Author: Mike

This was a year ago when Coach Roy Williams handed over the reins of Tar Hell Nation to Hubert Davis. I’m very familiar with Coach Williams because he was the coach at Kansas during Billy Tubbs’ rein at OU. What a great back and forth that was between OU and Kansas.

Roy was actually coach at Kansas when Nick Collison was a Jayhawk.

Roy Williams was a coach I greatly respected even though he coached the hated Jayhawks. When Dean Smith retired it was obvious Roy Williams would be the next coach at North Carolina. My god…after Eddie Sutton came to O State some of those games vs. Kansas were absolute college basketball classics. Great memories.

So yesterday when Hurbert Davis took the floor with his team after their win over St. Peters and became emotional describing the journey with his initial Tar Heel team, which included former Sooner Brady Manek from Harrah, Oklahoma…I have to tell you I had a tear in my eye as well.

Because at the end of the day it’s so much more than the x’s and o’s, but the behind-the-scenes human stories attached to all of these players, coaches, parents, and other family members.

Duke vs. North Carolina in a national semi-final game on Coach K’s last hurrah. Who could have written this any better?

And on the other side of the Final Four we’ve got the two coaches I want Sam Presti to interview for the Thunder job…Bill Self and Jay Wright.

Bill Self is an Edmond kid. He played high school ball at Edmond Memorial. Then he played for Eddie Sutton at O State. Then became head coach at Oral Roberts. Then at Tulsa where he got the Golden Hurricane to the Sweet 16. Then he became head coach at Illinois before landing the dream job at Kansas. Dude’s a ball coach…trust me.

Bill Self’s father died this past year. It’s tough losing your dad. But here the Jayhawks stand at the cusp of another possible national championship.

America…we got the Final Four we were hoping to get.

405 Baller,

I’ve been reading through your posts this week and this is why I got on you last week like I did. This is what I think you’re capable of when you bring your ‘A’ game to the arena.

Your edge, your voice, and your command of your space is what I noticed about you in the beginning. I could care less that we disagree on Donald Trump. You have the very same right to embrace Donald Trump of which I have to disavow him as a grifter of historical proportions.

WE ALL HAVE THIS RIGHT! DIVERSITY OF OPINION IS A GREAT THING!

Why don’t we get to Trump in some later episodes would be my suggestion.

You gave me a lot of text to sift through this week-end as I was watching the Tournament.

On Tuesday your spot will be back in place with a new set feel video in place with Dr. Dre and Snoop.

I don’t want the set to be like the one at the Daily Cupcake. I want edge. I want the truth. I want the hubris.

Let the meek and feckless at the Daily Cupcake hide behind Thunder Girl if they must. That’s why I got banned by-the-way. I said that in a very direct manner which was spot on. Maybe too much hubris, eh?

Things I’ll touch on in response to your posts from this week:

1 Chet Holgren and why Gonzaga flamed in the round of sixteen.

2 My top five draft picks heading into the Final Four.

3 Why I think Bill Self would be the perfect fit in Oklahoma City. Coach Self’s buyout is $5.4 million. Since the Thunder haven’t paid much for a head coach these past two years that shouldn’t be a concern.

4 Why the Daily Thunder lost its identity and became nothing more than Little Nick Gallo.com.

Thanks for the great posts and I’ll have the Journal up on Tuesday morning. Keep up the great work. Dude…you got some Glenda to you…and I mean that as a compliment.

Respectfully,

El Prez

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.

St. Pete’s step aside, Duke just became Cinderella as they advanced to their 13th Final Four in the Coach K era. Tonight’s win puts Coach K one Final Four ahead of legendary John Wooden who did not coach in then era of the 64-team format.

If you watched Duke lose at home to North Carolina to end the regular season, and then lose to Virgini Tech in the ACC Championship Game you’d know why I’m ‘somewhat’ calling Duke a Cinderella.

Just amazing to see this group of talented players finally put all the pieces together in these last four games.

Duke made every winning play in every facet of the game when it had to on Saturday night in San Franciso.

Duke gets the winner of St. Pete’s-North Carolina in the Final Four.

Regardless of who wins tomorrow, there will be an improbable team on one side of the bracket on Championship Monday.

Just an incredible tournament.

I’ll need a break from basketball for a few days after the two Sunday games.

I don’t write much about Supreme Court nominations because they’ve become nothing more than political partisan rituals which expose just how divided we are a country.

It’s become rare to even contemplate a nominee on the merit of their resume.

What the constituents want to hear is basically what’s at play. If it’s a blue state… you would guess the constituents would want a yes vote for Judge Jackson. If it’s red state like Oklahoma or Alabama…I’m sure James Lankford has been getting 80% of his calls telling him to vote no.

I pretty much ignore Supreme Court confirmation hearings. I do find it amusing though on this one the GOP senators are outraged over Judge Jackson’s judicial decorum and not at all concerned about the actions of Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife in regards of the January 6th attempt to overthrow an American presidential election.

Anyway…I thought in this day of political cynicism, Senator Booker’s aspirational speech was something I’d want on my blog.

No real shocks. Purdue from the Big Ten which for some reason had nine teams in this field kept the conference’s dubious streak alive as the Boilermakers keep Tom Izzo’s 2000 outlier championship streak alive.

UCLA from the PAC 12 went down which means no team in this field west of Lawrence, Kansas is still alive. Arizona in 1997, was the last such team west of the Big 12 which won a national championship.

Some great programs alive in our Elite 8.

Duke, Arkansas, Houston, Villanova, St. Pete’s, North Carolina, Kansas, and Miami make up the field. The three teams from the ACC still alive give the conference the honor of having three teams alive out of the final eight.

Look at the list of coaches still alive: 1 Coach K, 2 Jay Wright, 3 Bill Self, 4 Kelvin Sampson, and 5, I don’t know at this point.

Kansas is the only No. 1 seed still alive, while St. Pet’s become the first ever N0. 15 to make the Elite 8.

I don’t see any gut cinch wins in the Elite 8. Every one of these eight teams has played incredible team defense and pretty much taken care of the basketball.

There are so many potential storylines it’s dizzying to contemplate all of them. I’m not even going to try..

Like all passionate basketball fans, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the Elite 8 in this wonderful NCAA Tournament.

Arkansas vs. Duke is the game I’m most excited to see. This is the game I have circled. Who controls pace, turnovers, and offensive boards in this game?

Does Coach K continue his magical exit ride?

I can’t wait to see.

The teams tonight will be hard-pressed to duplicate last night’s drama, but you have to think at least two of the four games could be intriguing.

I would think UCLA-North Carolina could be special. The trend of a national champion not being crowned west of Waco, Texas since 1997 is one game away from being sustained another year. UCLA is the lone team standing from the West.

This should be a very interesting game to watch. I’m pulling for North Carolina because of Brady Manek. He had a very tough senior season at OU getting Covid twice and never really being able to play sustained minutes. The change of scenery to Chapel Hill has served him well. I hope the Tar Heels can find a way to advance.

The other marquee storyline game is St. Peter’s vs Purdue. The Big Ten has its own streak as well without any team from the conference winning a national title since 2000 when Tom Izzo’s Spartans won the trophy.

I think for the hope of the Tournament having a great Final Four it would be best if Purdue advances with superstar Jaden Ivey.

What St. Pete’s has done is a great storyline, but I think for the sake of the Tournament…I’d like to see how Purdue with Jaden Ivey could do moving forward.

The other two late games are Providence-Kansas and Iowa State- Miami. The two last standing Big 12 teams with a chance to reach the Elite 8.

The video above is Arkansas coach Eric Musselman who created a stir with his great postgame interview after the game last night. OU actually played their best game of the season in defeating Arkansas in Tulsa in December. Coach Musselman got tossed late in the second half. I love his passion with his team.

Coach Musselman came to Arkansas from mid-major Nevada. This is coach Musselman in a calmer state of mind.

Hope your favorite teams are advancing or at least have played well.

What an NCAA Tournament basketball game! This game had it all as I thought it might.

Texas Tech threw a 10-2 haymaker at the Blue Devils to begin the game, but Duke took a standing eight count and weathered the storm.

As an OU fan who’s used to seeing Texas Tech… it’s how you handle those turnover driven spurts, and in this game Coach K pushed all the right buttons even though Texas Tech led most of this game up until the final minutes.

Paulo Banchero was out of this world in this game. He was the guy at No. 1 on most everyone’s draft list the first month of the season. He answered every bell against the best defense in America.

The key stat of this game is simple…Duke shot 71% from the field against the toughest most physical defense in college basketball.

The officiating wasn’t an issue from my view. I thought the zebras pretty much let both teams play. I love the fact the zebras allowed contact as is the case in the Big 12.

Duke was only down by four points at halftime. Coach K simply told his team to adjust to the zebras and be more physical on the ball. That’s what great coaches do…they adjust, and their players respond.

My heart goes out to Coach Adams and his Texas Tech Red-Raiders. I love watching them play. When OU moves to the SEC, I’ll truly miss watching Texas Tech basketball as a peer conference member.

From Bob Knight to Chris Beard to Mark Adams the torch has successfully been passed in Lubbock as far as basketball continuity.

As far as Gonzaga’s loss to Arkansas…I thought Arkansas would play Gonzaga tough, but I thought the Zags would pull it together enough to escape with a close victory.

I know on social media some are bitching about two of the fouls called on the Human Stickman, but that’s not what caused Gonzaga to lose this game.

They lost the game because 1 their point guard play was horrific, 2 they turned the ball over 15 times, and 3 for the third straight game Gonzaga shot below 50% from the line.

You can’t beat a good team from a Power 5 conference with those numbers in play. You can’t just expect Andrew Timme to bail you out every game when you’re not playing teams from the WCC.

Give Arkansas credit…they turned the game into a helter-skelter game, which is what they do. Just like the old Nolan Richardson teams with the Forty Minutes of Hell mantra.

The Razorbacks dictated the pace and made the plays when it mattered. They played with an edge because no one was giving them a shot of winning the game.

Arkansas 74 – Gonzaga 68.

I’ll write about Villanova and Houston in the morning. Two really coaches in Jay Wright and Kelvin Sampson.

What a great night of NCAA Tournament basketball. Coach K’s magical ride continues.

I’m a little amped with all the games tonight. I need something to help me sleep. I’ve never played this on my blog before. We’ll see if this works.

We have four very interesting games tonight in Day 1 of our Sweet Sixteen.

In the West, in Game 1, we have Gonzaga vs. Arkansas. You would think this is where Gonzaga begins to flex its muscles a bit. This would start with the Zags getting off to a good start and making their free throws. Arkansas is the last SEC team standing and one would think they’ll be out after this evening.

In the other game in the West, we have Duke vs. Texas Tech. This is a pick ’em game for me. Duke doesn’t have a deep bench, while Texas Tech will throw ten to eleven bodies out there for forty minutes of hell. I would think the officiating will be a key in this game as Texas Tech is one of the most physical teams in the country…if not the most physical.

Down to the South, where we have Arizona vs. Houston in Game 1. I would have Arizona as maybe a 3-to-4 point favorite in this game. Houston along with Villanova and UCLA is extremely well coached. Maybe…Kelvin’s best coaching job of his career.

Arizona fans along with Kansas fans should savor this NCAA Tournament. The word is the NCAA could finally be calling both of these schools sometime soon with a determination of their guilt in the same Lamont Evans scandal which kept Oklahoma State out of post season play this season. That might be a good time for Bill Self to consider coaching a nearby NBA team with some nice young talent. Just a thought.

The other game in the South gives us Villanova vs. Michigan. Michigan has been a nice story so far in this tournament. I love the fact Coach Howard actually punched the assistant coach from Wisconsin. I love that he fought for his team. But the Wolverines are playing perhaps the best coached team in the tournament. That being the Villanova Wildcats coached by Jay Wright. Same thing with Jay Wright if he’s tired of coaching college ball…he would be a great coach for the youthful Oklahoma City Thunder.

Don’t scoff at my Thunder coaching suggestions. They could keep Coach D as the developmental coach and then hire a real coach to move the team thru their next phase of evolution. Lest we not forget, Sam Presti almost did hire Kevin Ollie from UConn and did hire Billy Donovan from Florida.

That’s it for me for me today except with my quote of the day.

John McCain once said, “Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.”

Mike Jackson just this morning said, ” The Daily Thunder is a message board masquerading as a blog with real genuine written content.”

Go win the day. It should be a nice sunny day in Oklahoma.

I needed a song. I worked hard on the blog this past week with the college hoops tournaments, plus, I had had to re-establish my message-board over at Daily Thunder.

I love this song. Back in Boone’s hay days…he flew Michael Murphy to his football stadium in Stillwater which he built. It was a Thursday night game against Colorado and Gundy still had Brandon Weeden firmly on the bench behind Alex Cates until the second half kick-off.

Boone, on his own dime, paid to have Michael Murphy sing Wildfire because his then third wife Madeline was a big advocate for the wild horses in the West. It was stunning. Probably my best memory of an O State football game. Amy Grant wasn’t there though. She makes this song just right.

For an organization which likes to present itself as a math friendly NBA entity…this was a dagger of stupidity unequaled in this entire season of shameless tanking in the southern plains of Oklahoma.

This was worse than the embarrassment which took place in Memphis in December as the Thunder lost by 73 points.

This was shadier than having to shut down Rookie of the Year contender Josh Giddey for the season at the All-Star break.

Perhaps…Sam Presti forgot to convey to second year coach Mark D the importance of continuing to lose games down the stretch.

Always remember Barry Trame’s prescient line…”Just because you’ve worked at a Taco Bell, doesn’t mean you should manage a Taco Bell.”

Maybe the guy developing the players shouldn’t be the guy orchestrating the tank.

It was stunning to observe as for the second straight season the Thunder coming down the home stretch don’t appear to be versed on how to finish a tank once they’ve already wasted the time of their fans for the previous seventy-two games of an NBA regular season.

But I’m not shocked and that’s why I felt very good about betting the Thunder this afternoon with or without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

This was just so Thunder as they got out-tanked and out-snookered by the feeble Magic who were on the second night of a back-to-back.

You see, this is where tanking becomes a very shady proposition. The Thunder were done in by their own third string point guard Theo Maledon who’s place on an NBA roster next season is probably going to be somewhat dicey.

So what do you expect Theo Maledon to do in these last ten games of the season as the very future of his NBA career could be on the line?

Devalue his own NBA roster viability?

Here’s what he did instead…in thirty-two minutes of play, Theo Maledon went 9-13 from the field and scored an efficient 32 points and was a game best +33.

We’ll see if this gets him benched for the remaining nine games of the season as the Thunder still have two games against the woeful Portland Trailblazers and another winnable game left against the Detroit Pistons.

Not all of these young players participating in this shameless tank have a secure NBA future.

Some, like Theo Maledon, need to show the rest of the league what they can do on an NBA basketball court.

Good for Theo Maledon.

Not so good for the Oklahoma City Thunder on a night when they could have improved their position for a run to a top three lottery pick.