Texas Tech Beats Gonzaga To Advance To Final Four

Last year’s tournament was probably my fifth favorite Final Four of all-time because my wife went to Auburn, and my dad and I spent a New Years’ Eve in a sports bar in Lubbock called Rick’s Sports Bar.

That was the year OU played Boise in the Fiesta Bowl. Tech came back against Minnesota trailing 35-0 to win the game with Mike Leach as their coach before he went on to gain national fame for locking Adam James inside an equipment shed.

Suffice it to say I wasn’t a fan of Adam James. Leach got fired or quit or whatever. Then he got out of coaching for awhile, then he did a national radio sports show, then he wrote a national bestseller titled ‘Swing Your Sword’ which was about as funny as anything Dan Jenkins wrote back in the day.

Leach will be in the SEC this season I think at Miss State as OU’s only real hope is that Leach can totally screw up every SEC defense like he did to the other Big 12 teams during his stay at Tech.

The SEC West should be a gas this season. I still can’t believe Boren didn’t put OU in the SEC. Tragic, major miscalculation as to what OU truly is…that being, a nationally elite football program which just happens to have a school as well built around the football stadium. Truth hurts. OU’s culture is a picture perfect fit for the SEC even if some OU fans won’t admit it.

My other four favorite Final Fours were in ’88 when Billy and the Sooners made it to the Finals in Kemper versus Kansas. Then I’d have Eddie’s team with Big Country and Randy Rutherford. Fourth would be Kelvin’s team with Hollis Price and Quannas White. The last would be Eddie’s team with John Lucas Jr. and the Graham Brothers.

Anyway…I loved last year’s tournament with both Auburn and Texas Tech advancing to the Final Four.

If Auburn had advanced to Monday night against Tech I’m not really sure who I would have been rooting for…probably Auburn though because of the story of that team’s incredible run even after their best player got hurt.

But I love Chris Shaw as a coach so I would have been somewhat rooting for both teams.

It was a great Final Four with Michigan State and Virginia filling out the four.

Wife will be back at the Seminole ranch for her now week-end jaunts which gives me and the diva lab more space within the marriage. That was humor if you ever read the blog, Mindy. Of course, Pauli and I will be on the sofa with a couple of Cubans watching last year’s glorious Final Four.

War Eagle!

MJ’s Self-Intervention Day 5

It’s a good thing I stopped watching the Donald Trump coronavirus pressers. Because from what I saw on a PBS clip it appears Mr. Pillow was going down on Donald Trump with the entire world watching.

Glass half full take at least his hair looks better and is less orange as every day passes.

Two weeks ago this would have unnerved me. Today…..que sera. I’m getting better every day and in every way.

I got home early because of the rain and watched my favorite Jeff Bridges movie instead.

Good solid life decision.

Auburn Beats Kentucky To Advance To Final Four

Auburn 77 – Kentucky 71 OT

Our Elite 8 games would have been played this past week-end with the Final Four this week-end.

The world changed so much in a year. A year ago none of us had to think about social distancing or washing our hands on a schedule. Sports are what brought us together and made us a more tight knit nation.

Last year Auburn beat North Carolina and Kentucky back to back to advance to their first ever Final Four.

What a magical ride for Coach Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers and their fans.

This is why we play, coach and watch sports.

Why Putin Is Taking On The American Shale Companies

Oil will open this week at $20.61 a barrel. There’s a reasonable chance West Texas Crude will be trading at the $10 dollar per barrel price later in the week. In some trading hubs oil is already being unloaded just above the $5 dollar mark to just get rid of oil.

I’ve posted this video above because I think it should simplify for the average Oklahoman who voted for Donald Trump why this is playing out like it is with Putin, the Saudis, and the U.S. shale companies of which ones like Chesapeake, Devon, and Continental played such an integral role in giving Oklahoma City something not only to sale to David Stern, but in reality to the entire world that Oklahoma was finally going to become something of note beyond the OU football program.

This could have so easily been averted by the Trump administration by simply reigning in the Saudis and telling them to back off with this stupidity of their play against the Russians. One would have thought the great Art of the Deal reality television star would have figured this out.

In 2012…Aubrey McClendon was at Chesapeake, Larry Nichols was still at Devon, and Harold Hamm was active in the day to day operations of Continental. Sadly, none of these three are the CEO’s of the three companies which in essence fueled Oklahoma City’s rise to national prominence along with Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook.

It is stunning these white Trump supporters in Oklahoma aren’t even in touch with the reality of their support of Donald Trump and the dynamics of their own bread and butter industry. Absolutely stunning the lack of acumen on any level we would expect from an average fourth grader….except of course unless you were playing oil short.

I’m not trying to be funny, this is going to be devastating to Oklahoma on every imaginable level of economics which will trickle down to every level in the state.

In closing…I’m going to play the Dave Chapelle video again even though I’m in Day 5 of my intervention. I’m not doing this be mean. But at some point it must be illustrated a person needs to be well versed enough to the extent that that he or she can at least vote in their own self-interest from an economic standpoint. To be able to browse the U.S tax code and connect the dots…things like that and others.

These aren’t deplorable people, but rather just people who would vote Republican blind regardless of the candidates involved in any particular race.

BTW…ask yourself this — do you think Hillary Clinton and Gary Cohn from Goldman Sachs would have handled this in this manner to this extent or would they have called in their marker with the Saudis?

What Every OKC Citizen Should Understand About The Current U.S. Oil Market

West Texas Crude will open just above $21 a barrel on Monday morning. Maybe I’m wrong, but from my take after the coronavirus quarantine comes to an end the NBA story in Oklahoma City will be if this market can sustain an NBA franchise with U.S. domestic oil in the tank to this extent.

Again, google the market cap values of both Continental and Devon from 2012 and in 2020. Also consider both Chesapeake and Sand Ridge are basically history.

This is not the economic portfolio the city presented to David Stern when the viability of the NBA in Oklahoma City was being mulled by the NBA Board of Governors.

We also have to consider the likelihood of this season being finished is becoming less as every day passes.

For me being someone who is equally interested in sports and economics this has suddenly become a fascinating story as the perfect storm hit Oklahoma City at just the wrong time.

Can Oklahoma City as a small market one pro sports town absorb the worst trend in oil in my lifetime?

I’m stunned the white trash rabble Tiger King Netflix film is the state’s primary story line as the price of oil could fall to $10 a barrel this week. That in itself may tell the story of why Oklahoma continues to struggle to achieve overall economic diversity as opposed to being a one trick pony market economy.

To me it shouts one thing… no real vision or leadership from state government. No vision on how to take Oklahoma to the next levels educationally and economically.

Let’s put this in caps….YOUR STATE GOES AS YOUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM GOES.

It’s genuinely sad how this state never learns this axiom. Never learns and never escapes the boom/bust cycle of which Sam Anderson wrote about in Boom Town. Great book by the way.

Perhaps Jim Traber can pull himself away from the Joe Exotic inbred dysfunction and talk economics on his show this week. I know he has to be better than what he showed last week. We can get that bullshit from the Flashboys at Daily Thunder. Other than the two chicks Olivia and Glenda ….I’m not reading much which is salvageable.

MJ’s Intervention Day 4

Dear Intervention Diary…Day 4

Oh, wait…that’s for Melania’s diary I do for her on here….which BTW I might update tomorrow.

Anyway, Day 4….dearest Slovenian diary. The wife is at the family ranch in Seminole while Pauli the diva lab and I are watching the fort at the mini ranch in Deer Creek.

I should have done this intervention a very long time ago. I can’t even remotely articulate how not listening to Donald Trump say incredibly stupid things on the cable news networks has brought back the old Mike. I literally feel like a new man.

Mindy told me to make sure and not smoke any cigars in the house while she was gone and therefore I’m on the couch next to Pauli with a lit Cuban watching this Garth Brooks special on PBS….which is very good.

Garth just sang probably my favorite ‘story’ song of all-time…Operator by the late Jim Croce.

Garth did a fine job, but nobody sings this song about a previous relationship which I just love….like Jim Croce did. I love the story of the song.

Taxi by Harry Chapin would be a very close second in this same category. So odd both guys died in air plane crashes.

Ben Beranke on the Coronavirus

This is not fake news or some Deep State prophesy by me on my blog.

Ben Beranke is a Republican. He succeeded Alan Greenspan as the chair of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan was appointed by Reagan and Beranke was appointed by Bush 43 and served two terms as Fed Chair from 2006-2014.

Beranke was in charge during the financial collapse in 2008 which occurred under the watch of Bush 43. To Barack Obama’s credit when he became president he was smart enough to work with Beranke and give some continuity to policies which stabilized the economy.

Unlike the current POTUS who now runs his reality television show from the White House, Obama didn’t threaten or publicly embarrass his Fed Chair. Obama, unlike the orange-haired reality television star, understood there is some nuance required in dealing with monetary issues and the markets.

Beranke was succeeded by Janet Yellen who was succeeded by current Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

This video above is Ben Beranke giving his very brief take on the current situation in our country from a view of a former Fed Chair.

I would add this since this is Oklahoma and the collapse of the oil industry will make the situation in Oklahoma even tougher than for the rest of the union… the oil collapse wasn’t from the virus, it was brought on by the Saudis and Putin. A very bad perfect storm for Oklahoma. And this fact must be noted in Oklahoma as I think what we’ll see here hopefully won’t be a complete replay of the Penn Square collapse in the early 80’s, but will be much tougher in Oklahoma specific than the rest of the country because of a regressive state government and a shaky educational system.

Real estate values in Oklahoma would be my first marker to follow closely in the coming months and then of course businesses which go under as a result of oil possibly going below the $10 a barrel bench mark.

Upon further evaluation I’d wait to buy Continental Resources at $5 dollars a share or even lower. In some market locales the price is already under the $10 dollar benchmark.

In closing, ignore what the current POTUS is saying in regards to the Easter date reopen nonsense and make very cautious smart decisions based on the advice from experts like Dr. Fauci.

Oklahoma probably as much as any state in the Union is in for a very tough road back. Very tough. Staying home another two weeks isn’t going to change that fact.

Ignore the POTUS and heed the advice from the experts. Even Trump surrogate Governor Kevin Stitt is trying to tell you this by his most recent decisions.

Be exceedingly kind to others and be an ambassador of the Golden Rule every day as we work our way back through this disaster.

MJ’s Self-Intervention Day 3

For three days now I haven’t seen or listened to the idiot who goes by the name of Donald Trump. I would compare it to a soul cleansing process. I’m actually beginning to feel somewhat human again. As I reach an advanced stage of this shall we say spiritual rebirth…I won’t even have to mention his name.

This will be about me taking my plane of awareness above and beyond.

I won’t need to mention his tiny little hands. I won’t have to comment on his orange hair. And I won’t feel any need to drag to Melania into any of this.

None of that will be me.

Walk in the park.

Michael Smerconish Question of the Week

A very good show today. Michael had medical experts from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford debating the pros and cons of an all out national quarantine.

I’m done watching both MSNBC and Fox in that I don’t perceive either as viable sources of objective information. This isn’t a time for cheer leading, but rather a time for measured scientific data to make the right decisions for our country.

I’m not an expert in this field. I clearly value the opinions of the experts coupled with nuanced common sense.

We in Oklahoma have no clue whatsover of the data in our state because as of Wednesday only 838 tests had been administered in the entire state. There is not enough data to make an informed decision. We are flying blind without instruments.

I would guess the same states which completely deny climate change to any degree are also denying the seriousness of this situation.

Governor Kevin Stitt actually made what I thought were some intelligent comments earlier in the week which pleasantly surprised me. Some more stringent measures were added this week in Oklahoma as somehow the state was able to peel itself away the Joe Exotic saga on Netflix.

Sigh.

The question this week was if the U.S. should implement a nation wide quarantine. Keep in mind, the audience on this show isn’t a left wing watering hole. It’s more for moderates and independents like myself. Like me, Michael used to be a member of the Republican Party.

The results of the poll were 84% voted yes for a more cohesive national quarantine while 16% voted no.

Tomorrow… I’m going discuss former Fed Chief Ben Beranke’s comments this week on how this situation more accurately is a national disaster rather than an economic depression. I think this is key in making decisions right now.

Hope you bought some Boeing at $90 and some Continental Resources at $7 longer hold position.

Be safe and be sound in your decision making.