Weekend Rumblings

Originally Published: Feb 20, 2011 9:57 PM CDT

My thoughts from the weekend:

Serge Ibaka got jobbed a bit in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.  He took off from the foul line and slammed with ease.  That move won dunk contests for Dr. J and Michael Jordan.  Ibakas biggest challenge was having to face Bad Blake whos the hottest star in Hollywood not named Beiber.

If Ibaka and Griffin were not taking part in the dunk contest it would be almost unwatchable for me.  Too much posturing and yapping from the announcers.  Too many gimmicks and props.  Give me Dominique Wilkins, Dr. J, Michael Jordan and Blake Griffin.  No props, no gadgets, no cars, no capes and let the best non-vertically challenged man win.

The NBA is going to vastly miss Shaq when he retires.  The new stars have the personalities of Robocop.  Dwight Howard is the only one who really tries and he may call himself Superman, but hes not basketballs original.

Of the three major sports (sorry hockey), the NBA does the best job of getting its best players on display and entertaining its fans.  The Pro Bowl is a joke.  The guys playing in the Super Bowl the following week, aka the best players in the game, cant play.  Baseballs biggest stars often opt out of the all star game and free agency and interleague play have taken away some of the novelty of seeing one leagues stars go against those from the other league.  Plus the baseball all-star game once ended in a tie. Enough said.

Dont look now, but the ORU and T-U men have shots to make the NCAA tournament.  The Golden Eagles are on pace to finish second in the Summit League and are peaking at the right time while Oakland (the first-place team) is fading.  T-U is just a half game out of first in Conference USA.  With the Golden Hurricanes ability to get hot from three-point range with Justin Hurtt, Scottie Haralson, Bryson Pope and Jordan Clarkson, theyll be a tough out in the conference tourney.  Plus Cody Maduka has come around to help Steven Idlett in the middle.

Huge baseball crowds in Norman and Stillwater this weekend.  Excited about baseball or wanting to watch something other than basketball?  Perhaps a bit of both.