We get the Peacocks versus the Tar Heels in the second game of today’s Elite 8 showdowns.
I have mixed feelings. I love the whole Cinderella thing. but at this point, it’s going to be hard for me to root against former Sooner Brady Manek, who very much made the right decision to transfer to Chapel Hill for his Super Senior season. The beard fits him. He grew up in Harrah, Oklahoma and always wanted to be Sooner.
But Brady was a player whose true senior season was seriously impacted by getting Covid twice. Plus…when Coach Kruger retired… Brady didn’t really know Porter Moser. This is where I think the transfer portal genuinely helped a deserving player.
I love what the Peacocks have done, but I’m pulling for Brady today.
I’m conflicted in the first game as well with another former Sooner standing tall in the national spotlight… that being Kameron McGusty from Katy, Texas who signed on with Coach Kruger in 2015.
Kameron made All-Big 12 First Team Freshman team, then had a slightly regressive sophmore season at OU, then decided to transfer to Miami.
Kameron made 1st Team All-ACC this season and by using his Covid Super Senior status should be drafted somewhere in the top two rounds.
If I were Sooner Moj Gibson….I’d come back to Norman next season and allow Coach Porter to complete his player redo to get to the next professional level of play. Moj took a huge step this season, but with one more season of becoming a complete player…it could be worth it for him to come back for the Super Senior season.
On this one though, my Big 12 love will have me rooting for Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks. I’m hoping the Jayhawks win the national championship and then Coach Self meets with Sam Presti and explains how he could be the perfect fit with this group of young Thunder players.
This is where I’m hoping former Jayhawk Nick Collison has some sway with Presti on the Thunder moving forward. Bill Self’s personality would be perfect for these Thunder players. He exudes self-confidence, toughness, and swagger. If Presti actually had the balls to do something like this, it would profoundly change my opinion of him as an anal retentive micro neurotic GM.
One last thing I haven’t mentioned in relation to the ACC this season. Former Sooner Alondes Williams, who played behind Austin Reaves and Davion Harmon, transferred to Wake Forest last summer and was the ACC Player of the Year.
Fair to say…Lon Kruger’s recruiting and retirement had an impact on the ACC this basketball season.
But in the end…it worked out for the players at OU and the players who transferred minus Davion Harmon to Oregon which made no sense to me especially since he’s a Texas high school kid who made it tougher for his family to watch him play in person in Norman.