dollars and a comped room….I’d say, ” Thanks, but no thanks. Those two hideous teams are virtually unwatchable.”

My friends…these people in Boudler understand marketing and branding….the economical stalwarts in Stillwater…not so much.

Mike Gundy’s buyout will remain at $25 million regardless of how many games O State loses this fall. Conversely, Coach Prime’s buyout drops from $15 million to $10 million at the end of this season and drops another five million after his second season in Boulder.

Unfortunately for Big 12 Commish Brett Yormark…he might loose Deion next season and still be hamstrung with Mike Gundy without a mullet.

Go Coach Deion!!!

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

MJ

TCU beat the hapless Houston Cougars 36-13 last week to kick off conference play. This week-end.. we in Big 12 country begin the process of seeing who ends up in Jerry’s World in December.

Let’s go.

1 Texas: As in easily with their best in the nation road win at Alabama. Ewers, Mitchell, Worthy, Sanders, and Whittington give the Horns legit offensive explosion ‘almost’ as good of some of those offenses Sark coordinated under Pete Carroll at USC.

2 OU: The Sooners have played absolutely no one of consequence to date. But the physicality and tackling on the defensive side of the ball appear to be better. WRs Nic Anderson and A Anthony could make this Sooner offense elite if Jeff Lebby doesn’t go into a shell like he did in the SMU game. Sooners’ edge pass rush needs to improve. Colin Oliver….come be a Sooner…. There’s Only One Oklahoma, baby.

3 BYU: Cougars tough 38-31 win at Arkansas is easily the Big 12’s second best win in non-conference play. Nothing flashy about BYU, but with Duece Vaughn no longer a K State Wildcat…. these Cats appear tamer.

4 Kansas State: Wildcats’ road loss at Missouri was a downer for the Big 12. Chris Klieman is a heckuva coach, but can Will Howard carry the load without Duece Vaughn?

5 Kansas: It’s all about QB play in football in any league at any level. Kansas has an almost elite QB in the Daniels kid, plus a smart coach. As a Sooner fan …I will admit the Sooner date in Lawrence is circled on my worry list.

6 UCF: Head coach Gus Malzahn is clearly a nationally elite offensive guru…too bad there isn’t one on the O State payroll. I would think Malzahn in Year 1 in the once ping pong video Big 12 will have some moments when his team turns heads.

7 TCU: The defending national runner-up Frogs are not what they were a year ago without Max Duggan. But Sonny Dykes is clearly a coach former TCU alum Dan Jenkins from Semi-Tough legend would be proud of. Look for the Frogs to be a spoiler at some point in all of this.

8 Cincy: With former Florida Gator QB Emory Jones these Bearcats could be sneaky at times if he’s on. His feet should be a concern to the Sooners. We’ll see if Cincy’s legit this week-end and if they can handle OU’s question mark defense.

9 Texas Tech: The Red Raiders were over-hyped in my view. The QB play with Tyler Shough is nothing special. When you don’t have special QB play in Lubbock…you usually don’t have all that much. It’s all about QB play…if you doubt me…ask Nick Saban….or Mike Gundy.

10 Baylor: Other than O State…the biggest yawn in the conference to date. Two years ago…the futures seemed to be burning bright in both Waco and Stillwater…not so much circa 2023. The QB play in Waco is almost as bad as that in Stillwater. I’ll put this in caps..IF YOU DON”T AT THE LEAST HAVE SEMI-ELITE QB PLAY IN THE AGE OF NIL AND THE PORTAL YOU ARE BASICALLY SCREWED.

11 West Virginia: The Mountaineers beat Pitt, while O State got manhandled by a Sun Belt team. O State and WV both suck, but for now… the Mountaineers by not as much.

12 Oklahoma State: Maybe what Mike Gundy and his $25 million buyout should do is this…play the Rangel kid on first downs, the Bowman kid on second downs, the pride of Mike Gundy’s loins on third downs, and ask Gunnar Gundy’s mother who should be on the field on fourth and short yardage situations. In closing, O State is a three point Vegas road dog this week-end at Ames to the worst offense in the Power 5 category. The fact I wouldn’t touch this game either way says what I think about the entirety of this OSU squad so far.

13 Iowa State: Not that long ago Matt Campbell seemed to be a young coaching flash headed upwards, but like with O State…if you’re weak at QB and living ten years behind the NIL-Portal curve and you have substandard QB play…you’re going nowhere but down. Truth hurts.

14 Houston: Fortunately the Cougars still have Kelvin and a Top 10 hoops program. It’s only 42 days till college basketball season.

That’s it for me today. I’m going to ride the bike and then do my basketball court up and backs. I think I’ll blog about that extremely dirty hit on the Hunter kid in the Golden Buffs win over rival Colorado State tomorrow.

Peace.

MJ

Okay…..I want to write this before Jim Traber loses his mind this afternoon on the air discussing the horrific 33-7 loss Oklahoma State just absorbed at the hands of South Alabama from the Sun Belt Conference.

Jim Traber will lose his mind today, but I won’t because I’m a somewhat smart calibrated dude who pretty much knows sports.

Let’s look at the question this way…..the answer to the question above is clearly… yes.

Of all years…this is the year O State at the worst needed to go 9-3 coming off a bad season last year where Spencer Sanders was literally beaten to death by the time O State played Texas. This was the year O State needed to show recruits they along with K State, Utah, Brigham Young, TCU, Baylor, and Colorado would be a contending team for a Big 12 title.

Instead… what this historically bad loss does is put O State in the bottom three of the Big 12 with Iowa State and Houston as I write.

This was not only the worst O State loss in my lifetime, I would venture to say it might be the worst loss ever absorbed by a Big 12 team from a non Power 5 opponent.

That was what I would describe as a five star shit-show featured on ESPN+ no less.

If Boone were still living today…I would imagine he’d be on his cell phone today texting media members his plan for his own special Boone Presser before Gundy avoids answering questions tomorrow as if he were Lindsey Graham trying to explain January 6th.

This is a five star shit-show with an absurd quarterback situation where Mike Gundy has foolishly allowed his son to be drawn into all of this stupidity.

Never ever allow your son to become part of something like this unless you’re Dion Sanders and your son is big time baller headed for the NFL.

Gunnar Gundy is probably a great kid, and might even be the best of these three very average quarterbacks who should all be playing in a non Power 5 league.

The team clearly has other issues such as they can’t block or tackle very well, but to put your son in the middle of this to me is just total bullshit.

I mean, as of this moment looking at O State’s schedule….I don’t see wins other than possibly beating Iowa State and Houston. This all reminds me of Bob Simmons’ last season in Stillwater where Bob Simmons did this with his son Nathan and got fired.

Add to the fact…none of this is very smart considering Spencer Sanders wanted to come back.

Another self-inflicted mess created by Mike Gundy…at just the very worst time in O State football history.

Gotta go pickup my wife at the airport.

MJ