I took a break from my blog during the last week of 2020. I was in the process of binge reading two excellent books by Isabel Wilkerson titled Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Disconects. Both were excellent reads. The first won a Pulitizer in 2010 and Caste is currently No. 1 on the NY Times non-fiction list. I would guess Bill Gates has Caste atop his list of books for 2020. Isabel is clearly a wonderful writer and storyteller.
I also watched a great deal of the better college football bowl games with an emphasis on watching all five Big 12 bowl games. What a nice surprise watching the Big 12 go 5-0 in the bowl season and an even nicer bonus in seeing the Sooners pistol-whip the punk Florida Gators 48-20.
The OU game really wasn’t that close as OU had two touchdowns called back and dropped two other deep passes which should have led to scores. OU now has a defense with fangs and has their best defensive recruiting class coming to Norman since probably the early Stoops years.
The future burns very bright for Lincoln Riley’s Sooners heading into next August. Especially bright since Kennedy Brooks is opting back in and there’s hope Ronnie Perkins will play one more season for the Sooners. I fully expect Rhamondre Stevenson to opt out and go to the NFL next season.
Trey Sermon had a wonderful national semi-final and even though the Buckeyes only played six games they were amazing in their 49-28 win over Clemson. Alabama easing past an overrated Notre Dame team was pretty much what we all thought it would be.
I like Alabama by a touchdown or so next Monday night. Saban has a week and half to game plan on how to contain Trey Sermon….which I think is the key to the game. If Trey runs wild and gives Justin Fields open passing lanes then there’s hope for the Buckeyes.
Give Mike Gundy some credit as well as his team did their annual thing by winning another fourth or fifth tier level bowl in beating the Miami Hurricanes team. Hopefully less political drama with O State’s football season next August. Spencer Sanders looked much better and I hope he finds the comfort zone in his game next season. Gotta run the ball, dude. It’s the best part of your game.
Texas fired Tom Herman. No big surprise there. I wouldn’t want that coaching job though. Too many Boones to deal with if you don’y beat OU. The Longhorn’s third coach since they forced Mack Brown to step down. Nice to see Mack doing good things in North Carolina again.
I did watch all the Thunder games during the previous week, but just opted to not write anything. It’s depressing to write too much. I mean, this is a deal where I think as fans and bloggers we have to be careful on how much of this we consume this basketball season.
The Thunder were truly awful on Monday evening in Miami in losing to the Heat by a 118-90 score. It was a brutal performance which was almost as brutal as the Thunder’s one-sided loss to New Orleans on New Years Eve.
In this one the Thunder shot 36.7% from the field and 13-48 from beyond the arc. Truly an abysmal effort which BTW shoots them down to the No. 15 slot in the current Western Conference standings.
George Hill, Big Al Horford, and Mikey Muscala went a combined 3-18 shooting the ball and scored a combined nine points as the purported pillars of veteran support for the tanking Thunder.
Conversely–the Phoenix Suns are 5-2 and look to be one of the feel good stories in the league this season with Monty Williams and Chris Paul now both in the Valley of the Sun. Monty Williams is a good dude. Pray for him and his family and be happy for him.
Sam Presti’s first round shooting phenom Poku who is something like 2-21 shooting the ball this season sat this one out due to a concussion he suffered during a Thunder practice. I would guess a missed shot richoted off the front rim and struck him in the head.
The glass half full take is Darius Bazely, Lu Dort, SGA, Theo Maledon, and Hamidou Diallo are all showing glimpses of hope here and there, but at some point they’ll need a game changer along side them to become a viable team. If I were them I wouldn’t be holding my breath for that game changer to be Poku.
On another front..in Stillwater–Cade Cunningham had a solid stat night, but fouled out as the Cowboys blew a 19 point lead against Bob Huggins’ West Virginia squad. A total coaching mismatch in this one. I have to write this as someone who’s been very kind to Mike Boynton on my blog. Huggins went small with the ‘Press Virginia’ lineup and Boynton’s team never adjusted on the fly. It was painful to observe.
The Thunder are next up on this eastern five game road swing with a Thursday night game in New Orleans to play the entertaining Pelicans.