Author: Mike

The committee could possibly have two No. 1 seeds playing each other at 5:30pm this evening inside the T Mobile Sprint Arena.

Baylor seems to have gotten its legs back under itself after Covid halted their season for almost three weeks while red-hot Oklahoma State and Cade Cunningham are currently the ‘it’ story in college basketball.

Last Thursday in Waco—the Cowboys lost a competitive game to the Bears without Cade Cunningham and Issac Likekele. But both will be on the court for O State on Friday evening inside of Phog Allen East.

You wouldn’t think the zebras would have a preference in this game since Kansas isn’t playing so this should be a great college basketball game with the entire country of hoops fans taking notice as we near the cusp of March Madness.

In a sense I consider this the Big 12 Championship Game even if Kansas advances because I’m almost certain the zebras will be punitive against the other three teams with the home cooking the Jayhawks always get in this event.

The Big 12 needs to start moving the tournament around again. The event shouldn’t be slanted to Kansas in such an obvious manner. Texas Tech was the last Big 12 team to make the Final Four or the championship game. Let’s start rewarding all of the parents of Texas high school players in the league and start rotating the event south.

I know–the Big 12 football game is played at Jerry’s World and the Big 12 baseball tournament is played in Oklahoma City. But at the least with the Big 12 becoming such a nationally prominent hoops league I’d like to see the event played in Texas and Oklahoma City again as it once was before the Thunder dominated the basketball scene in the region. Rotate it between Kansas City, OKC, and a Texas city on a regular basis.

Kevin Durant is gone and is back East on the Brooklyn Thunder. James Harden, Jeff Green, Andre, Timothy and even Blake Griffin are there with him. The OKC Thunder haven’t won a first round series in four years with Russell Westbrook, Paul George, or Chris Paul on their roster.

The Thunder aren’t winning one anytime soon in the forseable future. It would be nice for the Big 12 to give the other programs minus Kansas a shot at winning its post season tournament. OU has won Big 12 football championship games in both Kansas City and San Antonio…why can’t the Jayhawks be asked to do the same.

As far as this game tonight…it will feature the best two players in the league in Cade Cunningham and Jared Butler. It will also showcase the two deepest most balanced rosters in the league… with Texas right there as well.

Baylor’s coach Scott Drew has always taken heat for his bench management skills and this will be his chance to show if he’s the real deal…a complete head coach who can take the Baylor mens’ program to the same level of the nationally elite Lady Bears.

For Mike Boynton…he’s a win or two away from becoming the hottest young coach in America if not already. If the Kentucky or Duke or North Carolina jobs opened I wonder if Coach B would get a call. His alma mater South Carolina just finished a miserable 6-14 Covid affected season by losing 76-59 to Ole Miss. There’s talk maybe Frank Martin who Mike Boynton worked for could possibly be in trouble.

But I don’t think right now that’s on Mike Boynton’s mind. Boynton is old school and he won’t say anything but nice things about his old boss Frank Martin.

Mike Boynton has worked his tail off for four years to have the Oklahoma State program in this game tonight with this much on the line.

I haven’t even looked at the spread. On a neutral floor…I’d have it as a pick ’em game…maybe Baylor by 1.5 just because they’re an older team.

Since the Baylor vs. Gonzaga game scheduled earlier this year was never played due to Covid…this all the sudden has become the game of the year minus maybe the Michigan-Ohio State game.

What a great time to be a Big 12 hoops fan with not only seven teams with a chance to make the Sweet 16, but with nine players from the league projected to go in the NBA’s two round draft this summer.

As Fran Fraschilla of ESPN often says, “The state of Texas has become a nationally elite hotbed of college high school basketball talent.”

This should be a great game. I envy Fran and still remember how kind he and Ron Franklin were to me on that day in Norman back when Durant was a freshman at Texas.

Pokusevski 12pts 13reb Highlights ⚫ Poku DoubleDouble vs Bulls ⚪ – YouTube

For the first time in the Thunder era I didn’t watch one minute of the live action of a Thunder game. So for that reason instead of finding the highlights of tonight’s game on video …I’m just calling it in putting this video of a preseason game on my blog instead.

It’s so disheartening…with Cade Cunningham virtually in Sam Presti’s lap…the GM who traded James Harden for Jeremy Lamb and Alex Abrines and then allowed Kevin Durant to walk is going to let the Houston Rockets or Minnesota Timberwolves lose their way to the rights for Cade. It’s just so f–king Oklahoma.

Dallas didn’t help that’s for certain as on the second night of a back to back they sat both Luka and Porzingus on the same night. I wonder if Mark Cuban is colluding with the Rockets for some sort of quid pro quo.

Poku fresh from his reign of dominance in the G League had a decent night with a 14 pt, 8 rb, 3 assist night in thirty minutes of action.. He was +4, 4-11 shooting the basketball, 2-6 shooting the three, and 4-4 from the line. So good for Poku. Eat your fruit and veggies, buddy.

I watched the last Big 12 quarterfinal with Shaka Smart’s Texas Longhorns edging Chris Beard’s Texas Tech Red Raiders by a 67-66 count. Just a great day of Big 12 Tournament action. I’m somewhat whipped and frazzled from all the hoops. All four games were won by the Vegas favorite and were competitive single digit games. Pretty much the games were a microcosm of the regular season I would say.

Go Cade!

The School of Rock plays Gimme Shelter with Special guest star Orianthi – YouTuT

I need a song like this after the hosing OU took in the final four minutes from the Jayhawk friendly zebras.

Austin Reaves…don’t feel bad, buddy…Bill Russell, Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Lebron wouldn’t win a game played anywhere withing thirty miles of the Lawrence campus either.

Billy did beat the Jayhawks once in the Big 8 Tournament at Kemper with the Skeeter Henry group in a blowout so one-sided that even the locale refs couldn’t screw OU.

You’re not going to win close games at either Phog Allen Field House or in Kansas City unless it’s a blowout. The whistles never go the way of the visitor in close games played within thirty miles of the Phog.

Anyway…proud of the OU players for fighting back froma 23 point deficit to within three points late in the game. That’s something to build on going into March Madness which thankfully is going to be played in Indiana instead of Kansas.

Go Cade!

I’ve got a little angst after those two no calls on Austin. I need a second song by the girls.

Ride ‘Em Cowboys (Oklahoma State Fight Song) – YouTube

What an exciting game which had a little bit of everything attached to it to the very end.

O State survived itself and West Virginia to escape with a hard fought 72-69 win to advance to the Big 12 semi-finals against the winner of the Baylor-K State game.

Mike Boynton’s club was pretty much horrible the first twenty-five minutes, but pulled it together enough to overcome a second half double digit deficit against the Mountaineers.

This is what I mean about Mike Boynton and his ball club…they embrace the same dogged mental toughness Boynton had as a point guard at South Carolina.

Next guy up. Forget the last turnover and make a play. Make a sequence of them. And that’s what happened in this game as the Cowboys went on a second half 16-3 spurt which was just enough for the Cowboys to claim their sixth straight win with Cade in the lineup coming down the stretch of the goal acheiving portion of the season.

This was O State’s eighth win of the year over a Top 25 ranked team. O State and Iowa lead the nation in that regard.

I’ll write this on my blog…if O State beats Baylor tomorrow in the semis…I think they get a second regional seed in the same bracket with Gonzaga.

If they win the tournament—the committee has to think about placing two Big 12 teams as No. 1 regional seeds because the way a team finishes is a significant consideration with the committee.

We’ll see.

Great way to start to start the Big 12 quarterfinals.

It’s offical for me…as we head into March Madness both the men and the women have pushed my blog’s storyline into new levels of interest tierdom wise for me at least.

The Thunder to me right now are just a notch above professional wrestling in that none of us from game to game know which games they’re honestly trying to win and which ones they’re trying to lose. If you want the Sunshine Pump–Rainbows and Butterflies takes then the Daily Thunder is your blog. I can’t believe we have to go through thirty-six more of these ‘games’.

But I will say this—the Thunder players are playing hard and conducting themselves as professionals. I just wouldn’t pay $5 dollars to see it in person and pay for parking. It’s not real competition…it’s like professional wrestling this season. Evidently Adam Silver agrees in that the league added the playoff play in games to try and deter league wide tanking.

My tiers right now go… 1 Cade and O State men, 2 OU men, 3 March Madness as a whole, 4 NHL, O State and OU women, and 6 OKC Thunder’s developmental franchise which drafts good players and then locates them around the NBA in both the Eastern and Western conferences.

I don’t watch enough women’s college basketball to write about it on my blog with knowledgable comfort…but I do watch some here and there on Fox Regional every now and again.

Above is Jim Littell the O State head coach of the women’s team. He won the Big 12 Coach of the Year honor this week. His team went 17-7 overall and was 13-5 in league play. Coach Littell succeeded Kurt Budke who was killed in the second tragic O State plane crash several years ago. Congrats to Coach Littell and his young women for their excellent season.

In Norman–Sheri Coale’s team finished strong to get to 11-11 and are on the bubble heading into Kansas City where they will have to play O State for a third time this season in a post season version of Bedlam. I would think the Sooners need a win.

Tomorrow night at 8:30 pm it’s Bedlam III for the women and it won’t be tough for me to bump the Thunder for a good womens’ tournament game.

Good luck to both teams.

Virtual Boomer Sooner – YouTube

Austin Reaves took control in the last four minutes scoring the ball from the field and the free throw line to lead No. 24 OU past Iowa State by a score of 79-73.

Austin led all scorers with 21 points. EJ Harkless played excellent. Devion Harmon was okay, but will need to be better if the Sooners hope to be beat Kansas tomorrow evening in a 5:30pm quarterfinal.

OU’s bench got solid play from Kur Kuath, Jalen Hill, and Olandis Williams. The bench was much better. Brady Manek is basically an offensive situational player and was okay for what he can do.

Moj Gibson for the second straight game only scored three points. That has to change. The Sooners need Gibson in doubles figures making at least three three point shots a game.

Just a tremedous slate of four quarterfinal games tomorrow in Kansas City.

O State plays West Virginia in the 10:30 am game and the Sooners play Kansas in the 5:30pm. Texas tangles with Texas Tech in the late game while Baylor takes on a Kansas State team which has been playing much better down the stretch.

The 15-21 Oklahoma City Thuner host the Dallas Mavericks in a game which you would think the Thunder need to lose. But then again who knows what the Thunder are doing right now with their season.

Clearly…the Thunder are the third tier story basketball-wise this week. Heck…I might even put Sherri Coales’ Lady Sooners ahead of the Thunder this week as the girls could play their way into March Madness with a win or two in the Big 12 Tournament.

OU all-time is 2-1 versus Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament and the Jayhawks will be without their best player tomorrow due to Covid protocol. I would say Moj and Devion have to bring their A games for the Sooners to advance.

Austin Reaves game winning shot vs TCU – YouTube

It’s not OU Senior Night…so I can write this now.

When OU was at 14-5 and winners of eight of nine the formula was simple….play dogged defense for forty minutes and put the ball in Austin Reaves’ hands the last six minutes of the game.

Since 14-5 the Sooners have lost four straight close games and the defense hasn’t been what it needs to be for the Sooners to win some post season games in the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.

Defense is a team deal. Lon Kruger’s team as a team has to get their collective energy back on the defensive end of the floor. They have to get better defensive rebounding as well and start winning the fifty-fifty loose balls again. EJ Harkless has to be an elite defender.

Devion Harmon…step up. You’re a helluva player. Start playing like it again.

Moj Gibson…shoot the damn ball.

In a word OU needs to start playing with a chip on their shoulder again with something to prove. They need to get something from the center position as well whether it be Kuath Kur or Brady Manek.

It wouldn’t hurt for Jalen Hill, Olandis Williams and Victor Iwuakor to give the Sooners quality bench minutes like they were doing at 14-5 either. It’s a team deal, guys.

But most of all Lon Kruger needs Austin Reaves to once again be clutch in the game’s final six minutes and make free throws and make every offensive possession count.

Austin Reaves isn’t Cade Cunningham, but he’s a damn good basketball player who made First Team All-Big 12 and in my estimation at 6’5″ could be somewhat like what Ty Jerome from Virginia is showing for the Oklahoma City Thunder as of late. Ty Jerome btw was a key piece in that Virginia national championship team of two seasons ago when we last had a basketball national champion.

OU should be rested…they’re still in the Top 25 because of their brutal strength of schedule and they still have a shot at being a No. 4 seed in March Madness if they can get their game sharp again in Kansas City and play well.

Nothing is easy in the Big 12. OU better be ready to play Iowa State tonight at 8:30pm because this is Iowa State’s season tonight at the Sprint Center in a play-in game on Night One of the Big 12 Tournament.

I’m excited to see all of the Big 12 teams in this year’s tourney. It should be a great tournament.

Coach Kruger…hope you don’t mind.

(3) Jake Owen – Made For You (Official Music Video) – YouTube

This isn’t part of the Lindsey Graham-Donald Trump Love Song Collection.

Instead…it’s dedicated to my son Chris, my awesome daughter-in-law Elaine, and their two wonderful children Little Robert and Aubrey.

I always think of them when I hear this song…because they were literally made for one another and that’s pretty cool.

Cade Cunningham won both the Big 12 Player of the Year and Freshman Year of the Year on Monday. Jared Butler from Baylor who will be an NBA first round pick came in a respectable second place in the voting.

OU’s Austin Reeves made the Big 12’s First team.

I would expect Cade to later on become the National Player of the Year as well.

Cade could join an elite club in winning Big 12 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year in the same year if he wins NPOTY. That club is one currently… as in Kevin Durant from his lone collegiate season at Texas in 2007-08. The year I went and watched Kevin play at both Norman and Stillwater.

I actually think Cade is more ready to play in the NBA as a rookie than Kevin Durant was because of three factors… 1 his body is NBA ready, 2 he’s much more emotionally mature than Kevin, and 3 he has a more complete game from a defensive standpoint and is a player who can help you win on a night when he doesn’t go off scoring the ball.

Look at the highlights above and forget the 40 points. Cade made every key defensive play his teammmates needed from him at clutch moments in a game which turned his team’s season around at the goal acheiving portion of the season.

There are games when he’s not highlight reel spectacular, but his game is what I would describe as portable in that he can morph his game as to what his teammates are giving Mike Boynton in that particular game. He can fit multiple needs depending on the game.

Hopefully, the NCAA gets it’s act together and gives O State clearance to play in March Madness.

Cade Cunningham, it’s been a pleasure to cover you on my little blog this Big 12 basketball season especially since we didn’t have relevant NBA hoops in Oklahoma City. Hope you guys make a Danny Manning & The Miracles type of run. Go see if you can grab that One Shining Moment, know what I mean.

Good luck, buddy.

(3) Andrew Cuomo, Donald Trump & Dave Chappelle REACT to Meghan & Harry Interview – YouTube

I had no interest in watching the NBA All-Star Game. None. Instead –I watched the Megan Markle — Oprah interview. I can’t believe it took two full hours to show this interview, but it did. Too much hype.

It was very depressing in that it appears even in some corners of the Royal Family there are people even more racist than Trump and the Quanon idiots who follow him.

It was just very sad to watch, but at the same time more interesting than the NBA All-Star Game. So…I watched the show and then followed it by watching the Stanley Tucci Discovering Italy series.

Stanley T inspired me so much I cooked my first ever Chicken Parmesan meal totally on my own tonight.

My wife was completely impressed. This is what not being able to go inside an Italian restaurant in over a year will do to you.

Earlier in the day– Jim Traber just out of the blue on his radio show made some ridiculous out of the blue claim Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player ever….which is total bullshit. Wayne Gretzky is the greatest scorer in the history of hockey who couldn’t fight or check. Wayne Gretzky was a three skill hockey player, not a five skill hockey player like Bobby Orr or Gordie Howe.

I wonder if Traber is reading my blog? He should be if he isn’t —it would broaden his knowledge base.

Anyway…it’s my hope here on the blog this week I don’t write anything about the Oklahoma City Thunder until either Friday or Saturday.

Have a nice warm, sunny Tuesday.

(3) awesome & amazing Bobby Orr highlights – YouTube