Author: Mike

So far, a fabulous NCAA Tournament. Some incredible games today as the first half of the Sweet 16 is now in place.

Michigan surprised me. They’ve shown some resolve in their two tournament wins. I thought there were two second half coaching mismatches today… which to me were glaring.

I thought Michigan’s Juwan Howard coached the pants off of Rick Barnes in the Wolverines’ upset win over Tennessee. Rick Barnes looked lost in the last four minutes of the game.

In the last game of the night, I thought Mark Few and Drew Timme out-coached Penny Hardaway and Larry Brown as Gonzaga overcame a 12-point second half deficit to advance over a very athletic Memphis team. I thought Memphis completely misplayed Duren’s foul situation, then misused their timeouts down the stretch.

Baylor losing to UNC didn’t shock me because just eight days ago I saw the Sooners beat Baylor in Kansas City pretty much leading that game from wire to wire. These Baylor guards are simply not as good as last year’s trio of guards which led the Bears to the national championship.

The Gonzaga-Memphis game to me was almost worthy of an Elite 8 type of game.

Let’s make no mistake on this…on this night Chet Holgren was probably Gonzaga’s fourth most effective player behind Drew Timme, Andrew Nembhard, and Joshua Bolton.

Holgren in this game was basically a role player who at times in this game was exposed by his slow feet and emaciated frame. I’m not dogging the kid because why would I care if Sam Presti takes him or not.

But I’ll just say…if Chet Holgren is the best player in this draft…then this draft class is being vastly overrated. This kid for the most part has been sheltered by playing a very soft schedule and by being carried by the two Andrews.

I would take Jabari Smith, Jaden Ivey, and Keegan Murray before taking on the prospect of turning Chet Holgren into an elite NBA player.

If this kid had played in the Big 12 on any roster besides Kansas and Baylor this season, he would have struggled with not only the physicality of the league, but the end-to-end speed of the league as well..

Gonzaga basically plays in a league with one other decent team, that being St, Mary’s.

But back to Drew Timme. I love him. He’s a Texas kid. He may not be an NBA prospect like Chet, but Drew Timme has a set of balls and a college game which makes me wish he had played on a Big 12 team.

I loved what he said to ‘his’ team at halftime with the Zags down by ten points.

He basically said, ” I don’t give a flying fuck if we end up losing this game, but we’re not going out as a bunch of very soft guys.”

Toughness begats toughness…and respect. Don’t ever lose sight of that.

Anyway…I love Drew Timme. I hope we get to see Gonzaga play Texas Tech in the regional finals. That would be a war.

What a tremendous basketball game. The defending champ Baylor Bears came all the way back from 25 points down with less than ten minutes to force overtime.

This game had it all.

It’s hard to remember a game turning so dramatically on one play, but that’s exactly what happened when former Sooner Brady Manek got the Flagrant 2 on the high elbow. The ejection was the correct call. A piece of poor judgement by Brady as he was well on his way to a 40-point game.

I’m happy for Brady, his teammates saved his ass in overtime. That would have been a very bad way to end a college career.

I thought Baylor had them heading into overtime, but give these gritty Tra Heels credit, they never quit fighting.

Amazingly, Texas which played its best game of the season yesterday in beating Va-Tech, along with Purdue look like very dangerous teams to advance in this region.

Just a fantastic Tournament game. It will be hard to beat that game.

Tar Heels…win, survive, and advance!

Hard to believe Coach K is seventy-five years of age. The time he has spent at Duke has gone by in a flash. I’m eleven years ‘younger’ than Coach K, so as I witness his last tournament it does bring a sense of sentiment to my heart.

In today’s age of coaching, he probably would not have survived his first three seasons at Duke where, he won a combined 39 games in three years. Yet, Tom Butters, then AD at Duke, stuck with him despite the rough beginning.

Coach K was a disciple of Bobby Knight at Army where he forged his basic tenets of a coaching style which began with defense and ball movement.

When Coach K arrived at Duke, they were the regional triangular stepchild of North Carolina and NC State. This was back when Jimmy V was at NC State and Dean Smith was at Carolina in their respective hay days of coaching.

Slowly, year by year, NC State fell to third place and then in more time Duke surpassed even North Carolina as the premier program in all of college basketball.

Perhaps, not a stretch to say it was Coach K at Duke who assumed the massive void left in the world of college basketball when John Wooden’s run at UCLA came to an end.

I wonder how many current OKC Thunder fans even know Aubrey McClendon was a Duke graduate.

I also wonder how many OU fans realize former Sooner head coach Jeff Capel was at one time supposed to be the heir to the Duke throne when Coach K retired from coaching.

It’s interesting that even in football crazy Oklahoma there are some side stories attached to Coach K and Duke.

Duke became America’s premier ‘it’ destination college wise because of Coach K, Cameron Indoor Arena, and the basketball team.

Duke basketball became America’s version of Camelot much like the Green Bay Packers under Lombardi were in the sixties.

Coach K also became the savior of the U.S. Olympic program where his teams won three gold medals to go along with his five national championships at Duke.

Some might say Coach K took the best of Bobby Knight and learned what parts of Bobby Knight to take with him as a college head basketball coach.

I would probably have to agree with that sentiment. But I also know Bob Knight took the time to send me an autographed copy of the book about him written by Joan Mellon so as I wouldn’t have the wrong impression because of John Feinstein’s NY Times bestseller… Season on the Brink. I still can’t believe he did that. But I think it’s kind of cool he did that. That wouldn’t happen nowadays either.

It will be a massive upset if this Duke team gets out of its regional and advances to the Final Four. In order for this to happen the Blue Devils would have to beat both Texas Tech and Gonzaga in consecutive games with what is a very young team.

But you never know. Maybe there’s one last magical run left for Coach K.

In closing, in my lifetime, below is how I would rank the five greatest men’s college basketball coaches:

1 Coach K, Duke

2 John Wooden, UCLA

3 Bob Knight, Indiana

4 Al McGuire, Marquette

5 Larry Brown, Kansas and UCLA

Coach K, thank you for the thrills. It was a magnificent run. I hope you enjoy your retirement from coaching.

Loyola without Porter Moser looked like a dumpster fire in the first game of Day 2. I can’t ever remember a team in the Tournament shooting it so bad from the field, from beyond the arch, and the line in the same game.

Texas Tech rolling with that defense that might in fact bother Gonzaga. The two teams met in the regular season at Gonzaga with the Zags winning the game. On a neutral court, I’m not so sure what would happen.

Jaden Ivey might be the player I move into my No. 3 slot on my draft list. He has a complete offensive game. Maybe the best pick and roll player in college ball right now. Maybe the Thunder could draft him and then trade Shai for a big like Cam Johnson or DeAndre Ayden who can actually shoot a basketball. The Suns are going to need another guard to go with Booker once CP3 retires. That might be the way to get a big ready to play at the NBA level instead of waiting four years for Holmgren to mature. I would think Giddey, with his usage would actually be a better fit with Jaden rather than Shai. Just my thought at this point.

I hope we see Texas Tech vs. Gonzaga in the regional finals because that will give us a better feel on what Chet Holgren is and isn’t right now as an NBA prospect.

Hope we get a good game going here soon.

Cold and windy in Deer Creek today. Joe Biden, buddy, El Prez just made Day 2 a national holiday as well. Other than me going to get a pizza and some Diet Coke….I’m not moving today. Pauli still under the covers even with the daffodils blooming in our backyard.

I played the NFL’s version of One Shining Moment earlier this week, but forgot to play the real One Shining Moment from last year.

VA-Tech… don’t let me down. Beat Texas like a stepchild. I love Chris Beard, but hate the Horns!

And BTW… the Walk of Shame to A&M’s coach Buzz Williams for still bitching about the Aggies not getting into the Tournament.

OU had an NCAA Net Rank of forty and we’re over it. A much higher Net Rank than A&M. We’ve embraced the NIT as a possible team building experience for next season.

I’ll be right there with the Billy Baseline crazies when St. Bonaventure visits Norman on Sunday night. They look at me like I’m a God since I was with initial group in 1982 when the Sooners advanced to New York in Billy’s second season at OU.

BOOMER! Let’s go Hokies!

I am torched. That was some beautiful chaotic first round basketball on Thursday.

John Calipari…my friend, I wouldn’t want to be you tomorrow. I have no idea what happened to your basketball team from the point you thrashed Kansas in Lawrence in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. It appears your season and that of Bill Self’s Jayhawks inverted from that game in Lawrence.

I just hope if they fire Calipari the Kentucky boosters don’t make Porter some kind of crazy offer he couldn’t refuse. I’m thinking though…if Porter has a secret dream job like Mike Gundy had with the Cowboys before he leveraged his alma mater with Tennessee and Arkansas, I’m guessing Porter’s dream job would be to coach at Notre Dame or Indiana. Just my gut feel.

Kentucky gone. Iowa gone… as I knew they would be with them being a charter member of the fake tough guy Big 10.

Baylor, Kansas, and Tennessee all looked solid. Gonzaga was shaky, but they’re in the easiest region with Duke as the No. 2 seed.

UCLA, Arkansas, Villanova, and New Mexico State survived and advanced.

VA-Tech, Auburn, Purdue, Texas Tech, and Illinois are the games I don’t want to miss today.

But at the end of the first night, it was the St. Peter Peacocks who stole the show.

This video always calms me. Now…I’m rebooted for the next round of games.

I just finished watching Gonzaga beat Georgia State by a 92-73 score in the first round. This was the eighth time I’ve watched Gonzaga play this season.

In this game he did nothing in the first half, then padded some stats in the second half when Georgia State either through injury or fouls didn’t have any bigs left to challenge anything near the rim on either end of the floor. I mean, for crying out loud, Andrew Timme was basically shooting uncontested layups the last twenty-two minutes of this game.

His lack of a body is a concern of mine, plus with big players like that there always has to be the concern of some orthopedic issues of which altered the careers of Bill Walton, Sam Bowie, and Greg Oden just to name three former Portland Trailblazers.

If I were Sam Presti, would I leverage the Thunder’s future on him? My answer would be no, even though I think he could be a nice NBA player.

I think this is where a general manager has to seriously calibrate the risk versus the reward. Like a hedge fund manager in essence.

I know Sam Presti has that cute little saying of his where he says, “Scared money don’t make money.” But I don’t think the Thunder with their current roster plus all the other assets needs to be taking a risk at this point.

So, if I were Sam Presti, and I had the opportunity to draft Jabari Smith in some manner of assets being aligned…I’d take Jabari over Chet Holgren in this summer’s draft.

So, who’s my third player in this draft? It’s not Banchero any longer. I’ve dropped him to No. 5 on my list. Keegan Murray’s performance today was okay, but of course his Big Ten overrated Iowa Hawkeyes were ousted by the Richmond Spiders. Color my surprised…not. Michigan will be out next round after Tennessee sends them back home to Ann Arbor.

I don’t know who’s third and fourth on my list right now.

I love the first Thursday of March Madness. It should be an official national holiday. I never got out of my pajamas today. I rank today just behind Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and the Fourth of July.

If Joe Biden could turn Super Thursday into a national holiday, he’d get a ten percent bump in his approval rating.

I guess if I’m going to do an official Final Four, I’d go…Baylor, Gonzaga, Tennessee, and the winner of Kansas vs. Auburn.

I’m very interested in the next round when Notre Dame plays Alabama…if the Dame beats the Tide that could be Cinderella knocking on the door…just a feel.

March Madness…I love you.

Sam Bowie…the player drafted behind The Dream and in front of Michael Jordon. A must-see video if you’re a younger NBA fan.

• Note to 405 Baller…send me 400 words on your analysis of Chet Holgren next Monday. Ask Luke if he wants to send one as well. At some point…you guys have to break clear of that shit. You’re better than that. If you need inspiration…just watch the Ukrainians. Ask Johhny Thunder as well. I’ve always liked him. For some reason…I just sense of a little bit of his spirit in you.

I hope you saw that Rutgers-Notre Dame play-in game. Holy yikes. What a great game! That was the spot I thought OU as a #11 should have been playing in. But how can I be pissed after seeing that magnificent basketball game?

Notre Dame now gets a No. 6 in Alabama. I would have to like Notre Dame based on what I saw from Alabama at the end of the season.

Meanwhile…OU plays St. Bonaventure on Sunday night in Norman with the opportunity to advance to the Elite 8 of the NIT.

Everything has a reason at the end of the day. If OU wins on Sunday, they’ll improve to 20-15 and need to win one more game to advance to Madison Square Garden. If Moj Gibson decides to stay, as he should so he could be a possible first team All-Big 12 player next season…Porter will have his top six players in line for next season with the three freshmen coming in who are all Top 75 in this recruiting class.

Now, as far as this NCAA Tournament goes…America from coast to coast needs this one to be special. As a country…we appear to be exhausted from Covid, the Jan. 6th Insurrection, and now the situation the world finds itself in with Putin.

Sports can sometimes be a great societal balm in momentous moments of history. Jesse Owens at the Olympics at Berlin. The 1980 U.S. men’s ice hockey team. Whitney Houston singing our national anthem at the Super Bowl after 9/11, etc.

This is one of those times for America as it seems evident to me our country could be at a tipping point if we’re not careful.

VA-Tech, Auburn, and Texas Tech are the teams I’m rooting for…and maybe even Notre Dame. And of course, Baylor and Kansas.

As a country, we need a great NCAA Tournament.

Let’s the games begin.

This just in off the wire from reliable sources…. 405 Baller, the enigmatic truth-seeking voice of the once viable Daily Thunder stunned the Thunder universe today with his sudden retirement.

Stated 405 Baller, ” I looked around and said to myself, Can I continue to grow my career at a blog with a renowned reputation within the industry for being highly restrictive towards freedom of speech and other issues of content creativity.”

Award winning blogger, El Prez, from the highly respected okcthunderground.com had this to say,” He’s someone I’ve had my eye on for quite some time. His on-air courage is something I truly admire. He was a man among feckless little women over at Daily Thunder.”

Dr. El Prez added, “Don’t hold me to this, but ever since The Athletic decided not to purchase the Daily Thunder for $217.43, the shareholders of my uniquely eclectic organization have been urging me to make a highly significant move to increase market share since the Daily Thunder has no visible written content whatsoever.”

When pressed to elaborate further, El Prez stated, ” Let’s just say… Troy Aikman and Joe Buck joined ESPN to do Monday Night Football this month. I’ll leave it at that for the moment, gentlemen. But in closing…I’ll just say when the smoke clears this could make Lincoln Riley to USC seem totally irrelevant within this market.”

More details to come as they become available.

I’ll do a recap tomorrow. I’m whipped, it was a long day.

We got there early and sat on the second row behind OU’s bench. Porter was pretty wound up, so I passed on that conversation. I had my fake ESPN press pullover on and was going to tell him I was with Fran on the ESPN telecast. But I thought better of that and maybe I’ll try in Round 2 on Sunday night.

I did get to talk to EJ Harkless briefly. He was sitting behind the bench with his crutches. I told him how much I love the way he plays and ask him if he was definitely coming back next season.

He didn’t flinch or hesitate. He said he was absolutely coming back. I didn’t get a chance to speak with Moj who had another solid night with a twenty-eight-point performance.

I loved EJ from Day 1 when he came to OU to play for Lon Kruger.

Here’s EJ at the Big 12 pre-season Media Day.