Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

We had a wonderful family Christmas in Colorado and to be brutally honest I haven’t watched either an NBA or college basketball game in two weeks.

The Christmas Eve service we attended at a non-denominational church near Washington Park was beautiul. The family meals planned by Elaine and Chris were exquisite. Watching Chronicles of Narnia with our two grandchildren, Robert (6) and Aubrey (5) was illuminating to say the least. And my grandaughter insisted I watch the Eloise movie with her as well.

Hanging out with Perk (brown lab, age13) and Tucker (St. Charles Spaniel, age13) near the fireplace was sublime. The three old guys hanging out for old times’ sake. I cried of course as I’ve become a world class weeper these past three years on the cancer journey. But good weeping.

So there’s really nothing I can blog about the Thunder’s now 30-5 record and their easy win over a team of Golden State reserves tonight in San Francisco. With Jokic now hurt, plus Wemby injured again, plus the Rockets’ obvious point guard situation—this might well be a situation where it’s best to sit back and watch the College Football Playoffs and what should be a incredible NFL Playoff Tournament to the Super Bowl.

I mean…what are these guys blathering about on the internet? The Thunder in reality are probably going to play maybe 12-14 meaningful games the rest of the way against several good teams who could conceivably challenge their bid to repeat.

Then the real season will commence with NBA Playoffs…which I love.

So basically…what I’m going to do is to continue idling on my NBA content on the blog and enjoy the football seasons before me.

I mean..wow. Serious congrats to the Ole Miss Rebels and their quarterback Trinidad Chambless for what I thought was the game of the season to date in last night’s remarkable Sugar Bowl upset.

Lane Kiffen, dude…you didn’t need to move onto the cesspool of college football at Baton Rouge to win a nati0nal championship. Trinidad IS SPECIAL!!!!

We now have four teams in the national semifinals who have never won a national championship in the playoff era of college football. Ole Miss and Indiana have never won a national championship in college football period.

I think this is great for college football. Plus, I think a 16-team format starting next season would be even greater whereas Texas and Notre Dame would have made the field this season.

NFL tomorrow for me where I will see if Baker and the reeling Tampa Bay Bucs can somehow emerge as the winners of the NFC’s feeble South Division and back into the Playoffs. Baker is BTW no longer anyone’s leader in the clubhouse for this season’s MVP award.

I’ll get to that tomorrow with my three MVP finalists.

Plus, congrats to Shai for being named Sports Illustrated Man of the Year. An award he richly deserves.

Faith, grace, hope, and eternal love. Plus charity.

Mike J

I’ve thought about this for a day before posting my OU-Alabama Playoff Game thoughts’.

So here’s where I’m at on Sunday morning… to all you Alabama fans—Merry Christmas from Sooner Nation and enjoy the trip to Cali. You played a mistake free game and took advantage of my Sooners’ holiday generosity.

Football is a simple game when you have teams with comparable talent on the field. I wrote as much on my Friday post here on the blog. In games like these you can’t give points away and beat yourselves in every facet of the game.

You just can’t do that and expect to win the game. OU did that in all three games they lost this season…Texas, Ole Miss, and Alabama on Friday night.

Speicifically…you can’t give up a pick six, you can’t fumble a punt snap on your end of the field, you can’t drop a touchdown pass, you can’t have your Lou Groza award winner miss two fourth period very makeable field goals, you can’t have a bad punt from your endzone in the fourth period just after your offense has scored to close it to 27-24…you can’t do these things and expect to beat a good football team.

But most of all what you can’t do is in caps…HAVE A GOOD FOOTBALL TEAM DOWN 17-0 IN YOUR HOUSE WITH THE CROWD GOING OUT OF THEIR MINDS AND TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THEIR THROAT.

You just cannot do these things even if you outgain and out-time posess a storied program like Alabama on a night when they played mistake-free football.

It is what it is. I’m still extremely proud of these guys for never quittting. This wasn’t about quitting or lack of heart or any of that. This was more about my Sooners just not as of yet having that more mature clutch gene in them as a collective whole to take that amazing 17-0 start and send Alabama home for the football season.

I had a blast in the student section near the pep band. It was amazing over there until Tate missed both of those late field goals.

It made me feel young again and those kids made me feel like some sort honorary fan-legend from the days of Fairbanks and Switzer. They were so cool. It will be a memory I will cherish forever. It was way beyond awesome.

Also…thanks and love to my son Chris for making all this possible. In getting me into that student section area…I had to sit in Row 66. You don’t sit a play over there the entire game. The complete polar oppositre from the tea sippers on the west side.

MJ is proud to say he made it standing every play from scrimmage. Albeit, I did sit during the clock running period between plays to get brief rests to reset. I will admit though…the trip down and to the car back wasn’t as easy as the trip in. But like the team….I’ll need to work on my conditioning and mental toughness to address this for next season.

But I’m taking a break from the blog till after the New Year. I need a break from sports for a bit to recharge my battery.

But in the end, to my Sooners by way of Coach Lomabardi…’sometimes we need to lose a game to fully understand where we have to become more mentally tough to win the prize we desire most’.

Have a wonderful Holiday season.

Love, Mike J

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This is magical for me at this point. When you’re a Stage 4 cancer survivor almost three years into the journey…you quite frankly can’t ever look too far ahead or by the same token you shouldn’t take too many looks behind either.

There’s this spiritual space of which I call–‘Living every day to the fullest with your faith and see where that takes you.’

And for me…that’s what this OU season has turned out to be. Living each game one week at a time and never surrendering. Never quitting. Never giving up even though most around you in your own state proclaimed you dead at 6-2 after the Ole Miss loss.

Because as a Stage 4 human you don’t have that luxury. Quite frankly, for me there’s no guarantee there will be a next college football season. But don’t get me wrong…I don’t think this is a bad thing. It makes you keep things in perspective and enjoy this journey and this experience to the absolute fullest with total appreciation.

LIVE EVERY DAY TO THE FULLEST. NO EXCUSES. NO REGRETS.

To me…this is a pick ’em game. Both quarterbacks come into this game with some rough play their past several games. One will emerge with his team to go to the Rose Bowl to play the No. 1 ranked Indiana Hoosiers. The other team’s season will be over. Quite frankly…I think OU is better equipped to beat Indiana than Alabama because of their pass rush and kicking game.

Tate Sandell won the Lou Groza Award by the way and is a threat from 68 yards in depending on the wind conditions. The kid is an abosolute mule wearing short pants. And Santegna is red-coal hot as a punt returner and big play wide reciever. Just saying.

But to get to that game…OU has to beat Alabama for the second time in a month which will not be easy.

MY first OU game in person was in 1965 with my Dad who took me to see my first Bedlam Game in person. Today, sixty years later, I’ll be in the stadium with my son to see if OU can continue their improbable, almost magical run to stay alive and live for another game.

I feel like that kid in ’65 this morning. I’m just grateful I have this opportunity to see this game in person and experience this day with my son. But I’m clearly thinking of my Dad right now as well. I’ve been the bridge between three generations. That’s kind of cool.

Well, yeah, I’d very much like OU to win this game, but there are other emotions running through me right now as well. The primary one being…gratitude and joy that like the Sooners I’m still alive and doing pretty well.

Good luck to both teams.

Joe C…thank you for everything.

Mike J

It’s Game Day tomorrow in Norman and I’m quietly confident about OU chances if they stick to what got them to this game and get a little better on the offensive side of the ball. If they were alot better I’d take it, but with their defense and kicking game…I think if John Mateer and the offense can just move it up from a C- level offense to a B level offense they can make a run in these College Football Playoffs.

If OU’s offense can’t do this I would think it will be a quick exit for the Sooners.

Let’s be candid here…OU’s two most prized salary cap players on this team are John Mateer and R Mason Thomas. Those are the two dudes who were injured and had their seasonss altered as a result of injury. Both will be the healthiest they’ve been for quite some timefor this Alabama game rematch. I would expect though R Mason to be on some of snap-play restrictions given his absence from the lineup since early in the Tennessee game.

So from my perspective…every other player on the first first two teams had to pick it up, and that’s exactly what they did to earn this home game versus Alabama.

I’ve already gone over what Taylor Wein and Owen Heineke have meant to this OU football season, but I want to make on my blog I give the love to Gracen Halton and linebacker Kip Lewis as well. Because without these two guys I fear OU would have been looking 8-4 or 7-5 right in the face.

But that’s not what happened. These two guys simply gave their teammates the play by play leadership which is required at this level for a team to get it done during the goal acheieving portion of the college football season.

My Sooner heart gives it up to these guys for what they’ve accomplished since the home loss to Ole Miss. My competitive heart is in a good place right now. It might even be in a better place tomorrow night in Norman if John Mateer and the offense can bring their B game to these College Football Playoffs.

Football is football. It matters little they played each other just a month ago or so. You’re either mentally ready and hungry to go…or you’re not. That’s football, that’s life. Who wins the line of scrimmage and doesn’t turn the ball over will loom large.

May the best team win. Good luck to both teams. Both teams desrve this opportunity. They both played challenging schedules.

Mike J

A very solid performance by the NY Knicks in both of their Final Four wins over Orlando in the semis, then a double digit win over the San Antonio Spurs who were fresh off of their upset win over the OKC Thunder in he other semi.

Final score NY 124 San Antonio 113.

The Knicks were just the better team in this one. Older, more mature, and a team which as a group have a big-time game finisher in Jalen Brunson.

No one really expected the Spurs to win this tournament and in the end they didn’t have what it takes to win the Cup.

I would think this would propel the Knicks alongside the Detroit Pistons as perhaps the two teams in the East as favorites to win the Eastern Conference. But the Pistons like the Spurs are very young and have not naviagted any of this previously.

The LA Lakers won the first Emirates NBA Cup and it in no way propelled them to a special post season run in April and May. Same would be said about the Milawaukee Bucks who easily defeated the Thunder in last season’s Cup, then fizzled quickly in the Playoffs.

So there is no history yet per se of the Emirates Cup winner using this championship as a catalyst for bigger and better things. But for these Knicks, who last season made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, where the Indiana Pacers finally ousted them…I would think this if nothing else for this group under first year Knick head coach Mike Brown… could be the confidence builder of sorts this team needs to start thinking bigger and more seriously about what their goals should be as we begin to navigate the NBA Playoffs in April.

As far as the Thunder go we know even though they’ve played the softest schedule in the league to date–they are still the No. 1 seed in my Power Poll and most otherNBA bloggers and beat writers polls as well.

If I’ve written this once, I’ve written this a thousand times…the key to beating the Thunder is not turning over the ball and not giving them easy transition points when they try to bully teams with the Forty Minutes of Hell rountine. Because here’s the dirty little secret about the Thunder, when you take those easy points away from them they have shown a tendency to mentally press and have some genuinely horrific woes shooting the three ball.

That’s the Holy Grail to beating the Thunder…take care of ball and slow the pace. But sometimes much easier written on a blog than doing it on the floor at PayCom with someone like Scott Foster not calling any fouls on the home team when Forty Miniutes begins to crank up.

I mean…these guys remind me of Tarkanian’s teams at UNLV. Defense creates transition offense. Very simple. This is not complex.

The Thunder have two games coming up first versus at Minnesota and then at San Antonio on the 23rd. I look forward to covering both here on the blog.

My first of three Power Polls for the duration of the regular season thus goes in this manner not quite one-third of the way through.

MJ’s first 2025 NBA Power Poll goes…1 OKC Thunder, 2 Denver Nuggets, 3 Houston Rockets, 4 NY Knicks, 5 San Antonio Spurs, 6 Detroit Pistons, 7 Minnesota Timberwolves, 8 Orlando Magic, 9 LA Lakers, and 10 Boston Celtics.

I left the Cleveland Canaliers off this intial poll because I feel as if they’re somewhat too soft.

Have an incredible Christmas season and enjoy every moment with your loved ones.

Mike J

Of course, as one of the NBA’s more prominent bloggers—I’ll be covering tonight’s Emirates Cup Final with absolutely no dog in the fight. Consequently, regardless of who wins tonight, MJ won’t be claiming to be on either team’s bandwagon once we witness who wins the Cup after OKC’s massive choke in the semi-final round where Wemby could only play twenty minutes.

MJ will still have OKC at No. 1 in his Power Poll and Denver No. 2 clearly after the Nuggets win last night over the Houston Rockets.

I watched no sports whatsoever last night as my wife and I were in Seminole visiting her family and watching the amazing classic White Christmas staring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney.

It is by far our favorite XMas movie of all-time and quite possibly a Top Ten chick flick as well. I would go Home Alone as my No. 2, while she would probably go Miracle on 34th Street as her second favorite XMas movie.

A night away from sports was needed after suffering the immense emotional conflict on Sunday of ‘my’ Green Bay Packers losing at ‘my’ Denver Broncos on Sunday at Mile High…thus putting ‘my Packers a half-game behing the cocky Chicago Bears who have won nothing since Jim McMahon was their QB in ’85. But MJ does realize these Bears might actiually be for real with former OU quarterback Caleb Williams as their signal caller.

So ‘my Packers’ now have to complete another tortuous twist of what has to be the toughest SOS ( strength of schedule) in the enitire NFL by traveling to Chicago for the rematch of two weeks ago in which the Packers won at the end.

As far as the song below, here’s what MJ is thinking. For the briefest interval of time last night, I thought of putting the Donald Trump video of his thoughts on the tragic double homicide of Rob Reiner and his wife on my blog.

But instead I thought to myself, ” Don’t do that, Mike. You’ve already many times made the point of how completely and morally, ethically, and spiritally bankrupt the Trump people are in their continued support of this ‘person’.”

So I’m playing my favorite song from White Christmas and pretending Donald Trump doesn’t exist.

Enjoy the Emirates Cup Final tonight and may the best team win.

Mike J

Well, my, my. It does matter if these Thunder play a good team away from PayCom.

And the Spurs having Wemby on the floor with Cassell, Fox, and Harper might even be a thing as well. It might even be a thing despite some of the nonsensical bullshit I’ve heard or read the past two weeks from the college level scribes in the OKC market. And it might be just a bit premature to elevate Shai beyond Michael, Kobe, LeBron, KD, and even Steph for that matter.

So here’s MJ’s first thing…if you examine the 24 wins the Thunder have accumulated to date…they don’t have one on the road against a team which could win an NBA championship. The Thunder’s best three wins all came at home.

Houston without a point guard in double overtime. The Lakers at home without LeBron. And the TWolves at home WITH Rudy Gobert the Human Basketball Slug. Those are the Thunder’s best three wins during the course of their first 26 games in defense of their NBA title.

Cupcake City.

Anotherwords…softer than the schedule which Notre Dame just played, but maybe better than Tulane and James Madison’s resumes….if you’re following MJ’s fluid train of thought here leading into the College Football Playoff.

Yeah…the Thunder with Superman haven’t played shit yet, but I still think they’re pretty good.

I love Alex Caruso. I do. My six year-old grandson south of Denver wears a Caruso jersey on his way to hockey practice which makes sense since Alex Caruso gets away with more grabbing, clutching, holding, checking from behind, high sticking, and spitting than any other player in the NBA.

So, Alex, friend…read MJ’s lips—I don’t give a shit if you were or weren’t fouled there as the buzzer went off. That’s not why you guys lost. You guys lost because the rest of your team minus you couldn’t buy a three point bucket…and you guys finally played against a good team with their four best players present on the floor at the same time away from PayCom.

The end.

Having written all that and doing Coach Mark’s job in lighting a fire under his team hopefully…the Thunder and Spurs meet again very quickly on December 23rd and 25th in what should be must see NBA games for a Thunder fanbase to see if their team can beat a team with their four best players on the floor at the same time.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Mike J

A huge day and night of basketball in the state of Oklahoma as the Sooners swept both ends of Bedlam at PayCom Arena during the day, while in Vegas … Wemby reappeared on a twenty minutes limitation night to end the Thunder’s franchise record win streak of sixteen games with a ‘somewhat’ surprising 111-109 win.

Let me do this…for today, I’m only blogging about the Sooner mens’ nice win over previously unbeaten O State in a game the Sooners very much will need for their NCAA Tournament resume come March Madness.

But I also want to thank Anne at PayCom as my arena section sponser, who without me asking… went out of her way to upgrade my seat for free so as I could have more leg space for my right knee, and simultaneously be closer to the OU pep band which rocked yesterday. It’s always a big deal at a college game for MJ to be near the pep band.

What a great atmosphere! Except for some random seats at the top where I refuse to sit….it looked pretty much full from my vantage point near the floor.

OU entered this game 6-3 coming off a bad perfromance at Arizona State and pretty much couldn’t let this game get away is my first take. The Sooners have played some ambitious road venues on the way to that now 7-3 mark…but the performances at both Gonzaga and ArizonaState were not stellar. In those two games… OU looked like a team which had yet to connect itself defensively.

Maybe this crossroads win of sorts will propel the Sooners the right direction as they now have four cupcakes to win before they enter the always choppy ocean of SEC play.

My road map for this OU team is this at the minmum, get better every game, become more connected in the defensive zone, win the four cupcake games to get to 11-3, and then go at the least either 9-9 or 8-10 in SEC regular season play. A 9-9 mark would be preferable for me in that I don’t think the SEC as a whole in this SEC season of hoops is going to be as strong and deep a basketball conference as it was a year ago. I don’t see Florida, Auburn, Alabama, and Ole Miss as strong as they were last season.

OU’s guard play should be ably manned by the three guys at the presser in this order 1 Nigel Pack (best scorer), 2 Xavier Brown (best pure point guard), and 3 sophomore Dayton Forsythe 3, high energy hydrid guard coming off the bench who in essence is a Swiss army knife player who does whatever Porter needs during any given game. MJ loves this kid from tiny Dale, Oklahoma. Hoosiers all the way.

At forward I’m begiing to like what I’m seeing with the play of Tae Davis (Notre Dame), Derrion Reid (Alabama), Jadon Jones (Long Beach State), Kuol Atak (stretch big redshirt freshman). Plus, throw former Juco Player of the Year, Kansas Jayhawk Jeff Nwanko in there as well.

As Porter said in the presser…Jadon hit three threes right off the bat once he entered so Jeff’s minutes were shrunk a bit. But to Jeff’s credit, when he did enter the game in the second half he made several heady, clutch/smart plays when the game was hanging in the balance.

But to me the key for this Sooner hoops season as to the final goal of just making the NCAA Tournament field as opposed to being the type of team which could advance to the Sweet 16…lies with Porter’s two bigs. Those being senior Mo Wague (Alabama), and freshman Kai Rogers. These two need to continue to evolve into what I call dual role centers who can not just rebound and give rim protection, but run the pick and roll, make their free throws, and stay out of foul trouble. BUT MOST OF ALL…PLAY HEADY/SMART BASKETBALL.

My feel is if these two guys get to where Porter feels comfortable playing Kai 16 minutes on the road in an SEC game or a neutral site in either the SEC or NCAA tournament…this OU team could evolve into a sneaky dangerous team in March.

As far as Bedlam staying at PayCom… based on what I saw yesterday in the first game…I would for sure say keep it at the home of the Thunder. But I will also let me add this in closing…I thought the O State crowd was great in the first game, but extremely weak in the second game for the women as they left the arena and didn’t return to see them play Jennie’s No. 9 ranked Sooners.

I thought it was weak in a week in which new O State football coach Eric Morris was talking about renewing Bedlam football. If you want to play good teams…then stay with them when they need you most.

Anyway…congrats to all the players from both teams who played hard in a great setting for college basketball.

Mike J

Of course, here on the blog…I often refer to this Thunder group as a reincarnate of Nolan Richardson’s Forty Minutes of Hell teams he had at Arkansas.

I’m amazed I’m the only one here in this market who does this comparison…especially surprised Barry Tramel hasn’t followed my lead on this train of thought because Barry actually is a good sports writer I like, admire, and respect. But maybe he has and I just didn’t catch it because he now writes for the Tulsa World.

Either way, when I watch the young Thunder I often find myself thinking of Nolan Richardson’s teams at Arkansas and to a lesser degree Mike Anderson’s succeeding teams at Arkansas as well. I also think of the way Eddie Sutton’s teams played defense at both Arkansas and Oklahoma State. MJ loves Coach Sutton and will forget sitting next to him on the floor at a Thunder game with his wife and grandchildren.

Always remember this as you watch Thunder basketball with this group…..OKC is still a college market but with a world class NBA team which Sam Presti carefully crafted after he failed with the Durant-Westbrook group.

Presti with great diligence crafted this team with no defensive liability. None. Maybe last season Isaiah Joe was a bit of a defensive liability which cost him playing time in the playofffs, but to Isaiah’s credit it is obvious to MJ how hard he’s worked since then to improve every aspect of his defensive game.

You know…foot work, lower body strength and stance, head on a swivel, communicating, and the such. I love how Isaiah has addressed this issue with his game and would certainly welcome him with open arms if he ever becomes a Denver Nugget down the road. If I were the Nuggett GM the three guys on the Thunder who I might be able to afford would be Isaiah, Aaron Wiggins, and/or Kenrich Williams.

You give Denver coach David Adelman one of those three guys to go with their existing roster and I would give the Nuggets more than a puncher’s chance of beating the Thunder in six games because that would give Denver some leverage on the floor with bench lineups with one of these three teamed with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Spencer Jones making Julian Strawther completely expendable and not seeing the floor.

But anyway, Nolan Richardson won his national championship at Arkansas in the ’93-’94 season when they stunned Duke 76-72 in the championship game. His teams in total went to three final fours, won eight conference championships , and played in thirteen NCAA Tournaments.

Nolan to my knowledge is the only coach to have won a DI national championship, an NIT championship back when it was a real tournament, and a JUCO national championhip back when JUCO ball was a big deal as well.

Who needs JUCO’s now for the most part, right? There’s the transfer portal and the G-League. But back in Nolan’s day coaches like Billy Tubbs and Jerry Tarkanian crafted some of their best teams rich in JUCO talent. I loved those dudes as well. MJ loves defense although some of Billy’s teams at the end of his reign at OU loafed on defense.

Anyway, when you Thunder fans watch your team dismantle the opposing team with a flurry of steals and transition points…just maybe give Nolan Richardson a fleeting thought and a basketball prayer of thanks.

I’m off to PayCom where I hope my carefully selected ticket has me near one of the pep bands. MJ loves the pep bands. There are no pep bands in the NBA, but the Thunder should put one together since they are a college team per se.

Later.

MJ

I’ve got a big basketball Saturday in store at PayCom this week-end as I’ll be covering both games for okcthunderground.com. I’ll need to be there probably around 10:30am or so to get the feel and make my way to my lower seat. These should both be good games. I hope I’m near one of the pep bands. Pep bands are a big deal for MJ.

My Monday workout as the first one back from the latest chemo was subpar. It felt as if I might have been pushing it a little too hard with my cellular dashboard not completely where it needs to be. I coasted Wednesday as well…which I hate doing.

So I sat myself down and read Dr. Viktor Frankel’s ‘The Meaning of Life’ and meditated as to where I’m at right now in the Stage 4 journey. An excellent book by the way which can be applied to any situation in life which you might feel is too daunting.

But MJ says, ‘F–k daunting. Live every day to the fullest. Give thanks to every blessing I’ve experienced so far in the 68 year journey to date in this body. Do your best and treat others as you’d desire to be treated.

And if you want to live like a champion you haave to think like a champion and workout like a champion.’

So here I am on this Friday morning feeling as if I’m all the way back from the latest chemo ready to rip with some new music blaring in my ears. The music is always a big part of this. I promise you that.

Have a glorious week-end and never waste a day feeling sorry for yourself.

Love, MJ