Author: Mike

Amidst everything which has transpired the past two weeks…the Big 12 teams are in their camps and training for what could be the last season of play for the conference.

It’s been since 2005 in which a Big 12 team won the national championship. In that period of time… OU with Sam Bradford in 2008 made it to the finals against Urban Myers’ Florida Gators. In 2009– the Texas Longhorns with Colt McCoy made it to national championship night before losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

OU has made it to the national semi-final game four times since then and gone a collective 0-4 against Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, and LSU. Only in the Georgia game could it be said the Sooners had a chance to win in the second half. OU actually should have won that game. Lincoln Riley needs to ring that bell.

In that same period of time no other Big 12 team has dinged the semi-finals with an appearance. It has been a one team league with one team in essence carrying the only real hope for any team in the conference of appearing in the College Football National Championship Playoff.

Quite the opposite has been the case in basketball as the Big 12 has emerged as the best basketball league in college hoops with Baylor recently winning the national championship over Gonzaga. The season before Kansas and Baylor were the respective one and two seeds in the entire bracket before Covid wiped out the tournament. The season before that Chris Beard’s Texas Tech team came within seconds of winning the national champuonship versus Virginia.

It’s ironic how hoops has thrived in the Big 12 while football other than for one team hasn’t been much.

The Big 12 is a finesse league in which QB play is paramount to a team’s success. I will say this though…OU, Iowa State, and O State have all improved on the defensive side of the ball in the past two seasons.

I would also add that in my view Spencer Rattler, Brock Purdy, and Spencer Sanders enter this season as the three best QBs returning in the league.

Texas under first year coach Steve Sarkisian is an unknown at this point so I can’t have them any higher than fourth. Texas has been the biggest problem in the league the past ten years as in they don’t pull their link on the chain. We’ll see if the former USC offensive savant can turn Texas back into a football program versus just being the Federal Reserve of the league.

I would go 1 OU, 2 Iowa State, and 3 O State. Texas..4. I would think among these top four teams.

If you went went purely on objective data based on the last three years …Iowa State with Matt Campbell is the Big 12 Team which should be heading to the SEC with OU. But as we know the world is for sale every day and Texas is the Federal Reserve of college athletics…like it or not. But I am proud a former John Marshall Bear is running that Federal Reserve… that’s pretty cool. It shows the American Dream is still a thing.

Spencer Sanders is the player I have circled. The former high school national player of the year is now a fourth year junior redshirt. His resume hasn’t matched up to the expectations yet. But this could be the time if he would simply run the football more and create space for his receivers by putting pressure on the other team’s corners. Watch the above video…Spencer. Running the football is your best skill.

Vince Young was horrible until in 2004 in the Rose Bowl versus Michigan … then the light switch went on and Mack Brown became a good coach. Player makes the coach—don’t ever forget that. Just ask Greg Poppovich… Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant…simple game.

If I’m O State prez Kayse Schrum I have November 27th circled. If my Mullet King five million plus dollar coach can’t get it done I’d be looking to be making a change heading into the future regardless of where O State lands.

I mean if you as a coach can’t have your team team jacked to win this game on this stage then it’s time to become a television analyst.

Win the game and make the Big 12 Championship Game. It’s that simple.

Amidst the signings by various free agents and the NBA draft itself this caught my attention as PJ Tucker signed a two year contract with the Miami Heat for two years for $15 million dollars with a player option in the second year.

A very nice move by the Heat as they straighten up their team after being swept by the Bucks 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Playoffs in the first round.

PJ Tucker isn’t a star by any means, but he’s certainly one of those players who does all the little things which make a team better.

A tough minded versatile defensive player who can hit the three from the corner as well.

It’s the kind of move which doesn’t draw star attention from the media, but still a nice move by the Miami Heat.

His best game of the Finals on the road in Game 5 versus the Phoenix Suns was a key to the Bucks winning in six games.

If I were Lu Dort this is the player I would immulate my game around moving forward with my career.

Surely…the Thunder don’t plan on trading Lu Dort anytime soon.

This move by the Heat is one I’m circling in my Beat Vegas notebook for the upcoming NBA season

PJ Tucker, good luck in Miami. They need you.

I guess unless I missed it Tyler Herro is still on the Heat. Tyler…PJ Tucker needs to rub off on your game. I love the smirk, but you need some PJ Tucker in your game even if the Heat trade you.

UT Ptesident Jay Hartzell grew up in Oklahoma and is a John Marshall High School alum just like me. Small world.

He took some grilling on Monday from the Texas state legislature on the Longhorns’ decision to leave the Big 12.

Texas was compared to Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation and scorned for the Horns being 3-7 versus the TCU Horned Frogs these past ten seasons. See former TCU grad Dan Jenkins up in Frog heaven smiling.

But are the Longhorns responsible for the ever rapidly changing face of the college football landscape?

I would say no.

UT is like a bank or the federal reserve. They have so much money it is ridiculous. Their presence in a conference gives that conference immediate financial cache so to speak.

Texas in football the past decade in my mind along with UCLA, USC, and Michigan has been a major underacheiver on the field. I’d love to put these four in a Final Four and see who would emerge as the champion right now.

Throw out Colorado leaving the Big 12 to join the PAC 12. Re-insert Texas A&M, Nebraska, and Missouri back into the Big 12 and slide Texas over to the SEC these past ten years in your mind.

What would be different about the current face of the college football landscape except the best league in the country would have even more financial clout?

Texas A&M and Missouri were not strong enough when in the Big 12 to take out OU. Nebraska was allowed to play in the league’s weaker North division and didn’t do all that much and was in decline. Tell me how many combined Big 12 championships A&M, Missouri and Nebraska won in football in that Big 12. What would be different?

Not much except OU wouldn’t be as strong because they would have lost the Red River Rivalry as a critical recruiting tool. BY going to the SEC there will be no more 11:00am kickoffs for the Red River War. It will be a 2:30pm kickoff. Every high school football player in Texas will be watching. So while the world is for sale every day and money rules there were other cosiderations for Joe C.

The SEC is run like a very effective business with a methodical plan to in essence rule college football in totality at some point if not already.

Simply observe how the SEC manages Covid issues and getting thru a season versus the Big 12. There would not have been a college football season if not for the SEC last season and I would say with surging Covid numbers once again this season might be a repeat in that regard.

Did Texas wreck the Big 12?

I don’t think so. What happened in my mind is that the SEC and the Big Ten adapted to the doctrine that Money and Marketing Rule and have emerged as the power brokers.

OU would have loved to have been accepted to the Big Ten. What OU did in effect by joining the SEC was hookup it’s remarkable football brand with a bank and join the best run, best marketed football conference in the country.

And that is exactly what Joe C and the OU new president should have done as fiduciaries of the university and the state.

Jay Hartzell a John Marshall Bear running the Texas National Bank…that’s cool. It just goes to show how having some diversity in your unbringing isn’t a bad thing. It socializes you and makes you an adaptable human who sees the world from multiple prisms.

In between work stops today I heard Mark Rodgers say O State’s new president in a sequence of recent tweets has said no to future Bedlam competition.

How sad. But not sad for OU, but sad for the fact the enabling in regards to Mike Gundy and his football program apparently will continue in Stillwater.

Only this time it won’t come from T Boone Pickens or Mike Holder or the O State Board of Regents.

Here’s the brutal truth about Oklahoma State football the previous decade…they appear to be afraid of competing at an elite national level yet want to be compensated as if they were Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida, Georgia and Clemson.

To be elite in any sport or any human endeavor for that manner you can’t cower from playing the best. You have to realize that to get better there are times you have to lose or even some times get your ass kicked to get better.

Oklahoma State won’t play anybody and that’s been the truth since 2011 when after the season Holder and Pickens scheduled Gundy’s team to play Florida State in a kick-off classic, which btw was a very entertaining game in which O State lost.

Then came the Gundy theatrics. The ultimatums he would do the scheduling or do his coaching at Tennessee or Arkansas or some other locale which would woo the Mullet King.

And this is where Oklahoma State in my view made the bed in which they find themelves today…namely on the outside looking in at the elites in college football. Instead of parting ways with Gundy… they paid him at an elite level.

In that same period of time Joe C’s program has played Notre Dame home and away, Ohio State home and away, Tennessee home and away minus a covid game, Army home and away minus a covid game, and scheduled LSU for a home and away.

In that same period of time in bowl games and/or playoff games Joe C’s program has played Alabama twice, Clemson, Auburn, LSU, Florida, and Georgia.

OU won some of those games, yet got their ass kicked off the field in the LSU game. That was a beat down loss as was the USC game back in the 2004 national championship game under Bob Stoops.

But you know what Joe C didn’t do? He didn’t recoil from those setbacks and schedule his program as if they were a collective bunch of entitled pussies who’s mommies and daddies couldn’t handle those tough losses to USC and LSU.

Here’s another truth about O State football they are one of four programs in this Big 12 and the previous Big 12 who have never made it to the Big 12 Championship Game. The other three are Kansas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia.

What Joe C said to Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley after the tough losses is basically…get better. Recruit better. Coach better. Compete your ass off and earn your salary. Let me know as your AD what I can do to help you make us an elite national program again. I’ll do the scheduling.

Truth be known, neither O State or Texas have been the second best team in this Big 12 the past two years. That team would be Matt Campbell’s Iowa State Cyclones who have my complete and total respect for what they’ve done with their program of late.

Iowa State has beaten OU twice so far in Campbell’s tenure and almost beat them in the Big 12 Championship Game last December at Jerry’s World.

Let’s assume for a second I’m Joe C and I just lost Lincoln Riley to the NFL.

Let’s assume I need to hire a new head coach. Would I take Matt Campbell, Alex Grinch, or Mike Gundy?

Not even close who wouldn’t be in the top two on that list.

And that’s the problem in Stillwater. That being, an honest and introspective look at why they’re not going to the SEC might prove helpful looking towards the future. The admission it’s not OU’s fault.. but O State’s own doing and they’re not big enough to admit it publicly.

Truth hurts.

I could use a music video after that. Have a nice Tuesday. Enjoy the fall-like weather. To be young again, eh.

It was an honor for me on my little blog to cover Cade’s one college season. From the first game at Marquette to the second round versus Cinderella Oregon State… I made a point of watching every one of Cade’s college games and jotting something down in my Cade Cunningham Journal.

What an irony it is that Troy Weaver the former assistant to Sam Presti ends up with Cade and the Thunder end up with Josh Giddy.

Cade is the first player in Oklahoma State hoops history to be the No. 1 player taken in the NBA Draft.

With Jerami Grant already in Detroit the Pistons will immediately become a team I follow on here from time to time.

Look at Cade’s body sometime and then scrutinize the bodies of Sam Presti’s two first round picks in Poku and Josh Giddy.

In fact…I would say with the exception of perhaps Rondel Walker at O State every player on both OU and O State’s rosters looked more physically prepared to play in the NBA than what Sam Presti selected with a No. 17 and a No. 6 pick in the last two drafts.

Here’s what I would say about this season…I think he’ll actually make the transition to the NBA easier than he made to the college level last season because his game is tailor made for pick and roll and pick and pop. Plus, with his size and skill set he can isolate any time he wants and back a defender down and get whatever shot he wants.

Even when O State swept OU in the back to back Bedlam games…I have to admit it didn’t bother me like it normally might have because I knew I was watching something special…kind of like when Barry Sanders went off for over 200 yards against the Sooners in 1988 in a game O State should have won.

Barry Sanders and Cade both end up in Detroit. Who would have thought?

He’s a classy young man and I hope he realizes every goal he has made for himself and his team in the NBA.

I would say go ahead and continue the series if new O State President Kayse Shrum feels inclined to do so. Both Joe C and President Harroz are on record saying they want to continue Bedlam.

Bedlam started in 1910 and OU at this point holds a 90-18-7 advantage in the football series. In basketball it’s been more competitive with OU only holding a 140-102 edge.

You could schedule the football game in November and then maybe have a double dip of Bedlam hoops in Oklahoma City in December with a womens/men doubleheader of Bedlam basketball. Kind of like the old All College Holiday Classic. That would be cool.

By all means…OU leaving to join the SEC which BTW…OU should have done ten years ago should have no bearing on Bedlam regardless of what conference O State lands when all the realignment is complete.

Keep Bedlam for certain.

If you’re an O State Trump evangelical you probably shouldn’t click the music video above. It will be too much for you. Don’t do it. Pussy control and pussy grabbing are two different things.

Ronnie Perkins is now a New England Patriot. One of the big questions for OU’s defense is if Nik Bonitto can fill the shoes of RP this coming season. I would think Nik will respond in a very positive manner. Since it looks like another season of rebuild in store for Thunder fans the OU season can’t get here soon enough.

You had to figure a trade or two was coming since the Thunder do have to meet some NBA guidelines as far a minimum salary and such. This at least gives the impression the Thunder aren’t just going to completely fleece their fanbase with another season of complete bullshit on the basketball court.

If I read the trade right the Thunder gave up a second round pick and got Favors and a protected first round pick as well.

Based on every single commentor on the Sports Animal yesterday after the Thunder’s abysmal performance in the draft…I would suspect a few more trades might be coming to gve the Thunder the appearance of an NBA team at least somewhat on a par with those Hornet teams which played in OKC after Katrina.

I did my only little non-scientific survey yesterday and not one person I know who like me used to schedule their lives around Thunder games plans on doing such unless the organization puts a viable product on the court.

‘Sam Presti…start using that record amount of draft capital you have and start monetizing those picks into real life NBA players instead of physically underdeveloped white kids from overseas who should be in college somewhere or playing overseas.

Let me go a a step further in my little mini rant. OU just hired a young Final Four coach in Porter Moser. Texas just hired one of the best college coaches in the country in Chris Beard. Kansas has Bill Self. O State with Mike Boynton has it going. Oral Roberts was a Sweet 16 team just a few months ago.

You and the Thunder organization might think you’re immune from hoops ticket competition, but you’re not. Currently…you’re not even in the same universe with the OU football program as far brand and ticket relevance in this market.

Get with it and put a real life basketball team on the court.’

Rant over.

If you’re an O State fan and a Thunder fan this was not a good week. Just a complete dud for Thunder fans who went through a season of tanking thinking at the least they might walk away with a Jalen Suggs or Davion Mitchell or maybe even a Cory Kispert with the second first round pick.

Instead, another pimply kid who should be a freshman playing college basketball with a body and game completely not ready for the NBA. For crying out loud, OU offered Giddy a scholarship.

This must be the Presti model.

But he won’t be challenged by OKC’s uber soft media. He won’t take a tough question. But I think what he and Clay Bennett will observe from their tiicket buying fans is a growing faction of indifference, apathy, and absence at Thunder games this season unless there are a couple of trades on the horizon which will make the Thunder watchable this coming NBA season.

I genuninely wonder at this point what conversations are taking place between Shai and his agent after last night’s performance in the draft.

The Thunder needed a big man. Instead, they add another project and another hybrid guard they don’t need.

There’s no way even NBA fan like me will pay face value to see this level of basketball. This is why there’s a G League. This is why MLB and the NHL have minor league systems. Fans don’t want to pay for a night of NBA basketball and instead watch a tanking G League level of basketball.

I’m calm and indifferent for the time being waiting to see if Sam Presti insults the intelligence of his fans in Oklahoma City with another year of bad basketball which goes beyond not just being irrelevant, but more to the point being an insult to the people who pay their money to see a viable product on the court.

This is a market where I wouldn’t just assume the disposable sports entertainment dollar is going to pay for G League ball at NBA prices into eternity.

People will spend those dollars elsewhere.

Youngest player taken in the draft at eighteen years of age. It looks like the Thunder are going to be very young and very much in rebuild again this season.

Cade went first, then Jalen Green, then Evan Mobley, then Jalen Suggs at four.

Poku last season, now Giddey. I wonder why Shai and his agent see his future being in Oklahoma City at this point.

Then the Thunder took another guard with their pick at 16 by selecting Tre Mann from Florida.

Maybe with Covid heating back up in non vaccinated bumblefuck Oklahoma the Thunder aren’t going to allow fans in the building again this season.

I have no idea what they’re doing.

But the league as a whole will be interesting. I can’t wait to start following Cade in Detroit with Jerami.The Bucks of course will be fun. Russell is going to be a Laker…good for him.

It is what it is in Oklahoma City with the AAA developmental team which Adam Silver along with Sam Presti has put in place in the most culturally regressive city in the thirty team NBA.

This is the model moving forward in Oklahoma. This way these young black players won’t have to stay in Oklahoma for more than three years before being dispersed to other American cities which aren’t still living in the 1950’s.

This won’t effect me though because Joe Castiglione at OU makes sure every sports fan in the area can get value when they buy a ticket to an OU sporting event.

My love affair with Big 12 hoops will be special this year as it will be the last season with OU in the league. So…in a way for me it’s okay the Thunder did what they just did in this NBA draft.

I hope to see Ja Morant, Cade, Jerami, Russell, Giannis, Trey Young and Devin Booker in person. But I can assure you with what the Thunder are doing I won’t be spending anything this season beyond 30-40% of face value for a Thunder home game ticket.

I’ll be interested to observe Thunder Nation’s reaction to what Sam Presti and Adam Silver did in last night’s NBA draft.

Maybe what they’re saying is they think Josh Giddey is the Aussie version of Luka and since he’s not black maybe he would consider staying in Oklahoma beyond three basketball seasons.

I don’t know. Maybe that was the thinking. Could be.

My…my…my. I just read Tramel’s Thursday story on the make believe bullshit Darwinian-Trump trickle downers in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

And I must say at this point…I’m flattered Berry is reading my blog and following my talking points on this bullshit in Stillwater.

Tell me exactly when and where the state funded institution in which Boone and Carl Icahn leveraged back in the day became such a stalwart of monetary propriety. Was I in a coma? How did I miss this? The instituition which whored itself to the two most notorious financial leverage artists of my time in essence bought a Power 5 conference state institution because it was a lot cheaper than buying the Dallas Cowboys.

And this is the instituion which President Kayse is lecturing economic morals in behalf of in the aftermath of OU simply leaving the Big 12 to go play all the teams Mike Gundy doesn’t have the balls to ever put on his schedule.

Mike Gundy should leave his wife and propose marriage to Kayse Shrum because Mullet King just found his soulmate Mullet Queen.

Tramel…you know I love you almost as much as Dan Jenkins.

Keep reading the blog and keep up the faith that maybe someday the Bolsheiviks will exit Stillwater and Darwinian free enterprise will possibly exist in Payne County.

This was a special okcthunderground.com Op-Ed by Mike Jackson.