Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

One we get to mid fall and the days shorten considerably…I try and read a book a week until say February 25th or whenever spring begins to awaken again in Oklahoma.

By that time… between my business and March Madness my leisure reading slackens to almost nil other than just the sports and front page story type of stuff.

I finished the Kirk Herbstreit biography written by Woj. If you’re a college football fan of any serious degree… I would highly suggest the book not just for the football, but for the human journey of Kirk’s life in which he was very candid about in sharing with his readers. I’d give the book four out of five stars on my review. It would be a great X-mas gift for a football fanatic.

The book I’m reading now is by two time Pulitizer winner Bob Woodward and Bob Costa from Washington Week in Review which airs on PBS.

This is a great five star book which is Pulitizer worthy and if you’re open minded and not living your life on either the far right or far left lanes of extremism you’ll consider this a must read for every American who thinks democracy is kind of a neat thing.

If you’re the type who comes home every night and sits in front of Tucker Carlson with your Sean Hannity sippy cup…. you won’t make it thru ten pages of this book. You just won’t…I’m sorry to write.

If you’re a far left type who thinks AOC rocks and everything she says is the Sermon on the Mount you’ll maybe make it to page seventy-five or so when you read what Nancy Pelosi and even to some degree Bernie Sanders thinks about the new radical left in Congress.

They pretty much think what Joe Manchin thinks….they just don’t put it out in public as much.

The book is a duel biography of Donald Trump and Joe Biden from the Election of 2016 to the January 6th insurrection of our national capitol.

As with all Bob Woodward books this book is written in a riveting narrative and was researched with great diligence which included two-hundred hours of interviews with people who were part of the story with the exception of two people… Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

If you’re in one of those two lanes…I don’t think you’ll enjoy the book.

If you’re a moderate or an independent like me..I think you’ll love the book.

But now I need to get back to finishing what could be Bob Woodward’s third Pulitzer Prize award winning book.

My advice to you within the GOP which allowed Donald Trump to be your party’s nominee a second time in 2020 would simply be this coming from a former moderate Republican who left the party in 2000…maybe in 2024 you could bring yourself to nominate a candidate of which Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bush 41 could actually stomach enough to in theory vote for that person.

I didn’t include Bush 43 on that list because I’m closing with Bush 43. I was highly critical of Bush 43 during his presidency, but in historical retrospect I would at this point after witnessing the four years of Donald Trump have to admit Bush 43 and Dick Cheney compared to Donald Trump come out looking like FDR in the year 2021.

I may not agree with 43 and Liz Cheney on some things, but at the end of the day I at least feel as if we’re all three Americans who value the fragile concept of democracy.

Please read the book… if you’re one of those 75 million who voted for Donald Trump a second time in 2020.

For the first time this NBA regular season… the Thunder earned a win without Laker head coach Frank Vogel and Lebron James looking on from the opposing bench with looks or horror and disbelief on their faces.

As with the two wins overs the Lakers, this Thunder 99-94 win over the tanking San Antonio Spurs wasn’t an instant NBA classic for the ages, but to the relief of the Pay.Com Arena crowd assembled on an autumn Sunday evening it wasn’t a loss either.

The Thunder started slow early and looked to be the worst of the two tanking teams for which Sam Presti has been employed by in the NBA, but at the end Mike Muscala made sure on this night the Thunder weren’t viewed as the worst team in the NBA.

When Clay Bennett said he wanted to follow the San Antonio holy grail NBA template he wasn’t kidding. On this night what we saw in Oklahoma City vs. the Spurs were two teams slogging the same NBA tanking road back to relevance simultaneously.

It was ugly early as the Thunder couldn’t buy a basket and fell behind by sixteen points. But on this night Coach D outdueled Pop as if something was on the line besides losing another NBA game intentionally.

I almost cried watching San Antonio play like this. This isn’t how Pop should finish his career.

What I would say about this game is that veteran Mike Muscala came off the bench and played like the best NBA player on the floor despite getting only 14 minutes of court time while almost every other member of the Thunder for the most part couldn’t hit the Pacific Ocean with a basketball if they were standing two feet away from water.

Muscala was sublime and along with Kenrich Williams has been one of the few bright spots in this second straight season on losing games by design despite claiming ‘sustainability’ on the witness stand under oath.

In his fourteen minutes of play Muscala scored an uber efficient 20 points on a 5-6 shooting night while adding a blocked shot to his stat line.

But what Mike Muscala gave most to those in attendance was the appearance the Thunder organization isn’t totally oblivious to the fact their own fanbase needs to see their team win some games here and there during the 82 game tanking death march into April.

Little Nick Gallo, bless his heart, stood next to Mike Muscala for the postgame Player of the Game interview and beamed as if the Thunder had come back from the dead to beat Steph and Klay in Game 6. I’ll give Little Nick Gallo this much… he’ll shame himself to no end whatsoever to earn his paycheck as the Thunder’s sideline version of a little mini Craig Sager type only without the cool jackets, smart insights, and Journey of Life humanity attached.

At 95-94 with the Thunder leading in the final two minutes…rookie Aussie Josh Giddy made a nice play on a penetration and dish to Lu Dort for a basket which I would describe as the best basketball play of the night for the Thunder. Otherwise Josh struggled and didn’t look the part of a player taken with the 6th pick in the recent NBA draft.

It was fitting though with 3.5 seconds left in this game…Mike Muscala nailed two free throws to give the Thunder a two possession lead and their first win of the season over a team which doesn’t allow Russell Westbrook to handle the ball in the last six minutes of an NBA game.

But for me there were two other bright spots….Darius Bazely and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. I thought both of these guys showed flashes of what they can be with patience and encouragement from people like me.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was okay, but nothing special from a guy on a max contract deal playing at home before a crowd which knows their team isn’t supposed to win more 25 games this season.. He didn’t make my Thunder three stars in this game.

My three stars went…1 Mike Muscala, 2 Darius Bazely, and 3 Jeremiah Robinson-Earl…. with a customary nod to Kenrich Williams for his total professionalism and hustle every time he takes the floor. Somebody raised that young man the right way is all I can say. Total self accountability with some compassion attached to his basketball soul.

Mike Muscala and Kenrich…thank you.

Next up…the New Orleans Pelicans who have been even worse than the Thunder and Spurs so far this season this young NBA season….so that could very well be a third win in a row for the Thunder.

I hate to be such a sarcastic pisser on these occassional Thunder recaps of mine… but when you tank like a street whore somebody amongst the throng of onlookers needs to write something honest every now and again.

It is what it is.

Glass half full…only 73 games left in this NBA season in Oklahoma City.

Beat Baylor!

If I was an NBA general manager and just hired a sideline reporter for my basketball team… this is what I would do: I’d take him or her to lunch then we would watch this ten minute video together. Then I would say something like…”Be honest, be prepared, be insightful, be honest, but most of all be human and don’t insult our fans’ collective intelligence”.

Little Nick Gallo…this is from Mike Jackson to you as a gift of humanity for all of us who watch Thunder games.

Kirk’s poll is out and now so is mine. You have to understand this about Kirk. His father… an undersized defensive back was an Ohio State captain in ’61 for Woody Hayes. His dad then went on to become the secondary coach for Woody because he was too small to play pro ball.

Jim Herbstreit if he had chosen to stay at Ohio State could have very well become an associate head coach at Ohio State when Woody was fired for hitting that Clemson player on the sidelines in a Gator Bowl game.

Instead… Jim Herbstreit chose to pursue a private business opportunity at that juncture in his life.

Kirk as a high school phenom quarterback was the Parade 1st Team All-American QB his senior high school season. Oklahoma was actually on his short list as far as college destinations…just so you know. But Kirk chose his father’s beloved Buckeyes. The family is Buckeye crazy with a touch of Bo Schem Michigan crazy as well. Kirk was signed on by then first year Buckeye head coach John Cooper, who btw got his first head coaching job at Tulsa before getting the Arizona State job. Small world.

I need to wrap this up and get to my poll. Anyway…Kirk was basically a backup QB for the Buckeyes until his 5th year senior season when he won the starting QB job and became a team captain like his father. That team never got to the Rose Bowl and none of Kirk’s other teams at Ohio State did either.

But Kirk is a traditionalist. He loves Ohio State and he loves the vision of what the Rose Bowl once was… the Grand Daddy Bowl Game of them all with the killer parade in Pasadena. Which is amazing btw since we made the trip in 2003 when OU easily handled Mike Price’s Washington State Cougars by two touchdowns with Nate Hybl as OU’s quarterback.

The Rose Bowl is definitely a college football Bucket List especially since we made the coastal drive from Del Mar to the game in my big sister’s convertible. I have to say…making that drive with Bob in the car with a lit cigar is something I’ll never forget. If he had caught Chris, then thirteen, on fire…I would have had some explaining to do with my wife. There was literally never a dull moment with Bob. AS IN NEVER.

So to conclude…whenever I see Kirk’s polls…I know I’ll have to modify his takes on the Big Ten team and the PAC 12 team most likely thought to win those conferences because Kirk still lives somewhat in the traditional Rose Bowl era of college football… which was cool, but unfortunately doesn’t really exist any longer because of something known as the SEC.

Now…my 12 Team Power Poll

1 Georgia

2 Alabama (with pragmatic reluctance attached)

3 Oklahoma

4 Ohio State

5 Oregon (if you lose to Stanford don’t bitch about a head to head being canceled out)

6 Oklahoma State (this team will go as far as Spencer Sanders’ legs are allowed to take it at some point)

7 Cincy

8 Notre Dame

9 Texas A&M

10 Michigan State

11 Michigan

12 Ole Miss

On my bubble

13 Iowa State

14 Kentucky

15 Auburn

16 Baylor

OU was idle yesterday while Oklahoma State hit the road to play a West Virginia team which was on a nice two game winning streak since their own bye week three weeks ago.

Oklahoma State just basically stuffed West Virginia with a dominant defensive performance while cruising to a surprisingly easy 24-3 road win.

It was a vintage defensive performance by the Cowboys. Jim Knowles’ defense sacked Mountaineer QB Jarrett Doege eight times on the day. One more sack and the Cowboys’ would have tied a school record mark for nine sacks in a single game.

On the day the defense allowed only 133 total yards of which 59 yards came on West Virginia’s intial possession which resulted in their field goal and only points scored in the game. This means that in the remaining three quarters the stellar O State defense gave up a combined total of 74 yards.

This is a sneaky good defense anchored by a group of fifth and six year seniors on the back seven and some edge rushers. They don’t beat themselves and they play a very heady style of football combined with some physicality. Plus…they tackle well in space.

As I’ve watched O State football from an OU fans’ prism over the years this is clealy the best defense I’ve seen at Oklahoma State in the Mike Gundy era.

I was looking through their sports media guide this morning and came upon Gary Gibbs’ name as one of the defensive analysts for Mike Gundy’s team. Gary Gibbs was Barry Switzer’s defensive coordinator for all of those great OU defenses during the Switzer era in Norman. Plus, Coach Gibbs was one helluva linebacker himself during the Chuck Fairbanks era. Wiry, tough as a pit bull, and smart.

Coach Gibbs was the head coach who actually succeeded Barry Switzer in 1990 when David Swank and the OU Regents forced Barry Switzer to retire. If I remember correctly…Coach Gibbs lasted four years then was fired for not being able to feed The Monster at an acceptable level.

Of course then came the infamous Howard Schnellenberger one year experiment in Norman with his lovely wife Beverly…omg.

Anyway…kudos to Mike Gundy and his team for an excellent 8-1 start to this football season. Mike Gundy hasn’t looked so much like the Mullet King this season, but more to the point a guy who’s looked within himself, grown a little on his own life journey, and rediscovered why he wanted to be the head coach at his alma mater seventeen years ago.

The mullet is gone and with its departure what we’ve seen so far is the gut cinch leader in the clubhouse to win Big 12 Coach of the Year if his team stays on course. Plus, I would think Mike Gundy could be on most short lists for National Coach of the Year as well.

Mike Gundy is this week’s recipient of my National Helmet Sticker of the Week Award.

In closing… college football is literally a bizarre trip in human dysfunction nowadays with the transfer portal and other stuff. Mike Gundy in Stillwater has Barry Switzer’s main man on the defensive side of the football as his behind the scenes anyalyst to go along with Jim Knowles. I’m told what he does is breakdown the other team’s offense in preparation of the next week foe. I’ll have to do some research on all that.

So anotherwords…Gary Gibbs was charting TCU’s offense and Chandler Morris yesterday.

Gary Gibbs…Mike Gundy’s mysterious mystery man analyst. I’m guessing about right now Steve Sarkisian realizes what a sweet deal being an analyst is versus being the head coach of dumpster fire piece of shit program like the Texas Longhorns who just joined the SEC West. He should have waited for the Florida job to open because I doubt Dan Mullen makes it to Tuesday.

O State’s coming home game this week versus TCU all the sudden looks pretty interesting considering what former OU backup quarterback Chandler Morris did yesterday in the upset of Baylor.

Truth be told while OU is playing Baylor next Saturday all the sudden the TCU vs. O State game itself just became somewhat interesting.

Kayse Shrum big picture could have a semi-valid point… with the Soviet Union-like complete collapse of what was once known as the University of Texas football program…there might be the argument made that O State instead of Texas should be headed to that SEC West pod with OU, Arkansas, and Missouri.

Who in their right mind a month ago with Texas leading 28-7 in the first period of the Red River Rivalry could even think this …let alone jot it down on their underground blog.

Oklahoma can be a crazy place is my only explanation.

What a day on the GameDay-Week #11 set today! Chris and I kind of have our own chemistry working at this point. He’s Kirk and I’m Coach Corso. I love doing the headgear stuff and the helmet stickers. He loves being the voice of reason for college football.

Kind of like Kramer and Newman running the Merv Griffin Show in Kramer’s apartment… if you know what I mean.

We both whiffed on the Cincy-Tulsa game. Tulsa actually should have won the game. Great resolve by the Tulsa kids…they’ll be getting a helmet sticker tomorrow.

Chris nailed the Iowa State blowout win over the dumpster fire Texas Longhorns who will in two years probably be challenging Vanderbilt for SEC football doormat supremacy bragging rights. Two really good schools who suck at football.

I missed on the Baylor-TCU game, but I honestly didn’t figure OU quarterback transfer Chandler Morris would the TCU starter today. Chandler actually scored OU’s first touchdown against Iowa State in last year’s Big 12 Championship Game. He’s the one Lincoln didn’t want to sign a release on last spring…at least to another Big 12 school. Now we know why.

Would I have taken Baylor if I’d known Chandler Morris was going to start in place of Max Duggan today and throw for over 400 yards? Probably not, but that’s the breaks of the game.

Purdue upset Michigan State just like we said they would on the set this morning. God…we nailed that one with Purdue winning 40-29. It doesn’t get much better than that when you nail a Top 5 upset on the GameDay set with the whole world watching. It would be like making a hole in one at the Masters on the closing nine holes.

Chris said to me, ” You were brilliant. That was really your pick the way you broke down Michigan State’s suspect pass defense and Purdue’s stingy run defense. You were brilliant. You shouldn’t have wasted a pick on Auburn playing in College Station. Your heart for Bo Nix got in the way. I thought we talked about that.”

I said, ” I was hoping my belief in Bo would help him get over the hump Those Auburn fans can be brutal at times.”.”

So Chris says, ” Why don’t we do this, Coach Corso?”

He knows I love it when he calls me Coach Corso.

He said, “I’ll take one point for the Purdue win and you take two points for picking the national upset Pick of the Week.”

I said, ” Sounds good to me. Your’re a great son, Kirk, I love you. I’m a lucky father.”

So that’s it for GameDay-Week #11.

What a great college football Saturday.

Enjoy the extra hour sleep and have a blessed Sunday.

I haven’t played this in a while. It never gets old.

This isn’t my official weekly Top 12…just a first draft before thinking about it for another day. The Committee is a bunch of Big Ten tea sippers is what they are. The Big Ten isn’t the SEC. Take away the Cardale Jones Cinderella saga with the Buckeyes in 2014 and the Big Ten has won exactly the same number of national championships in the Playoff Era as the Big 12 and PAC 12…as in zero.

Way too much love for the Big Ten by this Committee.

1 Georgia

2 Oklahoma

3 Alabama

4 Oregon

5 Ohio State

6 Oklahoma State

7 Notre Dame

8 Texas A&M

9 Cincy

10 Michigan State

11 Michigan

12 Ole Miss

Tulsa Golden Hurricane at Cincy today and so are Kirk and the GameDay crew. I’ll be back for my picks on this pivotal Week 11. I’m 10-10 vs the spread while Chris Jackson is a stellar 14-6. I have no room for error if I want to catch him. But I knew he was a serious GameDay player…so it is what it is. Be better…play better, or go home.

The goal acheiving portion of the season starts today and I’m pretty well jacked even with OU having a bye week. I’ve got to start having a string of 3-0 weekends on my picks or at the worst 2-1. Like the Sooners…I have little room for error.

What a glorious autumn day it is in Deer Creek, Oklahoma. The leaves on the red maple and Chinese pistache are not in peak color, but trending there. If Teddy Roosevelt were forced to live in Oklahoma County…he’d want to come live at our place here in the wilderness with creeks, ponds, and dense forest all around to insulate us from the Oklahoma Trump crazies.

Teddy Roosevelt by far is my favorite president of all-time…not even close. Still laughing my ass off from when Mike Pence compared Donald Trump to Teddy Roosevelt. Of course that was before Trump was instructing his Trump Proud Boys to hang Mike Pence and then go urinate in Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Unbelievable…truly unbelievable. That would be like comparing Nick Saban to Mike Gundy or Tony Bennett to Justin Bieber or Tucker Carlson to Tom Brokaw.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

None of us really get any intrinsic joy in paying taxes, but that doesn’t mean you remove your own brain, roll it in the dirt, and then piss on it before reinserting it in your head.

I’ve had my coffee. I’ve fed the wild turkeys, deer, squirrels, and raccoons. Pauli wouldn’t budge this morning. She doesn’t like walking the forest line in the dark except in the evening when we’re trying to sight the mountain lion. Plus, there was a heavy dew this morning…she hates that. She won’t even pee on a heavy dew.

Enough of that. Let’s get to the picks. From this point on we’re upping it to three games a piece. It’s the goal achieving portion of the season for us as well. This is when you want to bring your A game to the GameDay studio.

National Game of the Week for me is red-hot Auburn with their Heisman hopeful QB Bo Nix at Kyle Field to play the equally hot Texas A&M Aggies. This is a classic SEC West game with a bunch on the line for a spot in my top ten next week. I’m taking Auburn and 4.5 points with the hope this truly is Bo Nix’s magical football season for the Auburn Tigers. Bo Nix is a great story this college football season.

Baylor at TCU. If you study Baylor’s track record this season you’ll observe their schedule for the most part is littered with Big 12 home games. The only quality road opponent they have this season is/was O State.

The Bears only loss came at Stillwater to Mullet King’s O State Cowboys. BTW…I was looking at Gundy’s hair this past Tuesday at his presser and his hair looks wonderful without the mullet. He has beautiful hair for a man his age. I wish I had his hair. Boone would be so pleased. He left Gundy thirty bucks in his will for Gundy to get his hair cut. I’m going to feature Gundy’s hair next week on my blog regardless of how they do today in Morgantown as a road 3.5 favorite. I wouldn’t touch that game with a twenty foot pole. No way. Four words…O State Aggie Factor. No way in hell.

Baylor and TCU hate each other with a passion. This is a road game for a TCU team which just basically fired Gary Patterson. I’m taking Baylor and giving the seven points.

My third game is Cincy hosting a 3-5 Tulsa Golden Hurricane team which just lost to previously 1-6 Navy last week. I’m taking Cincy and giving the 22 points what with GameDay there and the fact the Bearcats need to win out with style points galore the rest of the way. Plus they’ll need a sequence of miracles to be selected by the Committee.

Chris Jackson is taking Cincy as well. He’s taking Iowa State at home and giving the emotionally fragile Texas Longhorns the 6.5 primarily because he hates UT football more than any other human I know. And in an upset alert special which will pay him double if he hits it…he’s taking the Purdue Boilermakers at home getting the 3 points versus one of the worst pass defenses in the country in the Michigan State Spartans.

I almost took Purdue in that game as well… it’s certainly on my Upset Alert crawler this morning. But my heart is with Bo Nix and of course you should never bet with your heart.

Hope you have a great GameDay watching your favorite team on your patio deck. It’s a perfect college football Saturday in Oklahoma. It would be a great day for ribs, brisket, and cole slaw with some Coors Light to wash it down.

Somewhere in Edmond, Oklahoma sports talk show rock star Jim Traber fell asleep with a smile on his face. Tucked under his Pittsburgh Steeler blanket wearing his Steeler jammies he was completely vindicated for his Captain Ahab-like pursuit of Russell Westbrook.

As I wrote last week after the Lakers blew a historical 26 point lead against the tanking Thunder….’This is a sad Greek tragedy is what it is.’ Albeit an extremely entertaining tragedy. Better than anything Tiger King and Joe Exotic could summon on screen.

In Game 2 the Thunder roared back from a 19 point deficit on the road no less to steal Game 2 with Russell Westbrook denying the ball to a hot Carmelo Anthony on the game’s last shot.

This game had pretty much everything except LeBron playing against the Thunder for a second straight game.

Add to the fact like in Game 1 there was almost a full court brawl in the waning seconds. This time when it appeared Carmelo elbowed Kenrich Williams in the throat on an inbounds scrum.

If you didn’t love these two games you don’t love NBA playoff basketball.

Adam Silver, make some calls, buddy. And to Laker Coach Frank Vogel… dude we know that look of ashen grief and shock on your face as the final seconds unfolded.

Been there, done that.

It’s a shame Sam Presti doesn’t have a feel for classic drama or literature or a sense of humor. Because all of the basketball world would be zoomed in to a Thunder-Laker first round playoff series if LeBron would just agree to be a healthy scratch for the first round.

These two games have had everything. Two monumental comebacks by the Thunder. Two star-studded performances by Shai Gilgeous Alexander… who’s line in Game 2 read… 28 pts, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, +14.

Sam Presti here’s a clue for you, dude—you have your star. A star who was the 11th player taken in the 2018 NBA Draft…I might add. It would be an act of basketball cowardice if you sit this kid down again like you did last season just to fulfill your tanking destiny.

Presti… please use some of your assets and make a nice under the radar screen type of trade. Bolster your physicality in the lane. Improve your rim protection. Maybe add another gunner from three point range. But most of all don’t shut this kid down for a second straight season and don’t trade Kenrich Williams or Mike Muscala.

Sometimes things can be really simple. This isn’t that complex. You have your star. You have a nice second star with Aussie Josh. A nice defensive piece with Lu Dort. A kind of baffy Lamar Odom type with Darius Bazely who’ll probably marry a Kardashian at some point in his life. And a young Serb who appears to be two years away from being an impactful, consistent NBA player. My advice to you is don’t make your fanbase wait those two years just to placate the fact you made this pick.

Sam Presti.. turn Shai Gilgeous-Alexander loose. Don’t overthink yourself. Have a cup of coffee with Nick Collison and see what he says.

As far as Russell Westbrook. God bless you, Bad Little Dude. You’re never a dull date. I think I love you, Wild Thing.

It’s that time of the week when I force myself to write one recap of an Oklahoma City Thunder game. This seemed like the game to pick given the ending we had in Oklahoma City with Darius Bazely and Russell Westbrook last week.

We all need a little comedy and some laughs to get us through this second straight season of NBA tanking in Oklahoma City.

There’s a lot of great things going on sportwise which I love to blog about…but right now Sam Prest’s prism of sustainability isn’t one of them. I feel for the beat writer of the Oklahoman who actually has to cover and write something about this team for 82 games.

I think even the shallow New Daily Thunder with that group of people has given up on the Thunder this season. Can you imagine they have the nerve to actually claim they have a Patreon Page of sorts where they’re asking people to pay to read their content. That’s almost criminal fraud. Yikes.

Anyway my strategy for Thunder games moving forward this season is to take a deep breath before every game, keep my sense of humor, and play one of my favorite Seinfeld clips to help me keep all of this in perspective.

I can’t imagine how Vegas can even settle on a spread for this game tonight.

Oh…I looked up the spread…LeBron is a scratch tonight and the Lakers are at -10.5. as a dysfunctional home team favorite I wouldn’t bet on either one of these dumpster fires. Boston at Miami in the early game is the game of the night if you’re into watching NBA teams with a chance of doing something this season.

Miami is playing some beautiful team basketball right now. I feel very good about my three adopt a teams picks with Miami in the East, Golden State in the West, and Memphis as a league sleeper. If Memphis would add a veteran like PJ Tucker or Kyle Lowery or Jrue Holiday they’d become pretty interesting in a hurry.

After watching Jordan Poole of the Warriors light it up last night with 31 points… I might have to expand my Tyler Herro Magazine to include Jordan Poole…who right now to me looks like one of the most improved players in the league.

The Warriors are vastly improved from last season and it was encourgaing to watch Klay shoot before the game. They can bring him back very slowly because Jordan Poole and Damian Lee have turned themselves into a couple of nice NBA players. Take it slow, Klay.

But back to the Thunder vs. Lakers…what kind of a sick gambling addict would even bet on that game? Are you kidding. It’s sad to witness.

It’s time to get going with the OU Sooner Basketball Beat. Porter Moser’s rebuilt Sooners destroyed DII Rogers State in an exhibition by something like 105-55 or close to that. It was an excellent start for Coach Moser’s new group.

The concern was these guys would look awkward playing together. That wasn’t the case. The ball moved. I mean…the ball moved. Touch, touch, touch….swish. 25 assists on the night and impeccable three point shooting from OU’s perimeter players.

You can already see where Coach Moser is going with this group…especially with the guard trio of Jordan Goldwire from Duke and the two guard holderovers from Coach Kruger… those being EJ Harkless and Moj Gibson.

I wrote this earlier on my post in relation to Coach Moser’s Big 12 presser and I’ll write it again now…I think OU’s guard trio of Goldwire, EJ, and Moj Gibson could be one of the best two-way backcourts in the Big 12 this season. That written if you have one of the better backcourts in the ruggd Big 12 that means you have one of the better guard trios in the country.

Jordan Goldwire was the ACC Player of Year last season at Duke who’s offensive game is okay but nothing special right now. Imagine Russell Westbrook back at UCLA when he played defense first and wasn’t a stat sheet ball hogger like he became with the Thunder. That’s Jordan Goldwire….defense first whatever comes offensively comes off transition or an offensive rebound.

EJ Harkless in my mind will be one of the best two way unsung guards in the country this season. He can do it all. His toughness will be a major component of this basketball team’s potential.

Then there’s three point bomber Moj Gibson. It’s obvious from Day 1 on campus that Coach Moser has been building upon Moj’s game on both sides of the ball….especially on defense where he’s going to be a much more energized player who helps get the Sooners out in transition. But I also saw Moj create some off the dribble in the exhibition game…which wasn’t a huge part of his game last season. I’m excited for Moj.

Ethan Chargois the 6’9″ transfer forward from SMU looked the part as well with an outside shot and the ability to create off the dribble. He’ll be a nice balance to center Tanner Groves the senior transfer from Eastern Washington who scored 35 points against the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA Tournament.

Forward Jalen Hill also returns from Coach Kruger’s final OU team. Jalen is what I would describe as a very high basketball IQ player who’s one of those types a coach just loves having on his team. Jalen is versatile and will be a player Coach Moser leans on for the intangibles which will make the Sooners a heady basketball team. Dumb teams don’t go far in post season.

Tanner Groves is a senior center who can score inside or outside depending on the flow of the game. Tanner only scored two points in the exhibition because OU made everything it shot from the perimeter. There wasn’t much need to work the ball deep posession to posession.

Jacob Groves is a junior small forward and was in my mind the player of the game on Tuesday night. He’s a player…especially from an perimeter standpoint. He went 6 for 6 shooting threes.

Rik Issanza the sophomore center from Sudan played a little and while he’s still in need of polish…you can see some potential starting to come around in his game.

Coach Moser’s three freshmen guards, CJ Nolan, Alston Mason, and Bijan Cortes all played extensive minutes in the exhibition game. All three looked good

So looking towards next year already..Coach Moser will have six guys returning to go along with three signees and who knows coming in from the transfer portal. I would think Coach Moser is a fairly effective communicator on the portal.

It’s amazing how much Coach Mozer has already gotten done since his arrival in Norman. Coach Moser very much seems to be a high energy guy who knows how to build relationships with his players.

The regular season begins on Tuesday night with Northwestern State from Louisiana visiting Lloyd Noble Arena.

I can’t wait because the Thunder are losing on purpose and in my mind I’ve got the best beat in Oklahoma hoops this season. I feel like a little kid again hoopswise. Like I’ve been given a reprieve from watching the Thunder’s death march.

This was the manner in which the story was originally reported when it broke.

More than 20 college basketball schools were originally implicated in federal documents taken from a sports agency college basketball corruption case, which revealed potential widespread NCAA violations.

Former associate Lamont Evans of Oklahoma State, Chuck Person of Auburn, Emanuel Richards of Arizona, and former USC assistant Tony Bland were each charged in the corruption and fraud scheme.

The sheme involved assistants steering players to certain agents and financial advisors in an alleged pyramid scheme of sorts.

The original list of of 20 schools went…. Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama, NC State, Seton Hall, LSU, Maryland, Washington, South Carolina, Louisville, Utah, Xavier, Wichita State, Kansas, Creighton, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Virginia, and Iowa State.

I honestly don’t know where it now stands with these other schools in relation to the NCAA investigation.

I would assume USA Today and The Athletic will be writing a follow up as to what occurred with Oklahoma State this week in relation to the NCAA penalties which were just levied.

I do know though that’s a very impressive list of basketball schools which make O State’s program post Eddie Sutton seem almost anecdotal in comparison. Oklahoma State in the period from which Eddie Sutton retired only made the NCAA Tournament three times.

Once to the second round with Travis Ford. Once to the first round with Brad Underwood who was the coach who had Lamont Evans on staff at O State. And once to the second round this past season with Mike Boynton.

Brad Underwood is now the head coach at Illinois which interestingly enough wasn’t on the list of 20 schools. Illinois was a No. 1 regional seed in last year’s Big Dance and along with Gonzaga was at the top of the overall bracket entering March Madness.

Off the top of my head Mike Boynton’s record at O State is 72-58. O State with Cade Cunningham did for the first time in its history make the finals of the Big 12 Tournament this past spring losing to Texas. O State lost in the second round to Cinderella Oregon State. I believe O State was a No. 5 regional seed.

As someone who’s an avid OU hoops fans…I’ve never been anything but impressed with the manner in which Coach Boynton coached his team and handled the young men in his program.

He did with Cade Cunnigham exactly what Billy Tubbs did with Waymon Tisdale back in the day. That being… Billy Tubbs kick started his program with one elite national-regional recruit. Cade is from Dallas, Waymon was from Tulsa.

I also remember the violations which got Kelvin Sampson in trouble back in the day wouldn’t even be an NCAA violation today. If I were a real scribe like Tramel… I’d be on the phone with Kelvin today and write a story on the O State situation from Kelvin’s prism.

So what the NCAA is going to tell me is that three hundred dollars of cash loaned to a student athlete from this program gave Oklahoma State an unfair competitive advantage. During Mike Boynton’ s tenure… the O State Cowboys have been a middle tier basketball school in the Big 12 and only played in two NCAA Tournament games in Mike Boynton’s four years.

As I wrote on the previous post…O State this season is projected to be a nice team, but was not ranked in the preseason Top 25.

If Oklahoma State was perceived to be cheating…then my take is they weren’t very effective cheaters in comparison to Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina….just to name four. This is where Abe Lemons would come in handy with a cryptic quote.

I would think some interesting followup stories will be coming from USA Today and The Athletic in the next week or so in regards to the Oklahoma State basketball story.

• Note to Barry Tramel, take my advice and write a story from Kelvin’s perspective on the NCAA since Kelvin at Houston is going to be back in the Big 12 in two years. His takes would be interesting and relevant since he was basically banned from college coaching for a period of time for texting.
• Note: Kansas, Auburn, Louisville, and Miami have allegations/investigations pending and currently have not had their fate revealed by the NCAA.