OU Stuffs Listless O-State in Bedlam Rout, 41-13

This was brutal. I hope Boone wasn’t watching because he could only come to one conclusion after watching this football game…the conclusion would be except for the football season in 2011 his alma mater hasn’t really progressed all that much football-wise.

In Texas pool hall parlance I’ll go further and say it appears Boone pissed away somewhere between half a billion to a billion dollars trusting Mike Holder’s judgement in never going beyond Mike Gundy as his football coach.

O State was completely healthy coming into this game with no COVID scratches on their roster Saturday night.

This was clearly O State’s biggest game since perhaps that Bedlam game in 2011 when Brandon Weeden delivered the goods for Boone’s trust in Holder’s O State process.

But on this night… nine years later the ugly bare truth was exposed to anyone who watched this football game….O State with Mike Gundy isn’t a real threat to beat OU in a Bedlam football game anytime soon.

This was Gundy’s 16th Bedlam game as the head man and if you take away Bob Stoops’ insane repunt to Tyreke Hill in 2014…. the Mullet King now stands 1-15 combined against Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley.

OU won 35-19 last season in Stillwater and this year’s margin of 41-13 is misleading. The game wasn’t this close. O State’s only touchdown on the night was enabled when Bookie Hadley-Riles took an inexcusable post play penalty to keep an O State drive alive. Other than that …OU’s defense virtually stuffed Mike Gundy’s offense.

OU’s improved defense with Ronnie Perkins back wreaking havoc held O State to 246 total yards of offense. The same Chuba Hubbard who outed his head coach as a Trump birther this past summer was held to 46 yards on 8 rushes.

Gundy’s two quarterbacks… Spencer Sanders and Shane Ellingsworth went a combined 15-40 throwing the ball. Tylan Wallace who like Hubbard probably should have gone pro last spring was not a factor with six catches on the night.

The much vaunted O State defense allowed OU to score on their first five posssessions of the football game as QB Spencer Rattler played with the calm and poise of Lincoln Riley’s next Heisman finalist come next college football season.

Rhamondre Stevenson bullied the O State defense with over a hundred yards rushing and was clearly the best running back on the field at Gaylord Family Stadium with 25,000 spirited fans in attendance.

It was a game which told a story of two programs with two different coaches going in completely different directions with their football seasons heading into Thanksgiving week-end.

Keep in mind this was supposed to be a transitional year of rebuild for OU with Spencer Rattler assuming the quarterback position as a redshirt freshman.

Right now OU appears to be the best team in the league with a defense which is actually not all that bad.

In closing…I hope Boone wasn’t watching because he got snookered. He didn’t get what he thought he was paying for back in the day. Sometimes athletic directors have to do unpleasant things like making a coaching change. Probably going to be tough attracting elite black high school football talent to Stillwater with a Trump birther running the program. Just a thought.

I wonder what Mike Holder is thinking this cloudy cold November morning the day after another predetermined Mike Gundy loss in Bedlam.

I’m thinking Boone’s thinking Holder should find a football coach who can beat OU once every third Bedlam game at the minimum if the peckerhead is going to demand top fifteen coaching money.

Otherwise… go back to paying Mullet King the Travis Ford money and be content not seriously contending for Big 12 championships let alone being a nationally elite program.

Smerconish Saturday

Today’s poll question was the very one I posed earlier this week on my blog. I know Michael better than he knows himself. We have some similarities in the way we think. He’s a lawyer and although I never took the bar I did graduate from the Bob Jackson School of Law. Plus, neither Michael or myself are ideologues. We’re not on the extreme batfuck crazy fringes of either party.

Today’s question was: Will Trump ever concede the election to Joe Biden?

I clearly wrote a piece earler this week in which I wrote…NO WAY IN HELL DOES THE GRIFTER PUNK CONCEDE THE ELECTION.

27,000 people responded to Michael’s question this morning. 95% voted no way in hell does the grifter punk concede.

One thing though…Trump knows this bullshit he’s promoting for the time being keeps the glaze off his soon to be impending legal problems in New York’s Southern District where they’ve been waiting for his presidential immunity to expire for four years.

The other thing is…Trump is probably deciding internally how to best monetize and grift the the 75 million or so suckers who voted for him and/or follow him on Twitter or watch him legitimize Sean Hannity’s $30 million a year salary on the Fox prime time slot.

Trump never seemed to even be president since that fell to Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham—so I’m thinking the 2024 hint to run is more to keep his base cash flowing everything Trump related.

Trump will do his rallies and will probably have one going on during Biden’s inauguration. He’ll have his own gig on Fox. Laura Ingram makes $10 million at Fox and the dimwit Tucker Carlson makes $15 million at Fox so one would think the Murdochs would in a sense give Trump the old spot once occupied by Bill O’Reilly for Sean Hannity-like money.

Plus all the books he can have someone write for him over the next three years especially the one where Hugo Chavez rigged the election in Michigan and Georgia for the Dems….that was sarcasm.

No way does Trump do the right thing for the country and concede.

No way… as in none.

Presti Trades Kelly Oubre Jr To Warriors For Two 2nd Round Picks

We never saw Kelly Oubre Jr. play a game for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Instead…with Klay Thompson down again with another season ending injury–the Warriors needed a player.

In return–Sam Presti received a protected first round pick which will in all likihood translate into two second round picks for the Thunder. OKC also will get a $14.4 million TPE in exchange for Oubre.

Lest we not forget–the Thunder need to lose games this season if they want to draft someone like Cade Cunningham next summer. This is about losing games to ensure a top pick which could be a game changer for the franchise.

With Klay going down for a second straight season the Warriors will have some very serious issues to consider moving forward as well. The roster they have currently isn’t a top four team in the West. Plus…there’s as much wear on Steph’s body as their is on Klay’s. How quickly the Golden State Dream Team went poof into the San Francisco Bay air.

Presti is a smart dude. He knows every decison he’s now making needs to add value, economic flexibility, and long-term competiveness to the Oklahoma City franchise.

This in essence will be Oklahoma City in Seattle that first year before the Clay Bennett ownership group moved the team to the Southwest plains of Oklahoma. I wonder if the average Thunder fan even remembers Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis wearing Sonic green.

This will basically be a G League team with perhaps Al Horton and maybe Steven Adams finsihing the season. ‘Perhaps’ being a key word as we get near to the trade deadline.

There will be some tough moments for those who aren’t used to team building at the NBA level while the home team is in town.

Jim Traber says he understands…I really wonder if he understands. This is about losing to get better.

This is why its fortunate the toughest year of the process is going to come during Trump’s pandemic and the local fans’ focus on the team would have been diminished anyway.

Look how long it took Dallas with an excellent coach in Rick Carlisle to become relevant once Dirk wasn’t an elite game changer in his latter years.

Presti has to have a game changer at some point…and some luck with the draft. Someone like Portland needs to pick the next Grag Oden and allow a franchise centerpiece to fall Presti’s way.

Kelly Oubre we never saw you play for the Thunder, buddy. At 26 years of age you’re too old for the template Sam Presti is putting in place moving down the road.

It’s all about losing in Oklahoma City this NBA season.

In Presti We Should Trust

If you didn’t know this was coming then you’re not very smart. This is the season the Thunder bite the bullet, miss the playoffs, finish below .500, and rebuild their team.

I won’t even put a specific number of wins as an important hurdle or goal per se. Sam Presti needs to find seven young guys this season who play smart, who have well rounded games, and who have a hatred of losing beyond this season.

You want to see who takes ownership of this from the young guys. The best teams coach themselves from within.

Seven guys this season… then you add maybe two more guys next season with a game changer from the draft like say possibly a Cade Cunningham just to name a college player off the top of my head.

This year is about team building. Team building with smart guys and a truckload of TSN. Stupid teams don’t win championships in any sport.

I’m actually very excited about the season and will enjoy watching young guys evolve their games during a season which will define the future of the Thunder in Oklahoma moving forward.

Hope you check out the blog now and again as I follow the Thunder season.

el prez

Trump Will Never Concede He Got Beat By Joe Biden

If you’re waiting for a concession don’t hold your breath. It won’t matter if Biden’s lead balloons to over ten million votes. This is Trump at his grifter punk human junk bond best. It’s the Roy Cohn/Fred Trump in him and it will be to the day he dies.

It doesn’t matter to Trump and it doesn’t matter to the seventy million or so who voted for him. It doesn’t matter to the fifty-three GOP senators either.

Trump’s motto has never changed in his life…’Never give a sucker a break and kick him when he’s down.’

Not exactly the mantra you want from a POTUS, but we live in an age with Quintan Tarantino-like characters occupying the White House.

The red states Trump won in this election constitute approximately 32-34% of GDP and about the same in tax revenues contributed to the U.S Treasury. The very sad irony in all of this is Trump voters aren’t even honest or informed enough to admit his coalition is primarilly a group of states which continue to exist from the ‘welfare’ subsidies provided by other states—most of which are blue.

Not exactly the Darwinian laissez-faire doctrine of free enterprise in its purest form.

Sam Presti’s Big Draft Day Adventure

I don’t even know where to start with all of this because I’m not one of those millenials over at Daily Thunder who live for days like yesterday.

So–I’ll go slowly… Chris Paul and Abdel Nadar are in Phoenix. OKC still has Kelly Oubre Jr. and the the two young bench players I won’t name until I see a roster. I think Rubio was traded somewhere yesterday, but I’ll need to recheck on Daily Thunder. This is when a guy like me needs some staff for a day. I’m covering the world and Biden’s transition…I had no idea Presti was going to go completely batfuck crazy.

I just caught myself…Rubio is now back in Minnesota.

Dennis Schroder came out the big winner in my view. He got what Chris Paul probably wanted–that being a spot with LeBron on the Lakers’ championship groomed roster. Good for Dennis and his agent.

Then I guess Danny Green who along with some draft picks came back to OKC in the deal.

Clearly…I’m not Woj and will never claim to be. But he won’t be me either and I doubt he has any idea who the four Chief of Staffs were in Donald Trump’s pathetic one term presidency.

Reince Pribus, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney, and Mark Meadows. Laura Ingram actually was his first pick, but she’s making $10 million a year on Trump’s own state televison network….Fox-Politburo-Trump. She already had a better job.

The Philadelphia Sixers…my team as a kid growing up BTW– then became emeshed in all of this. The Sixers got Danny Green and Terrance Ferguson in exchange for what’s left on Big Al Horford’s existing contract. Since Billy Donovan has long been gone to the Chicago Bulls we know that wasn’t a factor in any of this. That was a little sarcasm on my part.

What I’m wondering at this point is if Sam Presti told Billy Donovan this was his Kevin Costner Draft Day plan moving forward. In my view …Billy Donovan is the second biggest winner only behind Dennis Schroeder yesterday.

So then …Sam Presti used two lower first round (a 25th and a 28th) to move up to the 17th spot in the first round. Presti used the pick to select a big white Serb named Aleksej Pokusevski who apparantly can dribble and shoot from beyond Steven Adams’ limited range.

We know this though about Poku… he’s white, could probably care less about Trump, and he looks like he could bench the same 85 lbs. Kevin Durant could bench press as an NBA rookie.

Project. Poku’s body is a project.

All of that wheeling and dealing to get a Serb who deeds some serious work in the weight room and a litany of protein drinks.

He’s white though. That must be what Presti’s thinking at this point. Presti must be thinking that if Poku turns into a real NBA player he’ll be okay with the Fox birther Thunder fans in the city who are still claiming Trump won the election he just lost by somewhere around seven million votes. Dude…give it up. Even Roy Cohn would give it up at this point… you lost.

Steven Adams, Danillo Gallanari, and Big Al Horford are still members of the Thunder as of this writing…I think.

I will definitely reread and update what I just wrote, but I did my best on the fly.

But, again…if you’re going to tank then given what the U.S economy is going to struggle with adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic these next year and beyond… this would be the logical time to rebuild in Fox World–OKC.

Chris Paul to Phoenix For Assets

Sam Presti traded Chris Paul and Abdel Nader to the Phoexnix Suns yesterday in exchange for Rickey Rubio, Kelly Oubre Jr., two young prospects, and a first round draft pick.

It’s the perfect time in Oklahoma City to rebuild or retool so why not do it now during a COVID-19 pandemic with another shortened regular season and at best half empty arenas on the horizon.

With the exception of LeBron’s Lakers the NBA as a whole is in a period of time when the financial sheets across all of pro sports are in flux as we wait to see how bad this winter is going to be in the United States as the tempertures grow colder with no leadership in place currently in Washington D.C.

Chris Paul gave Thunder fans a year to enjoy last season and it was time to move his contract. It’s time to be grownups and accept the reality of a rebuild in OKC.

Presti not only got another first round pick to add to his cache of picks, but he got a nice young role player in Kelly Oubre Jr. who could be a keeper to go along with SGA, Lu Dort, and Darius Bazely looking down the road.

Last week Presti made his G League coach Mark Daigneault his NBA coach and in essence this will be a developmental team in Oklahoma City the upcoming season. But look it it this way…the LA Dodgers house their top Triple AAA team in OKC—so that’s what we’re going to see this season with some promising young players trying to reshape the Thunder’s next decade of NBA basketball.

Maybe one or two these young players will turn into a Cody Bellinger, a Corey Seager , or a Chris Taylor. There won’t be any Mookie Betts-like free agent coming to Oklahoma City…but lots of youth and less payroll.

I enjoy seeing young players evolve so this will be kind of fun for me. Presti will need to get some luck with some of these draft picks, but if you were going to give any GM in the league this arsenal of picks you’d probably have Presti near the top of your list of GMs.

It is what it is. Young players on the horizon. A new young coach. With the hope Sam Presti can rebuild the Thunder into a contender two or three years from now in an NBA city which just voted for Donald Trump by a seventy per cent plurality margin even though Joe Biden won the White House with 306 Electoral College votes.

Sam Presti has a profound challenge in front of him in the NBA’s most challenging job heading into the 2020 season.

The Masters in November

Pretending to be Dan Jenkins… I have to hurry up and get my three picks in to win this year’s Masters at Augusta National which is being played in November.

I’m going to pick Jon Rahm to win it with both Rory and Matthew Wolf making runs on the final round of play.

My dark…dark…dark horse is Jordan Speith who has fallen off the edge of the golfing earth in recent times. Who would have thought that three years ago?

This will be perfect for me as both OU and O State are idle this Saturday as they get healthy for next Saturday’s Bedlam game in Norman which should be a dandy in a battle of quarterbacks both named Spencer. Never in my life have I seen a football game where both QBs are named Spencer.

After Dark

I need a break from the grifter Trump on here. He makes me feel dirty just writing about him. I feel dirty like a layer of Russian prostitutes’ urine has covered me these last nine days or so as I’ve covered the election on my blog. First thing Biden and his wife should go do is book a room in Trump’s hotel in D.C. and pee all over the beds. This is what Trump has done to me. This must be how Matt Taibi felt after the 2016 election covering it for Rolling Stone. It’s so disturbing 70 million peoeple voted for him. It’s depressing. We are lost as a nation.

Nero is fiddling…Nero is fiddling, baby. Just ask the Romans. Caligula, Cicero…Nero. Trump is Nero. Caligula was a sweetheart compared to this prick.

I love this song. Maybe this will cheer me up.

Actually…I liked the song better in Sleepless in Seattle than in Casablanca.

A classic either way.

A piano bar karaoke would be nice to close this out.

Bush 43 on Transfer of Power to President Obama

The transition of power shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Trump had to know his chances were slim. Biden is right…Trump’s fourth grade level pouting is not only an embarrassment to our democracy, but to his already very shaky presidential legacy which could be worse than that of James Buchanan.

Trump has no other gear than the petulant spoiled brat routine. His father should have sent him to Vietnam and done humanity a favor. Mayve we would have seen less pussy grabbing, no furniture store sport f–king stories with Billy Bush–and much more humility and maybe even a touch of human dignity.

Instead we’ve all seen how it went down. The world’s greatest democracy held hostage by Denace the Menace for four years. I can’t take my eyes off those hands. But unlike Little Marco Rubio … I went to John Marshall and can handle myself . He won’t bully me. Melania has given me courage to deal with internet bullies.

Bush 43 had a tough eight years in the White House, but at least in the end he got this part right and put country ahead of himself.

The Thunder named a head coach today and quite frankly the choice does little for me as we watch our nation teeter on the brink of a potential constitutional crisis.

I’m not even sure the Thunder should be allowed to have an NBA franchise after I witnessed the manner in which these people voted in a historic election.

I’m not looking for Oklahoma anytime soon to pull out of last place in the smarts category. Maybe they’ll elect Mary Fallin to a third term.

Sigh.