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Dreams of having another big-time college event in Oklahoma City could take a giant step forward these next few days.

What is it? 

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Time to step up, Oklahoma City, and prove yourself big time.

Wait. Where have we heard that before? Oh, that’s right. The Ford Center renovation tax vote. If we want the NBA, we have to prove it.This weekend, Oklahoma City has something else to prove. The NCAA women’s basketball regional makes a four-day run at the Ford Center. Practices are Saturday and Monday. Games are Sunday and Tuesday. To the winner goes the ultimate spoil — a Women’s Final Four.

When someone suggested I talk to Daniel Bobik for The Q&A this week, I knew right away it would be good.

The former Oklahoma State guard is a talker.

And I mean that in a good way.

He doesn’t just talk to hear himself yammer. He is thoughtful and insightful. He has good stuff to say. Lots of good stuff. So much good stuff, in fact, that we couldn’t fit it all into the newspaper.

Here is The Q&A with Bobik in its entirety:

Jenni Carlson: Admit it — first two days of the tournament, you play hookie.

Daniel Bobik: Absolutely. That’s what we’re doing right now. Don’t tell anybody, we’re havin’ a barbecue.

JC: Are you even more into March Madness after having been a part?

DB: I watched it as a kid, but I never really understood the whole tournament bracket thing until I got done playing and started doing it myself. My cousin has a little family pool. There’s about 15 or 20 people in there. My first year that I was out, I won, and I was excited.

JC: So, who do you have winning this year?

DB: I’m pretty loyal to the Big 12. I kind of went out on a limb and had KU and
Texas in the Final Four. I was real impressed with both those teams in the Big 12 Tournament. I want the Big 12 to do well. I want all those teams to win.

JC: Kansas-Texas in the final. Who wins?

DB: KU. I think Bill Self’s an awesome coach. Most of those guys are juniors, have been around a couple years, and it’s about time that they win one because they have enough talent.

JC: So, can you unabashedly say you’re playing hookie because you work for a basketball team?

DB: I brought my barbecue grill from my yard. I put it in my neighbor’s truck, and I brought it downtown. We’re kind of working in the morning, then we stop for an hour or whatever to grill. We have turkey burgers and hamburgers and hot dogs. I was in charge of the grill and bringing hamburgers. Somebody else brought turkey and a side. Somebody else brought some soda. I cooked. I had my apron on.

JC: If you’re firing up the grill again, I’m thinking I know the way to
Tulsa. And I’m good at deviled eggs.DB: Deal. Bring it.

JC: Seriously, though, tell me what being the director of ticket sales for the 66ers means?DB: When I was in
Germany and I decided to be done playing … the team offered me a contract for a second year, but I realized it just wasn’t for me. I felt like I needed to come back to
Oklahoma. Really felt like this was home because my wife and I had such a great experience in
Stillwater.

I took a job with the Bank of Oklahoma, and six months later, they did some laying off. And the week before Christmas, I was laid off. We decided that we wanted to stay here in
Oklahoma. The 66ers … they actually contacted me. I wasn’t thinking about getting into the business side of basketball. Took a lot less money to do this, but I felt like it was an opportunity for me to learn the business side and be around a sport that I love. As a basketball player, they tell you to show up and such and such a time, and you go out there and you play and that’s pretty much it. But there’s so much more that goes into a basketball game. It’s a business. Unless you’re doing it on a day to day basis, you don’t understand it.

JC: So, is this a first step toward something down the road?DB: I used to think that I wanted to get closer to the basketball side. I’m talking basketball all the time. I’m talking about the team. But I’m not really around it. I’m not really at practice. I’m not really around the players a lot. I thought at one point I wanted to switch over more to the basketball operations side and maybe become a general manager in the NBA. But then just recently I realized the sacrifice that I’m going to have to make to get there. I’m basically going to have to sacrifice my family for my career in the sense that to be a general manager in the NBA the next step is to become a scout and you’re out on the road all the time. There’s no stability, and it’s kind of crazy. I realized the business side … allows you to live somewhat more of a normal lifestyle which is the balance I’m trying to find. I love my family, and I want to be around them, and I want to watch my kids grow up. But I still have a passion about sports and want to be around sports. Recently, I’ve thought that I want to get back into college and maybe do the athletic administration route. Maybe become an athletic director some day.

JC: OK, back to the NCAA Tournament. True or false: you blocked that shot at the end of that Elite Eight game.DB: No comment.

JC: C’mon.DB: The answer’s absolutely yes, but that’s not the right answer. At the time, I thought that I did, but then I looked at different pictures. I did not, to be real honest.

JC: But you thought you did that night.DB: Absolutely. I totally thought that I did. I thought I got a finger on it. I knew that I challenged it really hard and was five inches or six inches taller than the guy, so I figured that I was pretty close to it. But I didn’t let him go to the basket and I didn’t foul him. I kept him in front of me, and I made him take a tough shot. Let’s just leave it at that, OK?

JC: And you won the game. Need you say anymore?DB: Yeah, right.

JC: An even more pressing question. Who was more popular after that tournament, you or the Bobik sisters?

DB: Oh, man, Natalie and Kristi were far more popular than I’ve ever dreamed of being.

JC: Funny that neither of your wife or her sister were Bobiks by birth.

DB: That’s whereOklahoma
Statewas good for me and my family. The fact that she had such an awesome experience and was part of that — and Jaxton as well — it just made the whole thing special for our family.

JC: Any more Bobik munchkins running around?

DB: We have a little girl. Her name is Blaykli. She was born in
Germany about two months before the season got over. She’ll be 2 on March 31.

JC: And how old is Jaxton?

DB: Jaxton is 5½. He just started kindergarten. Crazy. He was six weeks old when I got here that season I redshirted.

JC: That has to be weird.

DB: It’s really weird, especially when I’m watching the tournament and realizing just four or five years ago I was in college. I’m growing up. I think I’m the only guy that has a “real job” that I graduated with. Ivan’s playing overseas, and John Lucas, he’s bouncing around but still playing, and the Graham twins, and Terrence Crawford’s playing in the D-League somewhere. I think I’m the only guy that’s hung it up and said, “It was good to me and how can I take advantage of that?”

But I wouldn’t trade any of it. I think that’s what made my situation unique that my family was a part of it. Natalie and Jaxton, we have all these pictures and things. It means a lot to us.

JC: What are you going to tell the kiddos about when their dad played in the NCAA Tournament?

DB: When I was in high school, my dad found an NCAA watch from the early 90s at a pawn shop. I thought that was the coolest thing. I used to wear that around. In fact, it was a Final Four watch now that I think of it. Now, I have one of my own. Who knows? Maybe Jaxton will wear that around some day. I’ll let him know how much fun it was. But it’s hard work. You’re making sacrifices to be a part of the team. I’m going to tell him it was a lot of fun, but it was a lot of hard work. It’s some of the best memories I have because I had a goal and a talent and developed my talent. It gave me a lot of opportunities to experience great things.

The future of a Sutton is up in the air.

And it’s not the one everyone is talking about.

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There’s a coach by the name of Sutton who just about everyone believes might be on his last leg at his current school.

Yep, Scott Sutton could be leaving Oral Roberts.

The future of Sean Sutton as Oklahoma State’s coach has become a hot topic in recent days, but his brother’s future at ORU is no less a topic among Golden Eagle faithful. This season, ORU made it to the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive year. And any time a coach has success at a smaller Division-I school, the bigger Division-I schools always seem to come calling.

Scott Sutton has already received an strong overture from Wichita State. There may have been others. There are bound to be more.

It’s a fact that tears at ORU mega fan Terry Blain.

“We realize we can’t pay Scott like some schools do,” Blain told me earlier this week. “We realize we may only have him a few more years. Or we may have him for a long time.”

Blain makes a good point — it’s difficult to guess who long Scott Sutton will stay at ORU.

No doubt there are bigger programs with higher profiles and larger budgets. Then again, do those dollar signs equate to more happiness? Scott Sutton has plenty of reasons to not believe it.

Barry Hinson, who was the ORU coach before Sutton, moved on to Missouri State but was fired this season. Then, there’s the saga with Scott’s brother Sean. After only two years as the OSU head coach, there are calls for his head.

Scott could lose eight, 10, 12 games at ORU and no one would be calling for his head. Going to NCAA Tournaments with some regularity is all that matters. And even if the NCAA bids dried up for awhile, it’s still hard to believe that ORU folks would want to push Sutton out the door.

Blain, the big ORU fan, told me that Scott “really is the perfect coach for ORU.”

So, maybe these are the last days for Scott Sutton at ORU. Then again, he might just stick around awhile. After all, coaches know how rare it is to find a job that they love at a place where people love them back.

The dominance continues.

It’s not North Carolina or Kansas, Memphis or UCLA on the hardwood either.

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Oh, the madness.

The crazy, wacky, wild madness.

And we’re not talking about the kind with that large, leather sphere. We’re talking about the kind involving a man named Tiger.

Lost a bit amongst the roundball rowdiness are the latest exploits of Tiger Woods. The greatest golfer that ever did trod our earthly sod won again on Sunday.

Get this: he’s got a winning streak.

A winning streak.

In the world of golf, that’s unheard of. Sure, basketball teams have winning streaks. The Houston Rockets have won 22 games and counting. Football teams have winning streaks, too. Perhaps you heard that the New England Patriots won 18 games in a row last season before losing in the Super Bowl.

But professional golf is not one of those sports where winning streaks are even talked about. If a player wins in back-to-back starts, that’s often a career highlight. Heck, one single, solitary win can make most careers.

Then again, those standards are for mere mortals. Tiger Woods is not mortal. How can he be? The guy has won has last five starts. Five in a row.

Only the great Ben Hogan has ever had longer streaks. He won six in a row at one point, a record that seems sure to fall the next couple times Woods laces up the spikes. Then, there’s Hogan’s seemingly untouchable streak of 11 consecutive wins. It’s seemingly untouchable no more, not with Tiger Woods on the prowl.

Tiger could run the table, win every tournament he plays this season. Crazy, you think? Madness, you cry?

The madness reigns every month of the year when it comes to Tiger Woods.

It’s March.

What’s not to love?

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Ah, March Madness.

Ain’t life grand?

Sorry if I seem a bit sentimental about this time of year, but there is nothing in sports quite like March Madness. The bracket. The games. The upsets. The one shining moments.

March Madness begins in earnest this weekend with Selection Sunday. Then by the end of next week, the games will begin.

Is there anything better than the first two days of the tournament? Thursday and Friday. The games start before noon and don’t end until midnight. You can watch the start in your pajamas and the end in your pajamas. And I guess if you’re lucky enough, you can just leave your pajamas on all day, never leave the house and watch ball all day.

The great thing about March Madness is that it offers something for everyone. Die-hard sports fans love March Madness, but so do folks who don’t know the difference between Duke and Duquesne.

The tournament becomes the talk of the nation for three weeks. It’s the single greatest stretch on the sports calendar.

There are better single days, of course. The Super Bowl, namely. But at no other time do you have one sporting event hold our interest like March Madness.

And it really doesn’t matter how good the basketball is. There can be a ton of upsets. There can be none. Doesn’t really matter. Everyone loves March Madness from the announcement of the first bracket through all the live look-ins at random regional sites to that final game.

So, forgive me if I get a little sentimental about March Madness. It’s only the most wonderful time of the year.

Finally, there are some signs of sanity in the Seattle Sonics saga.

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Someone in the state of Washington state finally came to their senses.

Maybe others will follow suit seeing as how it was the governor who had the epiphany.

Seems as though the governor met late last week with Clay Bennett, front man for the Sonics ownership group. She came away from the meeting with a revelation. The Sonics aren’t for sale.

“At some point,” she said, “we have to accept that.”

About darn time someone in the Pacific Northwest did.

A high-powered group of local investors made it known last week that it wants to buy the team and cover half of the $300 million price tag on KeyArena renovations. The group includes high rollers such as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and wireless magnate John Stanton. No doubt they could throw a big chunk of change at Bennett and the Boys. There has been a prevailing thought in Seattle that this group could buy the Sonics, thereby keeping the franchise in town and opening the door for the current owners to buy another team.

The Grizzlies perhaps. Maybe even the Hornets.

Here’s the thing, NBA franchises aren’t a dime a dozen. There are a very limited number of them, and very few, if any, are going to be for sale at any given time. There would be no guarantees for Bennett and the other owners if they sold the Sonics. They might be able to buy another franchise. Then again, they might not.

The other issue is that even in the short time they’ve owned the franchise, the Sonics have improved their outlook. Sure, they aren’t winning much now, but they have two great rookies in Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. They also have worked deals that will bring all sorts of first-round draft picks over the next few years.

The future of the franchise looks brighter than ever.

Why would Bennett and the Boys sell?

Seems silly from where I’m sitting, and maybe the good folks in Washington are starting to realize as much, too.

They might finally have a viable ownership group for an NBA team. Chances are, though, that team won’t be the owned by Bennett and Company.

Oklahoma State in the NCAA Tournament?

Could be.

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The Oklahoma State men’s basketball team finds itself on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

And the Cowboys couldn’t be happier.

Only a couple weeks ago, they weren’t just out of the NCAA Tournament discussion. They were out of the NIT discussion, too.

Now, after five consecutive wins and six wins in the past seven games, they’re on the NCAA bubble. It’s the far edge of the bubble where they have to hold on by a fingernail, but still, they’ve managed to get their hooks into it.

So, what now?

Lots of folks believe that the Cowboys have to win their last two regular season games, then win at least a couple games in the Big 12 tournament.

I’m not so sure.

OSU finishes the regular season this week with games at home against Oklahoma, then on the road at Texas. Do the Cowboys need to win both to keep any NCAA Tournament hopes alive?

Maybe not.

Consider this: Let’s say OSU wins Bedlam in Stillwater, then loses in Austin. Then, the Cowboys go to Kansas City and win a couple games before losing to a top-seed team such as Kansas or Texas. That would mean that the Cowboys would have won eight of their last 10 games, including home wins against Kansas and Oklahoma as well as road wins against Texas A&M and Missouri. And their losses during that closing stretch would be to potential No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

That’s a pretty darn good resume to put in front of the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

Now, would it help the Cowboys to win at Texas, then beat a team like Kansas in the conference tournament? Absolutely. I’m just not sure it’s a necessity.

Besides, this is a season without a bunch of slam-dunk at-large teams. The mid-major conferences, which have supplied an increasing number of at-large births over the past few years, aren’t as strong this season. Teams from major conferences that might never have gotten into the tournament in other years will make it this season.

So it could be for OSU. Work definitely remains for the Cowboys, but they’ve got a great opportunity to make the NCAA Tournament, even if they aren’t perfect the rest of the season.

Spring football makes its return this week.

Yawn.

Sort of.

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It’s heresy to say in this state, but I could do without spring football.

Oh, I know. It’s football. What’s not to love?

But so often the heroes of spring are never heard from again. If starters are the least bit injured, they will sit out the spring, allowing for reserves to shine. They’re lauded. They’re loved. Then when the fall begins and the starters return, they’re lost.

It all seems worthless.

But not this year. The spring will be worth it if only for one player.

Artrell Woods.

You remember, the Oklahoma State receiver was seriously injured in a freak weight room accident last summer. He needed emergency surgery to repair a dislocated vertebra in his back. That’s every bit as serious an injury as it sounds.

Now, less than eight months later, Woods is on the verge of returning to the football field. He was cleared to start jogging and running again in January. When the Cowboys start spring drills, Woods won’t be allowed to participate in any contact drills, but he will run routes and work with the receivers during individual sessions.

Amazing.

Woods’ return is perhaps the most amazing sports story we’ve ever seen in our fair state. Sure, Jason White came back from two knee surgeries to win the Heisman Trophy. That’s pretty amazing in its own right. Still, Woods had no feeling in his legs after the accident. There was paralysis. But next week, he’ll be back on the football field.

That makes spring football this year more than bearable this year. It will make it down right enjoyable.

Want to know more about the Cowboys and the Sooners as they prepare for spring drills? Check out Sunday’s Oklahoman, then make sure you don’t miss our Main Event on Monday, which will be dedicated to spring football.