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With 90 seconds left in the NCAA Championship Game, Houston had a one-point lead, and the Cougars’ Milos Uzan clanged a 3-point shot off the rim. That was Houston’s last shot of the game. Field goal or foul shot.
The Cougars committed turnovers on their final four possessions, and Florida, without a field goal itself the final three minutes, beat Houston 65-63. Irony of ironies. Sampson lost a title because of an opponent’s defense.
Those final few minutes, Florida put the Cougars in a vice grip. Houston was hard-pressed to get the ball past the foul line extended. When the Cougars drove, there was no room.
When they tried to pass, there was no one open. When they tried to shoot, it seemed a battalion of windshield wipers blocked their vision. Those final four possessions were by center Joseph Tuggler, stripped after an offensive rebound; guard L.
J. Cryer, stripped when hemmed in on the baseline; guard Emanuel Sharp, stripped on a dribble; and finally Sharp, in the game’s final seconds, trying to throw up a desperation shot from 25 feet and instead illegally dribbling while airborne, knowing his shot would be rejected. People are also reading.
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. Florida was doing a good job running us off the line and forcing us to score it. We just didn’t do a very good job of finishing some shots.
“At the end you’ve got to get a shot. Got to do better than that.” The Wednesday ScissorTales take a look at an alternative Big 12 standings, remember a coach who won a national championship after leaving OU and tell you when the Thunder debuts in the 2025 NBA playoffs.
But we start with Kelvin Sampson’s anguishing defeat in the NCAA Championship Game. During his OU days, Sampson’s offense often bogged down. That’s not been the case with Houston.
The Cougars still emphasize defense — Sampson went all Brent Venables on Monday night in San Antonio and responded to several offensive questions with defensive answers — but Sampson’s Houston offenses have become quite prolific in recent years. Sampson’s OU critics long have been quieted. It’s not that Sooner Nation wishes it had a basketball coach as good as Kelvin Sampson.
Sooner Nation these days wishes it had a football coach as good as Kelvin Sampson. Tons of Sooner fans in recent days have wanted to talk Sampson. It’s like they were living vicariously through their former coach, who once exasperated them but now makes them realize the glory of those times.
And Sampson’s Houston days have been even better. “The way we looked tonight, we’ve won a lot of games like that,” Sampson said, which goes not only for Houston, but for OU, too. “We usually find ways to win.
Tonight we didn’t.” Heck, this was a small breakdown compared to that 2003 Big 12 Championship victory over Missouri, when OU missed all 14 of its shots over the final 15 minutes, scored just three points, yet still somehow won 49-47. Those were high stakes.
These were higher. Maybe Sampson gets another crack at an NCAA title. But either way, he revived memories of when Sooner basketball was grand, and even winning ugly still was winning.
The List: Adjusted Big 12 football standings Close games often determine the quality of a season. They do not determine the quality of a team. The results of close games are random.
The results of wider-margined games are not. Here are the adjusted 2024 Big 12 football standings, throwing out all games decided by eight points or less and using games back instead of winning percentage: 1. Colorado 6-1: The Buffaloes played fewer close games than any Big 12 team other than Houston.
Deion Sanders’ team was legit. 2. Brigham Young 4-0: The Cougars were 3-2 in close games.
One of the Big 12’s best squads, but not dominant. 3. Baylor 5-1: The Bears were really good.
An underrated squad. Watch out for 2025. 4.
Iowa State 4-1: Solid, like always. The Cyclones were 3-1 in close games. 5.
Arizona State 3-1: The Sun Devils proved themselves against Texas in the College Football Playoff, but they were a little dicey in Big 12 play, going 4-1 in close games. 5. Texas Christian 3-1: The Horned Frogs’ success (6-3 in the Big 12) had more to do with an easy schedule than how they performed in close games.
7. Kansas State 3-2: KSU was 2-2 in close games. That’s what happens to all teams over time.
7. Kansas 3-2: I know it seems like the Jayhawks played a ton of close games, but two of those were non-conference losses. 9.
Cincinnati 2-3: Bearcats were 1-3 in close games. 10. West Virginia 2-4: WVU was 3-0 in close games.
The Mountaineers were not as good as their six overall wins indicated. 11. Texas Tech 1-2: Red Raiders lived off close games — 6-1 in close games, including non-conference.
That’s a warning sign for 2025. 11. Utah 1-2: The Utes were the anti-Tech — 1-5 in close games, and that win was in Stillwater, where Utah won 22-19 but led 22-3 with six minutes left in the game.
13. Arizona 2-5: Wildcats played relatively few close games. They were what they were.
14. Central Florida 1-4: UCF turned out to be pretty mediocre, and Gus Malzahn hit the road. 15.
Houston 1-6: Only two close games in Big 12 play, although the Cougars also played OU close. 16. Oklahoma State 0-6: Close or not, didn’t matter.
The Cowboys didn’t win any of them in Big 12 play. Mailbag: Remembering Jim Tatum Sampson’s run to the NCAA championship game Monday night had some Sooner fans thinking. Brad: “Has there ever been an OU head coach go to another school and win a NCAA Division I title in any sport? I cannot think of one.
There are a few that won titles before coming to OU, but not afterwards, unless I am forgetting someone?” Berry: Well, it’s a technicality, but Jim Tatum in the little sport of football won a national championship. It wasn’t an NCAA title. The NCAA doesn’t hand out Division I-A championships.
But Tatum, who coached the 1946 Sooners in a renaissance season, won the 1953 national championship, as doled out by the Associated Press and United Press, with the Maryland Terrapins. Tatum, a blustery personality who brought Bud Wilkinson to campus as an assistant coach, butted heads with administrators. He tried to leverage the Maryland job for more money from OU regents.
The Sooner leaders were more interested in Wilkinson anyway and were quite fine with telling Tatum to take the Maryland job. You know what happened with OU football under Wilkinson. But Maryland made quite a hire in Tatum.
In nine Maryland seasons, Tatum’s Terrapins went 73-15-4. Read that sentence again. Three Tatum teams at Maryland finished in the top three of the AP poll, including his 1951 squad, which went 10-0 and was ranked third.
Those Terrapins beat national champion Tennessee 28-13 in the Sugar Bowl. In those days, the national title was handed out before bowl games. Of course, in 1953, OU beat the national champion Terrapins 7-0 in an epic Orange Bowl.
Thunder will open playoffs on Easter The Western Conference playoff race is too jumbled to know much of who the Thunder might play in the opening round. But this we know: the Thunder will open on Easter Sunday. The NBA’s play-in tournament concludes Friday night, April 18, with a game from each conference to determine the 8-seeds for the playoffs.
Those winners would not be asked to play the next day, so the 8-seeds will be given Sunday games. Since the 8-seed will be matched with the 1-seed, and since we know that the Thunder has the West’s top seed locked down, it’s an Easter game for the Thunder (and Cleveland, which is assured of the 1-seed in the Eastern Conference). For those making preliminary Easter plans, it’s unlikely that the Thunder would play on Easter afternoon.
ABC typically has a Sunday afternoon doubleheader, and marquee franchises like the Celtics, Knickerbockers, Warriors and Lakers will be available and much more attractive than a series like Thunder-Kings or Thunder-Grizzlies. Of course, it’s possible, but unlikely, that the Warriors could fall to the 8-seed. Pyne lands at Bowling Green Drew Pyne has transferred to Bowling Green, which won’t mean much to most college football fans.
But Pyne is a name that will live in infamy in OU football circles. He’s the quarterback who led Missouri to an inexplicable, 30-23 victory over the Sooners last November. Well, some would say Jackson Arnold led Mizzou to victory, with his giveaway scoop-and-score.
In the final 30 seconds, deep in his own territory, Arnold scrambled around, didn’t protect the ball and fumbled. Missouri’s Zion Young ran it in from 17 yards out with 22 seconds left. But Pyne, filling in for the injured Brady Cook, directed a late, tying touchdown drive capped by a 10-yard TD pass to Theo Wease, with 1:03 remaining.
That game was a career highlight for Pyne, and this is a guy who was Notre Dame’s starting quarterback in 2022. Pyne played 11 games for the Fighting Irish in 2022, and he completed 64.6 percent of his passes, with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Not bad. But Pyne isn’t much of a playmaker, and Notre Dame brought in Sam Hartman from Wake Forest. So Pyne transferred to Arizona State, where he suffered a hamstring injury in training camp.
Pyne ended up playing just two games for the Sun Devils — neither was ASU’s 27-15 loss to Oklahoma State — and transferred to Missouri, as Cook’s backup. Pyne apparently was hoping to be the Mizzou QB in 2025. But the Tigers brought in Penn State transfer Beau Pribula, and this week, Pyne announced his transfer to Bowling Green.
Pyne is quite the 2020s quarterback. Bowling Green will be his fourth school in six seasons, and Pyne still has TWO years eligibility remaining. His freshman year, 2020, at Notre Dame didn’t count, due to the pandemic.
He redshirted in 2021, played in 2022, got a medical redshirt for 2023 and played in 2024. Two years left. But no matter what happens at Bowling Green, Pyne always will have that night against Oklahoma.
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