The two mens’ Elite 8 games don’t excite me today. Maybe I’ll prove to be wrong in that gut feel of mine, but unless Arizona goes into some sort of coma and Illinois chokes with this great opportunity for Brad Underwood to advance to the Final Four–one would think a Big 12 and a Big 10 team are heading to our Final Four at the conclusion of Saturday’s play.
The U Conn vs. Duke game tomorrow is the one I want to cover for okcthunderground.com. That’s where SI, USA Today, and the Athletic will have their best writers. Same thing for the ‘sometimes’ iconic and amazing okcthunderground.com. MJ wants to be ‘big game basketball fresh’ for that game.
- I don’t consider ESPN any longer a viable sport news outlet so that’s why I excluded them from the previous ‘graph.
BTW…I’m wondering to myself who ends up being the next coach at North Carolina to replace the recently fired Hubert Davis?
If I were the NC athletic director I’d probably go after either Tommy Lloyd or Dan Hurley. Todd Golden has too much punk in him for that job. At Florida you can have somewhite trash punk in you, but not at the pristine cathederal of college hoops in Chapel Hill. I’ve always believed the North Carolina and Duke head coaching jobs are the best two jobs in college ball with Kansas as third on that list. U Conn probably fourth.
BTW, I wonder what Bill Self is going to do? He looks worn out to me and in serious need of a break from NIL and the Portal.
So on to Sacramento where my Lady Sooners will either acheive their pre-season goal of making the Elite 8 or prove to still be just a program on the edge of becoming a Top 10 program. OU hurt itself tremendously with their horrific performance in the SEC Tournament’s semi-final game versus LSU when they imploded for the second time this season against the Bayou Bengals..
I mean, they literally imploded in every facet of the game or else they would have been a regional No. 3 seed and not have to play a team like Soth Carolina today.
I’ve loved including Jenni and her team among my beats these past two seasons, but here’s the thing…SHOW ME today later in Sacramento who you are… SHOW ME.
That means A Chavez keeping the turnovers under 12. That means Reagan Beers not getting two fouls in the first ten minutes of play. That means Peyton V knocking down threes and being relevant in the game. That means Zya Vann playing the best game of her college career to date. That means Sahara Williams being the tough Moral Compass she has to be for her mates. That means the promising Broolyn Stewart playing like a junior instead of a freshman off the bench. And that means both Cara Smith, Z Lofton, and Beatrice Culleton playing solid minutes as No. 7, No. 8, and No. 9 coming off Jenni’s very short bench and being able to play at the South Carolina standard of excellence.
And of course, A Chavez has to play like the National Freshman of the Year from start to finish.
If I were the ESPN predictor I’d say South Carolina with an 88% chance of winning and I’d set the line at South Carolina at -11.5 on a neutral floor.
In closing…this is the biggest game to date in the Jenni B era at OU. I know for a fact new AD Roger Denny like me wants to see all the things I’ve listed above so as he can bring even more money into the Lady Sooners’ NIL program and move this program into the stratosphere of the Top 8.
So…SHOW ME AND ROGER DENNY…and he’ll show you the money.
Love and kindness always,
Mike J