Pick, I wish your name was Bubba Cunningham because the sooner TU's AD realizes that there should be no limitations on recruiting to TU, the sooner TU basketball will become relevant again.

Wow! Big 10/11 smack in Tulsa...holy crap, 2012 is real!

Dear Picker ... please show this to Bubba and Wojo ... wait ... acutally as long as Wojo is around, the talent will not come to TU.

Mark my words...the 2010-2011 Golden Hurricane basketball team will be better than this version. More balance, more grit, and probably a little more of that toughness Coach Wojcik is looking for. More scorers as well. Magley is a beast, Haralson is one of the best outside shooters TU has ever had on campus, Justin Hurtt will be better, and hopefully Donte Medder will be able to come back from his injury to be the playmaker he started to show us he was.

Boiler, yeah, you're right, the Big 10 did show some guts. None of those teams seem to score a lot, but they do dial in on D. Know who else was surprisingly good? Wash, which is on TV every other November -- ESPN is too busy showing Big East practices.

Golden Hurricane, Lance, Bla -- we've been hearing how TU would be much improved "next year" for seven years. The statute of limitations on improvement is almost up. After a while, crying improvement is like crying wolf; or uncle.

This weekend's games look great, with the Baylor-St. Mary's contest figuring to be decided in the last, oh, two seconds. The pick here is the Saint on this one.

The CBS switcheroo coverage strategy has been great, with Bill Raftery coming across as far and away the best play by play announcer.

I've been thinking the same thing about TU basketball. In fact I talked to my brother about it last night. Here's how it went. "What do small schools like Xavier and St. Mary's have that TU doesn't have? And how does N Iowa get to where they are, even though it's a state school who wants to play BB there? And Cornell?" I sure don't have the answer, but please someone out there tell me!!! And please none of that wait til next year stuff.

It is a sad reflection of Purdue University that the first thing that entered your mind was IU grad!!! Surely alums from other conference schools will occasionally acknowledge the Boilermakers?

I applaud Coach Painter's abilities. He truly is a miracle worker having taken the Boilers to the NCAA tournament FOUR whole times!!! I can only envision him standing before the great unwashed masses of West Lafayette and declaring "this is the year that the Boilers will make the elite eight"!!! I can hear the crowds chanting, the alums writing checks for the statue, and even old John Purdue trying to rise from his campus resting place. But all dreams must come to an end little fella, without Hoppy Hummel the Boilers are kaput.

One last thing, as a favor to the good citizens of West Tulsa, please stop hanging out at the Sands Springs switchyards and get back to the basement where you belong.

Wow, Pick, and to think I used to consider you clever. Sadly, it's become obvious these days you're simply "mailing it in" with the same old schtick. I'll bet I've read that "does ORU still play basketball?" line from you 3 or 4 times now the last couple of years. Exactly what does that mean, anyway? Are you admitting that you just can't keep up with the program anymore, that it's just too much effort at this stage in your life? Because I can think of no other reason why you would ignore their 3 NCAA and 1 NIT visits in the past six seasons, their four conference championships in the same time, and their wins over Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Kansas, Missouri, Georgetown, Stanford, Seton Hall, USC, New Mexico, etc. along the way. If that's not "playing basketball anymore", I don't know what is. And, if in reply you would rather draw comparisons between ORU's mid-major lot in life these days compared to 30 years ago, be my guest - at least, that might be something worth reading. So instead of the usual tired cliche next time, how about some genuine analysis, with a touch of wit, the way you used to write? Or at this point in your career, am I asking too much?

I agree. This TU coach is shopping himself to Seton and Iowa. It is time to cut ties. 5 years is a enough time.

I am so sick of the overhyping. ESPN does it all year. I think FSN should start positioning itself like FOX news does against the mainstream. In our case, they should just constantly berate ESPN as being in capable of being critical. They need some snarky Picker-O'reilly types on there to just trash ESPN on a regular basis. Did you see that BS Tom renaldi interview? ESPN used to be cool with stuff like Playmakers. Now they are just major suck faces. I don't know how Simmons is going to survive there.

sorry about the spelling mike.....kidney stones....meds were getting to me

But What Do I Know: The small schools still playing have this in common, good players.

Old Titan: So in other words ORU can continue to lose to North Butte Tech without a soul caring much? So it's fine that ORU is the only program in basketball history that has no expectations? If nothing matters, why play?

SBH, It did look like that ESPN puppet was going to chest-bump Tiger. It is indeed a shame that ESPN has no competition. Those nerds actually think they're popular. It's the games we like, not those schmucks. Jay Bilas, Dugout Phelps, they're all horrendous.

Glenn 616, OU women hoops, wow, man, you're right, how could we have forgotten something so exciting. Losing to Uconn by 50, can't wait. The truth of it is that OU rode that one great player, Dales, almost to the top, and hasn't been a serious contender since. You seen the size of that business they play with, the Nerf ball, it's about as big as a softball, who couldn't shoot 80 percent with that. I thought you were going to mention OU softball (which just lost to TU!)

Ugh, sorry about the ribbing, Ken. Hope you feel better.

I would love to see The Picker get a job on ESPN, he could make his predictions and comments on TV wearing a paper bag over his head. Picker, please take your 2 straight men with you, Ken"meds"7 and Mexi"grammersmack"Mike with you.
Ken7, I call mine medicine too.