Here’s your turn
OK, friends. Here’s your turn to say what you’d like to see in the paper. We’ve been given an assignment by our sports editor: 50 major story ideas we should do in the next six months and 10 things to improve our sports section.
Mike Baldwin and myself leave today driving to Des Moines, Iowa, for the OSU women’s regional, and we’re going to take that time to brainstorm. But we would like your ideas, too.
High school, college, NBA, doesn’t matter. Anything that interests you, give us some ideas. The more specific, the better. So while I’ll take a look at something like “More NASCAR coverage,” something like “How NASCAR fans support the sponsors of their favorite teams” is much better. Or instead of “more wrestling coverage,” something like “How weight pulling has been made easier by the higher weight classifications.”
I promise we’ll consider any reasonable idea.
Just email me at btramel@oklahoman.com. I’d prefer that to posting on the blog, although you certainly can do that, too.
Now the Sean watch begins
Rumors flew all weekend over Sean Sutton’s future and they will fly again now that OSU’s basketball season is over, and when people asked me what will happen, I truthfully say: I have no idea.
Here’s what I do know and believe. I know that Mike Holder said he would talk with Sean Sutton after the season is over, and I know that Holder said it would be apparent what kind of job Sean has done.
Based on basketball, Sean deserves to be the coach at OSU. The season was disappointing but, taken as a whole, not surprising. The Cowboys were 17-16 overall, which is really not acceptable, but their Big 12 record, 7-9, was about where you figured State would finish.
And the five-game winning streak late in the year, fueled by Byron Eaton’s ascension, truly salvaged the season. There is great optimism for next year, when OSU figures to be one of the top four teams in the conference.
So if basketball is the only criteria, Sean deserves one more year.
If other things are factored in, then all bets are off. The Holder/Sutton relationship is interesting; you hear all kinds of stories and it’s best to not believe all kinds of stories. But I do think there is no strong bond there, based on a variety of things, from each man’s personality to the Eddie Sutton/Holder relationship.
Most people like Sean and hope he succeeds and want him to stay on. But this much is true. The time for turnaround is now. OSU has gone three straight seasons without an NCAA Tournament berth, and that’s dangerous ground. That’s flirting with your program falling back into mediocrity. 2005 seems a long time ago.
If Sean returns, there are no questions next season. It’s produce or else.
Possible danger for OKC
The NCAA women’s basketball committee seeded OU fourth and OSU third, and it’s the Cowgirls who got shafted. In women’s hoops, it’s not where you’re seeded that’s nearly as important as who might play and where.
OSU Kurt Budke said it best Saturday night when he told me he would rather be a six-seed, with a chance to make it to the Ford Center regional, than be a three-seed and go elsewhere. Like to New Orleans and face LSU.
That’s the Cowgirls’ reward if they beat East Tennessee State and probably Ohio State in the Des Moines, Iowa, sub regional. A game against a school with four straight Final Four trips, getting to play 70 miles from home.
Meanwhile, a team that seems in free fall, the Sooners, get a chance to play in the Ford Center, albeit against Tennessee, which seemed a dubious task for OU even when it was playing well. Which the Sooners now aren’t.
All of which means the NCAA might have shafted OKC as much as OSU. OU against Notre Dame, the likely second-round matchup in West Lafayette, Ind., is a tossup, the way the Sooners have been playing. Don’t believe it? In the RPI, the mystical rankings that at least provide a decent gauge of a team’s stoutness, OU is 13th. Notre Dame is 14th.
The Irish have a coach, Muffet McGraw, who has won a national championship. They come from a league, the Big East, that has Connecticut and Rutgers, so they’ve been around big bullies. And the Irish will be playing 151 miles from home, within their state.
So it’s no given that OU will make it to Oklahoma City. No given at all. Most everyone was hoping that both the Sooners and Cowgirls were placed in the OKC Regional, but the truth is, OSU provides the better chance of making the Sweet 16.
The OKC Regional will not be a dud even if the Sooners lose in West Lafayette. Advance ticket sales are strong, and there are enough women’s basketball fans to get fired up about Tennessee, although truthfully Texas A&M and Duke don’t excite anyone. You want a 2-seed that will sell tickets, how about Rutgers? You want a 3-seed that gets people talking, how about Kim Mulkey’s Baylor Bears?
Now, if OU can survive Notre Dame, then an Oklahoma-Tennessee game would sell out the Ford Center, no doubt about it. But I would say an OSU-Tennessee game would have sold out, too. And Budke would admit he’d rather play Tennessee in OKC than LSU in New Orleans.
And OSU has a better chance of making the Sweet 16 than does OU, simply based on how the teams played down the stretch.
Why did the committee keep OU home and ship out the Cowgirls? I would say it has to do with establishment. The Sooners have become one of the main-line women’s basketball schools. OSU is an upstart. That’s sort of the way this sport is run. Just look at the site advantages almost always afforded the traditional powers. That’s unfortunate for OSU. It might be unfortunate for Oklahoma City.
Picking the NCAA field
I know no one is going to believe me, and my evidence bin is a little on the lean side, but I aced the 65-team field Sunday when the NCAA bracket was announced.
Let me explain. My colleague, Scott Wright, and I drove home — well, he drove, I rode — from Kansas City on Sunday morning, and we passed the time by picking the NCAA Tournament field. We didn’t fill out all the sites; we just picked the field, giving seeds. Four No. 1’s, four No. 2’s, and so on.
And we got all 65 teams. I wish I had had Internet access, I would have blogged it, then you could believe me. As is, you’ll have to take Scott’s word for it, and he’s an upstanding guy.
But a couple of things. First, I’m not bucking for one of those bracketology jobs on ESPN or somewhere. Because those guys’ insights and opinions are what helped shape mine. I didn’t analyze Oregon’s schedule and figure the Ducks would make it, and I didn’t analyze Virginia Tech’s and figure the Hokies wouldn’t. I listened to Joe Lunardi repeatedly over the past few days, and then the guys who tried to counter him, and I culled out what made sense to me.
Second, it wasn’t that difficult. You know how all we’ve heard for the last few weeks is that the teams on the bubble weren’t very qualified, that unlike most years, when the committee has a bunch of good teams and looks for a reason to knock someone off, this year the committee had a bunch of mediocre teams and looked for a reason to put someone in? It was true.
To my way of thinking, there were 19 teams that 100 percent cinches to get one of the 34 at-large berths. And there were 10 more who were very likely to make it: BYU, West Virginia, Kentucky, Baylor, Texas A&M, Kansas State, Miami, Mississippi State, Purdue and St. Mary’s. The reason I didn’t include Purdue as a cinch was its RPI (45th, a level at which you never know).
Anyway, Purdue got a six-seed, so the committee was indeed sold on the Boilermakers, but the others were down near the bottom of the committee’s selections: Kentucky, Baylor and KSU were 11 seeds; Miami and West Virginia were 7’s; BYU was an 8; A&M a 9; St. Mary’s was a 10.
That was the easy part, and that left five open slots, after Georgia beat Arkansas. Here’s who I went with:
Arizona, because it was 36 in the RPI and had a non-conference schedule that was out of sight; South Alabama, because its record was so good, 24-6, and its RPI was still high, 38; St. Joseph’s, because the Hawks beat Xavier twice in the last week and the Atlantic-10 provided a solid schedule; Villanova, despite a 51 RPI, because it had a bunch of good win; and finally Oregon, despite a 58 RPI because I figured the committee would pick a sixth Pac-10 team, and I didn’t think it would be Arizona State.
Truthfully, it wasn’t that difficult. Now, had Georgia lost on Sunday, I had UMass in, because I believe in the A-10, but that might have been the one to get me. The committee might have gone for Ohio State or Virginia Tech or somebody.
The seeds of my last five were basically down at the bottom of the committee’s, with the exception of Oregon, which got a 9-seed. Villanova is a 12, the worst-seeded at-large team. Arizona and South Alabama were 10-seeds; St. Joe’s an 11, where it will play Oklahoma.
As far as the seedings go, I was close, for the most part.
I got all the No. 1’s right. Same with the No. 2’s and the No. 3’s. Like I said, this was an easy year to figure out.
I was thrown a few curveballs at No. 4. I got Pitt right, but the committee didn’t think so highly of Drake (5), Michigan State (5) or Butler (7). I don’t know why they had Butler so low.
At No. 5, I got Clemson right, but the committee liked UConn (4) and Vanderbilt (4) better, but what I didn’t see coming was the penalization of Indiana, all the way to an 8-seed. I believe the committee counted the late-season swoon after Kelvin Sampson’s resignation against the Hoosiers, the way they would an injured player. Indiana fell all the way to an 8.
At No. 6, I had Marquette spot on, but Gonzaga (7) and Notre Dame (5) were just off, and the committee loved Washington State (4).
No. 7, I had OU and USC a spot too low, while Arkansas and Kent State were given 9-seeds.
No. 8, I aced BYU and UNLV, but West Virginia was a 7-seed and St. Mary’s a 10.
No. 9, I had Purdue was too low, but Texas A&M just right. Miami was a 7 and Arizona a 10.
No. 10, I aced Arizona, but Kansas State and Baylor were 11’s, and Mississipppi State was an 8.
No. 11, I aced St. Joe’s, but South Alabama was a 10, Oregon a 9 and Villanova a 12.
No. 12, I aced Western Kentucky and Temple, while Georgia was a 14 (surely the worst in power-conference history) and Davidson a 10.
No. 13, I aced Oral Roberts and Siena, while Cornell was a 14 and George Mason a 12.
No. 14, I aced Boise State and Cal State-Fullerton, while Belmont and Austin Peay were 15’s.
No. 15, I aced American, while Winthrop and San Diego were 13’s, and Portland State a 16.
No. 16, I aced the play-in game, Coppin State vs. Mount St. Mary’s, plus Texas-Arlington and Mississippi Valley State, but Maryland-Baltimore County was a 15.
All in all, I was pleased. It certainly gave me a feel for the bracket, when it was announced, and I could tell quickly that Baylor was in trouble. Turns out the Bears were the last team in, but those bubble berths filled up quickly — St. Joe’s, South Alabama and Villanova were in the first 24 teams announced. It had to be a long wait in Waco.
Sooners get a good draw
OU’s No. 6 seed is a very good draw for the Sooners. Look at it this way. At the end of the day, there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference in the Big 12 standings between Kansas State, OU, Baylor and Texas A&M, which were seeded 3-4-5-6 in the Big 12 Tournament. KSU finished 10-6 in conference, but the others were 9-7, and KSU had the easier road because it was in the North.
Yet the NCAA seeds for those Big 12 teams were: 6-OU; 8-A&M; 11-Kansas State; 11-Baylor.
The reason is clear. Non-conference schedule. The Sooners in non-conference beat Gonzaga at the Ford Center, Arkansas at Lloyd Noble Center and West Virginia in Charleston, W.Va. They also lost to Memphis in New York, USC in Los Angeles and Stephen F. Austin in Norman. SFA turned out to be a solid team, which means that wasn’t a bad loss. A tough schedule carried the Sooners.
As for the seed, though, OU isn’t much better off. Here are the opponents of the Big 12 quartet below Kansas and Texas: Purdue, USC, BYU and St. Joseph’s. You’d probably rather draw Brigham Young or St. Joe’s, but any more, a 6-11 matchup is about as much a tossup as the 7-10 and 8-9 draws.
If the Sooners survive St. Joe’s, Louisville almost surely awaits, and there’s nothing easy about that. I would rank Louisville the best of the 3-seeds (Xavier, Stanford and Wisconsin are the others). Very, very tough matchup for OU.
But that’s what the NCAA Tournament is all about. Tough matchups.
Foul Micheaux
Andrea Riley just committed a turnover, so OSU is down two, A&M has the ball and 42.8 seconds remain. Here’s my plan for OSU: foul Aggie center La Toya Micheaux. She’s 0-for-2 from the line and has terrible form.
Do you shoot the 3?
OSU trails 58-56 with 47.6 seconds left and has the ball. Do you shoot the 3-pointer? I say no, unless Andrea Riley or Danielle Green get a wide-open look. No reason to try to win the game now. Try to get the best shot possible.
Huge mistake
A&M just took a 58-54 lead on Putnam West grad Danielle Gant’s 3-point play with 1:38 left, and OSU’s Maria Cordero made a huge mistake. Cordero gingerly fouled Gant as she went up for the layup. The mistake was not in fouling. The mistake was in not fouling Gant hard. You can’t give up a free basket with less than two minutes left.
Hello, Miss Riley
If you’re watching at home, yes, Andrea Riley in person is taking over this game just like your television set is showing she is. Four straight baskets on four straight possessions. Two straight steals on the A&M perimeter. She’s about to go to the foul line with a chance to erase OSU’s 53-52 deficit, with 3:07 remaining.
These are the best two teams in the Big 12, and they are putting on a show in the league title game. Riley, with 23 points and counting, is making her case for Big 12 player of the year, which went to Courtney Paris but might be in jeopardy if there was a recount.
Big swing
Games can turn in just a few seconds. We might have seen just such a swing in the OSU-A&M game. The Cowgirls had crawled back to within 43-41, and OSU’s Taylor Hardeman blocked an inside shot by Patrice Reado.
With a chance to tie, OSU’s Andrea Riley tossed up a pullup jumper. It was a good shot. It just rolled off. A&M came down and cold-blooded point guard A’Quonesia Franklin hit a 3-point shot. Suddenly, the Cowgirls trailed by five instead of being tied.
It’s hard to play from behind all night long, and when you get a chance to get even, teams need to take advantage. Those opportunities don’t always come back.
