How high can Sooners surge?
The gals wearing burnt orange walked into the postgame press conference looking glassy-eyed.
A 20-point loss tends to have that effect, but there was something different in those looks after what the Oklahoma women’s basketball team did to Texas on Sunday afternoon. Sure, the Longhorns knew they were facing a good team. Sure, they knew the task of winning in Norman was a big one.
But you could tell — they had no idea just how good the Sooners are.
And we’re starting to see that these Sooners are very, very good.
They have emerged as the clear favorite in the Big 12, though a tough road game at Baylor looms later this week. But if OU wins in Waco, then on Saturday against Missouri, it will set up a game with monster ramifications.
Tennessee comes to town next Monday.
The Volunteers are the gold standard in women’s college basketball. They have championships. They have prestige. They have the best coach in the game. They are the program by which every other one is measured.
Sure, this season, Connecticut is in a class by itself, but even the Huskies have to measure themselves against the Vols.
The Sooners will have a chance to do the same next week. OU has played Tennessee three times, all coming since 2003 and the Sherri Coale-led resurgence of the program. The Vols have won all three games, and they’ve won by an average of 15 points. Had it not been for a three-point game last season, the average margin would’ve been much, much bigger.
The Sooners should change their losing ways this time around. OU is better than Tennessee. The rankings say so. The eye test says so. The Vols are rebuilding after losing Candace Parker and a talented senior class. The Sooners have Courtney Paris and a talented senior class now.
Beat the Vols, and the Sooners will signal that they’re not only the favorite in the Big 12 but also a favorite for the Final Four.
Beat the Vols badly, and the Sooners might just signal that they are the challenger for Connecticut, the team everyone is shooting to beat but is struggling to keep within 20 points.
If that happens, it’ll be the gals in the Tennessee orange who will be looking all glassy-eyed.
More from The Q&A: Bill Young
Bill Young had spent nearly three decades coaching football when he finally got a shot at the big time.
The NFL.
The man recently hired as Oklahoma State’s new defensive coordinator joined the Detroit Lions in 2001. He had just completed stints at Ohio State, Oklahoma and Southern Cal, so a jump to the NFL seemed a likely next step. But Young stayed just one season in Detroit.
Why?
Young and I talked about that Friday afternoon after I initially asked him about his early experiences in high school coaching. His first paying job was at Carl Albert, his second at Putnam West, not far from his alma mater, U.S. Grant.
Jenni Carlson: Did you ever want to go back and coach at your alma mater, at Grant?
Bill Young: You know, I think that was an ambition of mine, especially when I was an assistant in high school. Then, once I got into college, I really got into that and figured that was the direction I wanted to go.
JC: Having said that, you spent just one season in the NFL. Was the pro game not your cup of tea?
BY: I had a two-year contract, and they were nice enough to let me out of the second year. The whole reason was I just enjoyed the college players much better. You’re talking to a young guy and coaching him up, and you tell him something, and it may be the first or second time he’s heard it. In the National Football League, they’ve heard it a thousand times. The eagerness, they’re like sponges, college players are. You just feel like you’re more involved.
JC: Did you know pretty quickly the NFL wasn’t for you?
BY: Not really. It took a little while. I enjoyed it. I could do that, too.
Thunder coach deserves job
Sam Presti needs to pull the trigger now; take the interim tag off Scott Brooks’ title.
The Thunder head coach deserves to have the job outright. No waiting to see how the rest of the year goes. No letting the season play out before giving Brooks the job for real and true.
After all, everyone knows that every NBA coach’s status is really day-to-day anyway. Any of them could be fired or quit or leave at any time.
So come on, Sam. You’re the Thunder GM. Make Brooks your coach.
Truth is, it might have been something the Thunder folks wanted to do more than a year ago. Back when the Thunder were still the Sonics and still playing in the Pacific Northwest, they needed a coach. Thing is, this was the same time that the franchise needed a GM. And, oh by the way, the team was also under the new ownership with the Clay Bennett-led crew.
So, you had a new owner looking for a new GM and a new coach.
Bennett and Co. tagged Presti as the GM, a somewhat daring move considering he was only 30 years old at the time. He came in with solid credentials, but still, giving over the keys to the franchise’s future to someone so young was bold and risky.
Maybe that’s why the team went the opposite direction with its coach. The franchise tagged P.J. Carlesimo, a grizzled coaching veteran.
Brooks, though, was in the mix. He was one of the candidates who got a serious look. Heck, he nearly got the job in Sacramento a few years earlier. But I’m sure somewhere along the way, someone with the franchise decided it was just too risky to have a first-time owner, general manager and coach all at the same time.
So, why not do now what the team just couldn’t pull the trigger on then?
Make Brooks the coach. Period.
Brooks, after all, has taken largely the same cast of characters who looked like an NBA jayvee team under Carlesimo and turned them into a solid bunch. The Thunder has won four of its last six games, a streak that would’ve seemed impossible only a month or so ago.
Brooks deserves the job, one that it’s looking more and more like he was qualified for when the franchise cared more about his experience than his ability.
Local athlete needs your help
On several occasions, I’ve written about Caleb Spady.
The first time was a column back in the fall when the Hinton boy had a Make-A-Wish day with the Texas Rangers. Since then, I’ve had the good fortune to write about the care package he received during the Major League Baseball playoffs from fellow Caddo County native Reggie Willits as well as several blogs about Caleb’s battle with brain cancer.
I consider it a privilege each and every time I can write about him. Because of his strength and his faith, this little boy has brought so much inspiration to everyone who knows his story.
Well, now it’s time to return the favor.
Today is Caleb’s 11th birthday. He recently told his mom that he didn’t want a big to-do or anything but that he wouldn’t mind getting birthday cards.
Even though it will get to Caleb a little late, I hope you’ll send him a birthday card today.
(His mom, Kim, shared their address on her blog, so I hope she won’t mind me sharing it here: Box 308, Hinton, OK 73047.)
Just in case you need evidence of what kind of kid Caleb is, he and his class at Hinton raised money for Just One More Day for Love, Hope & A Cure (www.justonemoreday.org), a non-profit corporation dedicated to finding a cure for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma and to supporting the families of children like Caleb who have the disease. It is an inoperable form of cancer because the cells are sprinkled within the brain stem.
Caleb’s class raised $500 by selling “Pray for Caleb” wristbands.
Way to go!
As a reward, the class got a visit earlier this week from Pistol Pete; Caleb and his entire family are huge Oklahoma State fans.
Caleb’s mom e-mailed me about the festivities: “The devotion of Caleb’s classmates to finding a cure, and their level of innocence, was brought home to me when one of his best friends told me, ‘I can’t wait until we send in the money we raised for research. Then they’ll find a cure for Caleb’s brain tumor!’”
Rest assured, that will be my birthday wish for Caleb.
Dom Franks, meet Larry Birdine
So, Dom Franks went a little Larry Birdine on everyone Sunday.
You remember Birdine spouting off a few years ago. The Oklahoma defensive end said some things before the national championship game against Southern Cal that ended up looking down right silly after the Trojans blitzkrieged the Sooners.
Fast forward four years. Franks, a normally calm and collected defensive back, stepped out on a limb Sunday and said Florida signal caller Tim Tebow would’ve been the fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12 this season.
Truth is, you could make that argument with Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Graham Harrell.
But the other truth is, that is big-time bulletin board material for the Gators.
Listen, I’ll be the first to say that bulletin board material isn’t worth squat once the game starts. Winning and losing comes down to blocking and tackling, Xs and Os, not something someone said four days before the game.
Heck, the Gators have been offering up their own bulletin board material before they even secured a spot in the national championship game. Everyone from coaches to stars to reserves has offered up their two cents.
Am I surprised Franks said what he said? Frankly, I’m surprised a Sooner hadn’t popped off before.
But here’s where things get tricky — the Sooners haven’t won a BCS game since these current players were in middle school. Not a national championship game. A BCS game. The program’s BCS swoon is well-documented, so comments like Franks’ look worse than they are.
All that changes if the Sooners back up what he said. If they go out Thursday night in Miami and win the ball game, all of this talk becomes mute. If they stop the slide and claim the title, that will be the focus.
But if they don’t, then things like Franks’ comments will be remembered and re-hashed.
Franks wasn’t foolish for saying what he did, but he’ll look that way if the Sooners lose on Thursday.
More from The Q&A: Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook is in the running for a spot in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
As the Thunder rookie talked about in The Q&A today, he’s still a relative newcomer to the dunking world — he’s only been dunking since his senior year of high school — and yet, he is already one of the more dynamic dunkers in the NBA.
He’s a big fan of the dunk, too.
Jenni Carlson: Top three dunks of all time.
Russell Westbrook: I liked the
JC: What about your best three dunks?
RW: I had one in high school. It was a fast-break. A guy tried to take a charge, and when a guy takes a charge and you hit ‘em, sometimes you go up another level. So, I hit him and I went up another level, so it looked real nice. Then, the two I had in college last year. The
JC: Which of the college ones do you like best?
RW: I’d probably have to say the Cal one.
JC: CBS still uses a dunk of yours in its college basketball lead-in.
RW: I still couldn’t dunk then. As I’ve gotten older, my legs have gotten better. I always used to work out on my legs, but I never saw nothing. Nothing every shows up. Eventually … I started jumping higher.
Predictions for the New Year
Just a quick post to say best wishes to everyone in 2009.
My bold prediction for 2009 — made earlier this week on The Press Row — is that the Thunder are going to make a significant off-season move. Not sure who it will be, but I believe that either by trade or by free-agent acquisition, the franchise is going to bring in someone who can really help in coming years.
Why?
The move to bring in Nenad Krstic is a sign to me that the Thunder is willing to spend money on players. We won’t know for awhile how much Krstic will help, but the willingness to do something is encouraging.
So, what’s your bold prediction for 2009? Let it be known. Post it.
Cowboys make quite a statement
Let’s take a little trip back in time. It’s not a long journey. Just a few months.
Perhaps you’ll remember the talk before this football season about Oklahoma State. The Cowboys looked like they were going to be better with an experienced offense and an improving defense. But where were the wins going to come from? There were tons of tough games on the road and plenty more tough ones at home.
Most pundits and prognosticators, yours truly included, figured six or seven wins might be the best-case scenario for this team.
Now, on the eve of the Holiday Bowl, the Cowboys have a chance to win 10 games for the first time in a long time.
The 10-win plateau is quite an accomplishment in and of itself. It’s one of those high water marks in sports. If a college football team wins 10 games in a season, it’s had a darn good year.
And that’s what the Cowboys have had.
But it’s been made all the more impressive by how much this team has exceeded expectations. That is no easy task playing in the Big 12, and it’s even more difficult when you’re in the South Division. OSU didn’t just survive the minefield. It thrived there. The Cowboys scored a big win at Missouri, they gave Texas all it wanted in Austin, and they left no doubt who was better against Texas A&M.
Sure, work remains. Texas Tech and Oklahoma scored big-time beat-downs against OSU, but the Cowboys are making great strides.
Beating Oregon on Tuesday would be another one.
Win or lose, the result won’t change the fact that OSU has had a banner season, and yet, getting that 10th win would be a just reward for a job well done.
It would be the exclamation mark on a season that has already made quite a statement.
Sidekick to Slingin’ Sam
You might have seen his face or heard his name a week or so ago when Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy.
Kelsey Cline was part of the Oklahoma quarterback’s traveling party. Some of you may have wondered who he is. Others may have wondered where you’d heard that name before.
Cline is currently the golf coach at Oklahoma Christian University, but he also played collegiately at OU.
Bradford’s passion for golf is well known. He played throughout his life, then on the golf team at Putnam North High School. Even though his attention has turned to football, he’s still a scratch golfer.
But the ironic thing is that while Bradford and Cline have a common interest in golf, the sport wasn’t the reason that these two became good buddies. Cline, who talked about their bond on Oklahoma Christian’s website, says that their friendship began when Bradford was still a toddler. Bradford’s mother, Martha, was Cline’s elementary physical education teacher in Mustang, and Cline’s mother, Connie, started babysitting little Sam.
They’ve been buddies ever since.
Needless to say, Cline was a bit nervous during the Heisman ceremony.
“I will tell you that those final 15 seconds when the gentleman was reading the Heisman winner, I thought my heart was going to pound out of my shirt,” Cline said on Oklahoma Christian’s website. “When Sam’s name was called I jumped out of my chair with my arms in the air. I think it’s probably the most proud I’ve ever been of someone winning an award.”
You can read more about Cline and Bradford on Oklahoma Christian’s website.
Naughty or nice in the sports world?
He’s makin’ a list and checkin’ it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. Yep, Santa Claus is comin’ to town, and if he’s makin’ a list of the good and the bad in the world of sports, well, those could be some interesting lists.
There has been some very good and some appallingly bad this season.
On the nice list, Jolly Old Saint Nick probably has Michael Phelps. The swimmer dominated the sports world for much of the summer with his record haul of gold medals at the Summer Olympics. Hey, when LeBron and Kobe take time to check someone out, you know the guy’s a big deal.
Also on the good list: The New England Patriots. They made NFL history with the first 16-0 regular season. Then, the New York Giants denied them a championship with a Super Bowl shocker. They’re on the nice list, too.
There were plenty of Oklahomans who were plenty good this year, too. Bill Self won a national championship. Matt Holliday inked a big contract. And Clay Bennett and Co. brought an NBA team to OKC.
The Thunder leave a lot to be desired on the court, but it’s hard to put the players on the naughty list. These guys have been everywhere in the community recently. They’re buying Christmas gifts and handing out coats and serving meals. I know that NBA players are contractually obligated to make community service appearances, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re doing good for people in the area.
But what of the sports types that belong on the naughty list. There are lots of them.
O.J. Simpson just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Apparently, the idea of a second chance is lost on The Juice.
Plaxico Burress had his own legal problems. He might’ve been on the nice list after the first month of the year, since he caught the game-winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. But since then, he’s been involved with a couple domestic disputes, driven without insurance and, oh yeah, shot himself in the leg.
Are we sure it wasn’t his foot?
Isiah Thomas makes the naughty list, too. When police responded to his house in October because of an accidental overdose of a prescription sleeping pill, the former NBA star was the one who’d overdosed. But Isiah tried to pin the incident on his 17-year-old daughter.
Oh, and don’t get me started on the Dallas Cowboys. That’s naughty list would take all day.
There are some folks with ties to our fair state who haven’t been angels either. DeMarcus Granger swiped a coat he hadn’t paid for. Andrea Riley popped an opponent in the back of the head. And Josh Jarboe just couldn’t stay out of trouble.
So this Christmas week, if Santa’s making and checking that list as promised, he’s sure to find sports types who’ve been naughty and nice. But he’ll probably also find, like the rest of us, that it’s the two groups that make the sports world the interesting place that it is.
Happy holidays.
