After Dark Memorial Day

I’m not a huge country music fan, but I do enjoy some on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.

I saw this yard sign yesterday in an affluent area of Edmond with about twenty American flags dotting the lawn with a large yard sign which read:

‘We Proudly Support Our Brave and Courageous Commander in Chief Donald Trump-God Bless President Trump’.

I took a picture with my cell and sent it to a friend.

My friend replied, “You must be in front of either Terry Neese or Jim Traber’s home.”

Anyway…don’t want to be political on a day in which we should be honoring those who gave up everything for our freedoms which we should never take for granted.

To be an American in Oklahoma.

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

Sigh.

Eddie Sutton Passes

I’m crying right now. I loved Eddie Sutton. He and my father could have been brothers. My father’s life and some of his challenges mirrored those of Eddie Sutton. There is a place in my heart for Eddie Sutton which is very special.

It wasn’t just the fact he was the best basketball coach I’ve ever observed. It had more to do with how after Eddie Sutton’s fall from grace at Kentucky he didn’t give up. Instead, he became a better man and a better coach. A better human.

The same journey my father had to travel in mid-life.

There was a human element in Eddie Sutton which transcended Bedlam for me. I’m an OU guy, but quite frankly I came to respect and love Eddie Sutton more than any coach who’s ever coached football or basketball at OU.

Abe Lemons once told me, ” Eddie Sutton is the toughest son of a bitch I’ve ever coached against and I hated him at times when I was at Texas. But if I had a son and wanted him to learn about basketball and life…I’d send him to that son of a bitch Eddie Sutton. Sutton would make him a better man.”

So the first year the Thunder are here…by sheer luck my son and I had seats on the floor the night the Detroit Pistons came to town. Lo an behold… Eddie and Patsy Sutton with some of their grandchildren were next to our seats. I pushed my son aside and said, “I’m sitting next to Coach Sutton.”

So we start talking hoops and were at times interrupted by several of his former players from O State who came by to greet Coach. So as we were winding down our conversation as tip got near I said, ” Coach Sutton…Abe Lemons and I had a talk about you and he said you were the biggest son of a bitch he ever came across as a coach.”

Patsy Sutton then kind of gives me this WTF look. So I then quickly finished the story about Abe Lemons sending his son if he had one to Coach Sutton. Eddie started laughing and put his around me. It’s something I’ll always treasure.

The biggest mistake Sam Presti made wasn’t the Harden trade. No…the biggest mistake Presti made was not hiring Eddie Sutton to be Russell Westbrook’s life and basketball mentor for at least five years.

The notion of Russell Westbrook with Eddie Sutton is one which would have changed the way all of this went down in Oklahoma City. Eddie would have put an end to all that babysitting bullshit nonsense with both Russell and Kevin.

I’m not talking head coach at that point for Coach Sutton, but more along the lines of what Mo Cheeks tried to do with Russell. Don’t take that as a diss of Maurice Cheeks because I love him almost as much as I love Eddie Sutton. But there was an edge, yet a genuine human warmth with Eddie Sutton which I think would have resonated with Russell Westbrook as a young man.

In fact…I’m almost certain Russell Westbrook would have come to regard Coach Sutton as a second father of sorts. Not a doubt in my mind Russell would have fallen in love with Eddie Sutton the man. Just like I did.

I hope people in Oklahoma today realize what a great coach and person Eddie Sutton was beyond just the wins. He was a bona fide legend as a coach, a father, and a man.

Thank you, Coach Sutton. You made a difference for me and I wasn’t even one of your players.

I want to add another thing or two on here. People don’t realize what a great job Eddie Sutton did at both Arkansas and O State. O State was a hoops graveyard before Coach Sutton came back to Stillwater. Arkansas wasn’t much either before Eddie and Nolan as well.

Not trying to be snarky here on Coach Sutton’s obit, but since his departure from Stillwater the program has won ‘one’ NCAA Tournament basketball game. ONE…as in one. While the football school down the road got to an Elite 8 with Jeff Capel and a Final Four with Lon Kruger while producing three different NPOTY winners in Blake, Buddy, and Trey. Mike Holder as an AD has had virtually nothing to do with basketball success at O State. As in nothing.

Mike Holder will be front and center in my Netflix story The Mullet King. You can bet your ass on that one.

What Eddie Sutton did at O State to me rivals what the U.S. hockey team did in 1980. Well…almost.

Ask Bill Self if you doubt me. Ask Bill Self why he stayed at Kansas.

Below is Coach being honored with his great ’78 Arkansas Final Four team with the triplets of Moncrief, Delph, and Brewer. If you don’t know who those three were then you should be reading the Daily Thunder while contemplating what color underwear Darius Bazely is wearing today.

Why Oklahoma Will Always Rank Near The Bottom In My Lifetime

I saw this ad and cringed. This is why Oklahoma will continue to languish near the bottom in education, in innovation, and pretty much in all categories in which you don’t want to be a bottom dweller.

I don’t think Terry Neese will be the eventual GOP nominee in Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional race, but the fact of the matter is this is how a large slice of Oklahoma views the world in which we live.

Charles Barkley was right way back when. Oklahoma in reality never should have been awarded an NBA team. An NHL team…perhaps. And I write this despite the fact the Thunder has been a very solid success. I’m not dissing Clay Bennett. I admire the fact he and Aubrey gave this a roll.

I admire their vision and passion. I really do.

But the fact of the matter is you can’t put lipstick on a pig and make her something she’s not.

I’m not openly describing Terry Neese as a big fat ugly typical Oklahoma redneck. But I’m just making my own private observation on my little blog from Deer Creek, Oklahoma.

Three words.

GROW UP, OKLAHOMA.

After Dark

Storms about to roll into the Deer Creek Weather Station. I’m in an introspective mood. My second girlfriend in high school looked quite a bit like Carly Simon. I wonder if Carly Simon got her full place in history in the world of pop music?

What a brilliant artist. Hope Tiger brings his A game to the golf match tomorrow.

Don’t set yourself on fire during your cookouts. That would be really sad to live thru the coronavirus and then torch yourself on Memorial Day Week-End. Be safe.

Smerconish Saturday

Kind of a blah-blah show on Smerconish this morning. I’m opting out on Michael’s question about the University of California doing away with the ACT and SAT. Good riddance I say. You need tests which measure heart, will, tenacity, and staying power to achieve goals. One would hope school administrators could decipher most of that from high school transcripts.

Instead…I think I’ll conduct my own Dave Letterman man on the street poll on Mike Gundy’s mullet in coordination with the writing of The Mullet King.

During this Memorial Day week-end I’ll poll fifty Oklahomans on the streets and the question will be simple:

Do you like or dislike Mike Gundy’s mullet?

I’m voting yes because in reality if you can’t beat OU your fanbase needs something to be able to rally around year in and year out.

I’m voting yes for Boone from oil and gas heaven as well as he made it well known his displeasure with Gundy not being able to beat in essence a virtually defenseless OU team for say the last fifteen years.

I should have the poll results by Sunday evening.

After Dark

Pauli and I started our vegan training diet tonight sharing three poblano black bean burgers. I had two Coors Lights and she had some special type of water for dogs in training.

Anything beyond I Saw A Tiger at this point is refreshing. But I do love this song. Have a great Saturday to start the unofficial summer.

Nikki Haley Should Be The GOP Candidate

I’ve always liked Nikki Haley’s story. It doesn’t mean I agree with her on everything, but if I had to choose between Joe Biden and Nikki Haley — I would easily vote for Nikki Haley.

She’s smart. She’s tough. She’s experienced. She’s the right age. And she’s a badass when she needs to be.

I find it stunning the people who own the Republican Party haven’t paid Trump off with his own cable news network beyond Fox so as he would resign and make room for Nikki Haley.

I think head to head she would trounce Joe Biden.

On a national level she would immediately connect with moderate Republicans, moderate Democrats, and Independents.

Visualize Nikki Haley debating Joe Biden.

The fact she hasn’t come clean about Donald Trump is her only negative with me. But she’s a politician. She knows eventually if she did say the truth about the human junk bond she’d permanently be tagged as a RHINO by the fringe right nutjobs who still believe Trump was sent here by God to drain the swamp. You’re never going to change these humans, but you can smile and take their vote. That’s politics. Biden is doing the exact same thing with the far left right now.

Who would be a good Vice-President for Nikki Haley?

How about Tim Scott from the state of South Carolina as well. Google Tim Scott and learn something about the junior senator from South Carolina.

South Carolina is actually an interesting state from a political science standpoint.

Michael Smerconish tomorrow. I’m stoked. I would guess Trump’s recent precipitous drop in Fox polls by registered Republicans might tie into the theme of the show this Saturday.

Nikki Haley appears to be locked, loaded, and ready to go if only the Big Fat Stupid Idiot would fade into being the next Rush Limbaugh.

Why is it in seven minutes Tim Scott did what in four years Donald Trump has never done?

In seven minutes… Tim Scott surpassed the amount of time the current POTUS has looked presidential in four years. Imagine that.

After Dark

When I really want to be Al Pacino this is right there at the top along with Michael taking care of Fredo or the crazy courtroom scene in Justice For All.

There’s nothing like the tango to clear your head heading into the week-end.

I wonder if Mike Gundy can tango?

I could actually do this in the second grade when my mother made me attend a series of dance classes after she caught me calling my little brother a pussy during a street football pickup game after I cloth-lined him on the cement. Janice took me home, washed my mouth out with soap, and made me attend these dance classes for two months in an attempt to temper my behavior.

It didn’t work.

Mike Gundy: The Mullet King

I’m going to write about Nikki Haley tomorrow, but first I want to get started on here with Mike Gundy. I’m actually starting a new project called The Mullet King. It has nothing to do with Joe Exotic, but rather it will chronicle Mike Gundy’s tumultuous relationship with the late T Boone Pickens.

One of my buddies who covered O State is going to help me out here a little bit if needed. Truth be told…I might teach him a few things about Boone business wise.

I think it’s a fascinating story in that in reality this scrawny kid from Midwest City in essence conquered the man who along with Carl Icahn was at one time the premier corporate raider in the United States.

In essence what Boone did at O State was leverage a public state funded Power Five football franchise because he wanted to beat his OU and Texas business adversaries like he did in the oil field at one time.

Don’t think this is a diss at Gundy…because there are some things I really like about Mike Gundy. He may not even know it — but I interviewed him several years ago as we sat at adjoining tables at my brother’s Panera Bread restaurant in Stillwater. Neither one of us at the time knew I was going to tell his story as The Mullet King.

Hell…he may even be seen as some sort of rock star in my story–and the thing is…I loved Boone as well. It will be a story which combines two of my passionate interests…college football and the oil/gas bidness. I feel obligated to do this for my friend in heaven…Dan Jenkins.

If ever in real life there was a real Big Ed Bookman it was T Boone Pickens, and if ever in real life there was a Coach Alvin Parker it didn’t turn out to be Mike Gundy.