Berry Tramel

The Thunder likes to talk bill itself as a state-wide team. Heck, the Thunder is a state-wide team. No reason to debate it. And now the Thunder is even acknowledging the state-wide draw. It’s drafting players whose names salute Oklahoma towns. The Thunder already had players who honor...

The NBA Draft came and went Thursday, and the Thunder did not trade James Harden. It was going to take a major draft pick to trump that piece of news. The Thunder gave it a good run by getting Baylor’s Perry Jones III, who just a year ago seemed headed for the high lottery. Jones could be a...

The Thunder didn’t get a steal with Perry Jones III at No. 28 in the NBA Draft on Thursday. Too early to say that. But the Thunder absolutely got a free pick. At No. 28, you’re drafting a guy that, odds are, rarely will start and would be a rotation player for awhile, not necessarily long....

Through the process of expanding the college football playoff format to four teams, OU athletic Joe Castiglione has mentioned several times that strength of schedule needs to have a more prominent role in deciding who makes the cut. Joe C. has at least one important ally. Notre Dame athletic...

Barring trade, the Thunder picks 28th in the NBA Draft on Thursday. Sounds low. But the 28th pick over the years has yielded some decent players. In fact, the Thunder played against four No. 28 picks in the 2012 playoffs alone – Miami’s Norris Cole, San Antonio’s Tony Parker and Tiago...

Power Lunch Chat with Berry Tramel

I chatted with Joe Castiglione on Tuesday night after the announcement of the expanded college football playoff. He was in Salt Lake City for a meeting of the NCAA basketball committee – you know, the committee that until Tuesday night was the most prestigious in collegiate sports – and...

We’ve been saying for months that Big 12 expansion talks is on hold until the new college football playoff format was set. Well, now it’s set — four-team model, with semifinals in bowls and an independent national title game, with the participants determined by a selection committee. So,...

I blogged about possible Big 12 expansion earlier today. I’m less and less optimistic it will happen anytime soon. But I got an email that is at least thought-provoking. Reader Jason Dunigan, who is a West Virginia fan, wrote about Notre Dame/BYU rumors — that both independents would join...

Lots of questions surrounding OSU football in the post-Brandon Weeden era. Last year answered the question of whether it was Weeden or Dana Holgorsen who supplied the offensive magic. Now the question becomes, was it Weeden or Holgorsen’s offense that supplies the magic. Pretty clearly...

Ken Northcutt died June 13. A solid football player on Bud Wilkinson’s great teams, Northcutt was an OU sophomore in 1954, a classmate of the great Jimmy Harris, Tommy McDonald and Jerry Tubbs. Northcutt suffered a broken leg against North Carolina in the 1956 season opener, so he played his...

As we wait for word from Washington, D.C., and the historic announcement of a four-team college football playoff, here’s more from Bob Stoops, who clearly supports the proposed model. I wrote about Stoops for my column in the Tuesday Oklahoman, which you can read here. And our man R.J. Young...

As we count down to what could be an historic Tuesday for college football — the presidential oversight committee meets Tuesday and could ratify a new playoff plan — let me offer one piece of advice. Keep the selection committee small. The conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic...

Power Lunch Chat with Berry Tramel 2 Show / Hide Archive Comments The following comments are archived from the original publication of this post Galileo, Houston on Jun 26, 2012 @ 1:26 am For most of the season (except for September when the temps are in the 90s) 1:30 kickoffs are the perfect...

Mike Gundy is moving up the list fast. Gundy now is tied for 15th among the 120 major-college football coaches on job longevity. Hard to believe. Seems like Gundy’s been on the job for just a little while, but 2012 marks his eighth season as head coach. And since Gundy is coming off two...

You’re going to hear it during these NBA Finals. You’re going to hear it a bunch. “Oklahoma Thunder.” Magic Johnson, the weak link of ESPN’s studio analysis crew, is going to say it over and over. Don’t let it bother you. It’s no big deal. Dropping a word from the “Oklahoma...

The home/road format for the NBA Finals is 2-3-2. Two games in Oklahoma City, then three in Miami and finally two back in OKC. That’s different than the previous playoff rounds, which use a 2-2-1-1-1 format. Why the change for the Finals? Travel concerns for such a big contingent. The Finals...

The Miami Heat is the heavy in the NBA Finals. But also the underdog. Funny how that works. It’s like ESPN analyst (and Basketball Hall of Famer) Chris Mullin said: “Who would ever think when they got this team together two years ago, that they would be an underdog?” But it’s true....

Some debate going on this week concerning the NBA Finals’ status in state sports history. Is this the biggest sporting ever in Oklahoma? Does it trump the 1971 Game of the Century, OU vs. Nebraska? The answer is yes, for a variety of reasons. OU-Nebraska was a game for the ages, and the...

Steve Katz is an old friend of this blog and my column. I found Steve years ago, somewhere on the Internet, when I needed a big Mickey Mantle fan. I can think of no one bigger. I think I last wrote about Steve in October, on the occasion of Mantle’s 80th birthday. You can read that blog here....