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What a potential Super Bowl we have in front of us…defending champ Mahomes vs. GOAT Tom Brady playing in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

The NFL screen writers could not have written this any better.

How ironic…. when Tom Brady was in New England…Boston was the city of champions. Now it’s Tampa Bay on the cusp of becoming the City of Champions with the Lightening hoisting the Stanley Cup, the Rays making it to the World Series, and now the Bucs in the Super Bowl.

This Tampa team was waiting for Tom Brady. The defense is solid. the receiving corp is excellent, the run game is good with Fournette and Jones.

All the Bucs needed was a QB who didn’t throw three interceptions a game like Jameis Winston. I would even wonder if a QB like say Matthew Stafford or Deshawn Watson could have taken the Bucs this far. I don’t think so. Winning at Lambeau would have been tough for QBs with little post season success.

For me the Tampa run game is the key to this game….can the Bucs as they’ve done in three straight playoff games control their offensive line of scrimmage.

That’s what I have circled in red. Can the Buc O-line keep Chris Jones in check enough so he can’t tee off on Tom Brady?

Last year when the Chiefs scored twenty-one straight ponts late to defeat the Niners 31-20 … I thought the key to the game was George Kittle. Could the Chiefs keep George Kittle in check? The Chiefs did and came on strong late in the game after struggling for three quarters.

But Tom Brady isn’t Jimmy G…no way, no how.

The other key to this game for me is can Tampa’s secondary hold up ‘enough’ to keep Tyreke Hill, Travis Kelce , and Hardaman somewhat under control. Thirty-one to twenty-eight points for me is holding the Chiefs ‘somewhat’ under control.

The Bucs are getting 3.5 at home with Tom Brady. Tampa has made this run to this game as a wildcard winning three straight on the road.

I love Mahomes, but I’m going Tom Brady to win his seventh Super Bowl in what we hope is a great football game.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Super Bowl party. I can’t believe we won’t have a Budweiser Clydesdale commercial for this Super Bowl. I’ll have to post one of my favorite Clydesdale ads.

2013…my favorite Clydesdale ad of all-time. In a battle of the Harbaugh Brothers …the Ravens prevailed over Colin Kaepernick and the Niners by a 34-31 count.

Caste—The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (Audiobook Excerpt) – YouTube

It’s Black History Month and I given some thought on what I want my entry to be on my blog during these incredibly devisive times.

Let me begin with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King on racism in America… ‘Nothing in all of the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientous stupidity.’

I took the time this winter to read three books on race in America so as to in a sense make sure I was being objective on the issue of racism in our country. The first two books were both written by Isabel Wilkerson.

The first book… The Warmth of Other Suns was published in 2011 and won the Pulitzer prize for non-fiction. The book through three true life characters depicts how three black people from the South decided they could no longer abide by the Jim Crow laws and decided to migrate to other reaches of the country.

Two were male, one was female. The first male was a doctor from Lousiana who migrated to Oakland to start a new practice he never would have been allowed to pursue in Louisana. Even after obstacles in California he eventually broke through and became a celebrity physician when Ray Charles of all people became one of his patients.

The second male was a college dropout from Florida whose own father made him quit college because the father felt it was a waste of time for a black man to have a college degree in the South at the time.

This man became a citrus picker in Florida who finally decided he had to abandon the South because he started a union for the black citrus pickers in the South and began receiving death threats for being a labor organizer. This man migrated to New York and became a lifetime employee of the railroads where he helped underground blacks from the South do as he had done in his own life.

The lone female was Ida Ma the wife of a Mississippi sharcropper. She and her husband finally left the South as well and migrated to Chicago to start their new lives.

The story of the Warmth of Other Suns is told through the prisms of these three characters.

It took Ms. Wilkerson close to a decade to write this book and you’ll undertsand why if you read the book. Her research is meticulous.

Her second book Caste is a current New York Times non-fiction best seller as well. It was No. 1 for quite a while in fact….even in Oklahoma—which gives me some flicker of hope. Just a flicker mind you.

Caste was written in response to Donald Trump from his creation of the Birther movement in the South to disgraceful overt racism during the course of his presidency.

The book paralells racism in present America to Nazi Germany to the caste system in India. It is a highly provocative book for certain. I’d love to discuss it sometime with Bill Gates on a podcast if he would stop wasting his time on CNN.

Above is a linked audio segment of the opening of the book as Ms. Wilkerson narrates from a scene in Germany as facism is taking hold in its early stages.

I think you’ll find the narration chilling because it hits so close to home to what is happening in our country and certainly to what happened on January 6th in our own nation’s capitol.

The third book which made my final cut is the New Jim Crow written by Michelle Alexander. I’ll feature that excellent book next week as I continue Black Historty Month on my blog.

Unless you’re really into sincere ignorance and conscientous stupidity—you’ll close your eyes at some point and realize we’re all the same with the same dreams and aspirations….even in Oklahoma, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Sigh.

Hope you enjoy the audio book video excerpt and read a good book during Black History Month.

Kenrich Williams 7 PTS: All Possessions (2021-02-02) – YouTube

What a night for the short-handed Thunder. No Shai or George Hill and Dort was limited to nine minutes due to knee soreness.

Who in their right mnd would have picked the Thunder to win this game?

No one.

Some great performances tonight….Kenrich Williams with 19 points and +24 in 23 minutes. Diallo with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 steals. Darius Bazely with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Theo Maledon with six steals on a night when he went 2-12 for the field. Some gritty performances by the Thunder role players.

I know most of us wanted a loss, but you can’t lose them all. You have to pick up the pieces and move on to the next two games against the worst team in the West in the Minnesota Timberwolves. After these two games the schedule gets brutal.

But I’m happy for Kenrich Williams. This shows what hard work and tenacity can do for you.

The video above is actually from the Thunder blowout loss to the Rockets the other night. Observe how hard Kenrich plays regardless of the score.

Again, a loss would have been nice, but I’m happy for the young guys in this season which still has fifty-two games left.

When guys play hard for 48 minutes basketball is a fun game to watch.

A victory song would be nice for the guys.

Donald Trump phone call to Marjorie Taylor Greene leaked!! – YouTube

We do it all at okcthunderground.com. Around the world of sports, politics, economics, and entertainment. It’s a shame Ted Turner’s deal doesn’t have this type of breadth. Just because Trump left the White House in disgrace doesn’t mean I won’t be following him in his new role as President of the Palm Springs HOA.

I’ve been president of an HOA before…tough, tough gig.

Good luck with that one, Donald.

Death by lethal injection would be preferable. Head on a swivel, buddy.

Aleksej Pokusevski : All Possessions (2021-02-02) – YouTube

It was announced the Thunder are moving their recent 17th pick in the first round to their G League team so as he can develop in a comfort zone more to where he is right now as a basketball player.

I would just start feeding him would be the first thing I’d do if I were Presti. Lots and lots of food. But as far as the shooting problems we’ve witnessed from Poku with the flat trajectory of his shot…we’ll see.

I mean…this is the same franchise which never figured out how to get Andre Roberson to make free throws. Never developed Steven Adams’ shot from outside of the paint. Never turned Cole Aldrich into a stretch big. Never really made any sense of why they drafted Josh Huestis. And never figured out Russell Westbrook’s woes with shooting the three ball other than enabling him to shoot more.

Kevin Durant already knew how to shoot. Same with Harden.

Serge Ibaka would be the outlier if you remember how awkward Serge was Year 1. Serge actually developed a shot with the Thunder.

So now this is that same organization thinking they’re going to teach this kid how to shoot?

I find this to be an interesting thought of sorts.

Here’s my interesting thought for the day for Sam Presti moving forward…why not draft players who can shoot already?

Why is it you draft players in the first round who can’t shoot?

But to Presti’s credit his second round pick Theo Maledon has a shooting stroke of gold. I know some of these Mr. Pillow- Trump crazies in Oklahoma are thinking Maledon is the next Tony Parker instead of in reality being the next Eric Maynor or Reggie Jackson…but the kid has a nice stroke and would seem to me to be a natural for the Sixth Man slot next season if the Thunder don’t piss away their away their two first round picks this summer.

But in defense of Presti …he did try his best last season to make that deal with Miami with Chris Paul going to Miami and Tyler Herro coming to Oklahoma City.

So what does Poku do well?

He runs well. His rebounding is fine. His defensive footwork needs work, but so does every other Thunder player not named Dort and Kenrich. His passing and vision are pretty good. His freakish long reach is a dream for deflecting passes in lanes. So those are the positives.

Now …just make sure he’s getting nourished and see if you can add some trajectory to that shot of his or tell him to mitigate the three from his shot selection.

He seems like a nice kid. I hope he can garner some confidence in his game in the G League and start playing at both levels as the Thunder begin to get serious about tanking in the coming days.

Let’s go Houston!

(4) Donald Trump congratulates Tom Brady on making the Super Bowl – YouTube

I know this isn’t Mr. Pillow being removed from the Newsmax studio, but it’ll have to do as we prepare for the Super Bowl in Tampa.

This early February weather is just lit so far in Oklahoma. What a day it would be to pretend we could drive down Ventura Highway with the top down. Being as I’m a Cali-Okie …this will have to do for today.

Get outside today and enjoy the incredible weather leading into Super Bowl Sunday. It’s supposed to be cold on Sunday in Oklahoma.

Baylor at Texas tonight on ESPN Super Big 12 Showdown Night.

Cade Cunningham highlights and game winner vs Arkansas – YouTube

I looked at the schedule wrong. O State plays at TCU tomorrow night instead of playing doormat Iowa State…which is a significant difference.

TCU while being the No. 8 seed in the Big 12 currently is a nice team coached by Jaime Dixon and are still actually on the bubble for an NCAA berth if they can pull some wins together coming down the stretch of the Big 12 season.

Texas high school basketball is awesome. Just look at the AP Poll this week with Baylor, Houston, Texas, and Texas Tech all ranked in the top thirteen teams in the country. Texas high school basketball is becomong what Texas high school football has been for all of my life.

O State didn’t quite crack the AP Top 25 Poll yesterday, but with a good win at TCU tonight this can be rectified given the Cowboys host Texas on Saturday in what should give Mike Boynton’s club an opportunity to make a move in the poll.

O State has a good team with a great deal of overall team quickness. Fans in this state will get a special double dose of Bedlam because of Covid resheduling as the Bedlam games will be played on March 25th and March 27th… the first in Stillwater, then the second game in Norman. That’s going to be some intense basketball played with tournament-like pressure. I think this will be good for both teams in preparing them for March Madness.

This will be good for Thunder fans as well given where the Thunder will be record wise in late March. Truth is…the Thunder are the third tier storyline in Oklahoma hoops-wise this season. These games will give Thunder fans the memory of what relevant basketball games look like.

Cade finally got back on the floor after missing several games due to Covid protocol. In Saturday’s big win over Arkansas in the Big 12-SEC Challenge it took Cade a half literally to get his legs back under him, but once he did he came up clutch for O State down the stretch run making a sequence of big plays which propelled the Cowboys to 11-4 overall.

That’s that little bit of selfishness Mike Boynton needs to see Cade flash more often. When you’re the big dog, don’t feel like that’s a bad thing. Let it flow.

Look at Cade’s body and then look at the bodies of both OKC Thunder rookies this season…. Little Poku and Theo Maledon. No comparison. They both look malnourished compared to Cade. Cade body-wise is ready to go.

In fact..from that standpoint I’d put Cade ahead of both Shai and Darius Bazely as well. Sam Presti needs to start feeding his players. They looked like little kids compared to all of those muscled Rockets last night. Minus of course…Lu Dort and Kenrich, who by the way is a former TCU Horn Frog.

Plus, Cade is smart, humble, and unfailingly too unselfish. But on Saturday he flexed his alpha a little more down the stretch when his team needed every one of his late game baskets to beat Arkansas.

I’m marking that down in my Cade Cunningham Journal. ‘Cade starting to show alpha a little more.’ But in fairness to Cade…he did that in both of the road wins over Marquette and Wichita State earlier in the season.

Relatively big game for O State tonight if they want to separate from TCU in the BIg 12 standings.

Be sure and watch Rondel Walker when you watch O State as play. This kid has a game and a great set of wheels. He was the best high school player in Oklahoma City last season and is going to make his mark at O State. Just like former John Marshall Bear Joe Atkinson did back in the day.

Know who coached Joe at John Marshall…Blake Griffin’s father Tommy Griffin. Those were the days for John Marshall hoops. 31-0 in 1995 with all five starters getting a scholarship. Didn’t lose a game. Joe was the stud and went to be a good player for Coach Sutton at O State.

If O State can take care of TCU it sets the stage for them to have a breakout game on Saturday hosting Texas. BTW…Texas hosts Baylor tonight in the national spotlight game.

In closing, Sam Presti–start feeding your players and get them in the weight room.

In essence I was playing with house money by wasting my time watching the Thunder lay down in the first half in their 136-106 loss to the fun to watch Houston Rockets.

It worked perfectly for me because the Sooners tipped off at 8:07pm in Lubbock….just as the first half carnage in OKC went to intermission. I got to watch two ranked teams get after each other on every possession of the game. It was oldtime Eddie Sutton..Kelvin Sampson..get after it basketball.

Texas Tech actually won the game 57-52 without their leading scorer Mac McClung making a field goal.

Now think about this coaching wise…OU has a Hall of Famer in Lon Kruger coaching the Sooners who at one time tried his hand in the NBA with the Atlanta Hawks. Texas Tech has Chris Beard who was taught the art of defense by one Bob Knight.

Meanwhile both the Rockets and the Thunder are coached by two young guys who’ve never been a head coach before at either a Power 5 or NBA team.

Think about how much more qualified both Lon Kruger and Chris Beard are resume wise than the two young guys coaching the Thunder and Rockets. You could in fact say the top six coaches in the Big 12 are more accomplished than probably two thirds of the current NBA head coaches.

Just an observation.

OU played tough with plenty of grit, but without their best offensive player in Austin Reeves they played uphill all night. But they competed their asses off…so you live with it and move to the next game.

Austin Reeves will be back on Sauturday when the Sooners play feeble Iowa State. So…I think OU will be okay as they climbed all the way to No. 9 in the AP Poll on Monday.

I love Coach Beard..so it’s not like I’m all that down with the loss. I love the way he coaches. Period.

As far as the Thunder. They need to lose because unless you’re a complete Little Nick Gallo drone…the Thunder need a top five pick and a top eighteen or so pick in the NBA draft this summer.

I’ve seen enough of Operation Poku for the time being… speaking of a No. 17 first round pick. Please send him down to the G League where he can work on the trajectory of his shot and work on his body shaping. Enough already. This is worse than watching the Josh Huestis experiment all over again.

The Thunder’s defense for the second staight game was absolutely horrific both on the perimeter and at the rim. If I were Sam Presti instead of wasting another first round pick on a three year project..I’d use a pick on a big who can play defense, run the floor, and give the team some athletic credibility on the defensive end moving forward.

The Rockets have a nice little team. They can shoot the three and they in essence play positionless defense and swith all over the place. As a basketball fan in general … I find this new version of the Rockets very entertaining to watch.

I thought Lu Dort and Kenrich Willams were the two guys who engaged the most defensively. But that’s their individual DNA, not one created by the Thunder’s coaching staff.

I’m not at all bitching about the loss. Keep losing Thunder. You need some help in a significant way heading into camp next September.

The best way to lose is to not guard anybody. Keep it up.

I would say from what I’ve observed this season so far…both OU and O State could make it to the Sweet 16 or maybe the Elite 8 if they stay clear of Covid issues and get a decent draw in the bracket.

Maybe even further if the bracket cards fall right.

Don’t diss on O State. Once Cade Cunningham understands the Big Dance is time for him to put on his Danny Manning shoes—Mike Boynton’s team would not be a team I’d want to play. It’s just fitting that in this year of the Thunder tanking–the basketball gods are giving Oklahoma two good college basketball teams the same season.

Listen to Chris Beard on the interview with Reese Davis and tell me you wouldn’t run thru a wall for him.

“Which wall, Coach?”

(4) Alan Jackson, Jimmy Buffett – It’s Five O’ Clock Somewhere (Official Music Video) – YouTube

Beautiful day in Deer Creek, Oklahoma. I’m tired of winter, but today the skies are blue and the winds are calm. Wish I was on beach right now in Mexico. I’ve come to the conclusion it would be safer being around the drug cartels than living in Oklahoma with the Trump insurrectionists.

Toronto is too cold for me. Who am I kidding with that?

I wonder if Mexico is even letting Americans in right now given what they witnessed on January 6th?

Maybe Alan Jackson will calm my nerves a little bit.

This is a good first day of February song as well. Just to get yourself in the frame of mind for blue skies and better days.

Mexico by Firefall – YouTube

Have a nice day and steer clear of the Trump rebels if you can.