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I need to be winding this OU football thing down on Wednesday as Sooner Nation prepares for nationally ranked Missouri on Saturday in Norman at 11:30am on ABC.

This is a good interview from OU QB John Mateer. He knows he and the OU offense have to start being better if the Sooners are to continue to advance to the College Football Playoffs.

With OU’s defense and excellent kicking game they’ve already proven they can beat pretty much anybody in the country on any given Saturday on the road if they create turnovers and don’t kill themselves with turnovers. That’s already been proven as OU is 4-0 on the road this season and 3-0 on the road in SEC games.

The Texas loss ( neutral field) is an outlier in that Mateer should not have played. If you were paying close attention you would have noticed that when running the ball in that game he put the ball in his left hand and not his right hand. That is the only game this season he did such. Watch this week-end and the ball will be back in his right hand when running. John Mateer threw four of his seven inteceptions in that game alone.

Putting that aside…John Mateer and the offense need to be more productive offensively if they wish to continue advancing in what in my mind are already playoff games for any of the two loss teams. Texas Tech in my mind as a one loss team in the passive-submissive Big 12 probably cannot afford another loss.

On the season…John Mateer has 8 TD passes and 7 interceptions….that ratio needs to improve moving forward.

Do I think OU can beat Notre Dame at home? Yes I do.

Do I think OU could beat Ohio State on a neutral field with the OU offense under 375 total yard in a game? I don’t think so. But I do think OU would create quite a bit of havoc for the Buckeye freshman quarterback who has seen nothing remotely close to the OU pass rush pressure.

I would think for OU to win that game they would need 31 points or so to take down the Buckeyes who have to date played a very soft schedule given the obvious fact Texas isn’t that good.

I love Mateer. He’s a tough-minded young man and from Day 1 has never shirked his leadership role. He knows and understands what comes with the territory when you’re the starting QB at OU.

John Mateer knows he needs to be better. Period.

I think tonight I’ll cover two NBA games I want write about tomorrow. OKC hosting the 3-11 ‘Russell Westbrook led’ Sacramento Kings and the Houston Rockets on the road versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I’m outta here and off to the first workout since last week’s 14th chemo this calendar year. Three miles in thirty minutes is the standard. Get it done. Ride like a champion. Followed by eights sets of twelve in five various weight room exercises. No excuses.

Yo, Adrian.

MJ

I did not waste my valuable time watching this ‘game’. I have a policy on the award winning okcthundergound.com that I do not cover sporting events which have no inherent value to the sports landscape or society as a whole. The fact human beings particpated in this event and other human beings paid to witness it is a depressing microcosm on how far the American culture and ethos has fallen.

If my writing is beginning to somewhat mirror that of the late great historian-writer Authur Schlesinger, Jr. that is because two weeks ago I finished his nine-hundred page memoirs and then last night finished his classic ‘Cycles in American History’.

I realize this blog originates in Oklahoma, thus I will go no further trying to explain Dr. Schlesinger’s theories on the cylces of American history. But I will write this though, if you are one of he few fertile minds which stroll on here from time to time…you might read Cycles in American History because Dr. S pretty much as far back as the 1990’s predicted some grifter-rogue like Trump would emerge as an American president.

As far as hoops–MJ will write this…my heart goes out to former OU guard Jeremiah Fears for being drafted by this piece of shit franchise which needs to be bought and moved to either Las Vegas or Seattle. The Pels fired their coach Willie Green last week and will challenge Indiana and perhaps Russell Westbrook’s newest adventure in Sacramento for being the worst team in the NBA this season.

Indiana…wow. One game away from winning the NBA championship in June. One game away from a parade and then Haliburton goes down, they lose the game, and then they lose center Myles Turner in free agency. It can turn in the blink of an eye.

The Breaks of the Game, baby. David Halberstam wrote that book about the Portland Trailblazers after their championship season when Bill Walton’s body went south. If you aspire to be a real NBA fan you should read this book.

That’s it for MJ this early Tuesday morning. I need to get some things done today outside on the mini-ranch before the much needed rains arrive in Deer Creek, Oklahoma.

Obviously, the Ricky Vaughn pic above is in honor of Taylor Wein Week here on the blog. Just thinking out loud to myself on here…in the event OU does advance to the CFP and hosts Lincoln Riley’s USC Trojans in a first round game in Norman. What I would do as coach at the coin toss to inspire my team? I’d send my four captains to mid-field, those being Taylor, Owen Heneke, John Mateer, and R Mason Thomas. Probably Kip as well.

I would send Taylor out there carrying a chain saw. He would be the lead captain. Regardless of how the flip goes…I’d then have him crank up the chainsaw and then start walking towards Lincoln Riley before R Mason pulls him back.

Maybe a little over the top. But maybe not. Setting the emotional urgency tone is what the captain needs to do as will be the case this Saturday versus Missouri.

Grace, mercy, and love.

MJ

This could be a special week for OU football. This is what OU football is supposed to be about. No excuses. By beating both ranked Tennessee and Alabama on the road–back to back, the players have earned this opportunity. Two more games, both critical. Both playoff games in essence at home. Elimination games to the core.

After the home loss to Ole Miss the Sooners put themselves in this situation. No excuses. But at some point as Coach V said after the loss to Ole Miss, “You have to learn to stop beating yourself with stupid, self-inflicted mistakes. You have to learn how to play the right way to win in the SEC.”

Missouri is a good football team with perhaps the best running back in the country. This will not be a gimme. OU literally gave away last season’s game in Columbia with a Jackson Arnold meltdown in the last two minutes.

I love Taylor wearing the Ricky Vaughn designer eye-wear look. This young man has become the inspiration for the OU fanbase. Not John Mateer. Not R Mason Thomas. Not either of the two big moneyed NIL players.

This comes down to how badly do you want it. How badly do you detest losing and beating yourself with self-inflicted losses.

I’m hoping the Rickey Vaughn eye-wear look helps OU get over the top and make it to the CFP. How cool would it be to host either OU or SoCal in a first round playoff game in Norman.

OU controls their own destiny in these two games.

No excuses. No self-inflicted mistakes.

Just find a way….and kick the door down.

MJ

I’m happy for Coach Venables. There have been many naysayers in Oklahoma despite the fact Coach V inherited a football program which in reality hadn’t played defense for over a decade before his arrival.

In fact, I even went on the Jim Traber call-in show the Monday after the Ole Miss loss and defended Coach V. This hasn’t been an easy turnaround at OU since Lincoln Riley’s departure. But here’s the truth of the matter…this OU defense would never have come about if Lincoln Riley had stayed.

If you ever took the time to know Coach Venables life story you would be impressed. He and his four four siblings never had it easy. They basically stuck by their Mom in tough times and just found a way to grow up the right way.

When I think of Brent Venables …I think of his individual toughness as a man… a Christian man, in fact. His wife was diagnosed with cancer once they got here and there’s been that on the table as well as dealing with the dumber portion of the OU fanbase.

But he’s held in there, man. Never blinked. Never waivered. Never surrendered. As as you might know if you’ve read this blog before… as a Stage 4 cancer survivor— I have the ultimate respect for humans who stick to their faith, hold firm to their core beliefs, and find a way.

The season isn’t over. Every week since the Ole Miss game has in fact been an elimination game for these Sooners. There is no margin for error. Next up…Missouri in Norman at 11:00am on the first ABC SEC game of the day.

OU basically won this game in Tuscaloosa by out-toughing the Crimson Tide. By creating what should have been four turnovers if Kensize had just fallen on the damn ball near the sideline. By dominating all facets of the kicking game. By being the more physical team and punching Alabama in the mouth on their field. And by hanging tough together as a group on a day when their best player, R Mason Brown, couldn’t go.

If OU wants to continue winning these elimination games… John Mateer and the offense will need to be better. They clearly know that fact.

I’m happy. I’m at peace, and of course…I cried last night at the end.

But most of all…I’m proud of these guys for not surrendering.

Game balls to Kip Lewis, Taylor Wein, and Tate Sandell.

MJ

*Evidently this song was blaring from the OU locker room after the game. As well it should after OU’s first two seasons in the big, bad SEC as the Sooners swept Auburn and Alabama for the 2nd straight season. All-time…OU is now 4-0 vs. Auburn and 5-1 vs. Alabama this century. The one loss came when Lincoln Riley’s defense gave up 45 points to the Tide in a national semi-final loss 45-35. Just sayin’.

I should give Eli Bowen a game ball as well for the pick six. Eli….game ball, dude.

My goodness. I mean…my goodness. Seriously.

Just when we were almost ready to retire the greatest shooter who has ever played the game after his lackluster game against the Thunder the other night…Steph goes for 46 and 49 points back to back versus Wemby and the Spurs to take the lead in their Group C Pool standings last night in San Antonio.

Hopefully for the sake of some interest in the Emirates NBA Cup tournament this season…we’ll see Steph advance with his Warriors to the championship game.

I think one thing which is hurting Steph versus the Thunder is the game officials are so preoccupied giving Shai every soft foul call imaginable they aren’t reciprocating with Steph. I think what this does in reality is take away from Steph being given the same type of coddled Free Throw Merchant officiating that Shai receives on a nightly basis in the Association.

No way from what I’ve been witnessing does Steph get that last set of free throws in a game against the Thunder…especially in Oklahoma City. No way, no how.

Shai knows this. Sam Presti knows it at well. If someone merly breathes on Shai there’s two free throws coming at the line in front of the Trump rabble which occupy the Pay.Com Arena. Look at those people sometimes close up when the camera is scanning the stands. Scary…right? The zebras in Oke City are terrified of the fake Christian insurrectionists.

So we’ll have to see how the next game between the Warriors and Thunder is called in San Francisco.

But anyway…Steph isn’t dead yet. Far from it.

Is there a greater joy in in an NBA game than when Steph goes off? MJ doesn’t think so.

The Thunder’s game versus the Hornets holds little interest for me this evening. I’ll either be delirious from OU upsetting Alabama on the road as a 6.5 road underdog or I’ll be an emotional trainwreck.

Eternity for forever.

MJ

It’s been a busy week for me what with the foilage trip to NW Arkansas and an excursion to SE Oklahoma to eat at the iconic Roseanna’s Italian Cafe in Krebs, Oklahoma– plus my once a month cancer blood lab and treatment week…but I’ve been watching the games at both the NBA and college level during the interim.

It’s way too early to make any real judgements at the college level, but at the NBA level it’s pretty much following the script I thought it would in the Western Conference. 1 OKC, 2 Denver, and 3 Houston–if they can locate a point guard replacement for Fred van Fleet. Then depending on the breaks of the season injury-wise and such… 4a San Antonio or 4b Minnesota with a healthy Anthony Edwards.

In no way do I think Golden State has the current roster to win the West, but as they showed last night on the second night of a back to back in San Antonio they still have No. 30 on their roster. Despite being absolutely shut down down the night before in OKC by a defense which was missing JDub, Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, and the defensively versatile Kenrich Williams–Steph is still capable of going off against anybody in the league on those nights his worn out body allows him to do so.

Steph dropped 46 pts last night as the Warriors upset the young San Antonio Spurs by a count of 125-120 to improve to 7-6 on the season. But unless Johnny Kuminga starts showing me something on a more consistent basis I can’t put much more faith in the Warriors than a finish somewhere between 6th or 7th in the West. There will be nights when Steph looks like he did in OKC on Tuesday night versus the Thunder, but that’s not enough in the stacked West.

Nikola, from my view, came into camp heavy, slow, and out of shape. That has been taken care of and he now appears to be in form to play the kind of ball we expect from him in the NBA blogging world.

Denver’s other guys will need to incrementally get it together as the season moves along and figure out a way to be a better overall defensive team if they aspire to dethrone the Thunder.

Back to the Warriors for a second though…Johnny Kuminga…it’s time, like Peyton Watson with the Denver Nuggets, who wasn’t given an extension—it’s time for you to figure out the NBA game and move beyond neighborhood gym pickup level of play. Let’s go, buddy. Pick it up.

Back to the OKC-Denver thoughts…point blank from me is the Thunder without JDub playing a single game to date is the defending champ and by far the best defensive team in the league. The ascension of both Ajay Mitchell and Aaron Wiggins’ games has me wondering how in the world Coach Mark is going to make all these guys happy with minutes if the Thunder ever get fully healthy.

A helmet sticker to Isaiah Hartenstein for his excellent play this past week and his off the court award he won from the NBA for being a tremendous overall human being to the Oklahoma City community beyond the basketball court. MJ fell in love with Isaiah when that ten year-old Archie ran over to him in the championship parade. Hope Sam Presti figures out a way to keep Isaiah beyond this season with the 2nd apron looming.

Below…Isaiah presser after his career double, double game versus the Sacramento Kings.

As far as the Lakers without LeBron…as we witnessed last night, and even though I love Austin Reaves like a favorite uncle–the Lakers without LeBron aren’t all that much.

In closing..if you picked the Detroit Pistons to be in or near first in the East then you must be a ‘serious’ okcthunderground.com reader. I’m not picking the Pistons to win the East just yet because of their youth, but with Cade Cunningham showing the basketball world what he’s capaable of becoming–you doubters can understand why I had a Cade Cunningham Journal his lone college season at O State even though I bleed crimsom.

Which brings me to OU at Alabama on Saturday at 2:30pm on ABC…you guys better leave that slow start and penalties back in Knoxville if you want to improve to 8-2 with a serious chance to participate in the College Football Playoff.

Boomer!

Eternal peace.

MJ

It appears we have a strong freeze and northern winds heading our way by Sunday afternoon at the Deer Creek mini-ranch. No. 12 OU is off this week-end with a week of rest from taking on Division I’s toughest football schedule.

I’m a little worn as an avid Sooner football fan from having to deal with Michigan, a sneaky good Temple team which beat that Tulsa team which physically beat down O State on the road and has since not won a game themselves. Then there was Auburn which fired Hugh Freeze last Sunday. Then came the John Mateer injury. Then the game Michael Hawkins started against Kent State and did okay in a 42-0 win. Then of course, the game versus No. 10 Texas where John Mateer played hurt and probably shouldn’t have in retrospect. Then the shutdown road win at South Carolina against the No. 1 QB prospect in next spring’s NFL draft. Then the heart wrenching close loss to No. 6 Mississippi at home.

Then of course last Saturday’s big-time step up on the road win against then No. 14 Tennessee.

I know I need a break just like the players and coaches. Taking on a schedule of this magnitude is tough and the programs like Tulsa, UCO, and O State have no idea how tough it is to get up every week to take on a national power of sort.

After the break…on the road at Alabama, home versus Missouri, and home versus LSU. I’m not sure my Packers are playing a schedule this tough.

So is’s off to NW Arkansas with the wife to take in the amazing beauty of NW Arkansas as we hope to hit peak color before Sunday’s first winter front arrives.

And if by chance we get back in time Saturday night to see Porter’s 2-0 Sooners take on No. 21 Gonzaga on the road at 9:30 pm on ESPN 2 then I guess MJ will have to watch the basketball game.

Otherwise no sports for MJ on Friday or Saturday as we behold the autumnal beauty of the Ozarks at peak color ‘we hope’.

The beauty is beyond the pale.

Have a great week-end.

BOOMER!

MJ

Without Chancey Billups and with Jrue Holiday the Portland Trailblazers look like a different group. This in no way was a horrific loss considering who sat out for the Thunder on Wednesday night. Nope. In fact, if Jrue stays healthy and can be the glue to this young team…the Blazers might be a team we put on ‘a team to watch this season’ list.

But what OKC is doing in relation to Shai’s heavy, heavy minutes these first tens games makes little sense to me.

If you’re going to play by the load management Bible then I would suggest Shai be the benefactor of much of this load managing.

Like the other MJ, Michael Jordan, this MJ has little tolerance for excessive tank,ing and excessive sitting by certain NBA players. It takes away from the authenticity of the regular season games. Tanking and too much load management are two of the primary reasons the NBA iniated the Emirates NBA Cup. That being, to make organizations put more authenticity into the regular season games.

I love these Thunder players most of whom became members of the organization due to the draconian tanking of Sam Presti. Yeah…figure it out–the Thunder have depth like no other team in the Association and much of that depth is because of so many players still on rookie scale deals or low enough salaries to keep the Thunder out of the 2nd apron of the payroll tax.

So…let’s look at who didn’t play for the Thunder last night…per my Top 6 Thunder list I posted yesterday…2 JDub, 3, the seemingly always brittle and bruised Chet H, 4 Caruso, 5 Lu Dort, and 12 Kenrich Williams.

That would be five of the Thunder’s Top 12 sitting last night against a pretty good team while the cornerstone of the franchise logged a heavy 38 minutes while keeping his team competitively afloat with 35 points.

This is bullshit. This is precisely what Michael Jordan is currently talking about in a public manner. That being, the overall softness of the current players in the NBA. Caruso and Lu Dort should be ashamed of themselves. I expect this type of bullshit from Chet, but not those two.

If I were the FBI and the NBA …I’d be as concerned about the overuse of load managementand tanking as much of that of point shaving in low profile games.

But in closing let me write this down before logging off…Shai, Aaron, Ajay, I-Hart, and perhaps JWill played their asses off last night. If you Thunder fans are still going to keep booing Kevin Durant who seldom missed games with Thunder except for the Jones fracture season…you might want to hope this load management is applied in a more nuanced manner so as not to burn out Shai before the real season begins in April.

Jrue Holiday is a nice fit for these Blazers. He went 6-10 from behind the arc last night. Jrue’s the type of hybrid guard who in my view could not only replace Fred van Fleet for the Houston Rockets, but give the Rockets the type of two-way guard play they will need if they’re to overtake the Thunder in the West. We’ll have to see how many games Jrue plays this season by the week before the trade deadline.

The West is starting to take shape a bit. OKC, San Antonio, Denver, Lakers, Rockets, Warriors, Blazers and maybe the struggling TWolves who now have Anthony Edwards back on the court.

I think this year’s trade deadline will be fascinating to see which team in the West adds the neccessary player to challenge the Thunder.

But if I’m Sam Presti and Coach Mark…those heavy, heavy Shai minutes might be something to start tracking if the other players are so soft they can’t pull their links on the proverbial chain.

Peace, grace, and dignity.

MJ

First off…congrats to the Thunder for starting the season as defending champs at 8-0 with a workmanlike road victory over a Clipper squad which in reality is nothing more than a play-in type of team without Kawhi Leonard.

Like the real MJ, Michael Jordan….this MJ, Mike Jackson, is already weary this NBA season of watching more load management than stars stepping up and leading their resepctive teams. Not at all the case with Shai though as he’s been everything you’d want from your MVP and franchise player.

1/8th of the way through this young NBA regular season and Shai is already my in the clubhouse leader to defend his MVP as well as the NBA championship. He’s got that look in his eye MJ loves. That hungry look.

My notion is Shai has taken all Sam Presti’s pre-season words to heart and is completely in a zone to make this Thunder group the first NBA team to repeat since the Warriors did the trick in 2016-17. Repeats are all around us currently in the four major sports if you’re paying close attention.

The Florida Panthers of the NHL repeated this past June and will be looking to three-peat this hockey season. The LA Dodgers just repeated in front of us with a seven game thriller in one of the best World Series of all-time. If I had to pick the Super Bowl champion right now on November 5th…MJ would pick Jalen Hurts and the Eagles to repeat as well.

Which leads into my take on the Thunder a mere eight games in..the Thunder in my book are somewhere between a solid favorite to a prohibitive favorite to repeat depending on the health of their Big 6.

My Thunder Big 6 goes in this order currently…1 Shai, 2 JDub, 3 Chet, 4 Caruso, 5 Dort, and 6 I-Hart. If these six guys stay healthy and it will be tough for anybody to derail the Thunder…even the Denver Nuggets as they continue to search for team chemistry with this new team they’ve put together.

Something else to consider though…the emergence of Aaron Wiggins and Ajay Mitchell trning this into a Big 8. Last night… Ajay +31, Aaron + 26. That’s where the Nuggets and evevry other team in the league have a problem, that being, two guys at N. 7 and No. 8 like Ajay and Aaron.

I had a great time at the OU doubleheader on Monday evening. Both the men and women should have very competitive teams. The women especially… if they reach their potential should be at the least an Elite 8 type of team if the young newcomers figure things out by January.

My OU seat this year is right next to the OU student section and the band. I love it. It’s like being young again as I was in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

Both schedules get challenging in a hurry as the OU men travel to play at Gonzaga this week-end, while the Sooner women host UCLA on Monday night. MJ will be in his seat on Monday night for certain. We’ll find out quite a bit about point guard Lia Chavez on Monday night I would suspect. She looks like a big-time baller to MJ though. She just needs to gradually acclimate herself into the role of starting point guard. Notice how little of Coach B’s presser dwelled on her freshman guard. Jennie knows this is a process in which the seniors are comfortable with.

Love, kindness, and peace as always.

MJ

What a massive week-end of sports!

Toronto gives away the World Series with some of the worst base running I’ve ever witnessed. Literally…the Blue Jays had basic base running gaffes dealing with their third base coach in games 3, 6, and 7. The Jays would have been better served with a dead corpse coaching third base in this historically good World Series.

But give Dave Roberts and the Dodgers credit for gutting it up in the final two games in Toronto and pulling off their repeat. Yamamoto did end up winning the official MVP, while my pick Will Smith was second. Both were deserving.

Toronto fans must feel sick this Monday. They had the Series in their grasp, but pissed it away with sloppy base running and some unfortunate luck, the ball sticking in the bottom of the wall play… and Kiki Hernandez’s incredibly smart ‘on the ball play’ to pull off the double play to end Game 6. Toronto needs to get a new third base coach and evidently spend more time on basic baserunning fundamentals beyond just trotting around the bases on homers and gestures with their hands.

My Packers sucked offensively yesterday at home and lost to the suddenly very respectable Carolina Panthers. My Broncos won their fifth straight by winning at Houston over CJ Stroud and the Texans. Leading MVP candidate Baker Mayfield was idle…hopefully next week he’ll have both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin back in his receiving arsenal.

Everyone loves Baker accept Jim Traber and surly O State fans who’ve never come to terms with their overall record in Bedlam. Other than Patrick Mahomes…is there another NFL player doing more ads than Baker?

Right now I have Baker with a slight MVP lead over Josh Allen.

My Sooners?

Great win at Knoxville.. A great win to put the Sooners in a position to travel to Alabama in two weeks and see what they can do defensively against Tide QB… Ty Simpson, who is my leading Heisman candidate. MJ never wants players to get injured, but if Ty Simpson were to get concussed this coming Saturday in their game versus the universally hated LSU Tigers…grief would not overcome MJ.

Owen Heineke…as I wrote yesterday was impactful in the first half Saturday in Knoxville. His play, plus that of Taylor Wein and Kip Lewis were almost as impactful. SEC Play of the Week had to be Owen’s massive hit on the the Vol QB who fumbled the ball right into the massive hands of R Mason Thomas.

That play was a FOURTEEN POINT SWING…ON THE ROAD when the Sooners were about to be knocked out with a second round TKO.

Massive play for my Sooners. Just massive. With massive being being the key adjective of the Sooners’ inspirational comeback win.

Off week for the Sooners this week-end… and much needed for Kobie, R Mason, and offensive tackle Derek Simmons, who in my mind is the Sooners’ best offensive tackle.

MJ had a rousing workout this morning and is now headed to Norman to watch both Jenni B and Porter’s basketball teams kick off their basketball campaigns. I think both teams will be good. Porter did some significant work with the roster this off season.

The Thunder improved to 7-0 with an easy win over the horrifically bad New Orleans Pleicans on Sunday night. MJ doesn’t cover games on his uniquely high quality content blog. I only cover games were both teams put reasonable teams on the floor or field of play.

Off to Norman for a great evening college basketball.

MJ