Tramel's ScissorTales: Bob Stoops makes playoffs in XFL reboot with Arlington Renegades
Bob Stoops is 1-for-1 with the Arlington Renegades making the XFL playoffs. With two asterisks.
The spring football league stages its semifinals this weekend. The Renegades play at the Houston Roughnecks, 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2, and the Seattle Sea Dragons play at the D.C. Defenders, 2 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.
Stoops coached the Renegades – then called the Dallas Renegades – in 2020, before the league shut down, after just five weeks, due to the pandemic.
This season, the Renegades made the playoffs despite a 4-6 record. The top two teams from each division make the XFL playoffs. Arlington finished second in the South Division. Meanwhile, the Defenders won the North Division with a 9-1 record, and Seattle and the St. Louis BattleHawks tied for second with 7-3 records.
So the 4-6 Renegades are in the playoffs, and the 7-3 BattleHawks, with three more wins than Arlington, is out.
“In the end, the rules are the rules,” Stoops said on his Zoom press conference this week. “If they don’t like the rules, change the rules. This is the way it was set up, so be it.”
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Same matter of fact logic Stoops displayed in 18 seasons as the Sooner football coach.
Hard to believe it’s been three years since Stoops’ maiden year in the XFL ended prematurely.
“Feels great,” Stoops said. “I think the most fun of it all is … last time we had five games, now we’ve gone through 10, just knowing the players better. Really enjoying and knowing the players, that part of it is really cool.
“The more time you’re around each other, the more time together, you enjoy their personalities and all. Other than that, everything else, the football piece fits pretty similar. Just glad to complete the season.”
The abbreviated 2020 XFL television ratings averaged 1.87 million. Very promising. The current XFL ratings are averaging 622,000, a big dropoff but still enough to warrant the return of the league, according to the Sports Business Journal.
Maybe most importantly, the XFL appears to be outdrawing its spring rival, the United States Football League, which last week averaged 455,000 viewers to the XFL’s 568,000.
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OU golf dominance continues at Big 12 Tournament
OU won Big Seven golf championships in 1955, 1956 and 1957. Then OSU joined the Big Eight Conference in 1958, and the Sooners’ winning days mostly ended.
Over the next 60 years, OU won just two conference titles, 1992 (Big Eight) and 2006 (Big 12).
But Wednesday in Hutchinson, Kansas, the 10th-ranked Sooners won their third Big 12 title in five years and reminded the golf world of OU’s ascension under coach Ryan Hybl.
“This still feels like the first time, because it's so special,” Hybl said. "For us to have won three of the last five Big 12 Championships is so awesome. But this one was extra special because we got to enjoy the walk a little bit more on the back nine there with the lead.”
The Sooners coasted, winning by 18 strokes at Prairie Dunes, the historic course that long has served as the hub of Big Eight/Big 12 golf.
And in related news, OSU fell all the way to fifth, 25 shots behind OU.
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The Cowboys won 37 of their 39 Big Eight Tournaments and won 12 of the first 25 Big 12 Tournaments.
It’s not like OSU golf is bottoming out. The Cowboys won Big 12 titles in 2019 and 2021, and OSU has made the last five NCAA national match plays, including winning the 2018 championship.
And OSU’s chief competitors, OU and Texas, are headed to the Southeastern Conference in summer 2024. Just in time. The Sooners are soaring.
OU, too, has made the last five NCAA match plays, including the 2017 national title.
Senior Patrick Welch led the Sooners with rounds of 70-68-70-70, 278, two-under par, tied for the second-lowest total in OU history among Prairie Dunes rounds. Drew Goodman shot even par. Ben Lorenz shot a team-low 69 (-1) on Wednesday to finish at 282. Freshman Jase Summy was 12-over. Jake Holbrook subbed in for Stephen Campbell Jr. after 36 holes and shot 72-71.
“Overall, I'm just really proud of our guys for digging in their heels and grinding,” Hybl said. “This place is so difficult and to shoot under par at Prairie Dunes over four rounds with five guys is really special."
OU’s 72-hole score of 1,119 (-1) set a Big 12 record at Prairie Dunes, by 10 shots. The Sooners have won four tournaments this season and 12 of their last 22 stroke-play events.
“The journey has been an amazing ride and the future is so bright," Hybl said. "When I think about all the people that have chipped in – from our Chip in Club, our former players, our coaching staffs throughout the years – it's been really special. We've got a lot of opportunity to grow moving forward, but at the end of the day it still comes down to the fact that our guys work, and they want it. They're not scared of the work and that's why they're champions."
Meanwhile, OSU’s Jonas Baumgartner placed second in medal play, eight strokes behind champion Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech, who shot 15-under 265.
Fifth-year senior Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen placed 11th at 287, fifth-year senior Leo Oyo tied for 21st at 291 and junior Bo Jin tied for 34th at 299.
It hasn’t happened often over the last 60 years, but the Cowboy golfers most definitely are chasing the Sooners.
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Thunder report card: Lu Dort
Luguentz Dort’s fourth Thunder season ended like his first three in the NBA: incredible defense, interesting but inefficient offense. It all adds up to a valuable but flawed player.
Our series on Thunder individual report cards continues, today with Dort, the undrafted wing who has become a Thunder cornerstone.
Defense: A. Dort’s defense is entering taken-for-granted territory. The Thunder just assigns Dort to the opponent’s best player and then starts gameplanning elsewhere. Doesn’t matter if it’s Damian Lillard or Kevin Durant or LeBron James. Dort muscles up to bigger players and stays in front of smaller players. Opponents made just 33.8 percent of their 3-point shots when guarded primarily by Dort. Dort’s one-on-one showdown with Kawhi Leonard in the final 23 seconds of the March 21 Thunder-Clippers game remains the highlight of the season. Kawhi didn’t even get off a shot, and OKC won 101-100.
Decision-making: D. Dort took too many bad shots. For most players, that means 3-pointers. But with Dort, it was more drives to the basket. He too often would attack the paint with little plan if the lanes closed, leading to contested shots in the land of skyscrapers. Thirty percent of Dort’s shots this season came in the restricted area, 0-3 feet, a huge jump from last season, when only 19.7 percent of his shots were from in-close last season. The poor decision-making led to Dort making just 52.1 percent of his restricted-area shots, the worst among Thunder players.
Availability: A. Dort charges up San Juan Hill every game. He plays without relent, against the league’s most ball-dominant players. Mark Daigneault often staggers Dort’s minutes based on the opposing star’s rotation. Dort rarely gets a break. Dort throws himself into every situation. He led the NBA with 93 offensive fouls drawn; New York’s Jalen Brunson (77) was the only other player with more than Davion Mitchell’s 53. Yet Dort missed only eight games. He played 2,272 minutes, almost as many as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2,416 in 68 games), Josh Giddey (2,367 in 76 games) and Jalen Williams (2,276 in 75 games). Dort’s availability is impressive.
Shooting: C. Dort’s outside shooting stagnated for the second straight year. He zoomed to 34.3 percent 3-point shooting in 2020-21 but fell to .332 last season and .330 this season. Dort did find more corner 3’s, with 23.2 percent of his bonus shots coming from the corners, after just 13.4 and 14.3 percent from the shorter distance the previous two years. That matters. Dort is solid from the corners, .411 this season. But Dort fundamentally is just not a classic shooter; he made only 36.4 percent of his wide-open 3-pointers (no defender within six feet).
Post-season: A. Two games is nothing across an entire NBA season. I suppose the same is true about three. But when are we going to get serious about Dort’s post-season performance? In two play-in games, at New Orleans and at Minnesota, Dort was superb. He guarded 6-foot-9 Brandon Ingram, a makeshift Durant, and 6-foot-4 athletic phenom Anthony Edwards, and held his own, while also scoring a combined 44 points. Dort scored 27 against the Pelicans, making eight of 14 shots. He scored 17 points against the Timberwolves, making six of 14. Dort made four of eight 3-pointers in each game. And in Game 7 against Houston in the 2020 Orlando bubble, Dort as a rookie scored 30 points on 10-of-21 shooting, making six of 12 3-pointers, while dogging James Harden into a low-production game. Dort’s three post-season games: 24.7 points, 49 percent shooting, 50 percent 3-point shooting, while playing elite defense against some of the NBA’s best offensive players.
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The List: Late-round NFL Draft finds
The NFL Draft begins Thursday night, and the final four rounds arrive Saturday. The draft is seven rounds these days, but with 32 teams, plus compensatory picks, the draft still can get upwards of 250 players.
And when the draft had even more rounds, more than 300 players were selected some years.
Here the best OU and OSU draft picks taken from 200th on:
1. Raymond Hamilton, OU: The defensive end from Douglass High School was taken 342nd overall, by the Patriots, in 1973. He played nine NFL seasons, starting 117 of 132 games.
2. Ron Baker, OSU: The offensive guard from Gary, Indiana, was picked 277th overall, by the Colts, in 1977. He played 11 NFL seasons, nine with the Eagles, and made 109 starts.
3. Chris Carson, OSU: The tailback from Parkview, Georgia, was picked 249th overall, by the Seahawks, in 2017. He played five NFL seasons and rushed for 3,502 yards.
4. Reggie Kinlaw, OU: The nose guard from Miami, Florida, was picked 320th overall, by the Raiders, in 1979. Kinlaw made 57 starts in eight seasons.
5. John Little, OSU: The defensive lineman from Langston, Arkansas, was picked 358th overall, by the Jetropolitans, in 1970. He played eight NFL seasons and made 18 sacks.
6. Dennit Morris, OU: The linebacker from Tulsa Webster was picked 215th overall, by the 49ers, in 1958. Morris played three seasons, made 34 starts and intercepted five passes.
7. Mike Green, OSU: The linebacker from Port Arthur, Texas, was picked 245th overall in 1983, by the Chargers, and played just three years, but made 47 starts.
8. Stacy McGee, OU: The defensive tackle from Muskogee was picked 205th overall, by the Raiders, in 2013. McGee played eight NFL seasons, with 30 starts and 118 tackles.
9. Keith Burns, OSU: The linebacker from Alexandria, Virginia, was picked 210th overall, by the Broncos, in 1994. He played 13 NFL seasons, 11 with Denver, and had 187 career tackles.
10. Stanley Wilson, OU: The tailback from Wilmington, California, was picked 248th overall, by the Bengals, in 1983. Wilson played four NFL seasons – he was suspended for the 1985 and 1987 seasons for substance abuse violations – and rushed for 1,118 yards and 11 touchdowns.
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Mailbag: 2023 Oklahoma State football schedule
My recent columns on the football schedules at OU and OSU drew some interesting response.
Linda: “Let’s just get out there first of all that I’m an OSU fan. Don’t dislike OU, but I’m just not a fan. Your recent articles on the schedules for OU and OSU were interesting. I often enjoy your articles. However, I don’t understand why the article on OSU‘s schedule had to take a dig at OSU, particularly the headline. There seems to be an agenda with The Oklahoman. When I look at the SOS (strength of schedule) for next year, OSU’s SOS is 54 compared to OU at 57. Really not much difference, but in fact a higher SOS for OSU. I guess I’m writing to understand what I missed. Or is the reality that there is an anti-OSU agenda?”
Tramel: People who talk about agendas are funny. They paint their faces their school colors and they stock their wardrobe with school memorabilia. They spend vast amounts of money to follow their teams. And the quality of their days often are dictated by how their team fares on the scoreboard.
Then they accuse someone else of having an agenda.
I have no idea what SOS rating can be used to determine future scheduling. The data would have to come from last season's records, which are interesting but not particularly relevant.
I compared the OU and OSU schedules because I first wrote about OU’s schedule being the easiest in Sooner history. Then I studied OSU’s schedule and discovered it was even easier.
OU and OSU both play Cincinnati, Iowa State, Central Florida, Kansas, West Virginia and Brigham Young.
The non-conference slates are similar. OSU plays Arizona State, OU plays Southern Methodist. Probable edge to Arizona State. But OU plays Arkansas State, a low major, while OSU plays Central Arkansas, a Division I-AA program. Probable edge to Arkansas State. OSU plays South Alabama; OU plays Tulsa. About even.
So the differences in the Bedlam rivals’ schedules: OU plays Texas, Texas Christian and OSU; OSU plays Kansas State, OU and Houston. Texas and TCU are being picked 1-2 in the league, with OU and K-State just behind. Houston seems a near unanimous choice for last place.
Maybe it turns out otherwise, but OSU’s schedule looks slightly easier.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Bob Stoops makes playoffs in XFL reboot with Arlington Renegades
