Depending on where you’re betting Georgia is either a 2.5 or 3 point neutral field favorite.
I find that odd for multiple reasons.
Alabama has the better coach. Alabama has the better quarterback. Alabama has the better wide receiver even with John Metchie out. Alabama has the better kicker. Alabama has a hot running back coming off a career game vs. Cincy. Alabama has the best defensive player in the country in my mind in No. 31 Anderson.
I’m not sure why Georgia is favored. Surely it can’t be because they easily beat an overhyped soft Big Ten team like Michican who’s coach was so demoralized by the defeat he might leave and take the Chicago Bears job. Kind of like soft Lincoln Riley after Bedlam heading to the PAC 12.
Georgia and Alabama both have people missing in their secondaries and I love Georgia’s tight end, but Alabama’s Billingsly is one of the most underrated tight ends in America, With Metchie out tonight …Bryce Young needs to utilize his tight end. Alabama’s ability to tun and ultilize the tight end are my two kyts circled in red tonight.
For sure if I can…I’ll take Alabama plus the three…I’m taking Alabama tonight.
Until Kirby Smart proves to me he can beat Nick Saban—I just don’t see enough from Georgia at the quarterback position to take Georgia and give points no less.
I’m pretty jacked. I love watching physical teams play. And we clearly have the two most talented, physical teams playing tonight for all the marbles.
Caleb Williams attended the LA Rams vs. 49’ers game yesterday on his visit to California. Today USC’s projected starting quarterback Jaxson Dart entered the transfer portal. I don’t think you have to be be Columbo to connect those dots.
Hope I’m wrong, but at least OU won’t have to face Caleb in Norman in 2023 when the Georgia Bulldogs come to town.
It doesn’t shock me because his father basically sent Caleb to Norman to play for Lincoln Riley without a scholarship at one point. So this won’t be a shock if this is indeed the way it goes down later this evening during the national championship game telecast.
I’m disappointed Caleb is going to play in a league which was weaker than the American Athletic Conference this past season, but it’s his decision and his future. I wish him the best.
OU is fortunate to have Dillion Gabriel to replace Caleb and my hope is the attitude with OU fans moving forward is a positive one.
To Caleb’s credit, I thought he was pretty much transparent with his comments after the Alamo Bowl and to Caleb’s further credit, unlike Lincoln Riley, he didn’t leave the OU seniors hanging for their bowl game or the Big 12 Championship Game if OU had beaten Oklahoma State in Bedlam.
We’ll never know if he would have won a Heisman at Oklahoma, but if he indeed goes to USC you would think with the absolute lack of any defense by any team in that league Caleb could put up some staggering numbers.
Caleb never lied. He was a blast to watch this season and in my mind his one season OU legacy wise will go down somewhat like Marcus Dupree’s one fabulous freshman season in Norman….except Caleb is very much in charge of his life it would appear.
It will be interesting to see if his high school buddy Jahil enters the portal later today or tomorrow. Hope not. But we’ll have to sit back and see.
Otherwise…OU’s team is coming around fairly nicely, especially at the tight end and linebacker positions. The Sooners picked up several players last week and that’s the way moving forward for OU at this point in this crazy football season. Plus…they picked up a D lineman from Hawaii.
So it will end just like the final scene from On Any Given Sunday with Al Pacino taking his quarterback with him to head out West unless Georgia or Texas A&M make Caleb an offer he can’t monetarily refuse.
I wouldn’t at all compare this to Kevin Durant leaving to go play with Steph and Klay for two reasons..1 USC currently sucks, and 2 Caleb was basically up front about what he wanted to explore in regards to his college football future.
I’ll be back on here ASAP if he announces someone other than USC.
So when all is said and done so far…Caleb plus Mario Williams to date are the only OU players on the cusp of joining Lincoln Riley at USC.
What a Sunday night of NBA basketball. I watched about ten minutes of the Thunder’s predictable loss to the injury decimated Denver Nuggets. This was prime time tanking at its best. In fact I would almost call this point shaving in the last two minutes.
With the Thunder very much in position to actually win this game… for some reason Jeremiah Robinson-Earl threw up two widly errant threes and then Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed badly on an uncontested layup.
Of all the Thunder endings I’ve forced myself to watch this season…this might have been the most eggrious ninety seconds to date. I don’t even at this point know why Vegas would even carry betting lines on Thunder games after last night.
And those fans….bless their Donald Trump-Proud Boy loving hearts. They actually stood up in unison cheering those last two minutes as if the Thunder were going to win this game.
No, no, no. What the Thunder are getting ready to do in this second half of the season is potentially play some of the worst NBA basketball in memory in the quest to somehow land Paulo Banchero and by the NBA’s collective baraginning agreement force him to play in Oklahoma City for the subsequent eight or nine years.
The Thunder have now lost four games in a row and stand at 13-26 as the No. 14 seed in the West. But more importantly from my vantage…it doesn’t appear Shai is all that fired up about playing as of late.
Then there was Klay’s return on the Bay. The building was full forty-five minutes in advance of tip to honor Klay Thompson. Golden State fans are different than OKC fans…they actually cheer their iconic stars rather than boo them for basiclly fulfilling their contractual obligation, helping the city, and taking them on a decade long fantasy dream ride.
This isn’t me being snarky on my blog. This is me telling these Thunder fans who still boo Durant how they’re viewed by the rest of the league.
Klay played twenty minutes and actually looked better than I thought he would as far as mobility and lateral movement. His line was impressive considering how long its been since he’s played an NBA game.
17 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block shot, and 1 deflection, -2….plus a snarl that I don’t remember him showing as much in the past.
I was impressed. I wasn’t even sure Klay would be a contributor this season, but if they just ride the throttle slowly on his return…I could easily after last night see Klay being a 25 minute a game type of guy with Steve Kerr monitoring his minutes in a very smart fashion.
The Splash Brothers are back and if Klay can just ease into this then I would say the Phoenix Suns have another issue on their plate come playoff time.
I was interested watching Steve Kerr hand out minutes with Klay back and Draymond Green out. Steve Kerr sat both his rookies in Johnny Kuminga and Moses Moody and then everybody else played their minutes for the most part.
I would guess Kerr is going to sit Klay on back to backs and on other schedule stress points in the season…so I think the very deep Warriors will be able to rest not only Klay, but Steph as this season winds into mid March.
Think about this though…Golden State is probably going to be the No. 1 seed in the West without basically playing James Wiseman, Johnny Kuminga, and Moses Moody. That’s scary for the rest of the league looking into the future.
Plus…if the Warriors have to face LeBron..they’d have twelve quality fouls between Iggy and Johnny Kuminga to throw at LeBron’s aging body.
It was basically a tale of two cities last night in Oklahoma City and San Francisco and how each have evolved since Game 6 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals.
So much history attached to that epic Game 6 loss by the Thunder. The franchise has never been the same, yet the Golden State Warriors minus Kevin are back atop the West with a magnificent rebuild job by GM Bob Myer.
Not the case in Oklahoma City as one might think an All-Star team from the Big 12 vs. the current Thunder without Shai would provide more competitive drama than we see on most nights inside Pay.Com Arena.
Sam Presti and I clearly use different dictionaries as far as when using the noun ‘sustainability’.
The Thunder have not sustained from that historic night when Klay drained eleven threes to in essence end the Kevin Durant Era in Oklahoma City. The Thunder since Durant’s exit have never won a first round series and are now mired in the slog of two year tanking death march.
I wanted to actually ask Josh Giddey a couple of questions last night when I saw him at the OU-Iowa State thriller, but I held back because I know him getting to see two real basketball teams trying to win a game has been a rare occurrence for him in OKC since his arrival from Australia.
I could tell though…just like Steven Adams–he’s a very cool kid. Maybe later …when OU hosts Kansas or at Bedlam…. I’ll run into him again and we’ll chat.
Klay’s return is set tonight versus Cleveland on the NBA Network. The Thunder host Denver….I’ll try and catch ten minutes or so of that undercard developmental game and then get myself situated for Klay’s Return.
This was only a matter of time as far as true freshman Bijuan Cortez. This was his moment to show the college basketball world he is capabale of playing in a Power 5 league like the Big 12.
The long hair, the still true freshman body which hasn’t been sculpted in the weight room, the fact he played his high school ball in sleepy Kingfisher, Oklahoma… weren’t hiding what Porter Moser knew was coming at some point for his basketball team.
That being, the moment in this OU basketball season when Bijuan Cortez would have to start playing meaningful minutes for the Sooners because he has the best vision coupled with the best innate passing ability on the team.
Call it fatedom if you will this happened on the same evening with Thunder nineteen year-old Josh Giddey in the building, but what this was in fact was a coming out party for Bijuan Cortez and how Porter Moser will delegate minutes moving forward at the point guard position between Bijuan and senior Duke transfer Jordan Goldwire moving forward.
In this game it was the freshman from Kingfisher and not the senior from Duke who put the Sooners’ season on a firmer trajectory.
In this game Jordan logged 24 minutes and struggled only scoring 4 points and going a team worse -10. Converserly…Bijuan changed the entire flow and pace of the game in the second half. Bijuan played 16 minutes. His line was 4 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists with a team best +20.
I still see Jordan Goldwire as the starting point guard, but what Bijuan did in this game was what OU didn’t do in the close losses to Utah State and Butler…he finished for the Sooners. He drove the Sooners home in the last ten minutes of this game and Porter Moser went stayed with him because he knew for his team to stay on a course to make it to the Big Dance… Bijuan Cortez may in fact have to be his closer.
So what I would see on the horizon is pretty much minutes wise based on this game would be Jordan getting more minutes overall, but Bijuan being there at the ready to come into the game and play regular rotational minutes.
This was a must win for the Sooners since they travel to Austin to play the Longhorns next. The key for OU in my mind in Big 12 play is to avoid two game losing streaks in the most loaded basketball conference in America. Win the home games, and slug out a couple of road wins if they can.
OU is built to be a tournament team . They shoot well from both the field and the line. They have enough punch from beyond the arc. They play tenacious defense. The bench is coming along. They have an inside-outside big man in Tanner Groves. The last piece is bringiing down the turnovers and finishing in the last six minutes of one or two possession games.
Scoring wise Moj Gibson led the Sooners with 20 points with Tanner Groves adding 16 points.
EJ Harkless and Jalen Hill didn’t have spectacular games stat wise, but make no mistake those two are the two guys who do all the blue collar work which gives this team a chance every game.
Next up… Chris Beard and his Longhorns in Austin on Tuesday night.
In closing, one other thing.. in this Big 12 Conference you have two coaches in Bill Self and Scott Drew who have won national championships. You have Chris Beard at Texas and Bruce Weber when he was at Illinois who have taken a team to the national championship game. And then you have Bob Huggins with two Final Four appearances and Porter Moser who took Loyola of Chicago to a Final Four.
There is not an off night in the Big 12.
It’s not just good players in the Big 12…it’s elite coaches as well.
What a great comeback win! The building was electric as Oklahoma came back from a double digit deficit to beat No. 11 Iowa State.
Josh Giddey & Big Game Bob both in the building.
I almost went over to Josh and asked,”Don’t you think basketball is alot more fun when both teams are trying to win instead of tanking shamelessly? But I didn’t because he’s a really nice kid. If it had been Hinkie-Presti I would not have hesitated.
I’ll do a recap later. I’m so proud of these guys and Coach Moser.
They never give an inch.
Helmet stickers for the whole team! Bijuan Cortez gets two helmet stickers!
This is my favorite Boomer Sooner video because it’s in San Diego where I was born by the Naval base.
Shout out to Mike Boynton as well. I think your team got the message after the Kansas game. Gotta play hard for forty-eight minutes. Nice win, Coach Boynton. Bryce Williams get my helmet sticker in the O State win over Texas. Great day of college hoops in Oklahoma.You better have it strapped on when you play a Big 12 conference game no matter who you are or think you are.
Basically the shamelessly tanking Oklahoma City Thunder were not watchable by the latter part of the second period. OKC Jim over at Daily Thunder is already structuring the tank strategy in 2023. I love OKC Jim so I think I’ll feature some of his draft suggestions for the 2022 draft for the Thunder as we move along this season.
Josh Giddey was a -30, Lu Dort was -29. I was done with this game before halftime.
This is on me for thinking the Thunder were ready to be watched for 48 minutes. There will be no rant. Rants occur only when you care.
On television it appeared to be a tomblike atmosphere inside of the House Kevin Durant Built. I cannot fathom the pain those people must feel for having paid to attend that game. I look at those people and just like Nikki Haley does with Donald Trump….say to myself, “Bless their heart. They must not have anything else in their lives going on.”
But the good news is the Thunder lost. Presti’s Tank Master – Coach D was back stalking the sidelines with his arms folded as if he were Red Auerbach or John Wooden.
This is on me for actually planning to watch a Thunder game this season from beginning to end. This is on me and this is why I’m not writing anything about human sex trafficking in the NBA or anything close to it.
On the postive side… I did enjoy watching Anthony Edwards and crew. They’re a fun little team to watch. I don’t think they’re going anywhere per se, but I think they’re a fun team to watch.
So I changed over and watched the Bucks at New Jersey with Jeff van Gundy and Mike Breen on the call. Listening to those two after the Thunder broadcast is like drinking a hundred dollar bottle of wine compared to drinking a glass of horse urine. They don’t talk down to the viewers…they inform and entertain.
I’m glad I did change over because the defending champ Milwaukee Bucks are really good and I fear my Miami pick in the East could succomb to these Bucks again in post season like last season.
Milwaukee didn’t even have Jrue Holiday in this game and yet they easily cruised past the Nets on the road.
Van Gundy made an interesting observation about NBA teams actually playing better on the road versus at home this season. I need to research that some in greater detail.
Giannis went for 30, Bobby Portis, this season’s Sleeper of the Year was magnificent with 25 points and the missed dunk on the video above. The dunk was about the only shot he missed in this game. Bobby Portis is a stud.
This was the 7th straight time Milwaukee has beaten the Nets. Put that in your notebook with the fact the Bucks swept Miami in last year’s first round.
This Kyrie deal with him just playing games in jurisdictions without a vaccine mandate isn’t going to fly. The Nets needs Kyrie all in if they aspire to be a real contender.
Then I watched a half of LeBron beating the Atlanta Hawks. As long as Coach Vogel can keep the ball out of Russell’s hands and in LeBron’s hands there’s a chance the Lakers could actually win a first round series in which they weren’t facing Golden State or Phoenix. To me…the East is actually deeper this season with Denver being decimated by injury.
OU hosts nationally ranked Iowa State at 5:00pm in what is a huge game for both teams.
Then tommorow we as passionate NBA fans get to see the return of Klay Thompson.
Just saw this today and cried. We lost a great one today in Sidney Poitier. Easliy the most influential black actor during my youth in the sixties and seventies.
A trailblazer for other black actors who followed in his footsteps winning either the Best Actor ot or Best Actor in a Supporting Role back when the Oscar Show was really a thing.
Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Jaime Fox, Mahershala Ali, Louis Gossett, Cuban Gooding Jr. and others followed his trail.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was made in 1967. I was ten years old when this movie was made being the darkest kid at both my elementary school and then at my all-white junior high school before I was introduced to black people at John Marshall High School.
My dad was worried about me making the move to John Marshall. He was worried I wouldn’t be able to assimilate. That’s when I said, ” Have you lost your mind? I’m finally going to be with people more like me.”
This movie and this scene in particular had an everlasting life imprint on me.
Until you’ve been called a nigger or in my case a half nigger you really have no idea what that can do to a young person’s perception of themself.
Sidney Poitier was always an inspiration for me. This scene from above was my favorite Sidney scene of all-time.
Josh Giddey is on a roll in case you haven’t noticed. Even though I’ve pushed the Thunder down to around sixth or seventh on my blog per current local sports relevancy…I have been keeping track of Giddey, Aaron Wiggins, Tre Mann, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl…plus of course Poku.
They’re getting better is what’s happening. Game by game you can start to see the possibilites for this team after this summer’s NBA draft when the Thunder should be able to make a run for a Paulo Banchero caliber of player.
Giddey and Wiggins in particular fascinate me as far as what the Thunder could do with their rebuild this summer.
I hate the tanking…I’ve made that clear. But the Thunder need to at this point finish with a top three lottery pick this summer and see if with all those assets in their assets trove they can turn it into a difference maker like Banchero.
From the beginning of this season I made the comparison that I thought the Thunder are a year behind the Memphis Grizzlies as far as rebuilds go. If this Thunder team were allowed to be coached straight up by a legit NBA head coach in my mind they could be a 34-36 win type of team right now.
If you look at the NBA standings today the Thunder are 13-24 holding onto the 14th slot in the West while the streaking Memphis Grizziles stand alone as the solid No. 4 seed. Hate to say I called it, but I called it.
The West really isn’t all that good beyond Golden State and Phoenix. Age and Russell Westbrook have decimated LeBron this season…so in reality looking ahead to next season with Chris Paul another year older…the Thunder should be a young team with some exciting possibilities if they decide to end the tank and possibly at some point put some money towards hiring a head coach with a track record of some sort beyond running a developmental team.
I hate to be snarky in this regard…but every head coach in the Big 12 has a more impressive resume than what Coach D has done to date. Turn him loose and let’s see if he can coach to win at some point. Maybe that’s what you do next season…we’ll see.
At some point …. Presti is going to have to turn these guys loose and add some rim protection and muscle to the interior. But other than that if you closely follow the NBA…you can start to see the possibilites. in Oklahoma City or Las Vegas.
I have a confession to make…right now I might actually pay for a ticket to see the Thunder play beyond just wanting to see Tyler Herro and Ja Morant vs the Thunder. The reason being…Josh Giddey.
His overall game is becoming something to marvel at from the view he’s only nineteen year of age and in essence became the youngset player in NBA history to record a triple double and then almost did it again on Wednesday night at Minnesota when he had a 14 point, 15 rebound, 6 assist night.
So…at the risk of Hinkie-Presti benching all the starters tonight in search of loss No. 25—I’m going to give the Thunder a serious look tonight as they host the Timberwolves who are currently the 10th seed in the West.
This is one of those games for Hinkie-Presti where he has to decide on exactly how to turn this potential exciting game for his fanbase into a loss instead of a feel good win.
And of course…Anthony Edwards for the Timberwolves was one of the top two rookies in the NBA last season. So—this is a game I’m going to watch with a sense of anticipation.
I would maintain this video above shows why. If you claim to be a major political party and Little Marco Rubio and Lyin’ Ted Cruz are the best you can muster….then you need an act on the debate stage.
The mainstream GOP figured out how boring they are and that if they ever again wanted to give tax cuts to millionaires and appoint federal judges to put a cap on tort reform and keep dark money flowing they need an act.
And the act’s name is Donald Trump and these same Republicans are so joyful of the fact they appointed three Suprme Court Justices and redid the entire federal appellate court they’re willing to humilate themselves and devolve the country into a reality television show.
And currently the Donald Trump act is killing the rest of the potential GOP presidential field heading into 2024.
Tell me who’s second in the GOP currently?
There isn’t one.
Since Trump tried to hang Mike Pence…I wonder who his running mate will be in 2024?
Ivanka? Pencil dick Don Jr? Roger Stone? Mr. Pillow? Tucker Carlson? Joe Manchin? Marjorie Taylor-Green?
This won’t be your grandparents’s GOP ticket that’s for certain.
The end of Trump Insurrection Week: One Year Anniversary special.