Oklahoma Columnist, by Clay Horning

Hey, we're really doing this thing

Clay Horning — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 06:27:33 GMT

As mentioned, and as I’ve posted here a couple of times already, Ryan Welton and I are doing a podcast together and now it has a name: The Long View.

Perhaps it will become The Long View with Ryan and Clay, The Long View with Clay and Ryan and maybe if we get that far we’ll add our last names as though we take ourselves seriously, which we surely don’t.

Our baseline is Sooner sports, but not all we do is Sooner sports.

Tangents, on any and all things, are expected and encouraged.

It’s The Long View because we’ve both had long careers in media, me mostly in sports and Ryan mostly in news, and we know what we know because we’ve been watching it happen forever and that knowledge makes us pretty smart about what we’re seeing now, too, and we’re pretty good at explaining it.

About that, we might occasionally work in a little media criticism, too.

Whatever it is, it’s a good time and you’re invited.

Also, here’s the latest, a long look at Sooner softball, which I’ve also just written about, and a lot of other fun stuff, too.

Enjoy the show.

Here it is:

The big question facing Sooner softball

Clay Horning — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:55:35 GMT

Oklahoma pitcher Audry Lowry winds toward the plate. (OU Athleticcs Photo)

We should begin by saying the regular season is not yet over.

Coach Patty Gasso’s Oklahoma softball team has three games remaining beginning Thursday at Texas A&M.

The Sooners (46-6, 18-3 SEC) will enter College Station as a big favorite. And yet, if everything falls just right on their diamond and a few others, the Aggies (35-14, 15-6) could still grab an SEC regular season crown, despite beginning the weekend fifth in the conference standings.

After that comes the conference tournament where, presuming OU maintains its top spot in the regular-season conference standings, the Sooners would play one, two or three games in the single-elimination event.

And after that, finally, the NCAA postseason arrives, in which OU’s bound to host a regional and almost equally bound to host a super regional.

The Sooners will be at home for that super regional, and they’ll probably win it for myriad reasons like they’re ranked No. 1, appear to be the best team in the nation’s best conference, are the nation’s most dangerous offensive squad and last missed the Women’s College World Series in 2010.

They’re just not the shoo-in they’ve tended to be through the years because what they absolutely do not have—and there’s no way around it—is dominant pitching.

They have good pitching.

But not amazing pitching, nor even great pitching.

It’s just, well, different.

A year ago, they were in a similar boat, with a team earned run average that finished at 2.66, yet still they had an ace in Sam Landry and her sub-2.00 ERA.

This time around, the team’s at 2.90, 25th in the nation, and there’s no ace to speak of, just Audrey Lowry and her 2.45 ERA, who’s thrown about 22 more innings than the staff’s No. 2, Miali Guachino, who’s at 2.68.

Nor is there any chance of Lowry turning dominant, as has sometimes happened with Sooner pitchers in the past.

Lowry can be quite good, she can keep opponents off balance in the box and she can keep her walks down to about one every five innings as she’s done all season.

Yet, because she’s not a strikeout pitcher—just 71 in 102 2/3 innings—the ball will be in play, putting bad luck and the possibility of poor fielding on the table (though the latter’s unlikely given the Sooners’ third-in-the-nation .985 fielding percentage).

If you’re a Sooner fan, I know what you’re thinking.

Have you seen their offensive numbers? Have you seen their batting average, their slugging, their home runs? Do you realize they’re an historic hitting team?

Well, yes, yes, yes and absolutely.

We should probably mention it and I’ve got a few favorites that tell the story.

Six of OU’s everyday bats are hitting north of .400.

Kai Minor, Lexi McDaniel, Abby Dayton, Ella Parker, Gabbie Garcia, and Emily Emerling.

Five of their everyday bats carry on-base percentages more than 100 points higher than their batting average, which is bananas and an undeniable tribute to hitting coach JT Gasso.

Dayton (.436 BA/.545 OBP), Parker (.430/.548), Ailana Agbayani (.397/.517), Kasidi Pickering (.396/.514), Kendall Wells (.377/.486).

The player with the lowest batting average among those everyday players is nonetheless making the biggest national (and local) headlines.

That’s Wells, a freshman, who’s already set a program single-season home run record with 36—the great Jocelyn Alo hit 34 twice—who’s 1.113 slugging percentage somehow ranks only third in the nation behind UCLA’s Megan Grant (1.372) and Jordan Woolery (1.267).

Grant’s hit 34 home runs and Woolery 31.

It’s crazy.

Once there was a time hitting .300 was kind of a big deal on the softball diamond. That ended, and still, even very good teams carried weak bats at the bottom of the batting order. That’s mostly gone, too.

It’s all gone at OU.

The Sooners’ .404 team batting average ranks tops in the nation, their .499 on-base percentage ranks second to UCLA’s .500, and their .832 slugging percentage ranks second to UCLA’s .841.

Just don’t make the case the Bruins’ offense is better.

UCLA, after all, plays in the Big 10, which includes two top-10 programs, itself at No. 7 and No. 3 Nebraska. Meanwhile the SEC claims seven in No. 1 OU, No. 2 Alabama, No. 4 Texas, No. 6 Arkansas, No. 8 Florida, No. 9 Tennessee and No. 10 Texas A&M.

There won’t be as many fans at Kentucky’s John Cropp Stadium for the SEC tournament as there will be for the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, but the quality of play should be every bit as good and, you never know, maybe a little better.

And in at least a few games at both venues, you’re bound to get what used to be commonplace, that used to have everybody understanding softball was first and foremost a pitchers’ game.

In those games and all the others it’s better to have the best pitcher on the diamond and frequently OU won’t.

What happens then?

Like, can the Sooners beat their old teammate, Nebraska’s Jordy Bahl (or, as she’s now called, post-marriage, Jordy Frahm), whose ERA is 1.30 and who’s struck out 174 in 129 2/3 innings?

Can they beat Tennessee’s Sage Mardjetko, whose ERA is 0.93? Or Erin Nuwer, her teammate, whose ERA is 1.04?

Or so many others they may wind up facing.

It’s a great question. Nobody knows the answer.

It’s just different.

Very different.

Sometimes you lose, as Sooners did, and still the game delivers in ways you've never seen

Clay Horning — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 06:50:30 GMT

OU’s Trey Gambill runs the bases at Auburn Friday. (OU Athletics Photo)

There were some bright spots.

Oklahoma, meeting Auburn on a campus diamond — who knew? — for the very first time, fell 6-4 to the Tigers Friday night and, yes, there were some bright spots for the Sooners.

Not enough to build a whole column around but we’ll be sure to mention them.

It was not what they call a “bad” loss, for Auburn entered ranked No. 9 by the coaches and No. 11 by the writers, while OU entered 13th and 12th. And while there were bright spots, nor were there any horrendous spots; spots that can’t happen if you ever expect to win; plays not made that don’t show up in the box score but produce losses; imploding starting pitching.

None of that happened.

In fixes that might have cost him six, seven, or eight runs in previous starts, Sooner starting pitcher L.J. Mercurius, though not sharp, limited the damage to four runs over three innings, giving his bullpen a chance to keep the Sooners in the game, which it did.

Auburn starter Andreas Alvarez appeared untouchable early and still OU got to him for three runs by the time he departed in the seventh inning and had chances to do more damage off his relief help, Jackson Sanders, than it did.

We could go deeper with uninteresting stuff but hey: no controversy, no spate of bad baseball, nothing to hate about the effort.

Sometimes you lose.

Now we can get to the fun stuff.

Start here:

Have you ever seen a single drive somebody home from first base?

Until a few years ago, covering Westmoore at a state tournament in a gale at ORU, I’d never seen it happen live and never seen it in any circumstance on what you might call a normal play.

That day at ORU the ball wasn’t hit that hard, the outfielder didn’t charge it and, not realizing what was happening on the bases, took a beat before lobbing it back to the infield, while the Jaguar runner never stopped.

It was great and guess what:

It happened twice Friday night at Auburn.

No, not like it happened at ORU, so maybe asterisks are required. Still, two different times, there was a runner at first, the batter hit a single and the runner scored.

No error required. No non-error blunder, either.

In the second inning, Auburn’s Bristol Carter was at first base after being hit by a pitch and Eric Guevara at the plate.

Guevara laced a single past second base and, here, perhaps, is the asterisk: Carter was running on the pitch.

OU center fielder Jason Walk had to come forward to field the ball and by the time he had Carter was between second and third base.

Walk’s throw cut off by shortstop Jaxon Willits, there was no real play at the plate, like why wouldn’t Carter score after beginning at first base.

Baseball, huh.

Then it was OU’s turn.

Camden Johnson was on first following a two-out single in the eighth and Deiten LaChance was at the plate and, you should probably know, it’s only 315 feet down the left-field line at Auburn and that’s why Plainsman Park has its own version of the Green Monster.

LaChance hit a liner so hard off that monster that by the time it was fielded on the carom, the throw to second base appeared no longer than a throw from behind second base to first.

Given all that, LaChance held at first. Johnson, though, perhaps aided by Auburn paying more attention to LaChance than him, came all the way home.

So, a wall shot, yes.

But first to home on a single nonetheless.

Twice in the same game.

How does baseball still — STILL! — give you things you’ve never seen before when they play dang near every day.

Another?

Remember the 1980s when they played on cement covered by thin green carpet in St. Louis and Pittsburgh, Philly and Cincinnati, Montreal, Kansas City and Houston?

Well, you’d see a play like the one OU’s Brendan Brock delivered in the second inning all the time in those places but mostly nowhere since.

Brock hit a ball that first struck earth not more than two feet beyond the infield dirt that Auburn second baseman Chris Rembert might have snared it had he been playing an extra step to his left, that went all the way to the wall before it was picked up.

On natural grass, I’d never seen it.

Give Brock points for placement. Had it been five feet either way, Carter in center field or Mason McCraine in right might have grabbed it at the warning track.

Instead, hit so hard it, barely beyond the dirt, on grass, it reached the wall.

Amazing.

Finally this, which I can’t know I’d never seen before, yet I’m pretty sure I hadn’t.

Auburn pitching faced 37 Sooner batters, striking out six and walking one. Of the remaining 30, 10 flew, lined or popped out. Of the remaining 20, nine recorded base hits. Of the remaining 11, six were thrown out by the pitcher, all to first base.

More than 50 percent of the outs OU made on the bases were balls fielded by Auburn pitchers who threw to first.

Insane.

Maybe you have to watch a thousand games to get a kick out of this stuff, or even notice what you’ve never previously noticed, but you’ve got to love it.

Baseball.

The bright spots?

Mercurius could have given in and OU would have never had a chance, but he didn’t.

After giving up home runs to the first and third batters he faced, before loading the bases still in the first inning, he got a double-play ball to get out of it. After giving up a run in the second, he left the bases loaded. Believe me, Sooner starting pitching has been far worse in various other SEC series openers.

Nate Smithburg, a submarining lefty coming off two scoreless innings against Oral Roberts on Tuesday, threw two scoreless and hitless innings at the Tigers, lowering his earned run average to 3.37 over 10 1/3 innings, giving OU a chance to rally at the end.

Pencil him in as a guy Sooner skipper Skip Johnson may now trust until if and when he can’t.

Walk made two stellar catches in center field and was one of two Sooners, along with LaChance, to record two hits.

Walk, whose average was .176 entering conference play, is now hitting .254. LaChance is hitting .314.

Today and Sunday are now what matters.

Last week, in a sweep of Missouri, OU got terrific outings from all three of its starting pitchers. Now the Sooners need Cam Johnson to show up tonight and Cord Rager to do the same on Sunday.

If more stuff we’ve never seen happen happens again, all the better.

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Not Williams' hammy, but the OKC machine

Clay Horning — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 07:31:26 GMT

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander goes to the basket against Phoenix Wednesday night in Oklahoma City. (Jimmy Do/OKC Thunder)

The story must be Jalen Williams.

Like, it has to be. How can it not be?

Oklahoma City prevailed upon Phoenix 120-107 Wednesday night at Paycom Center, pushing its first-round series advantage over the Suns to 2-0 with Game 3 tipping off Saturday in Phoenix.

But that can’t be the story, not now, not after what happened to Williams.

Dave Pasch, calling the game for ESPN, reported Williams’ words as he removed himself from the game in the third quarter.

“Left hammy,” Williams said.

Not the right hammy, thank goodness, the strained hamstring that caused Williams to miss so much of the season, but the left hammy.

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault went right to it in his postgame comments.

“We think he aggravated his left hamstring,” he told attending media. “We’ll take a look at him over the next couple days.”

Couple of days?

It must be more urgent than that.

It’s J-Dub, for crying out loud.

Did you see him?

Nineteen points and four assists over his 23 minutes on the court — a team-best plus 17, too — with every one of those points coming in the first half when the Thunder built a 65-57 lead.

The Thunder would eventually stretch that to a 126-100 edge with 10:47 remaining before the Suns mounted a too-little, too-late, though furious comeback, even making it a 10-point game with 3:47 remaining.

Still, Williams?

I don’t think so.

The first half was nice. The stars came out.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went for 17 points in the first 24 minutes, even after beginning slowly, even after wrenching the fingers of his left hand on a fall to the floor, only to then make 5 of 6 shots to close the first quarter when his team needed all of them just to remain in front.

Then came Williams, who owned the second quarter, netting 13 points, including eight in a frantic 1:13 off the clock, a natural three-point play, followed by a deuce, followed by a 3.

“Boy,” said Doris Burke, Pasch’s analyst, “they cannot stay in front of him.”

Only to be followed by the biggest push of all, in the third quarter, led by Chet Holmgren, who netted 11 points and rejected three shots, and Gilgeous-Alexander, who netted 12, part of a 37-point, five-rebound, nine-assist night.

Then, to begin the fourth, A.J. Mitchell.

He assisted Isaiah Hartenstein for a slam on the Thunder’s first possession, produced one of those 50-50-at-best layups off the top of the glass on their second and followed with two free throws on their third.

It was those three possessions that pushed OKC to its biggest lead. Had they not happened, what was later whittled to a 10-point edge would have been only four.

Here, we should probably mention Dillon Brooks was pretty great for the Suns, scoring 13 of his 30 in the fourth quarter, none of them easy, forcing Thunder starters to remain on the court.

There it is.

Sure you can make a case the story’s got to be Williams.

At ESPN and beyond, it will eat the most oxygen.

That doesn’t make it the story, though, because, haven’t you noticed?

We’re trapped in an era of what could and might happen rather than what is happening or what just happened, the consequence of which is missing what’s right in front of our face when what’s right in front of our face tends to be the real deal.

Also if you haven’t noticed, its why NBC getting the NBA back was far better immediately than ESPN, which has had it forever.

But I digress.

Wednesday’s real story?

It’s so, so, so hard to stop OKC.

It requires stopping so many different players because so many different players can hurt you. It requires not resting, not being distracted, being your best self and, most of the time, OKC playing poorly.

Think about this.

Isaiah Joe was the Thunder’s ninth player and played 15 minutes. Jaylin Williams was their 10th and played 11. Jared McCain played 8 seconds. Aaron Wiggins, who can really play, didn’t play at all.

All that and what really fuels OKC is collective defense. On Wednesday, that meant the Suns turning it over 21 times to the Thunder’s 10. It also meant 14 Thunder steals, twice the pilfers of the Suns.

OKC may not have blown Phoenix off the court as it did in Game 1, but that’s because Phoenix is a real NBA team that this time played to the end and still it trailed by 26 in the fourth quarter and lost by 13.

If Jalen Williams is out for an extended period, like five weeks, fine, then he can become the story.

The finals, don’t you know, don’t begin until June 3.

Game 2, first round?

The story was not Williams, but his team, again proving how hard it is to stop, no matter who’s on the floor, because they’re all so good together.

Again.

The spring report, Sooner football edition

Clay Horning — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:47:59 GMT

Author’s note: Ryan Welton and I are back with a new podcast, the subject of which is Oklahoma football a couple of days after the spring game. I’d say the news is good, just not where you might have thought it would be. Also, we’re a fun listen, so give it a try.
Of course, you can still read me, too, even on the same topic. I’m convinced I’m smart about the Sooners and have demonstrated it for a long time. Not only that, but I get off some good lines, on the pod in the column. Enjoy and thanks for being here.

So Oklahoma had its spring game on Saturday, the one some still call the Red-White Game, the one that means so little.

I’ve been to maybe two dozen and I’ve yet to see a star emerge.

Coaches like to say it mimics game-type situations but it doesn’t.

They hire referees, there are folks in the stands, but quarterbacks and others cannot be tackled, coaches roam the field, it’s nothing like an actual game.

Saturday at Owen Field, at least they had two different teams.

The best in Red, the rest in White.

Red prevailed 31-3.

Yet, if there’s not much to learn from the spring game, you can still learn plenty by listening, because everybody talks after and if you know how to listen, applying experience as a filter, knowledge drops in your lap.

Here it is.

Mateer a mystery

If you really want to believe in John Mateer as a much improved, ready-to-show-us-what-he’s-really about, Heisman-in-the-offing quarterback, go right ahead, just know it’s reliant on hope, not reality.

“Super productive,” said Mateer, when asked to summarize his spring. “I think that’s the word I’d use. A lot of things still to clean up, but that’s what’s so beautiful about the game.”

I guess, but you know what’s what’s been more beautiful through the years?

Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray at the height of their powers and absolutely nobody has forecast Mateer even to be a greatly improved quarterback.

At the spring game, where he finished 12 of 19 for 192 yards — not great — and a touchdown according to stats posted after the game, he kept his feet on the ground and kept his arm up, so maybe that’s something.

Still, here’s head coach Brent Venables being as positive as he could be about his quarterback.

“Yeah, leadership, decision-making, touch,” he said, “he has a chance to be a fantastic playmaker at that position.”

Sorry, not impressed.

At times, Mateer showed all those skills last season and still he threw just 14 touchdown passes, which is way too few, and 11 interceptions, which is way too many.

Whatever he managed over the spring, he did not jump off the page.

Had he, we would have heard about it.

Arbuckle says nothing

Oh, sure, Sooner offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle speaks words, but they don’t mean anything.

As mentioned above, Venables may have been trying to lift up his quarterback. He didn’t, not really, but he still told you something that’s probably true. Mateer has a “chance” to become the quarterback he described.

Arbuckle?

Nope

The dean of the press pool, the great Berry Tramel, asked Arbuckle what he expected from Mateer coming into next season vs. what he expected from Mateer coming into last season.

He made it clear Arbuckle should be able to answer the question better than anybody, for not only is he Mateer’s coordinator and position coach, he was those things to Mateer two seasons ago, too, at Washington State.

First, Arbuckle congratulated Tramel on a “great question.”

He then said this:

“He’s always been a worker, a self-critic of himself,” Arbuckle said. “I’ve been watching that amplify and watching him attack what needs to be attacked, lead with what needs to be led and compete the way he needs to complete, while also continuing to develop himself as a player.

“He’s going to own everything, all the good, all the bad that may come with it, but he’s going to compete his butt off. That’s why I love the kid.”

Great question, maybe, but no answer, just filibuster.

That and somebody should to tell Arbuckle it makes Mateer look worse when his coordinator is afraid to answer a question about him.

Running game will vastly improve

The only caveat on this one is, as long as the offensive line doesn’t crater, and it shouldn’t barring being plagued by injury.

That line brings back five from last season with a great deal of starting experience:

• Michael Fasusi, who made 10 starts at left tackle his true freshman season.

• Eddy Pierre-Louis, a redshirt sophomore who started six games at left guard.

• Jake Maikkula, a redshirt senior who made 10 starts at center after transferring in from Stanford;

• Ryan Fodje, a sophomore who played in every game last season, starting four at right tackle and two at right guard;

• Heath Ozaeta, a redshirt junior who made seven starts at left guard.

Also in the fold is Arkansas transfer E’Marion Harris, a redshirt senior, who started 11 games for the Razorbacks last season, primarily at right tackle.

If those six can stay healthy or mostly stay healthy, or depth can be developed even if they don’t, the line should hold up.

It should also get help from a more impactful tight end contingent now tutored by former Cowboy great Jason Witten.

Then there’s what Venables said, because you don’t often get definitive quotes like this from a football coach.

“We had more explosive runs this spring than we had in the previous three years, with all of those springs combined,” he said.

That’s something.

Also, get this, OU’s two returning running backs, Tory Blaylock and Xavier Robinson, both sat out the spring to injury.

That means those explosive runs were delivered by Lloyd Avant, a junior transfer from Colorado State; DeZephen Walker, an early enrollee true freshman and four-star prospect from Kansas City; and Jonathan Hatton Jr., an early enrollee true freshman and four-star prospect from Cibolo, Texas.

How about that?

Saturday, Avant started but Walker led, turning eight carries into 81 yards.

One more thing?

Kevin Wilson, the old Sooner offensive coordinator, who returned to be an offensive analyst last season, is now being paid $500,000 to inhabit the role of “assistant head coach for offense,” a position now listed among Sooner assistant coaches, making him an analyst no more.

It can only help because Wilson’s been a better offensive line coach than Bill Bedenbaugh’s ever been and a better offensive coordinator than Ben Arbuckle’s ever been.

He probably knows how to communicate better — period, and with the head coach — than both of them, too.

Mateer need not get better

You’re going to see it written and you’re going to hear it said, if OU’s to go back to the playoff, or make a dent once there, Mateer must return a significantly better quarterback.

It’s not true.

His numbers must improve, yes, but he doesn’t have to improve for that to happen.

Because with a significantly better running game his numbers can’t help but improve. He won’t be under the same pressure; made to worry about the run, opposing defenses can’t sell out to the pass; it will be a whole new paradigm, making him a more efficient quarterback, thus improving the offense, whether he himself has improved or not.

Final thoughts

So, if the defense is what it’s been, or even 85 percent of what it’s been, and the running game is what we now, with good reason, believe it will be, barring a cratered line, and the Sooners don’t become bizarrely unlucky because that can happen, too, and their quarterback stays healthy, well, they ought to be pretty good.

Should their quarterback improve?

Call it a bonus, putting the trophy on the table.

You want a spring report?

You got a spring report.

So you want to write about baseball.

Clay Horning — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 06:41:38 GMT

Cameron Johnson comes to the plate on Saturday. (OU Athletics Photo)

Now for something completely different.

This first bit may not sound like anything I’ve written for 26 or 27 years. Yet, because it might be fun to explain how to first watch and then write about baseball, and kind of everything else because it translates to every sport, I thought we’d start here.

By Clay Horning
NORMAN — Getting a big day from starting pitcher Cameron Johnson and big enough days from a few of its bats, 14th-ranked Oklahoma shut out Missouri 4-0 Saturday evening.
The win was the Sooners’ (26-12, 9-8 SEC) second straight over the Tigers (20-19, 3-14), securing yet another conference series victory and their fourth straight over conference competition going back to last weekend at Vanderbilt.
The three-game set concludes with today’s 2 p.m. first pitch back at Kimrey Family Stadium.
Deiten LaChance’s second inning home run off Missouri starter Brady Kehlenbrink accounted for the only run the Sooners needed.
More impressive, though, was OU’s half of the third inning, when the first four Sooners up reached base.
Jason Walk, batting right-handed against Kehlenbrink, a lefty, sparked the frame by pushing a bunt single down the first baseline. Next, Jackson Willits walked and Trey Gamble singled to load the bases.
Brandan Brock followed with his own single, plating Walk, only to be followed by Camden Johnson’s sacrifice fly to center field, bringing home Willits.

Ah, the classic gamer.

You kind of have to know how to write it just to learn to get beyond it.

Like Jackson Pollock, presumably, could paint or draw a dog that looked like a dog before moving on to things that looked like nothing anybody’s ever seen.

If that story had continued, the next section would have been all about Cameron Johnson, who’s now 5-1 with a 3.43 earned run average despite a few horrendous starts.

Like last week at Vanderbilt, where he lasted a whole third of an inning after facing five batters, striking out one and walking the other four. Or three weeks prior, at LSU, where he lasted 1 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on a single hit, having walked six and hit a batter. Or the week before that, when over 2 1/3 innings against Texas A&M he allowed five runs after again yielding a single hit but walking seven.

You kind of know what you’re getting with him. A terrific outing or a terrible one because he can’t find the plate.

That’s why watching the game and keeping it on a steno pad exactly as I’ve done forever, I draw stars and jot descriptions there’s no space for in an actual scorebook.

Saturday’s first star?

The first batter Johnson faced.

Here’s what it looked like in my notepad:

Ward — K * swung at ball four

The “K” means strikeout swinging, the star is a reminder to return to that moment because it could be of great import or, at least, helpful later and “swung at ball four” is just what Missouri lead-off man Blaize Ward did.

What earned the star?

The count was full, so it’s a walk if Ward doesn’t swing at it, but more than that, it was the likely difference between Johnson suffering one of those impossibly bad starts I just described and doing what he wound up doing, allowing no runs and two hits over 5 1/3 innings, striking out five and walking only one.

Without the notation, I might have forgotten the detail entirely, but with it, my game story could begin like this instead.

By Clay Horning
NORMAN — All season long Cameron Johnson has vacillated between terrific and terrible with almost no room in between.
Saturday, facing Missouri lead-off man Blaize Ward, the count had been 2-0, 2-1 and 3-1, but now it was full.
Could Johnson retire Ward and be off to the races? Or would he walk him, threatening another outing like those suffered against Vanderbilt, LSU and Texas A&M, in which he cumulatively allowed 14 runs over four innings on two hits, because he walked 14 and hit a batter?
The delivery to Ward was a fastball, low and inside. Ward swung and missed.
That’s how Oklahoma’s 4-0 victory over Missouri began, Johnson giving the Sooners one of his best starts of the season.

Isn’t a story like that more fun?

It’s not an opinion piece.

It’s just what happened, accurately dramatized.

I finished the game with three other stars in my notebook.

LaChance’s home run was next.

Had it been a 1-0 game, the story might have been all about that home run, especially if Johnson didn’t go full before getting away with a pitch out of the strike zone Ward swung at.

LaChance’s shot was slightly opposite field, while most home runs are pulled. So a nice piece of hitting, going with the pitch.

But while that’s mentionable, the real story of it was LaChance was down in the count 0-2 after being surprised by the second strike, a breaking ball that appeared to finish low but was so pretty it was called a strike.

But after that, LaChance worked the count full by laying off two more pitches just like it, each an inch or two lower than that second strike.

So, great at bat, right?

The fifth pitch was an inside fastball and the next one left the park.

A very unlikely outcome given the way the at bat developed.

It was also his birthday.

By Clay Horning

Deiten LaChance, the man from Sherbrooke, Quebec, whose teammates call him the Great Mape, was down in the count and down on his luck his first trip to the plate on Saturday.

After fouling off a pitch to begin the at bat, he took the next one, a breaking ball finishing below his knees. Strike two, said home plate umpire Mark Winters.

Yet, from that humble beginning, LaChance, the second Sooner batter in the second inning, laid off two more pitches just like it, only lower and inches more out of the zone, before eventually finding a ball he liked.

Crushing it over the fence in right-center, LaChance secured the only run Oklahoma would score or need in a 1-0 victory over Missouri.

He also tripled.

Not bad for a birthday.

Of course, it wasn’t the game’s only run.

But had it been, the next line would be a quote from LaChance, with, “said LaChance, who turned 21 on Saturday,” between the commas.

The next star was next to Walk’s name for his third-inning bunt single.

One, bunting is a lost art, particularly for base hits. Two, just about everybody who bunts for base hits bunts left-handed because the lefty batter’s box is a step or two closer to first base. Three, Walk actually does bat left-handed, but only against right-handed pitchers.

I just love all that.

So, in the notebook, it looked like this:

Walk — bunt single * RH push bunt.

I have the detail if I want to use it, as I did in my first story example. I have more than that, too, as evidenced above. So, if I wanted to build a whole game story around it, or even a feature story, for later, I’ve got it.

By Clay Horning
NORMAN — Nobody in the SEC covers more ground in center field than Jason Walk.
Offensively, he can beat you on the bases, having stolen 13 in this, his third season on the Sooner roster.
Last Saturday, he proved something else.
He’s an expert practitioner of one of the game’s lost arts, leading off the bottom of the third inning against Missouri with a bunt single that sparked a two-run frame in Oklahoma’s 4-0 victory over the Tigers.
Not just any bunt either, but a push bunt out of the right-handed batter’s box.

After that come the quotes from him, his coach, maybe another player, updates on his season, etc. Heck, remember to ask those questions right after the game and you won’t have to return to the ballpark to get the story.

Or treat it as just another base hit and have none of those things to work with.

The last star?

It turned into nothing, but I had it in case.

In the fourth inning, Kehlenbrink struck out Walk on a pitch that might have been outside, but was clearly above his hands, which is a higher strike than anybody calls, including Winters — remember the home plate umpire? — when not making mistakes.

Walk couldn’t believe it, but all he could do was walk back to the dugout, challenging pitches having not yet made it to the college game.

The next guy up, Jaxon Willits, stroked a two-out double off the right field wall to score Kyle Branch, who plated the game’s final run.

But if OU had not scored that inning and lost by a run, that strikeout, the product of a bad call, would have been huge, and if I’d not scribbled “well high, above his hands” next to the backwards K for Walk striking out looking, I might have forgotten all about it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this experiment — or simply humored me by making it this far — using Saturday’s Sooner victory to write about writing and write about the process that puts you in position to write about Saturday’s Sooner victory, and others, all in one very busy column.

When I began Oklahoma Columnist, I thought I’d write a lot more about the craft because it interests me to no end. Maybe I’ll do more of that, though it might demand some interaction.

Have any questions?

I’d love to talk shop.

Until next time.

If you appreciate the effort and enjoy the writing, please consider a donation in the form of a paid subscription to Oklahoma Columnist for $6/month or $60/year, helping it to remain viable. And if you enjoyed this piece, please share.

This is how they do it and Dems must find a way to make it visceral and real, offensive and shameful, because it is

Clay Horning — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:39:48 GMT

Let’s pretend there’s a functioning Democratic Party in Oklahoma.

Let’s not pretend it forgot to open its primaries. Or that the man recently its chairman, John Waldron, did a dumb thing that not only chased him out of that chairmanship but, it now appears, politics altogether.

Let’s instead pretend it has salaried employees who know their stuff and budget enough to not only enhance individual campaigns but to run its own, emphasizing what binds the party together and what it’s against.

Because Thursday, there was this item in The Oklahoman that kind of tells the whole story.

Under Alexia Aston’s byline, it began like this:

Gov. Kevin Stitt has asked the state Senate to appoint his sister-in-law to a six-year post on the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Commission.
Her nomination won’t be considered, however, because his office said he would withdraw his request after The Oklahoman inquired about her qualifications.

I know. Who cares.

It’s a salary-less position on a board that advises the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, which kind of seems unnecessary on its face.

No harm, no foul, right?

Not particularly, perhaps, but absolutely in the aggregate, because it’s what’s become par for the course in our Republican-strangled state.

Don’t these people have any imagination?

Don’t they know anybody beyond family and friends?

When did they quit understanding it’s all right to appoint people they may not know, but who carry real credentials required to govern well.

When did they decide, in the age of Trump, it’s all about control and not expertise (and how’s that worked out with public education)?

There were a couple other telling lines in Aston’s story.

“[Jill Stitt] is an accomplished businesswoman out of Tulsa, and she had come at the recommendation of the person vacating the seat,” [Stitt spokesperson Sarah] Corley added.
Jill Stitt would have replaced Hobie Higgins, who has worked for years at the mortgage and banking company founded by the governor.

Sure, Stitt never planned to appoint his sister-in-law. He was only going with the recommendation of the person who previously held the seat.

And who’s that?

A longtime employee of Stitt’s mortgage company.

Incestuous, much?

Stitt recently appointed Dustin Hilliary to the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, perhaps because Hilliary did not have enough jobs already.

In addition to having been Stitt’s “senior advisor and chief negotiator” — gee, that doesn’t sound made up at all — Hilliary remains co-CEO of Hilliary Communications, no small job, and had already been appointed by Stitt to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

As Aston also pointed out in her story, the person Stitt has since appointed to replace Hilliary on that board is Trevor Pemberton, previously his general counsel.

Nor should we forget Stitt gave Ryan Walters a rubber stamp on the state school board until state government became too small for the both of them, leading to the replacement of three of its members and, not too long after, Walters’ resignation.

Control. Control. Control.
Inner circle. Inner circle. Inner circle.
Zero diversity of thought, background or experience.
Expertise? Who needs it?

Oh, but he withdrew the nomination.

So what.

The point is the impulse.
The point is the instinct.
The point is the muscle memory to keep doing it.

No doubt whoever winds up filling the open tourism commission post will be as predictable as the sister-in-law Stitt abandoned in the name of bad optics.

You often hear the phrase “self-dealing” and this is exactly what it is and it’s rampant in Oklahoma, where one party is a monolith. Entertainingly, that party occasionally fights with itself, seeking solutions between bad and worse.

Democrats should forget the term entirely and come up with something that actually spells it out, connects it to outcomes, makes voters feel it viscerally, because they should.

“Self-dealing” is just a tired two-word cliché that goes right through them.

It’s hard to remember, but one party has been good at governing this state and one has been very bad, and the latter’s held all the marbles since 2012.

That’s the story.

Not a single appointment. Not a single race.

Not a gaggle of candidates operating on their own.

Instead, a party that knows how to draw the difference and make it real

Because it’s very real.

The story, in all its maddening pieces, is right there.

Dems must find a way to tell it.

If you think this kind of writing and think it’s important to the public discourse, please consider a donation in the form of paid subscription for $6/month or $60/year and help Oklahoma Columnist to remain viable. And if you enjoyed this piece, please share.

Pokes win, Sooners lose, and can we all try a little harder to win

Clay Horning — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 07:08:20 GMT

Oklahoma shortstop Jaxon Willits drops the bat a moment after going deep against Oklahoma State Tuesday night in Tulsa.

What did we learn Tuesday night, when Oklahoma met Oklahoma State at Tulsa’s ONEOK Field for a scheduled nine innings that became not quite eight once lightning struck near the ballpark?

Mid-week games?

They don’t matter.

Or, fine, let’s be equivocal: they’re not managed like they matter.

If they were, a couple of pitchers — one a Sooner, the other a Poke — would not have entered the game. Give me a minute and I’ll explain.

OSU stopped OU 7-3 and might not have if not for the weather.

Though the Cowboys led the whole game and were up 6-0 before the second inning was done, a bottom-of-the-eighth, nobody-out, three-run home run from Sooner shortstop Reggie Willits on what wound up the game’s final pitch gave OU hope.

Hard to score seven runs in two at-bats, but did we mention nobody was out?

The Sooners needed only four more with the same six outs still to give and, well, if the next reliever out of the Cowboy bullpen was anything like Parker Jennings, who was in the process of being pulled when the lightning arrived, OU might have had more than a chance.

It might have been the favorite.

Patty Gasso rolled the dice. One ferocious swing from Katie Stewart told the (final) story.

Clay Horning — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 04:48:03 GMT

Texas’ Katie Stewart reacts after hitting an eighth-inning home run to beat Oklahoma Sunday afternoon in Austin. (Texas Athletics Photo)

Let’s break the fourth wall.

Let’s break the fourth wall because I had it all figured out, only for Patty Gasso to flip the script, only for Katie Stewart to flip it again.

I was quite pleased with myself.

The Sooners continue to enjoy a groundbreaking offensive season, led, kind of, by super freshman Kendall Wells.

Led only kind of by Wells because she’s hit 31 home runs in a season just 44 games old. Should she hit only four more, it will be more than even the great Jocelyn Alo ever hit in a single season.

And yet, she still plays on a team that’s hit 119 other home runs, includes eight players hitting north of .400 and six with on-base percentages north of .500.

How can a player be both historic and just another cog in the machine? You’d think it not possible, yet it’s exactly what Wells is doing.

Wild.

If I had any luck, that would be the story, built around a third straight victory from second-ranked Oklahoma over fourth-ranked Texas despite the Longhorns’ home-field advantage.

Then I realized what Gasso was doing with her pitching staff and it was flooring.

Given the chance to move from No. 2 to No. 1 thanks to Utah’s victory over No. 1 Texas Tech the day before, and certainly preferring to sweep her Red River rival than merely win two of three, what did the Sooner coach do?

She made it a bullpen game.

Staff ace Audrey Lowry threw 90 pitches in an efficient complete game shutout over the ’Horns on Friday and another 11 for the save on Saturday, leaving her plenty fresh to take the ball again on Sunday.

Gasso went another direction.

She trotted out Sidney Berzon for 2 1/3 and, though she seemed to be pitching well enough, brought out Kierston Deal and her 9.73 earned run average to record three outs.

Deal, who allowed a hit and hit a batter, wound up being the only Sooner pitcher not to allow a run, so good deal for Deal.

Gasso then went with Berkley Zache, who worked an inning and a third, before bringing out Allyssa Parker for an inning and a third.

After all that it was 5-5, but it was beside the point for Gasso, who put the premium on getting her back-of-the-bullpen pitchers experience against a great team in a hostile environment over winning.

Not until the seventh did Lowry enter and winning become the priority.

Don’t take it as a slap against the finest softball coach in the history of the game, owner of eight national championships since 2000, back when there was a hospitality pirate ship beyond center field, berms for seating and the Sooners won it all wearing shorts.

No, Gasso’s earned the right to coach however she chooses, and that’s what she did on Sunday. And when an infield hit from Kai Minor plated Sydney Barker in the seventh, yet again I had my story.

Though she’d made it a bullpen game, though the Sooner coach had put development over winning, her team would win anyway, having taken a 6-5 edge, its first of the game, in the top of the eighth.

Because what could go wrong? Her ace was in the circle, needing three more outs, just like the three she’d gotten in the previous frame.

As it turned out, plenty.

Hannah Wells, pinch-hitting for Alisa Sneed, greeted Lowry with a shot that went a mile high, caught some wind and came down a couple feet right and beyond the left-field foul pole.

That tied it.

And after Kayden Henry, who’d spotted Texas an early 3-0 lead on a second-inning blast that just cleared the center-field fence, beat out an infield chopper, Stewart — who’d gone deep in the sixth to put the Longhorns up 5-3, her 21st home run of the season — stepped to the plate again.

Here came the real story.

Sometimes, it turns out, it’s delivered by the opponent.

Lowry delivered a fastball out over the plate and the right-handed Stewart hit the longest home run any of us have ever seen, sending the ball three stories high and off the facade of the student housing complex beyond left field, across the street from the stadium.

Like, you know how Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard, Cecil Fielder and Marc McGwire are the only four to ever hit a ball completely out of old Tiger Stadium?

Stewart’s shot was like that.

Or how, back in the day, on a pre-Big Show SportsCenter, Chris Berman anchoring, “The Bull,” Greg Luzinski, might hit one onto the roof at old Comiskey?

Stewart’s shot was like that, too.

It was mesmerizing and stupendous, impossible yet in your face, and you can go watch it right here. Even if you’re a Sooner fan, you’re crazy if you can’t enjoy it.

OU took two of three in Austin, so let Stewart and Texas have this one.

Almost a line drive, majestic it may not quite have been. More like screaming for vengeance, a Judas Priest home run.

If you know, you know.

If not, look it up.

Great album.

The diamond sports are so great because they give you stuff like this.

OU has hit 150 home runs, averages more than three per game and needs only 10 more to break their own record of 159 set in 2021.

The Sooners are also on pace to set all-time single-season team marks in batting average, on-base percentage, runs per game, slugging percentage and total bases.

They’re a historic force and might have enough pitching to win it all again, pushing the program’s, and Gasso’s, national championship count to nine.

But Sunday, they were on the wrong side of a highlight that was worth seeing despite the price; forcing my hand, making me ditch one story for another, after ditching one story for another.

Maybe I told them all anyway.

Sooners going nowhere, and have been going nowhere, playing like this

Clay Horning — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 07:20:17 GMT

Oklahoma starting pitcher L.J. Mercurious had it going Thursday night at Vanderbilt. The rest of the Sooners, not so much. (OU Athletics Photo)

If the regular season ended today, coach Skip Johnson’s Oklahoma baseball team, loser of six of nine games and six of seven against SEC foes, would still reach NCAA regional play.

It would not host, as it might have a week or two ago, but it would be sent somewhere as a No. 2 seed, playing on the No. 1 seed’s diamond.

And if OU (22-11, 5-8 SEC) were to play there as it’s been playing here, there and everywhere — and Thursday, in Nashville, where Vanderbilt prevailed 10-5 — the Sooners’ postseason trip would end quickly and quietly.

Who knows the culprit.

It could be so many things.

It could be starting pitching, which failed the Sooners on opening night of each of their SEC series — Texas A&M, LSU, Texas, Alabama — prior to Thursday.

Prior to Thursday only because L.J. Mercurious struck out 13 over 6 1/3 innings.

He deserved better.

He would have allowed one earned run rather than three had Trey Gambill correctly read hard-hit balls off the bats of Brodie Johnston and Braden Holcomb in left field.

He didn’t.

And OU’s original two-run edge lasted a mere half inning.

It could be defense.

Because there are the plays that don’t go down as errors yet still need to be made, like Gambill’s — the first he broke in rather than back and the ball went right over his head; the second he froze on a ball ripped just three or four steps to his right and didn’t get his glove up in time — and there are plays like the comical one reliever Jason Bodin, and others, combined to make in the eighth.

Bodin, who’d put out a fire in the seventh, got a groundout to begin the eighth before walking Holcomb.

Holcomb was soon at second base after some inattentive combination of Bodin, catcher Deiten LaChance, second baseman Kyle Branch and shortstop Jaxon Willits allowed him to execute an exceedingly rare delayed steal.

Next, in a one-run game, Bodin — upset after the delayed steal — threw the ball off Branch’s glove into center field trying to pick Holcomb off, allowing him to not only swipe third base but home plate, too, dang near reaching the plate before Jason Walk finally tracked down the ball and fired home.

There’s a word for that.

Or two.

Bad baseball.

Of course, it could always be the bullpen that lets OU down, not to mention its coach’s choices on how to use it.

When Mercurious departed with one out in the seventh, a job well done and a Commodore, Ryker Waite, at first base, Johnson summoned Kadyn Leon, likely looking for another two-plus inning save like the one Leon earned six days earlier against Alabama, when he faced eight batters and got eight outs.

Thursday, Leon plunked the first batter he faced, Korbin Reynolds, with the first pitch he threw.

He then walked Rustin Rigdon on five pitches before allowing a two-run double from Mike Mancini that put the Commodores up 4-2.

The choice to replace Bodin wasn’t a great one either.

He’d lost his cool and errored his way into giving up a run, but he was still pitching well enough when Johnson pulled him.

The guy Johnson brought in, Gavyn Jones, needed two outs to get out of the inning. He allowed three hits and four earned runs before getting them.

Ugh.

It might be the bats.

OU arrived in Nashville having scored four or fewer runs in eight of nine SEC contests.

It pushed five across against the Commodores, the last not coming until the ninth, after the game had been blown open in the eighth.

Still, it was nice to see Dasan Harris come through with a two-out double and Camden Johnson drive him in.

OU built its original 2-0 lead on a first-pitch home run from LaChance, his long-awaited first of the season. It was a lead that should have lasted into the seventh, at least. You already know why it didn’t.

Through the miracle of the SEC Network, every game can be watched.

Every game, the commentators tell us this is a Sooner lineup that’s supposed to produce and a pitching staff loaded with good arms.

Yet, what good is any of it when the hitters can’t hit, the fielders can’t field and one, two or more pitchers dramatically don’t have it.

You’d think, accidentally, something good might happen to OU.

Like an opposing pitcher, when Sooner bats are dead in the water, suddenly walking four straight batters and bringing them back to life.

Or an opponent falling apart defensively.

Or an opponent’s starting pitcher having nothing, letting OU score 10 runs fast.

You know, all the things the Sooners have done for their opponents since opening conference play 4-2, which was fun while it lasted but feels like a very long time ago.

The good news is two-fold.

One, the Sooners beat Dallas Baptist on the road Monday and when did they last do that.

Two, they could always take the next two at Vanderbilt, beat Oklahoma State on Tuesday in Tulsa and sweep Missouri at home next weekend.

It’s never going to happen playing like this.

Conflict between governor, legislature and OSSAA bound to continue despite OSSAA announcement

Clay Horning — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 06:32:51 GMT

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Oklahoma Voice and asked to produce a story about the apparent vitriol between the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association and elected Republicans, from Gov. Kevin Stitt to the legislature.

Though I received internal praise for the reporting, the finished product was entirely rearranged. Only the quotes appeared to survive intact.

The thing is, even when reporting, rather than writing opinion backed by reporting, my voice and the narrative it produces remains. But a straight-up newsroom like Oklahoma Voice is mostly not about voice and narrative.

I promise, this is going somewhere.

For example, here are some of the opening bars I turned in to Oklahoma Voice.

By Clay Horning
OKLAHOMA CITY — On Feb. 16, the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association decided, among nine schools wanting out of district play come next football season, which would get their wish …
Some will agree with the OSSAA’s rulings and others will vehemently not. So it goes for the facilitator and regulator of high school sports in Oklahoma.
“The OSSAA’s always been easy to attack, because at some point in somebody’s life there was a bad call at a game, or [a team] got seeded badly or they had to go 200 miles to play instead of 100,” said Kevin Hime, superintendent of Lawton Public Schools and president of the OSSAA’s 15-person board of directors, each elected by member schools and districts …
Governed by its board, a constitution and a 42-page rulebook, and led by executive director David Jackson, the OSSAA makes and enforces the rules, facilitates scheduling and crowns champions from Class B to Class 6A in sports and non-sports activities like band or speech and debate …
“A lot of people don’t fully understand the scope of our work,” Jackson said. “I think the majority of the people think it’s dealing with eligibility only.”
It’s not, but it’s the issue Gov. Kevin Stitt took on when he called for the OSSAA’s abolition during his Feb. 2 State of the State address.

And here are they are again, edited for publication.

By Clay Horning
OKLAHOMA CITY — Over a month after Oklahoma’s governor called for the abolition of an organization that governs high school athletics, lawmakers remain divided over whether the century-old body needs an overhaul.
Supporters of the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association contend that the body has become a scapegoat for providing unpopular, but needed, regulatory oversight. But a group of vocal critics, including Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, argue that times have changed, and the organization is failing to keep up with new state laws and the needs of student athletes.
“The OSSAA’s always been easy to attack because at some point in somebody’s life there was a bad call at a game, or (a team) got seeded badly or they had to go 200 miles to play instead of 100,” said Kevin Hime, superintendent of Lawton Public Schools and president of the OSSAA’s 15-member board of directors, which is chosen by member schools and districts …
Legislative efforts to intervene or dismantle its oversight abilities could lead to paying high school athletes, which is already happening, or giving coaches latitude to recruit youth to transfer to specific schools in a bid to create powerhouse teams, Hime said …
“A lot of people don’t fully understand the scope of our work,” said David Jackson, OSSAA executive director. “I think the majority of the people think it’s dealing with eligibility only.”

The edited version is better, even if it’s taken time to accept.

I thought my first priority was to explain what the OSSAA actually is and to then report the conflict. It was a priority, yet better placed within the reporting of the conflict.

C’es la vie.

Now we get to the point, one prefaced by two more points.

One, the governor did not realize his dream to abolish the OSSAA and, good chance, knew he wouldn’t all along. Two, the legislators who gave him a standing ovation for saying it should be abolished, well, they had no appetite for doing it in the first place.

Finally, why we’re here:

In an effort to calm the waters, what the OSSAA has just now done in response to the conflict — with one caveat I’ll share at the end — will not begin to ease the conflict with its detractors.

On Monday, reported The Oklahoman, the OSSAA announced it would establish a committee to review the 24 rules in its 35-page rulebook.

The committee will consist of 12-to-15 members who may be nominated by any of the OSSAA’s member schools.

It will meet once a month between May and December to, as the Oklahoman reported, “pitch changes to the OSSAA board of directors.”

Approved changes would then go to a majority vote among member schools.

“What makes this committee different is that it takes a fresh, thoughtful look at these rules and opens up each change to the board and then member schools for voting,” OSSAA executive director David Jackson said. “We want everyone to know these decisions were made with students and families in mind.”

Also, it’s exactly what state senate president pro tempore Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle) told me he didn’t care for.

“What I have heard at this point is they’re considering some type of advisory board. I’m not much interested in that one,” he said the last week of February. “That’s just a board that really would have no power, other than, I think, it’s just kind of patting the legislature on the back of the head and sending [it] down the road.”

What Paxton wants to see, instead, is a change to the OSSAA’s 15-member board.

“Let the governor, pro tem of the senate and the speaker of the house each have an appointment on the board,” he said. “Just add three spots on the board.”

Paxton believes the board is too insular, made up entirely of school officials rather than parents or others who might better see the forest from the trees.

As one who’s spent a lifetime in sports trying to discern both the forest and the trees, the pros and cons to Paxton’s idea both make all the sense in the world.

Pro, it’s an easy fix.
Just add three new non-school officials to your board. What could go wrong, it’s just three of 18 for crying out loud and the legislature, or most of it, is finally off your back.
Just do it, securing the OSSAA’s future along the way.

Con, talk about mob tactics.
Hey, it would be a terrible thing if your organization ended. Nobody wants that, so just give us a seat at the table. If you don’t like our ideas, you still outnumber us.
Then come the ghost employees, crushed profits and, maybe, arson.
We’ve all seen the movies.

Though I wouldn’t put it past the truest believers in his party, the sarcastic con path doesn’t sound like Paxton.

“I want the legislature to have no part in running that organization,” he said. “I think that organization needs to stay intact. I think, overall, they do a pretty good job.”

Still, when everybody stood and applauded the governor’s wish to end that organization, Paxton stood and applauded, too.

I also spoke to Casey Murdock (R-Felt), the author of Senate Bill 1890, designed to replace the OSSAA with the OAAC — Oklahoma Athletics and Activities Commission — a measure I originally wrote about here.

In the Feb. 3 press release introducing the bill, Murdock could not have been more clear.

“The OSSAA is governed by a group of unaccountable, out-of-touch bureaucrats who are making money on the backs of Oklahoma children while issuing arbitrary decisions preventing students from participating in school sports,” he said. “Past attempts to reform the OSSAA have failed, and it has become impossible to reason with its board of directors.

“It’s clear that the Legislature must start fresh and form a new, more accountable and transparent organization to oversee school sports and other after-school activities.”

Funny.

When I spoke to him three weeks later, he’d changed his tune.

“You know, I’m not expecting my bill to be done this year,” he said. “It’s too big a move, and I don’t want it done this year, because it’s too big a move.”

Finishing our call, I had a thought.

Addressing the masses, they speak in the most charged and least thoughtful tones. Speaking to somebody who knows their stuff, who’s not coming to them for explanation but answers, they relax and become their alternate reasonable selves.

Perhaps they should not have radicalized, or allowed the radicalization, of their voters.

Where were we?

Ah, yes, the OSSAA.

“Being a target … none of us like that,” Jackson told The Oklahoman. “And the first reaction, being human, is to get upset and bothered by it, so we’ve gone through that period. But here’s the thing … we can use this as an opportunity to to get better.”

Maybe, but it’s unlikely to impress anybody at the state house, even while the OSSAA’s certain to feel like it’s turned over a new leaf.

“When parents don’t feel like they’re being treated [well] by … something like the OSSAA, it eventually rises up to their state legislators,” Paxton said. “So legislators have brought their concerns to that organization multiple times and that organization, multiple times, has pretty much thumbed their nose at the legislature.”

Now it will appear the OSSAA has done it again, a “review” board sounding very much like the “advisory” board Paxton spoke against.

The caveat?

The OSSAA could just go along with universal open transfer, allowing ultimate school choice to all athletes, for any reason or no reason, who would then have every right to play football at one school, baseball at another school, football again at the original school, baseball again … for four years.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

If the OSSAA wants to insure its survival it could say yes to open recruiting, yes to tampered superteams, yes to direct payments to players, because that’s the pandora’s box universal open transfer among athletes will lead to.

It can’t not.

Do that, though, and what’s the point of survival, your first value, a fair playing field, given away.

The conflict’s bound to continue.

Given the stakes, it should.

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Making money in Vegas is nice. Keeping Sooners out of the transfer portal? Priceless.

Clay Horning — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 04:43:20 GMT

Sooner point guard Xzayvier Brown splits the Texas defense. If OU can keep Brown out of the transfer portal, and others, too, it go a long way toward securing success next season. (OU Athletics Photo)

Now it gets real.

On Sunday, coach Porter Moser’s Oklahoma men’s basketball program finally said goodbye to its Rorschach test of a season, falling 89-82, in overtime, to old Big 12 rival West Virginia in the championship game of the College Basketball Crown, the money tree of postseason hoops tournaments.

For reaching the title game, the Sooners earned $100,000 in NIL money, and let’s hope it only became available upon leaving Las Vegas, site of the CBC and no place to be carrying heaps of cash you hope to keep.

And, for losing, rather than winning … well, not much.

Given OU’s failure to reach the NCAA tournament, the season went as far as it possibly could, along with quality victories over Colorado and Baylor it wouldn’t have gained otherwise, wins that included large-ish doses of Kuol Atak and Kai Rogers, a pair of freshmen lost on Moser’s bench most of the season and a pair he’s counting on remaining in the program for their sophomore seasons.

The fact the Sooners came up short to the Mountaineers, aside from the additional $200,000 they would have chopped up had they won, is almost meaningless.

Instead of closing the season winning 9 of 10 games, they closed winning 8 of 10.

Big deal.

The fact the Sooners allowed a 13-0 run after taking a six-point overtime edge on Sunday, well, it seems like a coach might find a way to not let that happen and Moser couldn’t, but it’s not like that’s new.

First-year athletic director Roger Denny chose to keep him despite such limitations, so there’s no use complaining about them now.

Best to save it for next season, when they’re near certain to happen again.

Instead, remember the good times. Remember OU was dead in the water and played itself back to the NCAA bubble. Remember how far the Sooners went in the SEC tournament. Remember the fun it was watching Nijel Pack complete a fine collegiate career.

Remember it, but move on.

Because now it gets real.

Now’s the main event.

Who'd want to leave a Sooner team doing this? By the sound of it, nobody who doesn't have to

Clay Horning — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:41:45 GMT

Oklahoma’s Derrion Reid goes to the basket Saturday against Baylor at the College Basketball Crown. (OU Athletics Photo)

Here’s what happened.

Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas, in a College Basketball Crown semifinal against Baylor, with an additional $50,000 in NIL earnings on the line following the $50,000 Oklahoma earned knocking off Colorado on Wednesday, coach Porter Moser’s Sooners topped Baylor 82-69, advancing to Sunday’s championship against West Virginia.

Win that one and the players collect another $200,000 in NIL earnings.

Here’s why what happened, and what was said about it, matters.

Point guard Xzayvier Brown led OU with 21 points, six rebounds and six assists without a turnover, and here’s what he had to say afterward.

“This team has been through a lot,” he said. “We’ve had good parts of the season, bad parts, but honestly I think all of it has brought us closer together. Like, I honestly feel like this is a true brotherhood here and the game showed that today.”

A true brotherhood?

Well, Brown, a senior to be, couldn’t possibly be looking toward the transfer portal, could he, after finding “true brotherhood” in Norman?

Kuol Atak fuels high hopes for Moser and Sooners … as long as it doesn't stay in Vegas

Clay Horning — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 18:04:20 GMT

Kuol Atak goes through warmups before a game at Lloyd Noble Center. Wednesday, Atok was a prime mover in Oklahoma’s victory over Colorado in Las Vegas. (OU Athletics Photo)

You really have to hand it to Dayton Forsythe.

Not only did the Dale legend and Sooner sophomore come back from injury to play the final 12 games of the season prior to Wednesday, bolstering the bench and helping propel Oklahoma on a late-season run that dang near took it from nowhere all the way to the NCAA tournament.

As reported by The Oklahoman’s Colton Sulley, he also chose to get the surgery required to address his injuries, two torn ankle tendons and a floating piece of bone, earlier this week.

That meant, naturally, Porter Moser, with a new lease on his coaching life, had to pull 6-foot-9 freshman wing Kuol Atak off the bench and onto the court after he had seen no action since Feb. 21 against Texas A&M.

Not the NCAA tournament and not the NIT, the latter an invitation OU declined, the Sooners were back on the court Wednesday night in Las Vegas to face Colorado in a made-for-Fox event called the College Basketball Crown.

Unique in its appeal, the CBC offers its teams — OU, Colorado, Baylor, Minnesota, Stanford, West Virginia, Rutgers, Creighton — a guaranteed $50,000 in NIL funds for reaching the semifinal round, $100,000 for reaching the final and $300,000 for winning the championship.

Against the Buffs, OU trailed from the moment Colorado went up 5-4 on a 3-pointer from Ian Inman 71 seconds after the tip to the moment it took the lead 61-58 on a 3-pointer from Nigel Pack with 8:28 remaining.

The Sooners, who trailed by ten points 1:14 before the half, only to hit the break within 41-37, eventually pushed their own lead to seven only to give it away and face overtime, an extra session they led most of the way only to trail both 83-82 and 85-84 before pushing their free-throw streak to 15 straight, on a night they made 28 of 32, to finally prevail 90-86.

Sorry for the long sentence, but now you know.

Kuol Atak.

He hit two of those free throws down the stretch, the ones that put OU back in front after Colorado grabbed its original overtime edge, which alone would have been huge had they been his only points.

As far as Atak knew, OU needed them to win, so the game and season were on the line and, for crying out loud, he hadn’t attempted a free throw since facing Texas A&M, not on Feb. 21, but the first time around, on Jan. 10 on the Aggies’ home court, almost three full months ago.

Crazy.

Yet, not only did he make the free throws, he hit 4 of 11 from 3-point range — better than anybody on his team save Derrion Reid, who made 1 of 2 in only 12 minutes, a consequence of foul trouble — added a 2-pointer and finished with 16 points, all of which the Sooners needed.

It’s not the first time he’s looked like OU’s next big thing.

The former four-star prospect out of Haltom City, Texas, Atak scored 18 points opening night against St. Francis, 24 in the Sooners’ final non-conference game against Mississippi Valley State and 14 in OU’s next game, an 86-70 victory over Ole Miss.

In that one, he knocked down 5 of 10 shots, 4 of 9 from 3-point range, and added a driving dunk out of OU’s half-court set that you can watch right here.

Moser, doing postgame media alongside point guard Nigel Pack, who led the Sooners with 20 points, offered a hint at why Atak had been so scarce for so long by paying him a specific compliment.

“Kuol got to play really big minutes and he got to play really big minutes on the defensive end,” he said. “That’s going to help him grow.”

It’s the defensive end that’s held him back.

Remember his game against Ole Miss, a contest OU won by 16? Atak was just plus-4 over his 22 minutes on the court despite his offensive output. Against the Buffs, he was plus-5 over 22 minutes in a four-point victory.

Potentially, it’s fantastic news for Sooner hoops.

Because Atak’s offensive game, even with plenty of room to grow, is beautiful.

His shot is quick, smooth and a little majestic, and when he knocks down a couple it feels like there’s more coming and often there is and who doesn’t want to watch that.

Also, given OU chose to chase a postseason despite missing the Big Dance, chose one that will put additional money in its players’ pockets, and given new athletic director Roger Denny’s insistence more resources are on their way into the program, if Moser can mostly keep his roster together through the next transfer portal window, April 7 to April 21, next season could be a big one for his team.

Because a team that brings back Xzayvier Brown, Reid, Forsythe and a new, improved and perpetually gifted Atak, whose defense no longer keeps his offense on the bench, along with a few portal additions who can play, might just have something.

Way back when, I didn’t want Moser to get a third season.

Coming up, maybe his sixth earns him a seventh, finally for the right reasons.

Discovering Atak all over again and continuing this Vegas run makes all of it more likely.

Just your typical narrow overtime victory in a tournament you don’t set out to reach.

Continued momentum, too.

OU gets Baylor at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Kind of fun.

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Drummond rightly dodges lunatic fringe at Freedom Caucus' gubernatorial debate

Clay Horning — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 06:35:58 GMT

The scene at the Oklahoma History Center on Monday, where a sport coat on a hanger stood in for Gentner Drummond.

So you switched parties, Democrat to Republican, just to vote for Gentner Drummond in the primary, and perhaps a runoff, and given his uncouth cozying to Donald Trump since, you can hardly stand yourself.

Fear not, you’ve done the right thing, all of which was on display Monday night at the Oklahoma History Center, where five Republican gubernatorial candidates were invited but only four showed, hoping to make it 1948 all over again, only this time in a world where you can not only carry weapons in the streets and alleys, but inside the state capitol and on university campuses, too.

Oh, yes, and if we weren’t arresting and prosecuting girls and women for, as former state senator and moderator Nathan Dahm asked the question just so, committing or allowing an abortion to take place, then, all agreed we must start doing it now and I swear I’m not making it up.

In fact, you can watch it all right here.

It was a reality check, is what it was, for longtime left-of-centers like me, and everybody else, too, because there really is a lunatic fringe in Oklahoma, and there it was, led by former speaker of the House Charles McCall, former state senators Jake Merrick and Mike Mazzei, and Chip Keating, who claims outsider status despite being the son of a former governor.

In affiliation with the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus, the event was hosted by something called Cedar Gate, which is described on its website as “a private Oklahoma destination where leadership and leisure meet,” whatever that means, though pictures point toward shooting sports being the primary entertainment.

In fact, before Dahm began asking questions, Cedar Gate co-owner Marla Hill held the mic for several minutes and who knew she was a comedian?

“I went and I prayed and I got quiet and I said, ‘Lord, tell me, who should moderate this debate and what organization should that be?’” she said. “And, so, in the stillness and the quietness, I heard, ‘Senator Nathan Dahm.’”

Really? You think it happened that way?

Did she pray about it at all?

If she did, did God almighty actually say, “Senator Nathan Dahm,” who was once torn a rhetorical new one by the great Jon Stewart?

Or maybe she knew Dahm already, figured he’d do it — or knew he would because they’d planned it already and the whole prayer thing was a sham to begin with, a lie performative Christians tell because it serves their purposes — and, figuring that, mistook her own inclination for God actually directing her to Dahm, as though He gives a shit about such things.

I digress.

On with the show.

Here’s a highlight.

Public education funding is peachy as is, all four candidates agreed.

“We don’t have a revenue problem, it’s a spending problem,” Keating said. “The per pupil formula is so broke across our school districts in Oklahoma.

“We give the school districts a blank check and we don’t tell them how to spend the money.”

So, I guess, mark Keating down for invalidating local school boards.

“Schools don’t have money problems,” Mazzei said. “It’s a money management problem.”

McCall used the question to congratulate himself, or so it seemed, for open transfer and tax credits given to private school parents, while Merrick actually sounded like he’d spoken to some teachers.

“I want to make sure that we hire high quality teachers and that we pay them high quality wages and that we trust them to teach,” he said. “Too many teachers are saying that … we’re ready to teach, we’re called to teach, and then we’re told how to teach.”

Reasonable, right?

Of course, in his opening statement, he also said this, not about education, but still.

“My priority is still the same,” he said. “It’s securing a future for our children, it’s securing land for them. That is the legacy and that is the future of Oklahoma, our children and our land. Both are under attack, both must be defended.”

He seems like he might be a nice guy, but what’s that about?

McCall said something about land, too, that he would identify all “foreign owned land in this state, seize it, auction it back off and put it back in the hands of Oklahomans.”

Can he do that even if it was purchased legally?

Is that kind of rhetoric a play on immigration, or something else entirely, about blood and soil and white nationalist insanity?

Or is it mostly harmless, like Mr. Magoo talking about Waldo and Presley, curious what they’ll be up to next?

To be clear, they really were, all of them, that far out there on guns and abortion, staking out extreme positions that, even in an age of Republican supermajorities, have yet to become law.

Still, when they do, future governors McCall, Keating, Merrick and Mazzei stand ready to sign them.

Mazzei expressed his outrage that a House bill banning mail order abortion pills can’t get a hearing in the Senate.

“Not only do we need to have tough laws,” McCall said, “we need to introduce people to Jesus.”

As long as there’s a Plan B, I guess.

On guns, look out.

“An armed populace is the best way to protect our liberties and freedoms,” Mazzei said.

“We need to go further, helping to equip and arm our teachers,” Merrick said.

“We have seen a lot of preventative violence occur on campuses,” Keating said, “had people been armed to responsibly deal with it.”

“The right to bear arms, that means anywhere and everywhere,” McCall said.

Even in casinos and poker rooms, where the would-be gun-toting are certain to be both suddenly broke and highly inebriated?

At the end, before explaining how he wants to get rid of the state income tax, another eventuality the other three hope to get to, as well as do something about property taxes, which happen to fund schools, Mazzei addressed the elephant not in the room.

“Friends,” he said, “nobody in this room wants an amateur, watered-down, weak RINO to be Oklahoma’s next governor,” a clear and direct shot at Drummond, who was invited but chose not to show, because entering a roomful of ridiculous Republicans like that would have done him no good at all.

Also, maybe, it’s a wink back to the rest of us, corruption still boils his blood, good governance matters, the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions are not to be trifled with and the rule of law exists to protect us all.

Elect Cyndi Munson, of course, and you won’t have to worry where your governor stands on such things.

But that’s the general election.

As for the folks in the room, McCall, Keating, Merrick, Mazzei, Freedom Caucus inhabitants and their cheerleaders?

Isn’t it wild how they lather themselves in freedom, just as long as it means paying less or no taxes, arming themselves to the teeth, awarding no more resources to public education, controlling women’s bodies and saying it’s all all right because, you know, Jesus.

That’s not Oklahoma.

Or, it can’t be.

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Another no-show loss more reason to look forward to Chavez grabbing leadership reins

Clay Horning — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 04:45:57 GMT

Oklahoma’s Aaliyah Chavez looks for room against South Carolina Saturday in Sacramento. (OU Athletics Photo)

Perhaps you, like me, have spent time this season looking ahead to next season, concerned the Sooner women might take a step back.

Following Saturday’s season-ending 94-68 NCAA tournament regional semifinal loss to South Carolina, Oklahoma will come back next season without seniors Raegan Beers and Payton Verhulst.

Beers gave the Sooners an inside presence they’d not had for so, so long and Verhulst could do a bit of everything, always making good decisions, always capable of breaking opponents’ hearts from 3-point range with a patented quick release.

And while the future appears bright for sophomore Caya Smith and freshmen Brooklyn Stewart and Keziah Lofton, just how much can they expect to improve in one offseason?

To prevent that step back, it appeared, the answer would have to be a whole, whole lot.

But perhaps you, like me, don’t think that way any longer.

Perhaps it’s clear this team can’t be led by Aaliyah Chavez fast enough, and when it is maybe coach Jennie Baranczyk will quit accepting efforts like the one OU put together against South Carolina.

This is no way for the seventh-ranked team in the nation to (fail to) pitch and (fail to) hit

Clay Horning — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:44:48 GMT

Thursday night at Texas’ Disch-Faulk Field, Oklahoma starting pitcher L.J. Mercurious (above) did not have it. (Sooner Athletcs Photo)

Sooner pitching is blowing up, hitting has turned iffy to non-existent and Thursday night, in a matchup between — adopting Baseball America’s top 25 for the weekend — No. 2 Texas and No. 7 Oklahoma, the Sooners did not remotely belong on the same field as the Longhorns, no-showing into a 14-0, seven-inning run-rule defeat.

And should OU turn it around and take two of three from Texas the same way it took two of three from LSU in Baton Rouge last weekend, who knows, maybe the Sooners trade places with the Longhorns in the poll.

Ah, the nature of the game.

So welcome to OU baseball in the middle of its third SEC weekend, one it entered 19-5 overall and 4-2 in conference play and one Texas entered 20-4 and 4-2.

Of course, that was before L.J. Mercurious and a parade of relievers proved wholly inadequate to the challenge and the moment.

Just mentioning OU gave up 17 hits, a Texas season-high, eight for extra bases, three straight third-inning doubles included, probably gets the point across, but why stop there without fully mining the depths to which Sooner pitching fell.

Sooner pitchers also walked seven batters, twice allowed six straight Longhorns to reach base and, at another point, allowed six of seven.

Ugh.

Meanwhile, Texas starter Ruger Rojas needed only 105 pitches to get through seven innings, while Mercurious, Trent Collier, Mason Bixby, Reid Hensley, Nate Smithburg and Jaden Barfield needed 161.

Of those 161, only 55.3 percent (89) were strikes. Of Rojas’ 105, 65.7 percent (69) were and it sure felt like more, OU drawing only two walks.

Nor is it like Sooner pitching is blowing up because it blew up Thursday night in Austin. No, Mercurious got the start because it was already trending that way, in the form of ex-No. 1 starter Cam Johnson, who forfeited the honor after coming up noncompetitive in back-to-back conference starts.

Against Texas A&M on March 13, Johnson walked seven Aggies over 2 1/3 innings in a game OU fell behind 4-0 before rallying to win 8-7. At LSU on March 19, Johnson walked six over 1 1/3 innings in a game OU lost 7-1.

So, Thursday, it was out with Johnson and in with Mercurious, previously the Sooners’ No. 2 starter and suddenly Mercurious couldn’t get anybody out, allowing 10 hits and seven runs, all earned, over two-plus innings, walking three and striking out one.

Before Thursday, Mercurious sported a 1.87 ERA over 33 2/3 innings across six starts.

Does Johnson come back Friday or Saturday, or has he lost his starting job altogether?

If it’s the latter, who does OU start beyond Cord Rager, the other arm in the rotation, whose ERA is a not-great 4.97, but at least the freshman has yet to implode like his staffmates?

As for that iffy hitting, OU has scored the grand sum of nine runs over its last five games, twice getting shut out, the first time at Southeastern Louisiana in the mid-week on March 17.

That four runs were enough to beat LSU both Friday and Saturday last week says plenty about the Sooners’ resilience, defense and bullpen, but how long can OU continue to win that way when its starting pitching is faltering and the lineup remains in a slump?

A good question with no clear answer.

Johnson arrived at OU last year after transferring from LSU and lost his starting job then after failing to find the plate, eventually walking 25 batters and plunking seven others over 21 innings.

That his ERA finished no worse than 5.57 is a testament to how good he might be if he’d quit issuing free passes.

Everything looked good this year until conference play arrived. Even now, despite recent struggles, his ERA remains a solid 3.60.

But not lately.

As for the hitting …

What happened to the Sooner team that began the season with three straight wins over Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and TCU, scoring 10 runs against the Red Raiders and Pokes and 12 against the Horned Frogs?

OU entered Thursday slashing .290/.420/.469 as a team, yet in its opener against its Red River rival went 6 of 27 (.222), reached base in eight of 29 (.276) plate appearances and compiled nine total bases (.333), which won’t work against anybody.

One hopes OU can simply find a way not to be swept by its rival before putting the SEC pieces back together next weekend at home against 22nd-ranked Alabama.

Something to shoot for.

And pitch for. And hit for.

The season was going so well.

But such can be baseball.

Perhaps that’s the best news.

It’s a long season.

The pendulum swings.

A mostly unromantic salute to Opening Day

Clay Horning — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 10:03:23 GMT

I tried it once.

As a young sportswriter, in Ardmore, I think, though it could have been Woodward, I wrote an ode to Opening Day.

I loved baseball, of course, and could watch nine whole innings, or 18 if I had the night off and ESPN had the games. I read all about the game, too, most of it by authors who saw it romantically.

“The Seventh Game,” fiction from Roger Kahn my dad gave me may have been the first book I tore through for pleasure. Pretty sure I was in high school, perhaps a freshman, because soon after I was passing Dan Jenkins’ “Semi-Tough” around in sophomore biology.

I saw the diamond through that lens.

The only sport without a clock, played in a park, blah, blah, blah.

So, I tried writing one of those columns.

I may once have argued “pitchers and catchers report” to be the greatest four words ever put together in the language, and if you don’t know the phrase just ask a 50-something baseball fan.

Silliness. But maybe necessary.

I was searching for my voice, a voice, some voice, any voice. So I did my best, trying to find an authentic me I could put into words.

Now?

I think about baseball nostalgically sometimes, but not romantically.

Even though my favorite sports movie is “The Natural” and even though my favorite line is when Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) asks Iris Gaines (Glenn Close) why she stood to watch him hit that day in Chicago and she answers, “I didn’t want to see you fail,” … No, I don’t see it romantically.

But today is Opening Day and I’m all about it.

Some will tell you it’s not Opening Day.

They’ll tell you Opening Day is Thursday, because today there is only one game, the Yankees and Giants, from San Francisco, and it’s a night game rather than a day game. It’s on Netflix, and only Netflix, and what kind of an Opening Day is on Netflix?

Doesn’t bother me.

One game, one audience.

If we’re watching baseball Opening Day, why not watch the same game?

Do you know what the best thing about baseball season is?

It’s always on. They play every day. Or every night.

It begins when it begins and, but for the All-Star break and travel days built into the postseason, it never ends.

They talk about sports going dead in the summer?

The NBA Finals end, the Stanley Cup Finals end and college football doesn’t begin until September, so what are we supposed to do?

What do you mean what are we supposed to do?

You’ve got baseball every day, and tennis and golf majors.

Nothing wrong with that.

You can look it up, but more folks watch Major League Baseball in local markets than the NBA. That is, fewer Ohioans tune in for the Cavaliers on a random December Wednesday than for the Guardians on a random May Wednesday.

If you can believe it, four of the last six World Series have drawn more viewers than the NBA Finals.

Maybe somebody should tell ESPN.

I go back to this.

If you could only read about one sport the rest of your life, what would it be?

It would be baseball.

You’d never run out.

Are the best highlights dunks and 3s, sacks and acrobatic catches, or catches that bring home runs back, miraculous double plays and towering shots in the ninth?

It’s catches that bring home runs back, miraculous double plays and towering shots in the ninth.

Back in the day, in a three- or four-channel world, before cable changed the world, when you could already watch four or five NFL games each week but only two baseball games, Saturday afternoon and Monday night, we still wanted to slide like Pete Rose, slug like Reggie Jackson, hit like Rod Carew, run like Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines and pitch like Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan.

We dug Roger Staubach, but it wasn’t the same.

And because we collected cards and memorized the numbers on the back, we literally knew more about baseball than anything else.

OK, that might be a little romantic.

These days, my baseball digest includes almost no complete games, but whip-around coverage of several. That and highlight packages, before sleeping or after waking, of every game I’ve yet to know the winner.

Like waking up to boxscores, only better.

Today, baseball begins.

Tomorrow, it really begins.

Every day after, into October, it continues.

What’s better?

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Raegan Beers right on time for Sooners

Clay Horning — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 05:46:15 GMT

Sooner post Raegan Beers and coach Jennie Barnaczyk meet each other on the sideline. Sunday, Beers led OU past Michigan State qith 18 points and 14 rebounds. (OU Athletics Photo)

People don’t really remember it this way, but way back when, in ’08-’09, Courtney Paris was not herself the length of her senior Sooner season.

Perhaps she was tired.

As a freshman, she became the first collegiate player, man or woman, to score 700 points, grab 500 rebounds and block 100 shots. As a sophomore, she did it again.

Nobody had done it before and nobody’s done it since.

Though she would earn first-team All-American status in her third and fourth seasons as well as her first and second, she still slowed down.

Most remember the senior night she grabbed the microphone and earnestly told fans she would pay back all four years of her scholarship if she failed to lead Oklahoma to a national championship.

Lost in the wash is that after averaging 23.5 points, 15.9 rebounds and 3.4 blocks her second year on campus, she averaged 15.9, 13.6 and 2.9 her fourth.

She’s still the program’s best player ever to put on the uniform. She’s still the most dominant player the women’s college game has seen.

But she relaxed.

Didn’t quite have the same fire.

It’s kind of been that way for Raegan Beers.

A third-team AP All-American at Oregon State two years ago, Beers has not repeated the honor since coming to Norman.

After averaging 17.5 points her final season with the Beavers and 17.3 last season at OU, she entered Sunday night averaging 15.8 this one and 14.4 against SEC regular-season foes.

Too often, she’s put herself in foul trouble. Too often, she hasn’t been as engaged as she might have been.

Too often, she scored between 10 and 15 points and grabbed between five and nine rebounds against conference foes — five times — keeping herself from being the fearsome factor she is at her best.

Just not now.

Right now, she’s all there.

So even though the Sooners coughed the ball up 23 times in Sunday night’s 77-71 round-of-32 NCAA tournament victory over Michigan State, and even though it might have been a very different result had the game been in East Lansing rather than Norman, Beers is performing like a woman who doesn’t want to quit playing college basketball.

And that’s a big, big, big deal, most of all because OU’s next opponent is bound to be No. 1 seed South Carolina on Saturday in Sacramento.

Maybe it was the venue:

Lloyd Noble Center.

“I love this place. I love these people,” Beers said. “It was fun to end it in the LNC with this team … This is a really cool team [and] a coaching staff that has poured a lot into me for two years that I’m so, so grateful for.”

Or maybe, just now, she’s found a new level.

Throwing aside OU’s no-show loss to LSU at the SEC tourney, Beers scored 23 and 18 points heading into the NCAA tournament.

Then, Friday, against Idaho, it was 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Then, Sunday, against the Spartans, it was 18 points, 14 rebounds, no assists but four steals.

And though OU could never open up a 10-point edge on Michigan State, the moment it most appeared the Sooners would not lose was authored by Beers.

With 8:19 left in the third quarter, after OU had already scored the first four points of the half to pull within one, Beers, who found herself unguarded above the free-throw line, rose and swished a 17-footer to put the Sooners up a point and for good.

She followed 34 seconds later with another one just like it, pushing OU ahead 45-42 and forcing a timeout from Spartan coach Robyn Fralick as the arena exploded and Beers and her teammates bounced toward the huddle.

OU might have played a cleaner game, might have shot better than 42.6 percent (29 of 68), but got just what it needed from Beers, just as Beers got just what she needed from herself.

This time, she faced no real foul trouble, it only becoming a factor when her second foul of the third quarter gave her three 3:57 before the fourth.

The 29 minutes Beers played dwarfed her season average of 24.5 and exceeded her SEC average of 26.7, and the 11 shots she got off were more than she’d taken in 12 of her previous 15 games.

All good things.

“We’re a much better team with Raegan Beers on the floor,” Sooner coach Jennie Baranczyk said Saturday.

Sure enough.

And the Sooners are an even better team with Beers playing as she’s playing, flirting with 20 points, grabbing double-digit boards and finding other ways to help, too.

OU, which has taken too many steps backward at various points this season, is getting a big leap forward from … well, let’s just call her the Sooners’ most important player on the days Beers makes herself exactly that.

Now she’s done it a couple straight games at the season’s most important hour.

It’s bound to take a huge effort from all involved to get past the next challenge, but if Beers continues to play as she’s playing, it’s a start.

As for Paris, she kind of found it at the end, too, going for 19 points, 16 boards and six blocks against Purdue on March 31, 2009, a 74-68 victory that sent OU to the Final Four.

Of course, now is not then and Beers is not Paris.

But you never know.

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