What a beautiful Saturday of hoops. We went out to the family ranch in Seminole for a Chicken Kiev party as I slyly took control of the televison room and watched OU beat Alabama in what I would decribe as a potential Sweet 16 or maybe even an Elite 8 type of matchup coming down the road in March Madness.
Maybe this was a harbinger of things to come when Spencer Rattler and the Sooners/Vols beat down the Tide in next season’s college football national championship game. Could be… let’s deal with hoops first though.
I’ll get to Cade’s clutch play in the win over Arkansas on my next Cade Cunningham Journal in the next day or so. Anyone who thinks Cade isn’t the deal should just give it up at this point. He’s leading the toughest conference in America in scoring and he really hasn’t even yet put his foot on the gas pedal yet. You’ll see. Too bad he had to sit last week vs. Baylor. This young man is basketball gold. O State and Mike Holder better get the damn NCAA paper work done so he can be a part of March Madness.
What a gut check win for Lon Kruger’s surging Sooners as they overcame losing leading scorer Austin Reeves and versatile wing Olandis Williams to Covid protocol. Tough situation for the very deep Sooners, but with DeVion Harmon driving the bus the Sooners played inspired gut check ball to make the clutch plays and beat Alabama at home in the Big 12-SEC Challenge.
The rest of the basketball nation is now catching on to what these Sooners are with the additions of EJ Harkless and Moj Gibson. Without the two transfers the Sooners without Reeves and Olandis would have had a zero chance of winning this game. As in zero.
EJ Harkless is not a star per se as a scorer , but what he is…is a winner who stuffs the stat sheet with tough rebounds, getting fifty fifty balls, making the extra pass, defending the other team’s best guard. Things like that.
Elijah is the ultimate team guy who when he wants to can score the ball as well. I kind of like Elijah Harkless if you can’t tell by now.
Moj Gibson is more of streaky three point phenom who when hot can change the flow of a game like Mikey Miller used to do with the Florida Gators before he went on to the NBA and then destroyed the Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals.
This game was a slugfest with each team throwing haymakers until EJ made a sequence of clutch plays to propel the Sooners to their fifth Staright win…and I’m guessing a bump up in the ;polls to somewhere close to a # 10 or so ranking on Monday.
On a note of humanity…it was great to see Brady Manek finally get it in gear as he had some clutch plays as well which put the Sooners over the hump. Lon Kruger had to have what he got out of Brady today. Period. Helmet sticker for Brady.
Remember this as OU’s season moves forward…they play defense with a bulldog mentality just like Chris Beard’s national runner-up Texas Tech Red Raiders did two seasons ago.
Oddly enough…the Sooners next game is on Monday night in Lubbock against Chris Beard’s nationally ranked Red Raiders.
That’s the thing about the Big 12 this season…it seems every game you’re playing somebody tough minus Iowa State this season.
On to Lubbock, Texas.
Boomer!
A little country music video would be the perfect way to end a perfect basketball Saturday. Have a nice Sunday.