Oklahoma Columnist, by Clay Horning

The end of youth

Clay Horning — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:55:24 GMT

Chris Kenney and his son, Drew, in 2012, back when the Thunder were good the first time around. I pulled this photo from Chris’ Facebook page. I wish I had one of us together.

I had a column cooking about noted gambler and Texas Tech quarterback, for now, Brendan Sorsby, but I can’t write it.

Maybe later.

I can’t write it because I got a phone call from my friend Tim Aven on Wednesday, that another friend, my very best friend from high school, though David Quinn offered real competition, but David was not on the golf team, a huge Atlanta Braves fan, nor a purveyor of heavy metal, had died.

Tim called to tell me Chris Kenney had died.

Over last weekend, he said.

Perhaps a cardiac event, which I include because whenever somebody’s died before their time our mind goes to another cause of death. I was told it wasn’t that.

Because I could not find mention of his passing anywhere online, nor an obit, a death notice, a funeral arrangement (and still can’t), I very nearly texted Chris just hours after getting the call. But my daughter, who’d met him and who I’d told, found a mention on social media from a loved one.

Confirmation.

I’ve had three best friends in my life, or four or five if you count Barry Webster, who I thankfully still know, and Travis Howard, who I lost track of between fourth and fifth grade, when he and his mother moved to Houston, who I’ve not been able to locate since, though I’ve tried.

But mostly three.

Chris Bright, since forever.
Brent Cooper, since college.
Chris Kenney, since arriving at Bishop McGuinness in the fall of ’82.

Brent died on Dec. 30, 2017.

A brain tumor, after outliving his prognosis for years. I didn’t think I could write a whole column about him for the newspaper, so I memorialized him like this.

I hate now having to do that for Chris. But I must.

I’ve cried three times since writing the headline you see at the top, which I usually write last but this time wrote first. It’s the way I pay tribute, the way I grieve, the way I get through the worst of it.

I never really cried after my father died, but it was a long goodbye, the majority of which he endured in good spirits until the illness killed the spirits and his body a couple of weeks later. And I got to write about him as it was happening, even in the sports pages he’d first graced as a young basketball star, managing to put him in touch with some old friends along the way, which he appreciated.

I digress.

Let me tell you about Chris.

Let me begin with a trait of his that wasn’t my favorite, because it will take us to the ones that are.

He’d hang out at my house. Maybe we were headed to the golf course, maybe it was in high school, college summers, or even after he’d finished law school and I was home for some reason during my early sports writing days.

We’d be talking, about baseball, pro wrestling, music, whatever, and my dad, an Oklahoma City attorney of note, would enter the room behind me and before I knew it, Chris had ended our conversation mid-sentence, bounded off the couch, put his hand out and said something like, “Good to see you, Mr. Horning.”

Who’s this Mr. Horning, I would think for about half a second before putting it together and realizing my dad was there.

Times he and I had social plans in our 40s and 50s, only for him to push them back to the next week or the next one, I tended to believe another “Mr. Horning” must have entered the room.

But I didn’t sweat it.

It was just a part of him and we’d see each other eventually.

Though there were times we’d go long periods without seeing each other, I still knew he valued the friendship. I’d get a text during the World Series, during an OU football or basketball game, or from the theater as he watched “The Iron Claw,” the movie about the American tragedy that was the Von Erich family.

Always, I knew when we spoke again, it would be as it had always been, as though no time had passed, and it always was.

To be fair, I struggle horribly with friendships.

Struggle to pick up the phone. Struggle to text. It’s so easy to insulate within yourself. If you’re very lucky, you get to share your life with your person, your best best friend, who encourages you to stay in touch with your other best friends.

I have been very lucky.

That, and after my dad died, Chris woke me up with a phone call after the obit ran. It was a loss for him, too.

When we’d get together, as we did last, after a couple postponements, maybe three months ago, it was terrific. He was happy to see me, happy to meet Gwenda, interested, full of life, generous.

We always talked politics, yet later in life I couldn’t pin him down. In high school, we had the same heroes, yet the bigger he made it, and he made it very big, I think he occasionally drifted toward the party of those who’d made it big.

But his core values, I’m pretty sure, never changed.

He was always the same guy I grew up playing golf with, talked sports with and who introduced me to bands like Dokken when Breakin’ The Chains came out in ’83, and Whitesnake when Slide It In came out in ‘84, three years before David Coverdale began making videos with Tawny Kitaen and they took over the world.

Here, four things, apropos of nothing, about Chris and our friendship.

I’m a funny guy, a counterpuncher, who doesn’t tell jokes but gets off good lines. Meanwhile, nobody laughs — let’s stick with the present tense — nobody laughs more or bigger than Chris. So there was chemistry, but something more. He heard you. When he was there with you, he was there with you.
I mentioned the Braves. When we were in high school, we’d be on the phone for an hour, both watching the Braves live as we talked, both wringing our hands over the Braves’ inability to come up with a left fielder they could trust, both guessing what the next pitch would be, both managing the team.
The first flop shot I ever saw came from just off the back and left side of the first green at Lincoln West. Chris hit it. The pin was in the middle of that very large green and what I thought would be a routine chip came out 10 feet in the air and finished three or four feet from the cup. Amazing. I’ve never used it from that near the green, but I wanted that shot, learned that shot and have used it from all over the place since. I don’t use it like I used to, but I’ve still got it and it all goes back to Chris.
We both had great affinity for the intricacies of officiating sports. For instance, we were aficionados of called third strikes. If you know, you know. And we particularly loved basketball referees blowing the whistle and waving their arms in a rush to reveal, “no basket,” and if it was “charging, no basket,” even better. There’s very little personality among NBA refs these days. But in the old Big Eight, they had style.

We just connected. Like Brent and I connected. Like Chris Bright and I connect.

About Brent I wrote, “He was sweet, not cool; gracious, not fearful; helpful, not selfish; open, not shut.” I think Chris achieved coolness, but the rest of it goes for him, too. He was one of the good guys and what’s better than that?

I’ll miss him.

I loved him.

I fucking hate that he’s gone.

Until 10 days ago, we were the same age.

I hate that, too.

If you knew Chris and would like to share this with others who might have known him, please feel free.

Everything you need to know about Sooner baseball as it chases a national championship

Clay Horning — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:58:13 GMT

As you may know, Sooner baseball has come from the depths of depravity, or just a very difficult final month to its regular season, to the College World Series.

The event begins Friday in Omaha with Troy (yes, Troy!!!) taking on West Virginia at 1 p.m. and Ole Miss facing North Carolina at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oklahoma faces Alabama at 2 p.m. and Texas meets Georgia at 7 p.m.

From the losers’ bracket at Georgia Tech, the Sooners defeated the No. 2 overall national seed Yellow Jackets back-to-back to advance to the Lawrence Super Regional, where they topped Kansas, also back-to-back, 8-1 and 13-2.

The last time OU reached the CWS was 2022, also without playing a single postseason game at home, it reached the best two-of-three championship series, eventually falling to Ole Miss.

Could another deep run be on the table?

The way the Sooners are playing, absolutely.

Want the lowdown?

Just click.

Almost to Omaha, is there a team playing better baseball than the Sooners? Maybe not.

Clay Horning — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 07:41:26 GMT

Jason Walk (1) and Dayton Tockey celebrate another Tockey home run against Kansas Sunday night at Hoglund Ballpark. (OU Athletics Photo)

The plan was to write this one with certainty.

That is, the plan was to write this after the Sooners had already written their ticket to Omaha, which if you’re new to college baseball is the host city of the Men’s College World Series.

Well, they haven’t just yet, but they went to sleep Sunday night all but having done it because lightning struck and did not quit striking in time to come back to the diamond and finish what began Sunday evening before today.

So, instead of punching its ticket already, Oklahoma will be back in Kansas’ Hoglund Ballpark, where it leads the Jayhawks 8-1 in the bottom of the third inning, Dayton Tockey having just hit yet another home run and Kyle Branch at the plate, facing a 3-1 count with nobody on and nobody out and Jayhawk pitcher Boede Rahe likely still on the mound.

If it’s Rahe returning to face the Sooner bats at noon today, he’ll still be KU’s third pitcher of the game.

If he doesn’t, whoever does will be the fourth, and while it’s indeed an all-hands-on-deck situation for the Jayhawks, should they somehow rally and win, they’d still have to find the arms for one more go-round yet later today, as unlikely as that appears to be.

If you were here last week, you read about the miracle in Atlanta, the Sooner Magic that finally found its way to the big diamond, kind of the way it did four years ago, when OU last did what it’s trying to do now, earn a trip to the World Series without playing a postseason game in its own venue.

But while that trip was fueled by pitching and led by the great Cade Horton, Norman High’s own, the best pitcher in the National League post All-Star break last season, this one has been fueled by the Sooner offense, which scored 88 runs the first seven games of the season before coming out to play here and there since.

Until last week and this one.

The visceral Republican outrage over Mazzei's 10-day-old slander is deafening in its silence

Clay Horning — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 07:47:26 GMT

Mike Mazzei on the debate stage.

It seems like forever.
It’s only been 10 days.

Ten days since Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei said what he really thinks about public education in Oklahoma.

Long enough for a serious and sustained backlash, at least.

It was May 29 at Cameron University, where NonDoc and Lawton’s KSWO hosted Mazzei and other Republican hopefuls and Mazzei, apropos of nothing but a straightforward question about OETA funding, hauled off and said this:

“What nobody’s really talking about is how do we change an education system that has been hijacked by the radical left. We have 77 counties in the state of Oklahoma that voted for Donald Trump three times in a row. We’ve got 541 school districts that are run by liberal left-leaning radical socialists.
“The only way that’s going to change, and the only way we’re going to get transparency and accountability in the system, is if the values of conservative Oklahomans are represented in the school boards …
“The only way that happens is if we change these bizarre election dates in the winter to the general election dates in November, and every school board candidate should designate whether they’re Republican or Democrat, so everybody knows their world view. That’s how we’re going to change education in the state of Oklahoma and that’s my plan.”

Sure, politicize school boards.

That way we won’t need a #$%@#%#@ idiot like Ryan Walters as state superintendent any longer, because we’ll have two, three or four on every school board, there to fly the flag of politics, not educate children.

A raging culture war at every school board meeting. Why didn’t we think of that before?

Also …

Great idea, because everybody knows it’s Republicans who champion public education in Oklahoma, who value critical thinking most of all, who go home every night thinking a mind is a terrible thing to waste, who haven’t given hundreds of millions in tax credits to parents already sending their children to private schools, who’ve had control of state government since the moment Brad Henry, the last Democrat to serve, departed as governor when Oklahoma ranked 17th in the nation in education rather than 49th or 50th.

The real problem is we haven’t embraced Republican priorities, biases and numbskull education thinking enough.

So thank Mike Mazzei for proving Chip Keating might not be the most embarrassing candidate in the race, an inclination given more life when the most embarrassing man in Washington, Donald Trump, extended his endorsement to Mazzei the very next day.

But where are the ads?

Where is the taking it to the streets on this?

Where are the dollars spent by the rest of the field — Gentner Drummond, Charles McCall, Keating — excoriating Mazzei for slandering the 541 public school districts in the state, of whom some may be run by left-leaning liberals, and the majority are likely not, yet none of which are run by radical socialists or even run-of-the-mill socialists.

Where is the righteous and furious indignation in response to Mazzei impugning the lifeblood of hundreds of communities, the social hub of so many communities, led by so many hearty and good folks who’ve been $#%#@ on for too long by the governor and the man he made his secretary of education, who eventually became state superintendent, giving state educators no chance because it’s hard to go to work when the person who should be your fiercest advocate is trying to drive you from the profession instead?

In the moment, Drummond responded to Mazzei.

“First, I’m going to defend the teachers,” he said. “Oklahoma has great teachers and great administrators, they just need leadership at the governor’s office. The problem we’ve had the last seven years [is] we’ve torn down teachers and administrators. We have to lift them up.”

It wasn’t quite visceral, but it was good.

But more than a momentary counterpoint is required.

Should you be looking for the Republican in the state superintendent race who spoke most clearly to Mazzei’s comments in that recent debate, Robert Franklin’s your man.

“He disqualified himself from gaining my vote,” he said. “I’ll just say it plainly like that. He is a brilliant man, he has a lot of great family … but we do not need leaders who show us who they are in a statement, a public statement, and then ask to say, ‘Well, I didn’t really mean it like that.’”

Franklin said something else terrific about teachers and he said it after other candidates had congratulated the legislature for making bold and terrific education policy in the most recent legislative session.
“I don’t care how high our standards are, how many things we want to clap and yell for,” he said, “if we don’t have teachers we celebrate and support — Did you hear me? Celebrate and support loudly — we will not get to where we need to be.”

But where is the sustained outrage?

Where is waking people up to a disqualifying statement made in a debate few watched?

It’s been 10 days and the primary election, June 16, is 10 days away.

Look, I spend way too much time on YouTube watching old-time hockey, present-day disc golf and contemporary youngsters discovering the music that shaped me 40 and 50 years ago, and to view all that content I’ve had to sit through at least an hour or two of campaign ads for these candidates.

Most of them presume the viewer knows nothing at all, traffic in half-truths and equate masculine strength with aiming a weapon for no apparent reason, but here Mazzei’s gone off and said how he really feels, leaving a mile-wide opening to be pilloried for the truth rather than a lie.

Seems like he should be hammered for it.

Seems like he should pay a price.

If he doesn’t?

If he doesn’t, well, we’ll know the truth.

Republicans still don’t care about education and certainly don’t care about public education, just as long as they can say just enough to make rural Oklahomans believe they might.

They could, though, be clear.

All you need to cut an ad like that is a camera and a candidate unafraid to speak plainly. There is, though, a catch. They’ve got to believe it.

It’s a high bar.

(For them)

Because I believe it’s too important, it’s columns like this one that are never placed behind paywalls. For that reason, it’s also important Oklahoma Columnist maintain a roster of paid subscribers to keep this type of journalism alive in the state. If you agree, please consider a donation in the form of a paid subscription for just $6/month or $60/year.

Impossibly, Sooner Magic strikes on diamond

Clay Horning — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 07:42:26 GMT

Oklahoma’s Dayton Tockey arrives at home plate after his 10th-inning walk-off home run at Georgia Tech earned Sooners a super regional appointment.

I can’t do this one justice.

I can’t describe how unlikely Oklahoma’s rise was Sunday and Monday in Atlanta, where it shocked No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech, first to keep its season going and then to eliminate the Yellow Jackets on their home field, punching its ticket to the Lawrence Super Regional.

Because standing outside it all the previous five weeks, watching the Sooners drop SEC series to Auburn, Florida, Arkansas and Tennessee, only to then be bounced out of the conference tourney by No. 14-seed LSU, the odds against appeared incalculable.

Now they’ve done it.

Once 27-12 overall and 10-8 against SEC foes, the Sooners fell to 32-20 and 14-16 by regular season’s end.

Now they’re 36-22 after winning four of five on the Yellow Jackets’ diamond, having come back from a six-run deficit three innings into Sunday night’s 15-8 victory and from a four-run deficit through six innings in Monday afternoon’s 8-7 victory.

You know what the problem is?

Sooner baseball doesn’t have its very own fan base.

Softball’s had one forever.

For not quite as long, women’s gymnastics has had one.

There’s one coming back around for women’s basketball.

Not yet baseball.

Had it, fans would have met OU at the airport chanting “Sooner Magic” for what it had just done to the ACC’s regular-season and tournament champions.

Finally making sense of the series

Clay Horning — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 07:22:34 GMT

Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso takes a run at dunking over San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama during Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.

Would you believe I wrote 750 words about the Thunder late Saturday night before deciding it was crap, unsalvageable, a lost cause?

I did, and it’s hard to explain. I haven’t changed how I feel about it, but I couldn’t make it work. And trying to keep the narrative going only made it worse.

Now, who cares about narrative?

I’ve got stuff to say.

Funny thing, the Thunder are hard to write about.

I’m good at finding and describing the space between how a roster’s playing and where it could be playing, should be playing or is in its own way. The Thunder, though, are so rarely in their own way.

For example, everybody wants to pick on Chet Holmgren right now and late in Game 7 NBC analyst Jamal Crawford said an interesting thing.

“I would rather he be 1 for 15 in this game,” he said. “He’s 1 for 2.”

It sounds smart because if Holmgren’s 1 for 15, he’s clearly being aggressive, just not accurate. But Crawford couldn’t have been more wrong.

Because Oklahoma City shot 44.6 percent (37 of 83) overall and 34.3 percent (12 of 35) from 3-point land in their 111-103 Game 7 Western Conference finals loss to San Antonio. Would you rather have Holmgren take 13 more shots, 10 from 2-point land and three from 3 and miss them all?

What do the Thunder shoot from the floor then and what’s the final margin? It might be 25 instead of eight, the game over in the third quarter rather than the final minute.

It’s true, Victor Wembanyama erased Holmgren offensively, but that’s because he’s a freak, this generation’s Chamberlain, something we’ve not seen before.

Do you really want Holmgren to go straight at that guy? I’d rather he occupy him as best he can and call it good.

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault let Holmgren off the hook during his postgame turn at the mic.

“I actually thought he played his minutes pretty well,” he said.

The numbers kind of backed him up. Over 33 minutes of court time, Holmgren finished minus-7, same as Cason Wallace over his 36.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, after finishing with the hardest-earned 35 points and nine assists of his career, was minus-7 over his 43.

There’s no column waiting for me under the headline, “Thunder have a Chet problem,” because what Holmgren has is a Wembanyama problem, just like every other big man in the league.

So, a few things.

One, with a healthy Jalen Williams and a healthy A.J. Mitchell, it’s the Thunder playing the Knicks in the Finals, not the Spurs.

SGA played in distress the whole series because OKC, beyond Jared McCain, who plays many of his minutes while SGA rests, did not have another playmaking ball handler, unless you want to count Wallace, which you can, but he’s nothing like J-Dub or Mitchell.

If you were throwing your hands up wondering why SGA had nowhere to go, was so easily trapped, had to work so, so, so hard to make anything happen, it’s easy. The guys who relieve that pressure weren’t available.

Want a great stat about that?

Here are the turnover numbers in each game.

Game 1: Thunder 15, Spurs 23.
Game 2: Thunder 10, Spurs 21.
Game 3: Thunder 11, Spurs 15.
Game 4: Thunder 20, Spurs 13.
Game 5: Thunder 17, Spurs 15.
Game 6: Thunder 13, Spurs 13.
Game 7: Thunder 16, Spurs 12.

The longer the series went, OKC became looser with the ball and San Antonio became tighter. With J-Dub and Mitchell available, that doesn’t happen.

Heck, the Thunder’s probably in the Finals if either one of them, J-Dub or Mitchell, is available, but they weren’t, so here we are, looking forward to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Game 1’s tonight.

Two, the Thunder did not adequately respect the Spurs.

In Games 2 and 5, the first quarter was basically even, neither team running out to a big lead. In the rest, not so.

Game 1: Spurs score first seven points, lead 12-3, 7:28 remaining.
Game 3: Spurs score game’s first 15 points.
Game 4: Spurs lead 23-8, 4:14 remaining.
Game 6: Spurs lead 35-22 at quarter’s end.
Game 7: Spurs lead 27-13, 5:07 remaining.

The Thunder won Game 3 anyway and briefly led Game 7 in the third quarter, but that doesn’t mean playing from 14 points down in the first quarter didn’t matter because it made all the difference in the world.

The only sense to make of it is, no matter how many times the Spurs beat them in the regular season, the Thunder still failed to believe they could keep finding the same level they kept showing them they could.

Three, it’s not over.

The narrative saying the Western Conference is the Spurs’ playground now is wrong.

In future seasons, the Thunder may be healthy. In future seasons, the Spurs will have the Thunder’s respect. In future seasons Sam Presti will still be Sam Presti and Daigneault will still be Daigneault and that’s to OKC’s advantage, too.

The Spurs got this one.

Doesn’t mean they’ll get the next one, or the next one, or the next one.

Tough loss.

Lesson learned.

Go Golden Knights.

Thunder left to turn another colossal failure into another victory, like last time

Clay Horning — Fri, 29 May 2026 18:57:10 GMT

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander goes to the basket surrounded by three San Antonio Spurs during Game 6 of the Western Conference finals

Game 6, Western Conference Finals, San Antonio and Oklahoma City, Spurs needing to win to keep it going, the Thunder in the driver’s seat having solved San Antonio two different times already following losses.

Certainly, though away from home, they’d figure out a way to solve them again.

Do you know when it looked like that would happen?

About 8½ minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Thunder down 10 after trailing by seven at the half, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with the ball above the 3-point arc, right side, guarded by one man, with nobody coming to help.

That one man being Victor Wembanyama.

They’d been in proximity of each other many times already, but not like this, as though they were on an island, all by themselves.

Gilgeous-Alexander darted down toward the baseline, several feet wide of the paint, then stopped short, then stepped back for a high-arcing jumper.

Splash.

It felt like something: a tide turning, an opening, a new and cool breeze upon a contest that had been wildly tight, overly physical, a battle for real estate near the basket and everywhere else.

It wasn’t.

Instead, it was the last time the Thunder scored until Chet Holmgren dropped in a layup with 55.8 seconds left in the frame, almost 7½ minutes later.

In that time, OKC went 14 trips down the court without scoring, missed 13 shots and turned the ball over twice.

From 72-64 Spurs when Gilgeous-Alexander scored over Wembanyama, to 91-64 Spurs when Holmgren hit the layup.

Not that it matters, but the final score was 118-91 San Antonio and, this actually does matter, Game 7 arrives at 7 p.m. Saturday.

From the Thunder’s biggest moment of the night to their worst moment of the night, over and over and over and over again.

Until the cows came home. Till kingdom come.

You understand.

Here, though, is how Thunder coach Mark Daigneault saw it, holistically, and the third quarter, too.

Buckle up, it’s a long quote.

Right coach, the right team, respond in Game 5

Clay Horning — Wed, 27 May 2026 07:57:46 GMT

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault.

Mark Daigneault does not get enough credit.

He won NBA coach of the year two seasons ago, but you know what the national talking heads never say?

They never say, “Don’t forget, the Thunder are coached by Mark Daigneault.”

Of course to say it, they’d have to remember who coaches the Oklahoma City Thunder and, good chance, they don’t.

They know Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and they know general manager Sam Presti, who they may agree to be the league’s best player and general manager. But they forget about the guy directing the Thunder on the floor.

Daigneault.

They ought to watch his postgame pressers.

Maybe the one after Oklahoma City’s 127-114 Tuesday night Western Conference finals Game 5 triumph over San Antonio, bringing the Thunder one win from a return to the NBA Finals.

Daigneault was asked if, maybe, as soon as Game 4 ended, he saw something from his players, some indication they’d respond.

Nope, he said. He’s not a psychologist.

He does, though, trust his team.

He was sort of asked about putting Jared McCain in the starting lineup, if he liked his energy, and something else because the question kept changing, perhaps because McCain wasn’t good from the start, but remained tremendous coming off the bench, scoring 18 of his 20 points in the second half.

“I’m not, like, crazy about who the starters are,” Daigneault said. “It’s just the first substitution.”

How perfect is that? Before the tip there were no Thunder players on the court. For the tip, there were five. The first substitution. Brilliant.

To another question seeking narrative to OKC being so bad two nights earlier to being in control for most of the last three quarters of the game:

“I thought we were first to the fight tonight on both ends,” Daigneault said. “And we weren’t the other night.”

Then he explained why that should shock nobody.

“We’ve been doing this all year in terms of problem solving as a team,” he said, “not making excuses, seeing adversity as a challenge.”

Doing this, he demonstrates how good a coach he is in two ways.

One, he always has the right answer.

You know who didn’t have the right answer?

Billy Donovan, whose mouth was always moving but who said very little accurate or smart, I presume, because he figured saying something accurate and smart might piss off Russell Westbrook.

I wasn’t there for Scott Brooks or P.J. Carlesimo’s press conferences and never made a point to track them down and watch later. I don’t know if they said accurate and smart things or not.

What I know is Daigneault dodges no questions because he doesn’t need to. He knows his team and himself so well, he can offer context previously unconsidered. And if the question’s not particularly good, he’s bound to offer the right answer to the better question without making the asker look dumb.

When other coaches dodge, you understand why, because there appears to be no good way to say it and they don’t want to start a fire. But Daigneault always knows the right way to say it so he never has to worry about starting a fire.

So imagine how good he must be with his players, how good he must be answering their questions, how much insight they must realize he really has.

In this so-named players era, it’s been fair to ask if coaches coach at all, or if superstars are moonlighting as GMs. You don’t have to wonder about the Thunder.

Two, not only does Daigneault have the answers, consider the substance of them, like the one about relishing adversity and problem-solving as a team.

We see it happen all the time with this team.

What we don’t see is drama, ego or selfishness. And any coach who has the former and not the latter must be a hell of a coach, even if he gets some help from his superstar.

That’s a lot about Daigneault, but the Thunder’s Game 5 victory was rooted in what’s been developed under his guidance.

Because Victor Wembanyama was so incredible in Game 1 and because everybody decided he was again in Game 4, as though he was responsible for the Thunder’s clunker himself, the narrative of the whole series turned right back into San Antonio’s inevitability. Like the series was done, it just hadn’t ended yet.

As though the Thunder had quit being the Thunder.

But there they were, in a big, big, big game, with their star not very good from the start — Gilgeous-Alexander committed three turnovers and hit 1 of 5 shots in the first quarter — but never wilting, never not bringing it and eventually gaining control.

“I might have had the worst start to a basketball game in my career,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But the group held it down.”

They did.

Kenrich Williams hit a huge 3-pointer, Alex Caruso delivered 14 points and four assists in 12 1/2 first-half minutes, Chet Holmgren started fast, scoring 12 of his 16 points before the half.

Then came SGA, getting to the free-throw line to counter inaccurate shooting, finishing with 32 points and nine assists, hitting 16 of 17 freebies.

Were the Thunder supposed to not show up?

It’s true, Wembanyama’s propensity to live outside the paint was a mystery and his topping out at 20 points, six rebounds and three blocks was a surprise and, honestly, I don’t know how it happened.

What I know is Cason Wallace and Isaiah Hartenstein had much to do with it, Wallace finishing plus 29 over his 31 minutes and Hartenstein finishing plus 24 over his 30 1/2.

It’s not shocking.

The Thunder did what they do, which tends to happen because they can do it so many different ways.

“We, obviously, played a lot better,” Daigneault said.

As he, no doubt, expected.

He’s been coaching them the whole time.

A better pitcher would have given Sooners a better chance and Audrey Lowry was available

Clay Horning — Mon, 25 May 2026 07:54:17 GMT

Mississippi State celebrates at Love’s Field on Sunday. (MSU Athletics Photo)

You have to love the way Mississippi State coach Samantha Ricketts approached the biggest game in her program’s history.

What she did was find a terrific and hungry pitcher and hand her the ball.

She must also have told her team “an underdog is still a dog” 500 times, too, because her team kept attributing it to her over and over again.

You had to hate the way Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso went about making the same decision.

Though she didn’t have anybody in the mold of Delainey Everett, Ricketts’ choice in the other dugout, what she had was her best pitcher available, fresh enough after throwing 87 pitches over seven strong innings the day before and should Audrey Lowry not work out, she could always be relieved.

By now, you know what happened. Ricketts’ choice, not only defendable but inspired, worked beautifully.

Though Everett had not pitched more than three innings in a single outing all season and had pitched only 13 innings total, she still entered with a 1.05 earned run average and the belief she could do it and all she did was shut the Sooners out, part of a 6-0 victory, that made history.

OU had not been shut out in its previous 399 games, going back to a 1-0 Alabama victory at the 2019 Women’s College World Series.

The Sooners will miss the World Series for the first time since 2015.

Mississippi State reached its first World Series ever.

Gasso’s choice, to give Miali Guachino the first shot at the Bulldog lineup was not defendable or inspired, nor was keeping her in the circle any longer than the fifth batter of the game, after which OU trailed 2-0, but Gasso failed that test, too.

Gasso finally makes obvious choice, Sooners win

Clay Horning — Sun, 24 May 2026 00:21:09 GMT

Audrey Lowry winds toward the plate. (OU Athletics Photo)

Here’s an idea.
Throw your best pitcher.
Throw her the whole game.
Or until she must be replaced.
See what happens.
It might even work.

So it was on Saturday, May 23, in Game 2 of the Norman Super Regional, facing unseeded and not very heralded Mississippi State (41-18, 9-15 SEC), facing whiffing the Women’s College World Series for the first time in 11 years, Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso finally succumbed to the obvious thing, running Audrey Lowry out to the circle with the intention of letting her go until she shouldn’t.

Oklahoma prevailed 7-1 and will be back in action Sunday, looking to punch yet another World Series ticket.

Why she didn’t do it sooner will never make any sense, though overthinking surely played a role.

Why she removed Lowry after retiring the first batter she faced in a suspended contest at Texas A&M on May 1, when Lowry had pitched well prior to the suspension the day before, made no sense.

Why Lowry started neither of the next two contests against the Aggies made no sense. Why Miali Guachino, rather than Lowry, started against Georgia at the SEC tournament on May 7 made no sense. Why Lowry was removed in the fifth inning against Michigan in regional play last Sunday made no sense.

If Lowry does not start Game 3 — because if she’s taxed and ineffective, better to find out early than to throw her in relief of a tight game; but if she’s fresh, hey, she’s your best pitcher and you’re still facing elimination — it will make no sense.

Saturday finally made sense.

No longer could Gasso tinker with her staff in the name of future gains.

No longer could she worship tomorrow at the behest of today.

Glory.

Lowry took the ball and ran, throwing all seven innings, scattering five hits, walking two, yet none over the first five frames, and striking out only two, but that’s sort of her game.

Of her 87 pitches, 59 were strikes.

Her first three-ball count didn’t materialize until facing Kinley Keller, the sixth batter of the Bulldogs’ sixth inning. She walked Keller, forcing home Mississippi State’s only run. She walked Morgan Bernardini to begin the seventh.

Nine pitches later, the game was over.

Lowry had a perfect game going until Paige Ernstes managed a two-out double in the third inning and didn’t give up another hit until Bernardini’s two-out single in the fifth.

“Extremely efficient, extremely effective, very calm, very confident,” Gasso said.

No thanks to the hopscotch decisions of recent days gone by, but exactly as a No. 1 should respond when there’s no other choice.

“I forgot about yesterday,” Lowry said.

As it turned out, one fine decision led to another, when Gasso, with two runners on and four runs already across in the third inning, called Sydney Barker back to the dugout in favor of pinch-hitter Lexi McDaniel.

McDaniel got what she was looking for and deposited on the other side of the fence, marking her fourth pinch-dinger of the season and her 11th in all, pushing the Sooner edge to what became the final score.

She said hitting coach J.T. Gasso “was like, ‘Just hit the ball.’”

“Just kind of going into it just trusting the process … really not worrying about the outcome,” McDaniel said. “But just going in there with like a strong plan and just focusing on what I can do at that moment.”

She did plenty.

Among ESPN’s softball talking heads in the couple hours that followed, and in OU’s postgame press conference, too, the common refrains were the Sooners’ resiliency, their ability to put Friday behind them, their unwillingness to be done.

I’m sure it felt like that, and still OU (51-9, 20-4 SEC) produced only six hits, scored in only one inning and, after all the runs came across, went 2 for 15 at the plate, drew no walks and got hit by one pitch.

“We swung really well today,” Patty Gasso said.

But did they?

In the fourth, Kai Minor led off with her second triple, but did not score.

No biggie.
They won.

“There was a commitment last night that we’re going to sleep well and we’re going to get this done and that is Sooner softball,” Gasso said.

Perhaps.

Mostly, she put her best pitcher in the circle and her best pitcher pitched like her best pitcher and the season’s still going.

Mostly that.

Gasso finally makes obvious choice, Sooners win

Clay Horning — Sat, 23 May 2026 23:49:54 GMT

Audrey Lowry winds toward the plate. (OU Athletics Photo)

Here’s an idea.
Throw your best pitcher.
Throw her the whole game.
Or until she must be replaced.
See what happens.
It might even work.

Oklahoma prevailed 7-1 and will be back in action Sunday, looking to punch yet another World Series ticket.

Why she didn’t do it sooner will never make any sense, though overthinking surely played a role.

Why she removed Lowry after retiring the first batter she faced in a suspended contest at Texas A&M on May 1, when Lowry had pitched well prior to the suspension the day before, made no sense.

Saturday finally made sense.

No longer could Gasso tinker with her staff in the name of future gains.

No longer could she worship tomorrow at the behest of today.

Glory.

Lowry took the ball and ran, throwing all seven innings, scattering five hits, walking two, yet none over the first five frames, and striking out only two, but that’s sort of her game.

Of her 87 pitches, 59 were strikes.

Nine pitches later, the game was over.

Lowry had a perfect game going until Paige Ernstes managed a two-out double in the third inning and didn’t give up another hit until Bernardini’s two-out single in the fifth.

“Extremely efficient, extremely effective, very calm, very confident,” Gasso said.

No thanks to the hopscotch decisions of recent days gone by, but exactly as a No. 1 should respond when there’s no other choice.

“I forgot about yesterday,” Lowry said.

She said hitting coach J.T. Gasso “was like, ‘Just hit the ball.’”

She did plenty.

“We swung really well today,” Patty Gasso said.

But did they?

In the fourth, Kai Minor led off with her second triple, but did not score.

No biggie.
They won.

“There was a commitment last night that we’re going to sleep well and we’re going to get this done and that is Sooner softball,” Gasso said.

Perhaps.

Mostly, she put her best pitcher in the circle and her best pitcher pitched like her best pitcher and the season’s still going.

Mostly that.

Can't field, can't pitch, can't win

Clay Horning — Sat, 23 May 2026 02:23:39 GMT

Oklahoma’s Kendall Wells connects on one of her two home runs Friday against Mississippi State. (OU Athletics Photo)

Want some good news? Here’s some good news.

Kendall Wells bounced out of her 11-game, 4-for-25 slump.
Like, really, really bounced out of it.

She came to the plate five times, roped two singles and smashed two home runs, the first clearing the outfield bleachers on the fly.

So make it 39 home runs in 60 games: outrageous for anybody, historic for anybody, doubly so given she only recently arrived from North Oconee High School in Bogart, Ga.

Think she’s seen Casablanca?

That’s more home runs than anybody’d ever hit prior to this season, though UCLA’s Megan Grant’s hit one more this one with the Los Angeles Super Regional still on her docket.

Wells has one, two or at least four games remaining, it’s momentarily unclear, which brings us to this.

Want some real news?
Here’s some real news.

On the very day Wells broke out of her slump, popping two home runs and driving in six — holy cow! — raising her batting average from .351 to .364, OU played horrendous defense, pitched horrendously, chose its pitchers horrendously (again!), to lose on a day it deserved to lose, 11-9, to Mississippi State, coached by former Sooner Samantha Ricketts, without whom we might never have met Keilani Ricketts and Sooner softball might not be where it is today.

But that’s another column.

This one?
Navigating on the fly.

Somehow, a team that entered slashing .273/.357/.461, averaging just 5.5 hits per game against SEC competition, cranked out 15 hits against Sooner pitching, reached base three other times on Sooner errors, reached additional bases, including home plate three times on a fourth error, a wild pitch and a passed ball, and struck out only five times; often the case even when Sooner pitching is solid, something pointed out all season as less than ideal and Friday afternoon at Love’s Field proved it.

Would you believe the Bulldogs had not once scored 11 runs in a single game all season, topping out at 10 against North Texas on Feb. 15. Or that they had not accumulated 15 hits all season, topping out at 14 at Florida on April 4.

Mississippi State did it against an OU pitching staff that’s been a bit sketchy all season, yet nothing like this.

Miali Guachino got the start, pitched three innings, allowed five hits, two runs, struck out three, walked two and hit a batter.

Sydney Berzon tossed 2 2/3, allowed four hits and four runs, just one earned, struck out one and walked nobody.

Audrey Lowry threw 1 1/3, allowed six hits, five runs, four earned, walked two and struck out one, and somehow pitched to all 10 batters the Bulldogs sent to the plate in the seventh inning, allowing three singles, a double and a walk to five of the first six she faced in the frame.

To be fair, the walk was intentional and the third single came after it, yet still she remained in the game to walk another batter and give up another single, which, combined with Ailana Agbayani’s error on the same play, accounted for the Bulldogs’ 10th and 11th runs.

Gasso appeared to figure out her pitching last weekend in a trio of regional victories over Binghamton, Kansas and Michigan, Guachino shutting out the Jayhawks over five innings in the middle and Lowry starting the others, allowing one hit and no runs over two innings against Binghamton and three hits and one run over 4 2/3 against Michigan.

Yet, a few days later, Guachino drew the first start against Mississippi State, despite carrying a higher earned run average than Lowry all season (2.92 to 2.62), in conference play (3.45 to 3.32), too, and despite not being discernibly better last weekend.

Of course, Lowry was worse Friday, though she did not get to pitch from her comfort zone — starting — instead coming in with two outs, runners at the corners and two runs already across in the top of the sixth, the Sooners still up 6-4.

She immediately let go with a high riser Wells failed to snag and it was 6-5, before allowing a single to Morgan Bernadini, making it 6-6.

Gasso’s circle choices made little sense in the weeks leading up to Friday.

She appeared to attempt one of two things: supplanting Lowry with Guachino as her new No. 1 or spreading her arms out almost randomly hoping to earn everybody confidence.

If the first, she had to believe in something beyond the numbers.
If the second, trying to get everybody going, she got nobody going instead.

What does OU do in the circle next?

I can make a case for Lowry.

I can make a case for Berzon, who retired six of seven Bulldogs in the fourth and fifth innings before the sixth cratered around her, who also led the Sooners with a 2.18 ERA over 25 2/3 innings of conference play.

I can even make a case for Kierston Deal, having allowed two hits and one run over her previous five outings, a span stretching back to April 12 at Texas.

None are great cases.

Call me old school, but whatever happened to throwing your best starter until they demand to be relieved and then doing it again?

But Gasso’s gone a different direction and here we are.

Of course, whatever happens Saturday must be better than Friday.

It just has to be.

That, or it’s over.

No more Sooners at World Series (and other catastrophes) on table as long as SEC, Big Ten fail to honor agreement

Clay Horning — Wed, 20 May 2026 22:12:27 GMT

Imagine this setting, devoid of Sooner fans.

I was never on board with Oklahoma entering the SEC.

I thought giving away your history was a bad idea, the Sooners would be at a competitive disadvantage without getting closer to national championships and, though the powers that be would have you believe it wasn’t all about money, I was pretty sure it was all about the money.

I was right.

What I did not see coming is the very real threat now upon us.

For instance:

Though Oklahoma City’s under contract with the NCAA to host the Women’s College World Series through 2035, should the SEC and Big Ten not change their ways there’s a real chance OU could find itself locked out of it even as it’s played in its proverbial back yard.

No way, you say?

Try again.

It’s not even because Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said one of the quiet parts out loud on Monday. Rather it’s because, for Pollard to have said it, many, many more must be thinking it.

Here that is:

“I’d turn it around and say we should break away from them. Let ’em go. But they have to go in all their sports and see how fun it is to play baseball and softball and track when it’s just the [34] of you … Let’s quit talking about it. Quit threatening. Go do it. But if you’re going to do it, you don’t just do it in football and then keep all your other sports with us. No, take ’em all. See how fun it is.”

Oh, by the way, the SEC includes 16 schools, the Big Ten 18 and 16 plus 18 equals 34.

What Pollard’s talking about is not just calling the SEC and Big Ten’s ever-present bluff to bolt the NCAA and form its own thing, but to move all in over the top of that bluff, kicking them out before they can, which, as far as I can tell, makes all the sense in the world.

The Big Ten wants 24 teams in the College Football Playoff. The SEC wants 16, neither caring one bit about conference champions, seeking unlimited at-large berths instead, because who might that benefit?

Only because they want to enlarge the bracket in differing ways does it remain a 12-team deal.

The SEC and Big 10 both wanted a larger NCAA tournament, all the better to get all of their sub-.500-in-conference-bubble squads into the brackets and, what do you know, the NCAA tournament, men and women, will move to 76 teams beginning next season.

There’s more.

In compliance with the $2.8 billion House vs. NCAA settlement, agreed upon by the ACC, Big 12, SEC and Big Ten, the College Sports Commission has been up and running since June of last year to do what the NCAA can’t.

• Enforce and oversee the settlement’s established annual revenue-sharing limit schools may pay their athletes, a scheduled $21.3 million the next academic year.
• Vet, approve and manage all third-party NIL deals in excess of $600, thus rejecting NIL deals that aren’t NIL deals at all, but pay-to-play salaries instead.

You may be able to guess what’s happened since:

Despite signing off on the settlement, the SEC and Big Ten would now like to torch it. Or, perhaps, leave.

That’s what Pollard was talking about. Don’t just encourage or accept their exit, preemptively kick them out before they do, sending all their teams with them.

Yahoo senior college football reporter Ross Dellenger makes the conflict clear:

While the NCAA’s landmark House settlement opened a path for schools to directly pay athletes up to a per-school, annual revenue-share cap ($21.3M in 2026-27), certain high-value third-party pay to athletes from boosters and those affiliated closely with a university is prohibited.
That policy is now in direct conflict with the commission’s own founders and operators: the power conference schools themselves, who, during a hotly competitive football portal, promised to athletes millions in NIL from multimedia rights partners, corporate sponsors and apparel brands — some of which do not meet legitimacy standards.

Do you see?

It’s a clear case of the richest two conferences (and select schools in other conferences, like, say, Texas Tech), deciding, hey, you know what, this agreement is cramping our style; we don’t really want a level playing field; we thought we’d get our way like we always have; we knew NIL collectives were NIL in name only, a creative way to pay players directly and we knew our boosters would pay more and more and more like they always have.

But can the CSC keep the SEC and Big Ten from playing that game?

If they can, would the conferences bolt the establishment and play for their own crowns? If they can’t, would the other conferences force them out, making them play for their own crowns?

If it’s either of those, say goodbye to the Sooners in the WCWS and every other NCAA championship.

It’s simple.

Can the SEC and Big Ten, realizing they’ve rigged the system long enough, finally get with a program they’ve already agreed to?

Or can they not, deciding it would be more lucrative to go it alone, believing their fans and television partners will keep supporting them as they always have, even as the championships they play for are not remotely national?

The choice is easy.

Doesn’t mean they’ll take it.

Fandom as we know it hangs in the balance.

Sooners right ship, wait for Bulldogs

Clay Horning — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:16:07 GMT

Oklahoma’s Isabela Emerling rounds first base after going deep against Kansas at the Norman Regional. (OU Athletics Photo))

It’s not like Oklahoma entered the NCAA’s Norman Regional playing poorly because it’s hard to play poorly when you’re hitting .390 as a team. Nonetheless, the Sooners were a simmering mess.

Coach Patty Gasso had been making no sense with her pitching selections.

The Sooners dropped their opener at Texas A&M, though eked out the next two, stubbornly claiming the SEC’s regular-season championship. Only then did they play the game they appeared hurtling toward, a 10-5 elimination loss to Georgia upon arriving at the SEC tournament.

Now?

Now they’re great, or so it would appear, or something very, very close to it, after three straight victories on their home field that have them waiting for Mississippi State’s noon Friday arrival.

OU shut out Binghamton 11-0 in five innings, then Kansas 9-0 in five innings, then Michigan 8-1 in seven.

From having no pitchers they could hang their hat on, the Sooners now have two and others they can sprinkle in when needed.

They’ve righted the ship.

Dramatically.

Leaving the SEC tourney, Gasso said they’d head back to Norman and “really press … throughout the entire practice, to the point of exhaustion, and you should keep asking for more and more and more until your hands bleed.”

It’s enough to make one wonder if Gasso, mad softball genius she is, somehow orchestrated her squad’s tourney downfall just for the whiplash the turnaround would create. What wasn’t dramatic, though, were the games themselves against the Bearcats, Jayhwaks, and Wolverines.

In three days, Sooner bats forced two mercy rules, scored 28 runs, collected 27 hits, drew 15 walks and bashed seven home runs. At the same time, Sooner pitching tossed 17 innings, allowed one run, six hits, struck out 13 and walked one.

You’d like a few more strikeouts maybe, but one walk?

Hard to beat yourself doing that.

Going a little deeper, here are four notes to better understand this team as it enters super regional play.

It’s the Lowry, Guachino show

Leading into regional play it was as though Gasso made the decision to get further and further away from Audry Lowry, who’d been the Sooners’ best and busiest pitcher through the regular season.

What now appears true is Gasso was happy to sacrifice short-term success while trying as hard as she could to elevate Miali Guachino alongside Lowry, hoping to make them a one-two World Series punch. That’s just what they were last weekend, Lowry the apparent first among equals.

She drew two of the three starts, including the last one, against Michigan, in which she threw 4 2/3 innings, allowing one run two days after starting and throwing two shutout innings at Binghamton. In between, Guachino shut out Kansas in a five-inning run-rule, allowing one hit.

A method to the madness.

Pickering busts slump, not Wells

No need to worry about Kasidi Pickering any longer.

Not only is she out of her very long slump, she’s out of it in a very Kasidi Pickering kind of way, finishing the Norman Regional 3 for 6 with two home runs and four RBIs, also drawing three walks.

She’s now hitting .382, yet the headline is her .510 on-base percentage, created by drawing 38 walks, most on the team save Kendall Wells’ 40, because so many opponents won’t pitch to Wells, afraid she’ll take them deep.

Wells, though, is in a slump of her own.

Once sitting on 36 home runs 51 games into the season, she’s now at 37 after 59, having hit just one over her last eight games. Over her last 11 games, she’s gone 4 of 25 (.100) at the plate, though 13 walks have kept her on-base percentage (.447) high over the span.

Perhaps Mississippi State, coached by former Sooner Samantha Ricketts, will go after her from the circle. That could be fun.

Minor doing major damage

Because I can’t not say it, imagine the season Kai Minor might be having if she’d take a few pitches. Because right now her on-base percentage of .479 is only 33 points higher than her batting average of .446.

The reason, of course, is Minor has drawn just 11 walks all season.

Still, her season is off the charts.

There’s the batting average, 11 home runs, a .797 slugging percentage and 45 RBIs from the leadoff spot.

She’s Rickey Henderson from the left side and she led her team last weekend, going 5 for 11 at the plate with a home run, two doubles, four RBIs and six runs scored.

Faircloth a worthy opponent

Remember Jennifer Stewart, the pitching hero from OU’s 2000 national championship team, when the Sooners won it all wearing shorts?

She came on in relief of Lana Moran in the opener and never came out, pitching the Sooners to their first national championship in their first World Series appearance.

Well, that was Faircloth’s story leading Mississippi State to victory at the Eugene (Oregon) Regional, where she pitched 15 2/3 innings, allowed no runs, two hits, walked six and struck out 26.

In the Bulldogs’ middle game, against Oregon on the Ducks’ home field, Faircloth finished a walk short of a perfect game, tossing a no-hitter.

Faircloth’s earned run average is down to 2.28 over 169 innings in which she’s struck out 261 and walked 57. Her staff mate, Peja Goold, continues to carry the lower ERA — 2.12 over 148 1/3 innings — yet Faircloth’s time appears to be now.

The Sooners must get to her to reach the World Series.

Hey, I did a different thing

Clay Horning — Sat, 16 May 2026 08:06:46 GMT

So here’s the deal.

I spent Friday afternoon at Noble High School on the request of my friend Murray Evans, who a few months ago became sports editor of the Lawton Constitution and has been doing great work ever since.

The assignment was to cover Mount St. Mary and Elgin in the semifinal round of the Class 4A state baseball tournament.

Understand, I knew nothing about either program, nor anything about their fortunes this season, only that they’d reached the state semifinal round. All I really knew, other than what was in Murray’s game story from the day before, was I was there because Elgin was there, not because St. Mary was there.

Murray asked for 600-700 words, which is right up my alley, also about 200 words more than anybody from The Oklahoman or The Tulsa World will write from a single high school game — other than the World’s Bill Haisten — who covers the high schools as a columnist, in this calendar year or any other.

Anyway, when I was done and had read over it, I was at 698 words.

Seriously.

It was great fund to be there and maybe more fun to not write a column, but a story about a game with all the flair I could muster without forgetting it wasn’t a column but, as mentioned, a game story.

It was fun to exercise the muscle memory I have for the form.

Because Elgin lost and it wasn’t close, the story had to be accurate and truthful, but also sympathetic. And because I was writing it, I had to find some drama in it to get the story going and carry me to every next paragraph.

Anyway, I did it, Murray liked it, and I liked it, too.

You probably didn’t have a dog in the fight but maybe you’ll enjoy it, too.

Also, to any and all readers, wherever you are, it’s an example of a different type of writing than what I tend to offer here three or four times a week. And, should you need somebody with my skills writing about the pros, the colleges or the preps, from track and field to hoops, the diamond, golf and tennis and the gridiron, too, give me a call or send me a note.

I miss being on site, I miss the crowd and the competition and I’ve done it very well going back about 30 years and I still have my fastball.

I’m not busy enough.

Make me busier.

Now here’s that story.

Enjoy.

Oh, and yes, I can write shorter if I must. :)

Elgin baseball coach Levi Garrett talks to his team following its ouster from the Class 4A state baseball tournament in Noble.

Rockets get the pitching, the hits, even the breaks, knocking Elgin out of state tourney

By Clay Horning
For The Constitution

NOBLE — Mount St. Mary had already scored three runs in the first inning, two more in the second and loaded the bases only to make the third out at the plate in the third.

Ritson Meyer, relieved from his mound duties during the Rockets’ two-run second, had already answered with a long home run over left field in the bottom of the first, but that was it as the fourth inning arrived.

Pitching for Elgin since Meyer’s removal, Kade Phillips fooled the Rockets’ Jefferson Hodge, who attempted to check his swing.

He checked it, but the ball still found his bat and his excuse-me-infield-single became the opening salvo of another Rockets’ three-run frame.

Perhaps then it was clear.

It wasn’t going to be the Owls’ day.

Instead, it was the Rockets, (almost) all the way, claiming a 9-5 decision in the semifinal round of the Class 4A state tournament.

Elgin finished the season with a 35-5 record and a fourth straight trip to a state tournament one season after finishing runner-up a year ago in Class 5A.

St. Mary, 32-7, will face Tuttle at 10 this morning at Shawnee High School for the state championship.

“It’s the culture, it’s the expectations, it’s a preparation that we’ve put forth each and every day and this is where we want to be,” Elgin coach Levi Garrett said of his program’s sustained success. “This is not how we want it to end, obviously, nobody does.”

But for the bottom of the seventh, and even then with two outs, the Owls could not string hits together against Rocket starting pitcher Will Grayson, who was forced off the mound one out short of a complete game when his pitch count reached the 120 limit.

It was against his replacement, Miles Stanley, the Owls, kind of, sort of, made a serious run at a miracle, rallying until the tying run was on deck.

Stanley walked Brody Morrison, gave up a single to Meyer and plunked Kade Hilliary to load the bases.

Graeson Nichols then popped a two-run single, forging what became the final score, leaving runners at the corners.

The game ended on Kason Meyer’s soft liner to center field.

Grayson spent most of the day locating his fastball and slider, and sometimes a changeup. He gave up exactly one Owl hit in every inning but the seventh, when he struck out Cayden Belletto and Mason Thornton before handing the ball to Stanley.

“He’s a good pitcher,” Ritson Meyer said.

On the mound, Meyer struck out the first batter he faced. Then it became difficult, the next six Rockets reaching.

Meyer balked home the first run before Will Grayson tripled home the second and Sam Grayson singled home the third.

In the second inning, it was an RBI double from Wade Webb, after which Meyer was lifted, and another RBI double from Ryan Kuklinski, the first batter Phillips faced.

“I was missing my spots,” Meyer said.

Kuklinski’s double, after walking in the first inning, was part of a huge day for the St. Mary catcher. Before he was done, he’d added a home run and driven in four.

Then came the fourth, when Hodge got lucky, Webb walked and Kuklinski mashed his three-run shot.

Those single hits each inning the Owls were getting tended to come early.

Nichols led off the second and fourth innings with singles. Belletto led off the third with a single. Brody Morrison’s two-run home run, making it 8-3 in the fifth, came with one out after Thornton walked. Kason Meyer’s single in the sixth came with one out.

The Owls had their chances, but Grayson remained unfazed, striking out 12, walking only two, allowing six hits and three runs over his 6 2/3 innings.

“They’re a really good ball club,” Garrett said of St. Mary. “They swung the bat a lot better than we did. They were able to capitalize.”

No state title for Elgin, but another big season after three other big seasons.

“We want to be in the state tournament,” Garrett said. “And if you’re in the tournament, you’ve had a great season.”

Sooners offer a clinic on how not to win

Clay Horning — Fri, 15 May 2026 07:02:04 GMT

Oklahoma’s Deiten LaChance stares down a home run at Bricktown Ballpark Thursday night in Oklahoma City. (OU Athletics Photo)

On a night Oklahoma hit three home runs, put together a season-high 17 hits and received reasonable work from its bullpen, it figured to be a good night.

Right?

Back in Bricktown for the first time in ages, playing what could be a huge series if they could take advantage, the Sooners survived yet-again rotten starting pitching to lead nonetheless after four innings.

All seemed good.

But who knew Oklahoma (31-19, 13-15 SEC) had already committed snafus that would help cost it the game and who knew there were more in store?

The night belonged to Tennessee (36-18, 14-14) after all.

Though the Volunteers would only come up with seven hits and though starting pitcher Tegan Kuhns, a projected first-round pick, would be tagged for runs in each of his first four frames, the Sooners wound up losing because they didn’t deserve to win.

The final score was 9-7 and the play that typified it all — a multiple choice selection — came in the top of the ninth, delivered by one of OU’s best players; nor was it his first big mistake of the night.

Check it out.

What can coach Skip Johnson do about Sooners' pitching problems right now?

Clay Horning — Thu, 14 May 2026 08:24:49 GMT

Nate Smithburg, the rare Sooner pitcher to have found recent mound success. (Photo from Nate Smithburg’s Opendorse page)

This will be interesting.

Tennessee’s on its way to meet coach Skip Johnson’s Oklahoma baseball team and yet the Volunteers will not require a ride to the stadium formerly known as L. Dale Mitchell Park.

Nope, if the Vols stay downtown in the city their flight lands, they can walk to the diamond tonight, Friday night and Saturday afternoon, for it’s all happening at Bricktown Ballpark, where once upon a time a couple Bedlam games would draw 15,000 each.

So, attendance will be interesting, atmosphere will be interesting and what the Sooners do with it will be, too.

But for repeating its 2022 College World Series entry, when it didn’t have much happening before sweeping the Big 12 tournament on the back of sudden and tremendous starting pitching, OU’s time to move is now.

The Sooners are 31-18 overall and 13-14 against SEC foes. The Vols are 35-18 and 13-14. The challenge is clear.

Though OU could knock the cover off the ball, as it did last Sunday to salvage a single 15-10 victory at Arkansas after allowing a dozen runs back-to-back in preceding losses, the onus will be on Sooner starting pitching first and relief pitching second to make the most of the opportunity.

Heck, sweep and OU can start dreaming about hosting a regional again, an honor requiring top-16 status from the NCAA selection committee.

The Sooners’ Fayetteville fortunes have them out of the two most heralded top 25s, the USA Today coaches’ poll and the NCBWA writers’ poll, yet they remain No. 20 on Baseball America’s list and No. 19 in the NCAA’s RPI.

Three takedowns of Tennessee and a couple victories at the SEC tourney and who knows?

OU has only swept one SEC series to date, at home against lowly Missouri, yet a reclamation project for a once top-10 squad must begin somewhere.

I once read — wait, I may have written it — among collegiate skippers, Johnson’s a legit pitcher whisperer.

Well, it’s time to start whispering again, because the Sooners’ collective earned run average is a 13th-in-the-conference 5.23 and, limited to league play, it’s a far worse 6.88, 15th of 16 teams.

Yuck.

On the one hand, it would seem Sooner pitching can only get better. On the other, how much maneuverability does Johnson even have?

Johnson’s gone with L.J. Mercurius, Cam Johnson and Cord Rager as his three-man rotation most of the conference season and for most of it they’ve either been quite good or horrendous.

At Arkansas, it was primarily the latter, Mercurius going 1 1/3 innings and yielding five runs, Johnson going 2 1/3 and allowing four and Rager going five and allowing four, each outing raising their respective earned run averages to 5.62, 3.53 and 5.32.

In a world with better options, the Sooners might lean on their bullpen more or, egads, find somebody in it to become the No. 3 while moving Johnson and Rager to Nos. 1 and 2.

The problem?

The bullpen’s been worse than the rotation and there’s no starter in waiting.

Perhaps that’s on Johnson, who mostly slotted bullpen games in the midweek rather than establishing a fourth or fifth starter. And, given the bullpen’s struggles, found himself trapped into trying to develop additional relievers. One crisis at a time and all that.

Check this out.

A year ago, Dylan Crooks tossed 32 innings, saved 16 games and pitched to a 1.69 ERA. Reid Hensley tossed 32 2/3 innings to a 2.94 ERA. James Hitt 35 1/3 to a 3.82. And ,though I never understood it, Jason Bodin 41 to a 5.93.

This season, Jackson Cleveland’s saved seven games, but with an ERA of 5.67 appears to have lost his job to Kadyn Leon, who’s saved two and carries a 3.76.

So much for a lights-out closer.

Meanwhile, spot starting and relieving, Michael Catalano’s tossed 30 1/3 innings, but his ERA’s 7.12. Xander Mercurius is often Johnson’s first choice in relief, yet his ERA sits at 5.65 over 28 2/3 innings. And Bodin, busy again, has thrown 27 2/3 to a 4.88.

Good for Bodin making himself a better pitcher, but where are the guys like Hensley and Hitt a year ago, who could log innings and settle down a game?

Johnson’s failed to find them.

Except, just maybe, now?

What the Sooners do have are guys Johnson appears to have misjudged, yet have come on lately, finally getting conference chances.

There’s Leon, who’s closed.

Nick Wesloski, who’s netted just 17 1/3 innings, but who’s allowed two runs over his last three appearances spanning seven combined innings against Auburn, Florida and Arkansas.

Nate Smithburg, who’s netted just 12 2/3, but who’s allowed one run over his last five appearances, spanning six combined innings against Oral Roberts, Auburn, Florida and Arkansas twice.

Can Johnson make himself lead with those guys rather than Catalano and Mercurius? Can he believe what he’s seen in actual ballgames rather than day-off bullpen sessions?

If his starter, whoever it is, can keep the Sooners in the game, can he get to the end with those three and Bodin? Game after game after game?

Maybe.

He’s the whisperer after all.

I wrote it, it must be true.

Beyond seeding, Sooner fans must love draw

Clay Horning — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:14:30 GMT

Love’s Field at night. (OU Athletics Photo)

Sooner fans may have wanted more.

Though their favorite team received the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA softball draw on Sunday, they may fail to understand how Alabama received the No. 1 seed when the Crimson Tide won not the SEC regular season nor tournament crown, while Oklahoma at least claimed the former.

Nor may they understand how Texas received the No. 2 spot, for OU took two of three from the Longhorns in Austin, only lost the other one in extra innings and finished four — four! — games in front in the conference standings.

The NCAA, however, is partial to conference tourney crowns and Texas won the SEC’s and that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

There is, though, something Sooner fans cannot be upset by at all and that’s OU’s draw.

It’s good.

Joining OU in the Norman Regional, beginning Friday, is the trio of Binghamton, Michigan and Kansas, none of which will bring even one scary starting pitcher to Love’s Field.

The Sooners won’t either, of course, but if that makes it a hitting contest OU should do just fine.

Not only that but the regional opposite Norman, in Eugene, Oregon, whose winner will face the Norman Regional winner, presumably in Norman, appears not to include any can’t-miss stoppers either. Or, at least, none backed up by a remotely dangerous offense.

Let’s get into it with a few stats and a few notes.

A few stats

Norman Regional

Oklahoma (48-8, 20-4 SEC)

.389/.488/.800 | 174 HR, 571 R | 3.15 ERA

Kansas (33-19, 14-10 Big 12)

.331/.420/.586 | 81 HR | 360 R | 3.78 ERA

Michigan (34-20, 11-13 Big Ten)

.315/.395/.542 | 67 HR | 315 R | 4.58 ERA

Binghamton (20-25, 15-5 American East)

.319/.411/.532 | 52 HR | 265 R | 6.07 ERA

Eugene Regional

Oregon (40-12, 20-4 Big Ten)

.331/.417/.554 | 67 HR | 356 R | 3.55 ERA

Mississippi State (38-19, 9-15 SEC)

.274/.360/.462 | 59 HR | 262 R | 2.24 ERA

St. Mary’s (40-14, 15-3 WCC)

.313/.360/.462 | 38 HR | 308 R | 3.45 ERA

Idaho State (37-18, 10-5 Big Sky)

.329/.410/.575 | 78 HR | 367 R | 4.10 ERA

A few notes

Kansas the toughest out in Norman

I don’t see the Jayhawks making a serious run to oust the Sooners in their own ballpark and still it’s easy to recognize the Jayhawks as a strong team.

They’re hitting better than .300, getting on base better than .400 and very nearly slugging .600, which are terrific numbers in a non-Sooner world.

And because their collective earned run average is nearer 4 than 3, even if the Jayhawk bats get going, one must presume the Sooners’ will be going stronger.

Kansas boasts one interesting pitcher in Kennedy Diggs (8-0, 1.91 ERA), yet she’s appeared in just eight games and started only one.

Despite her earned run average, she allowed four runs, three earned, over 2/3 of an inning against Texas Tech last Friday at the Big 12 tournament and it was her first appearance since April 24.

Because Kansas can hit, it’s interesting.

But the Jayhawks shouldn’t be in the Sooners’ class.

Root for the home team in Eugene

The selection committee penciled in Oregon as the nation’s No. 14 seed and if the home teams prevail in Norman and Eugene, it will be the Ducks and Sooners in Norman two weekends away.

Yet, the squad with the better chance to upend the Sooners appears to be Mississippi State and it’s all about the circle. The Bulldogs hold down a team earned run average of 2.24 and have two durable pitchers to thank for it.

Peja Goold is 15-10 with a 2.12 ERA over 142 innings in which she’s struck out 169 and Alyssa Faircloth is 13-7 with a 2.51 ERA over 153 1/3 in which she’s struck out an amazing 235. In lighter duty, there’s Leila Ammon, who’s 8-0 with a 1.70 ERA over 53 2/3 in which she’s struck out 59.

Refer to Mississippi State’s slash line and it’s easy to see how the Bulldogs lost more games than they won in the SEC, but its pitchers make them dangerous.

Meanwhile, Oregon has a sparkling record in the Big Ten and one pitcher, Lyndsey Grein, with a 2.73 ERA over 161 2/3 innings in which she’s struck out 195.

But she’s just one pitcher, her ERA is not exactly sparkling and the Big Ten is not the SEC.

As long as Mississippi State doesn’t start hitting like the ’27 Yankees, OU should return to the Women’s College World Series.

Sooner opener still matters

Though there’s no way on earth Binghamton can possibly stop OU at 2:30 p.m. Friday, it’s still an important game.

Sooner coach Patty Gasso needs to decide the pitcher she’ll most need this postseason, start her against Binghamton, aim get three or four easy innings from her while the Sooner bats go to work, hopefully with contributions from Kasidi Pickering and Kendall Wells, who are both trapped in slumps.

A quick run-rule in which that happens and OU’s off and running in the postseason.

Gasso, Sooners, make a mess against Bulldogs

Clay Horning — Fri, 08 May 2026 07:42:43 GMT

Oklahoma’s Kai Minor rounds the bases following a second-inning home run at the SEC tournament. (OU Athletics Photo)

Perhaps the only wakeup call to suit coach Patty Gasso’s Sooners better than the 10-5 elimination Georgia laid on them in Lexington, Kentucky, Thursday night at the SEC tournament would have been a million-to-5 elimination.

As is, the biggest comeback in conference tourney history, 10 straight runs after Oklahoma led 5-0 one batter into the bottom of the second inning, will have to do.

The Sooners clearly need a jolt.

The players, of course, but also Gasso, who’s made a mess of her pitching staff going back at least four games and perhaps many more. Because how is it her best pitcher, Audrey Lowry, ranks only 19th in the conference in innings pitched (114) and her last three appearances have come in relief?

I have a few theories.

Having won the regular season SEC crown, the tourney title’s just not that important.
Nor is earning a No. 1 overall seed at the Women’s College World Series.
Actually, Gasso doesn’t think Lowry’s her best pitcher at all and is trying to elevate Miali Guachino, believing it will make the Sooners a better World Series team.
There’s so little separation among the staff, it doesn’t matter who pitches.
Gasso believes Lowry’s her best pitcher, but is giving every opportunity she can to others to better the whole staff (which only works if the first two options are also true).

“They got us,” the coach said afterward. “They shellshocked us.”

Georgia did, and freshman pitcher Presley Harrison, despite entering with an earned run average closer to 4 than 3, was dazzling, throwing 6 2/3 innings after starter Randi Roelling failed, allowing three hits and one Sooner run, striking out seven and walking none.

Still, presuming Lowry could have retired the Bulldogs in the first inning, wouldn’t it have been nice to see what she could do coming out for the second staked to a four-run lead?

Instead, that honor belonged to Guachino, just as the honor to start game two of last weekend’s series at Texas A&M fell to Guachino despite Lowry being well rested.

It worked fine until the fourth, when Georgia’s first and third batters, Jadyn Goodwin and Gabi Novickas, went deep, cutting the Bulldog deficit to 5-2.

Gasso then went with Allysa Parker, who is neither the Sooners’ best nor their second-best pitcher, who gave up three runs and got one out, leaving after Emily Digby’s three-run blast tied the game.

Then, Lowry entered.

She wasn’t good either, allowing five runs, four earned, and taking the loss, though she may deserve some grace. Starting games is more her thing but her coach keeps choosing others for the role.

Gasso, with confidence, spoke like she had her finger on the pulse.

About her team:

“There was a disconnect, especially in the fourth once they scored five and tied us,” she said. “Our pitching staff started to get anxious, I felt our hitters get anxious, I felt our defense get anxious. There was a glazed look on some of the faces that is not something I’ve seen all season.”

On her pitchers, specifically:

“I don’t want to throw our pitchers under the bus, but they were just not getting outs for us, or just allowing too many hard hit balls,” she said. “And I just felt like, after that, we just couldn’t grab momentum.”

About what’s next:

“We all had a conversation and just decided to go back to Norman and just practice harder, do things sharper, like clean up practice instead of going through the motions like we’ve got it,” she said. “Let’s really, really press … throughout the entire practice, to the point of exhaustion, and you should keep asking for more and more and more and more until your hands bleed.”

She kind of said it like she knew a game like Thursday’s was coming.

Wait, new theory.

Patty Gasso, mad softball genius, felt it coming and has been trying to usher it in, certain her team needed a lesson in humility more than it needed an SEC championship and before NCAA play begins.

If so, two things.

One, she’ll never admit it.

Two, she’s not just the best Sooner coach of them all, but better than John Wooden, Scotty Bowman, Casey Stengel, Bill Belichick, Herb Brooks and Gene Hackman in “Hoosiers,” too.

Even if that’s it, she must still go about dragging her team out of a ditch.

You thought Kasidi Pickering had emerged from her slump? Not really. Despite two big hits at A&M, she’s still 2 for 8 over her last three games, striking out twice against Harrison.

Meanwhile, Kendall Wells has entered a slump, appearing uncomfortable as she sits on 36 home runs, the last one hit six games ago against Georgia.

Since, she’s 1 for 14 with a single.

Kai Minor’s been on fire, and Thursday it was another home run and two doubles, but she’s supposed to be a table setter.

Should she bat fourth?

As amazing as Harrison was in the circle, she was equally amazing speaking to ESPN’s Holly Rowe after the final out.

Rowe asked how she put it together after Minor took her deep.

“Everybody in college softball is good,” she said. “You got to go next pitch, and who cares what happened the one before. You’ve got to keep moving on and that’s why you get better.”

It wasn’t the words.

It was how sure she sounded.

Like a sixth-year senior, not a teenager.

The Sooners?

They need to appear as sure as Harrison sounded.

“Sooners bounce back,” Gasso said. “They know how to, they always have.”

They have before.

Also, throwing her best pitcher in the first inning, not the fourth, after two others have already failed, might help, too.