The Oklahoma Sooners traveled to Austin, Texas to face their bitter rival, the Texas Longhorns, this past weekend. The Sooners entered the series on tough straights with a .500 record at 19-19 and a blowout loss to Oklahoma State. Texas was ranked 14th in the country and had one of the better offenses at the college level. This was completely shut down by Braxton Douthit as he allowed only four hits with one run and Carter Campbell finished the job for a Friday 2-1 victory. In the second matchup, the Sooners opened up with an offensive explosion, opening the game up with an 8-0 in the top of the third inning. Texas attempted to fight back by sprinkling 1 run innings, but it was not enough as the Sooners got the series clinching win with a score of 9-6. The final game was a double header on Saturday where the Sooners continued their dominance with a 6-4 inning that combined both offense and defense to cap off the sweep. This is a huge boost to the Sooners resume and the first sweep of Texas in Austin of all time. The Sooners will look to continue their hot streak as the Kansas Jayhawks roll into Norman for a weekend series.
Month: April 2023
The Oklahoma City Thunder ended their night in Minnesota with a loss to the Timberwolves, but they were never supposed to be there. This game was the second game in the Thunder’s postseason run in the play-in tournament. The Thunder played a thriller in New Orleans where they upset the nine-seeded Pelicans. Despite the disappointment of not making it to a full playoff series, Oklahoma City may have shaved two years off their original rebuild plans. Before the ball was ever tipped, the odds were against them as experts picked the Thunder to only win around 20 games. The Thunder doubled this total by winning 40 games and having their best season since 2019. Another setback was losing rookie superstar Chet Holmgren with a foot injury suffered in a Pro-Am game. A large part of the squad’s success was the play of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This season, Shai turned from rising star, to arguably a top 10 player in the league and finished second in the most improved player award race. He would average 31.4 points a game while posting a 51% field goal percentage. Another welcome surprise was the play of rookie Jalen Williams. He also finished second for an award, which was the rookie of the year award. He was the Thunder’s second leading scorer this season and provided a great source of energy to draw the attention off of Shai. Finally, credit should be dealt to head coach Mark Daigneault, who finished second in the Coach of the Year race, for being able to maximize each of the young stars that the Thunder possesses. Long story short, the Thunder may have the brightest future of any team in the league and the 2022-23 put the league on notice
The Oklahoma Sooners held their annual Spring Game this past Saturday and it was a very insightful look into the future of the Oklahoma program. There were many new faces from last year’s 6-7 squad and the new looked much improved. The defense, especially, looked like a completely different squad and look to be a force to be reckoned with. Players that shone include Indiana transfer Dasan McCullough and Texas Tech transfer Reggie Pearson. Oklahoma also debuted many of the players from their fourth ranked recruiting class. This included the duo from Denton, Peyton Bowen and Jackson Arnold, who had an interception and a touchdown pass respectively. Freshman defensive end PJ Adebawore was also a force on the defensive line, and it will be hard for head coach Brent Venables to keep him off of the field. Sooner nation, as they always do, showed out for their team as 55,000 strong filled the stadium to send their support. Of course, returning stars still showed out as quarterback Dillon Gabriel tossed three touchdowns and running back Gavin Sawchuk caught one of those passes. This will be the last time that the team will play until they return to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium to face the Arkansas State Red Wolves on September 2nd
The 2023 Masters was just as thrilling and exciting as it had been advertised all year. The most famous and prestigious major was set in Augusta, Georgia once again and had all of the storylines in the anticipation. Would Scottie Scheffler return for a second straight Masters win, or maybe the fan-favorite Jordan Spieth would return to his former glory. However, all of those storylines were trumped by the world number one ranked player, Jon Rahm. Rahm did not have the start that he was hoping for after a four putt on the very first hole put him at two over. From that point on, Rahm was on the attack, rising above other players who had fast starts, such as Victor Hovland and the amateur Sam Bennett. Eventually, Rahm entered the final round down two strokes to Brooks Koepka. Rahm then played a phenomenal round, finishing with a 69 (-3) while Koepka crumbled under the pressure, finishing with a 75 (+3). This gave Rahm his 11th career win and the overall number one world ranking as he brings the green jacket back to Spain.
The 2022-23 UConn Huskies were immortalized on Monday, April 3rd as they won their fifth basketball national title. The Huskies entered the tournament as a four seed, but they didn’t play like one. The blew out each of their opponents by double digits and seemed to be in perfect synch each and every game. The Huskies were lead by big man Adama Sanogo and playmaker Jordan Hawkins, who both declared for the NBA draft shortly after the game. The Huskies final game was against the 5 seed, San Diego State Aztecs. They had come off a thriller against Florida Atlantic University where Lamont Butler hit a game winner to win 72-71. However, the championship game was not as thrilling as UConn demolished San Diego State 76-59. This put coach Dan Hurley in elite company as the third national winning coach in UConn history, joining Kevin Ollie and Jim Calhoun. This UConn team will be remembered as one of the greatest teams in college basketball history and is a true testament to how getting hot at the right time is all you need to win a championship.