Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

It’s a rather cloudy, cold, bleak January day in Oklahoma…yet I’m pretty happy.

OU won a must win game last night on the road in Morgantown. Brent Venables and staff are killing it both on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal… although I doubt even with West Texas Crude trending towards $100 a barrel the Sooners can persuade Josh Allen to come to Norman from Buffalo via the transfer portal. I’d love to see the look on Bob Bowlsby’s face if we just pretended that was going to happen though.

President Joe Manchin is going to be able to reshape the U.S. Supreme Court with a judge of his choosing. The Court will then be composed with five hard right justices, three liberal justices, and moderate Chief Justice John Roberts. Again…if Trump gets re-elected… I would submit Justice Roberts should consider heading off to Buenos Aires before Trump tries to give him the Mike Pence golden parachute exit and replace him as Chief Justice with Mr. Pillow.

Fed Chief Jerome Powell steadied the recent uneasiness with the markets and it’s a good rebound day on the Dow so far. I would keep this in mind…. once this most recent wave of Covid settles down I would think the economy will be posed for a steadying year, but certainly not a 28.5% growth on money type of year President Manchin delivered in his first year in office.

I would think since Germany gets 40% of its natural gas from Russia…in the end, the Germans and Putin will figure things out with President Manchin acting as the peacemaker.

As far as the Chinese in Taiwan… we’ve talked about this for quite some time and I would think U.S. concessions will ultimately be made there despite what Nikki Haley thinks she would have done if still holding some sort of office.

So really…with President Manchin’s first State of the Union just on the horizon to me the faux angst being projected by the Trump crazies is amusing…to say the least.

An historic infrastructure bill was passed. The U.S. is no longer going to be mired in Afghanistan. A record 6.4 million new jobs were created. Covid vaccinations are available everywhere if you’re only smart enough to avail yourself of one. The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been kept at bay. But most of all…jobs are everywhere for all these lazy entitled Trump whites if we can only wean them off their Covid stimulus welfare checks.

God bless POTUS Joe Manchin…and god bless the United States of America.

Have a wonderful day.

A huge win for Porter Moser’s Sooners tonight in Morgantown as the Sooners pretty much led wire to wire to grab a 72-62 road win.

Not to be overly dramatic, but I pretty much had this as a ‘Season on the Brink’ type of game for the Sooners if they want to go dancing in March Madness.

OU came into this game as losers of four straight Big 12 games. This was one of those Bob Knight situations kid you not. I think seven Big 12 teams get into the Tournament, but on this night in Morgantown OU had to have a gut check road win and they got it.

EJ Harkless didn’t start the game and only played four minutes. If EJ didn’t understand the message being sent by Coach Moser…I’ll translate on the blog:

“EJ, please step up. Your teammates need you. The way you’ve played the past few games is not going to cut it. If you can’t play at a higher level…then both Jacob Grove and Marvin Johnson will absorb your minutes.”

And that’s exactly what Coach Moser did tonight in Morgantown. EJ was benched. Jacob Groves started and played his best game as a Sooner. Marvin Johnson the senior transfer from Eastern Illinois absorbed the still injured Ethan Chargois minutes.

Both of these guys rose to the occasion and along with Moj Gibson, Tanner Grove, and Jalen Hill all get helmet stickers.

OU improves to 13-7 overall and 3-5 in Big 12 conference games.

You see… this wasn’t tanking. This was this team giving everything they had to win a road game and put their dream of playing in March Madness back on track.

This was real human competition…. not that contrived scripted bullshit we’ve seen two years in a row in Bricktown.

You compete. You put your competitive soul on the line in public and expose it for all to see.

Why do think Mike Boynton was crying with his players when he found out about the NCAA ban imposed this spring?

He was crying because he knew how much this hurt his players’ competitive souls.

That’s why.

Next up…OU heads to Auburn to play the No. 1 ranked Auburn Tigers in Big 12-SEC Challenge. This will mean in the last six games OU will have played defending national champion Baylor twice, top three Kansas, top 15 Texas, and now No. 1 ranked Auburn with the potential National Player of the Year in Jabari Smith.

I’ll feature Jabari on my blog tomorrow in preparation of the game on Saturday which will of course be played in a standing room only arena against the No. 1 ranked Auburn Tigers.

OU could get their ass kicked, but I assure you they won’t be tanking.

I’m not sure because for some reason I don’t understand what the Thunder were doing earlier in the season. Maybe because of the two wins over Russell Westbrook’s Lakers they may have forgotten how bad they were supposed to be this season.

The Thunder, with last night’s predictable home loss to the Chicago Bulls who were without DeMar DeRozan, lost their sixth game in a row to fall to 14-33 . This means in the twelve games played by the Thunder in 2022 the team has an abysmal record of 1-11.

That’s pretty much on the pace the Thunder played in their last twenty-five games last season when the team tanked shamelessly down the stretch going 2-23.

But of course, for a reason no one understands to this day…they foolishly won their last game of the regular season to in essence drop them from a top three pick or so. Evan Mobley would have been the logical pick. But the Thunder seem to have landed a nice player in Josh Giddy… so I’m not going to dwell on last year.

Besides I adopted Miami in the East, Golden State in the West, and Memphis as my overall dark horse pick. So… I’m good.

The Thunder now have thirty-five games left this season. To me…it appears Sam Hinkie-Presti seems focused on making sure his puppet coach stays the course the rest of the way.

So… let’s do the math if the Thunder can stay on their current trend of historically wretched play. Let’s just say in the next thirty-five games the pathetic Thunder go 4-31.

That would mean the Thunder would go 5-42 in their last forty-seven games. That’s historically bad. That’s puts you right in the trajectory of these five putrid teams highlighted above in the Five Worst NBA Teams of All-Time video.

This is what I’ll say to Sam Hinkie-Presti at this point…if you’re going to tank…then tank hard with no competitive conscience whatsoever. Have no regrets. Never give a sucker an even break and kick him when he’s down.

To me…it’s apparent these Thunder fans who are still attending the Thunder games chanting “OKC” and “Defense” are going to be there for you no matter how bad the team performs. No matter how embarrassing the record ends up being for this season.

If you’re going to tank…then tank big, buddy.

17-65….is that possible? Maybe.

I don’t feel good about my 22-60 pick any longer that’s for certain.

My goodness…what a weekend of NFL divisional playoff games. I had to decompress for twenty-four hours before getting back on my blog.

All four games were stellar. Some might even say if you combined the first three games they were an iconic montage of what every NFL fan aspires the divisional round should be.

All three visiting teams won on the road. All three games came down to a winning field goal in regulation as time expired.

Joe Burrow, Jimmy G, and Matthew Stafford were the three winning quarterbacks.

Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Ryan Tannehill were the three losing quarterbacks.

It was in a historic sense a changing of the guard of the NFL quarterback hierarchy.

What we saw in these games was the future of the NFL in Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, and Patrick Mahomes. I wonder if Caleb Williams and his father took notice nary a Lincoln Riley quarterback was even remotely relevant in these NFL playoffs.

Not one.

I wonder if Joe C could put some of his oil and gas boosters together and offer Josh Allen enough to make him consider coming to OU thru the transfer portal. You gotta figure if Putin invades Ukraine…there’s going to be some sick Texas oil and gas money available for the first ever NFL back to college transfer portal move. Fictional Big Ed Bookman from Semi Tough in Fort Worth wouldn’t blink. Why not from the Buffalo Bills to OU?

Josh Allen > Caleb Williams…not even close.

Lincoln Riley at his best in Body Heat couldn’t pull that one off. These are the kind of thoughts which keep me awake at nights.

But in Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen what was we saw was the bright burning light of what the AFC Championship Games are going to be about for the next decade or so.

Sheer brilliance is the way I would describe it.

I simply couldn’t take my eyes off of Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. Combined they completed 61 of 80 throws. Not one interception between them. Every clutch play needed to be made was made.

But here’s the thing which eats at me on late Monday night…the best quarterback didn’t win this weekend…and that would be Josh Allen.

I thought he was brilliant.

Unfortunately–he was shackled by his coach, Sean McDermott’s, decision to kick the ball thru the endzone with thirteen seconds left and to not run the game clock down six or seven seconds.

Tyreek ‘The Cheetah’ Hill only returns punts…not kickoffs. Don’t think I wasn’t thinking about Bob Stoops’ fatal decision to re-punt to Cheetah…but Tyreek only returns punts for Andy Reid, not kickoffs.

Tony Romo called it as it was happening in live time. You have to burn half of those thirteen seconds in that circumstance. Time and score…. time and score. Those two words Russell Westbrook could never learn from Maurice Cheeks.

I know…that’s hindsight to a certain degree. But I wanted to make sure at least on my blog that Josh Allen was recognized as the best quarterback I saw playing this past weekend in the NFL divisional round.

Now we get Joe Burrow vs. Patrick Mahomes at Arrowhead.

I can’t wait.

But Josh Allen should still be playing.

It’s absurd is what it is. In a sport like football where the NFL as a league discourages prolonged success through a hard salary cap… Tom Brady has won seven Super Bowl rings while getting to the Super Bowl eleven times in his career.

This is ludicrous.

The hard salary cap plus the avoidance of serious injury plus longevity easily in my mind make Tom Brady the greatest player in team sports history minus possibly Bill Russell as the GOAT.

The Bill Russell vs. Tom Brady is an argument for a different time perhaps after we see if Tom Brady can get to his 12th Super Bowl in the next two weeks.

I think today’s matchup this afternoon in Tampa is fascinating because it pits Matthew Stafford at 1-3 all-time in playoff games versus the GOAT.

You wonder what’s going in Matthew Stafford’s mind right now just hours before kick-off. In one game… Matthew Stafford could conceivably alter his Detroit Lion legacy.

I’ve always wondered what Barry Sanders would have done with his NFL legacy if he’d played two seasons away from the pathetic Detroit Lions. In my mind, Barry Sanders was the greatest college running back of all-time, but because of being shackled to the Lions we never got to see if he would have won a ring while playing on a decent team.

My dad was actually co-counsel once for Barry Sanders on a civil matter. I treasure the autographed pic my dad got for me even as an OU fan. Right there in my sports cave next to the autographed pic of Joe Carter.

I can’t wait to see this game later today. I’m going to go start up the chainsaw and do some work before kick-off to get in the right frame of mind. When you get into your sixties—it’s all about the chain saw, baby. The lab, then the chain saw. Just saying.

This is why we play, coach, and watch competitive sports. We do so to bring out the best of ourselves as humans who love the exalt of competition.

And at the end of the day that’s what trips Tom Brady’s trigger…which I think is kind of cool. Kind of like a Jonathan Livingston Seagull approach to his zen-like mastery of football.

What a Saturday afternoon/evening of divisional round NFL football.!!!

What more could you ask for? Two close games with incredible human storylines attached. I’m spent. This is we adore the NFL. This is why the NFL is the premier professional sports league in America.

All of this and we still have Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford still to come on Sunday.

Precocious Joe Burrow says the future is now and who would doubt him after what we just witnessed on Saturday afternoon. Joe Burrow was sacked nine times in this game, but like Rocky Balboa just kept getting up until he found a way at the end. I’m not sure what I would compare his performance to.

The last time I saw an NFL quarterback get bludgeoned like this was when the Denver Broncos with Von Miller effectively ended Cam Newton’s NFL career.

I’m not going to write about the 49’ers stunning win on the last play to end Aaron Rodgers’ season and perhaps career in Green Bay until I’ve had more time to ponder what this loss means to the legacy of Aaron Rodgers.

You could feel it happening when possession after possession the Packers wasted scoring opportunities in the first half.

Aaron Rodgers… bless his heart. Too much time doing Jeopardy and State Farm commercials. But by the same token you now have to consider Jimmy G in three consecutive weekends has led the Niners to three straight road wins over the LA Rams, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Packers.

This is what I would describe as an NFL Super Bowl contender trending at the goal achieving portion of the season. Hard to believe George Kittle went to Norman High School and yet left the state to play for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The Niners are loaded. I mean…. loaded.

I’m exhausted. I feel like I’ve played two games. Time for me to fall asleep next to the diva lab Pauli and recharge for tomorrow.

Some potentially great NFL playoff games on tap this weekend. The first game today gives us the Cincy Bengals at the Tennessee Titans and with it a featured look at Bengal quarterback Joe Burrow.

We got our first glimpse of Joe Burrow in post season last week as the Bengals eliminated Derek Carr and the Raiders in the first round. Today we get an even closer look as the Bengals head on the road to play the AFC’s No. 1 seed Tennessee Titans in the first divisional playoff game of the weekend.

With Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers advancing in age there will eventually be a changing of the guard of NFL franchise quarterbacks. For those in Oklahoma—it was a stark dose of reality this season to witness in reality the fact Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, and Jalen Hurts in most likelihood aren’t headed to the top of the NFL quarterback club.

In the AFC one would think once Tom Brady says enough…the top three quarterbacks in the AFC will turn out to be Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Joe Burrow. How that order shuffles will remain to be seen.

Luck, health, coaching stability, and being on a team which can play complimentary football on both sides of the ball will all play a part in how this plays out.

For me…if Joe Burrow can stay healthy, he could be the eventual guy to replace Tom Brady as the best quarterback in the game. But so much of that will depend on whether the Bengals can continue to evolve as a top tier team in the league.

When you put Joe Burrow with Lamar Chase and Joe Mixon what you could possibly have in effect is something like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Roger Craig.

I know…that’s a pretty heady comparison, but one which tantalizes me as an NFL fan.

So today we start off with Joe Burrow and the Bengals at Tennessee then follow that game with the San Fran 49’ers at Green Bay where it looks like the temps at game time will drop into the middle teens.

Jimmy Garoppolo played his college ball at Eastern Illinois… so I wouldn’t think the weather should play a factor in his play tonight. Huge game career-wise for Jimmy G.

Can’t wait to watch all four NFL games this weekend.

If you’re a Thunder fan…take a break from your self-inflicted misery and abuse. They’re designed to lose in a big way and you haven’t seen anything yet. Take a break and watch the NFL Playoffs. It might help your state of mind.

Then of course there’s so many exciting stories in the NBA this season. Adopt a team. Since Oklahoma City like Seattle is a city in search of obtaining an NBA team… put your Little Nick Gallo and Michael Cage sippy cups on the shelf for a spell and take a break. You’re going to need one. You deserve one. A big one. Like till the night of the NBA draft.

Have a great weekend.

Oh…big surprise. Russell Westbrook as a Los Angeles Laker loafing on defense in the midst of a 5-17 shooting night in a home loss to the pathetic Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night got benched.

I guess finally…Coach Vogel got written permission from GM Rob Pelinka that he had the green light to finally bench Russell and tap the brakes on the NBA’s hottest shit show a.k.a the LA Lakers.

I guess the adage ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ is applicable here.

This is why to a certain degree I eviscerate the Thunder broadcast team and the Thunder media relations babysitter Little Nick Gallo with regularity on my blog. Maybe the Lakers should hire Gallo, fly him out to LA and have him breastfeed Russell Westbrook the remainder of this basketball season.

This didn’t just happen yesterday with Russell Westbrook. This was created in Sam Presti’s basketball lab where the Thunder even after losing Kevin Durant because of this kind of nonsense…doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on this behavior until Paul George became the adult in the room three years later and said, “Trade me.”

I wonder if the humans who still attend Thunder games are still in on booing Kevin Durant at this point. Kevin Durant clearly never would have returned to the NBA Finals again in his career if he’d stayed in Oklahoma City after 2016.

No way…no how because just like in NFL football you can’t have a liability quarterbacking your team when you get to the goal achieving portion of the season when you’re playing the best teams who all have good coaches.

I guess Billy Donovan just got smarter by heading off to Chicago where the Bulls are now the current leader in the East. Oh, wait…he won two national championships at Florida and made another Final Four.

It’s a Greek tragedy on multiple levels is what it is. Russell Westbrook is a Greek tragedy. I have no idea what Berry Tramel is writing about Russell this week because quite frankly I’m not nearly as nice a human being as Berry Tramel is on these matters. I bet he’s taking it light on Russell. That’s his call.

Laker coach Frank Vogel wanted no part of Russell Westbrook this summer when Laker GM Rob Pelinka evidently under the influence some mind altering drug decided this was the way forward for the Lakers.

Rob Pelinka isn’t going to fire himself. It doesn’t work that way. And there’s no way in hell any other GM in the NBA would be stupid enough to take on Russell Westbrook’s contract at this point.

I would think at this point the options are either fire Frank Vogel and let an assistant complete the season or make LeBron player/coach like Bill Russell was at the end of his career in Boston.

Just so we know…if Russell remains on the bench that means that undrafted Austin Reaves from OU becomes the starter for the Lakers with Russell coming off the bench. I’m sure that’s the way LeBron wanted to play in one of his last NBA seasons.

It’s just very sad is what it is for Russell at this point. This was his last chance to rehabilitate his legacy beyond just being a petulant chucker who somehow made it to four Western Conference Finals because Kevin Durant carried him that far.

That’s Russell Westbrook’s NBA legacy. Now…what he could do instead is take a very long hard look within himself and become a basketball player coming off the bench for Frank Vogel.

That’s the third option if Russell Westbrook wants to save himself from himself at this point.

Russell…. Bad Little Dude—take the third option.

What a sad spectacle to see these once great franchises in the West both in tanking mode with no real exit from the darkness in sight. I can only watch about 8-10 of these games…then I either change the channel or read whichever book I’m currently reading.

Timmy Duncan’s Spurs vs. Kevin Durant’s Thunder…those were the days.

Timmy of course is treated like a god in San Antonio, while Kevin is booed worse than Lincoln Riley even though he honored his contract, played his ass for a decade, and did nice things for the city.

BTW…I think Laker coach Frank Vogel just benched Russell Westbrook. That’s what real coaches and real GMs have to do from time to time.

Right now…I’m reading The Wish by Nicholas Sparks and it’s magnificent. I needed a fictional aspirational novel and this is the book.

The tanking Thunder were pummeled from wire to wire on Wednesday night inside of AT&T Arena as the Thunder looked to be in early April tanking mode.

Kenrich Williams didn’t play.

Mike Muscala saw the floor only six minutes.

The Thunder were unwatchable even with Shai playing thirty minutes and going an unimaginable -25 in those minutes in a game in which he should have clearly been the best player on the floor. To me…I wouldn’t put Shai on the All-Star team just for this game. That is absolutely absurd. This should be the point in Shai’s career when he clearly dominates a game against bad teams and the San Antonio Spurs are every bit as bad as the Thunder currently.

I haven’t seen Chris Fisher do another Thunder game since he used ‘alacrity’ in that last telecast I mentioned here on the blog. I wonder if that was a Bridge Too Far for the culturally challenged who for some reason still watch these Thunder telecasts.

Matt Pinto seems to have taken the spot for the time being. I wonder if like Lincoln Riley…Chris Fisher is headed back to LA get his old radio job doing USC football and basketball. I wonder if him using ‘alacrity’ in the Proud Boy regional homebase was the last straw for him or was it the fact he constantly tried to explain to Michael Cage the Thunder occasionally foul just like every other team in the Association does from time to time.

I hope he’s okay either way. Nice kid. Wish him the best on his journey.

Gregg Popovich tanking…it breaks heart. Clearly…along with Bill Belichick…Pop has been the greatest head coach in any of the four major sports professional leagues since the advent of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

For both Belichick and Pop what this clearly illustrates is no coach is immune from the 1st Rule of Coaching…that being, ‘Player makes the Coach’.

The Thunder drop to 14-30 with thirty-eight games still having to be played to contractually fulfill their television obligations to be paid.

22-60 is my magic number. For me to hit that number the Thunder would need to go 8-30 down the stretch to hit a 22-60 season.

Considering the Thunder closed 2-23 in their last twenty-five games last season…I’m actually bullish the Thunder can lose that many games and get to the hallowed sixty loss plateau in an NBA regular season.

I think what I’ll do maybe tomorrow is highlight the five worst teams in NBA history. The Thunder aren’t anywhere near that type of history, but still…who are our five worst teams in NBA history?

A heartbreaking loss for OU last night in Norman as Bill Self’s Jayhawks found a way at the end to beat the Sooners 69-68 in Norman.

For the second straight game OU lost by a point in the last ten seconds following Saturday’s 59-58 loss to TCU in Fort Worth.

The Big 12 is brutal. Just ask defending champion Baylor which lost at home twice last week to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. The razor thin margin between winning and losing is like I’ve never witnessed before in this conference. Literally…when the smoke clears at the end of this season, minus O State which is banned from post season play this season, all nine teams can beat each other on any given night. Throw O State into that mix as well as they already have wins over Baylor and Texas.

OU desperately needs to get Ethan Chargois back on the floor because he’s the primary quality big man depth behind Tanner Grove. I don’t think it’s a surprise Tanner’s game has suffered the past two games not only due to heavier minutes, but the prospect he can’t play as aggressively with only five fouls to play with some of the country’s best talent opposing him on the floor.

I think at some Jacob Grove will have to be a small forward ask to play some big forward minutes even after the 6’9″ Ethan Chargois returns.

On a positive note…seldom used Awol Mawei played last night out of sheer necessity and chipped in five clutch points.

For the second straight game the Sooners let a six to eight-point lead get away from them in the back ten minutes of the game.

OU simply has to get better at closing games with the lead against nationally elite opponents.

This has nothing to do with effort, but more to do with gaining cohesion and experience as a group in how to close out games with the lead.

OU has to start winning some Big 12 games though as they now stand 2-4 one-third of the way through the Big 12 regular season.

There are no easy games on the horizon. Next up…the defending national champion Baylor Bears in Norman on Saturday.

Bill Self’s Jayhawks at one conference loss currently stand alone in first place in the Big 12.

Bill Self”’ if I were Sam Hinkie-Presti is a coach I would have on my short list if the Thunder at some point in the future decide on playing to win games rather than just develop players for the rest of the NBA.

I’ve always thought Coach Self’s personality would translate very well to a young NBA team on the rise. Plus..I think this market would love his demeanor. Not to mention the fact he’s a Jayhawk just like Nick Collison. I would assume or hope at some point…Nick Collison has a voice in decisions like this when the Thunder resume playing competitively legitimate basketball games.