READ TODAY'S STORIES AND E-EDITION SUBSCRIBE |  CONTACT US |  SIGN IN
Sports Extra!



SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS

FOR THE RECORD
LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US
BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA


Print story only Print story with comments Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest
Reacting to sports news: Soft Jayhawks, hard words from "Caddyshack" and a slice of pie for dessert
Published: 2/8/2013 12:21 PM
Last Modified: 2/8/2013 12:30 PM

Reacting to recent sports news:

1, Kansas followed a homecourt loss to Oklahoma State with a road loss at TCU.

Reaction: Though no one likes losing, my guess was Bill Self didn’t mind the loss to OSU because sometimes you can use a defeat to get players’ attention. That happened when Self was at Tulsa. His 1999-2000 Golden Hurricane team was ambushed by Oral Roberts. The Hurricane lost only four more times all season (three times to Fresno State, alias kryptonite) on the way to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. The fact that Kansas players’ responded to the OSU defeat by losing at TCU leads me to draw one conclusion: Self wasn’t just playing a motivational card when, after the OSU game, he said his team was soft. Instead of finding some backbone after losing in Phog, the Jayhawks went the other direction.

2, OSU’s new offensive coordinator is 37.

Reaction: Who’s the first joker who’s going to say Mike Yurcich is three years away from manhood. #rant

3, Mississippi “won” recruiting.

Reaction: I can’t wrap my head around that.

4, Texas A&M and Missouri played an SEC basketball game Thursday night.

Reaction: I can't wrap my head around that, part II.

5, The OSU offensive coordinator hire was announced via Mike Gundy’s Twitter account.

Reaction: Because we live in a Manti Te’o world, I wanted to wait for double confirmation before writing a breaking news story about it. Did I think the report was false? No. But Twitter accounts have been hacked before and I didn’t want to be on the wrong end of a “gotcha!” by relaying the news before it was verified. Maybe the best “gotcha!” of the week came on signing day. Otherwise dormant fax machines are dusted off in football offices on signing day so they can be used to receive letters of intent from signees. Texas Tech fans faxed the menu of a Lubbock restaurant to former Tech coach Tommy Tuberville, who was allegedly at the restaurant when he left a dinner to take the Cincinnati job. I don’t know how Tuberville felt about that, but the prank -- if you can call it that -- ranked high on the clever meter.

6, A judge dismissed the last remaining count in Mike Leach’s wrongful termination lawsuit against Texas Tech.

Reaction: If the judge wore an eyepatch and had a parrot on his shoulder, expect a different outcome.

7, More Twitter.

Reaction: Once upon a time, if we referenced Twitter in newspaper stories, we had to waste precious space by writing a sentence explaining that Twitter is a social media outlet that blah, blah, blah. Now Twitter has become such an accepted part of the culture that we don’t have to waste throw in that clunky sentence anymore. Somebody want to tell me what an Instagram is?

8, Class 6A football appears to be splitting so schools other than Jenks and Union can get rings.

Reaction: This “Caddyshack” quote from Judge Smails applies: “The world needs ditch-diggers, too.”

9, Super Bowl blackout.

Reaction: To be replaced next year by a Super Bowl whiteout? In 2014, the big game will be played in East Rutherford, N.J. Isn’t the abominable snowman of blizzards descending upon that neck of the woods right about now?

10, No tales-from-the-recruiting-road until next year.

Reaction: Former Oklahoma State coach Pat Jones told a story this week about being an Arkansas assistant and accompanying Frank Broyles on a recruiting trip. Jones said he and Broyles had just eaten before making an in-home visit. The mother of the recruit offered pie. Broyles said he would like some pie -- never mind that he, according to Jones, had tried to eat “everything in the restaurant” before going on the visit. Jones politely declined the pie offer. As soon as the mom left the room, Broyles pinched Jones and told him that any time he was in a recruit’s home and anything is offered, you “take it and like it.” When the mom returned, Jones said he had changed his mind and would like a slice of pie. You can bet that he liked it, no matter how it tasted.


Reader Comments


To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.


Games People Play

Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

Follow Jimmie Tramel on Twitter

Subscribe to this blog


Archive

 
Jimmie Tramel's Blog Archive:

2/2013  1/2013  12/2012  11/2012  10/2012  9/2012  
8/2012  7/2012  6/2012  5/2012  4/2012  3/2012  
2/2012  1/2012  12/2011  11/2011  10/2011  9/2011  
8/2011  7/2011  6/2011  5/2011  4/2011  3/2011  
2/2011  1/2011  12/2010  11/2010  10/2010  9/2010  
8/2010  7/2010  6/2010  5/2010  4/2010  3/2010  
2/2010  1/2010  12/2009  11/2009  10/2009  9/2009  
8/2009  7/2009  6/2009  5/2009  4/2009  3/2009  
2/2009  1/2009  12/2008  11/2008  10/2008  9/2008  
8/2008  7/2008  6/2008  5/2008  4/2008  3/2008  
2/2008  1/2008  12/2007  11/2007  10/2007  9/2007  
8/2007  7/2007  6/2007  5/2007  4/2007  3/2007  
2/2007  1/2007  12/2006  11/2006  10/2006  9/2006  
8/2006  





Home | Contact Us | Search | Subscribe | Customer Service | About | Advertise
Copyright © 2013, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.