Tilting at Windmills

Thought you could use a quick cruise around the Interwebs this morning while I’m drawing pictures of OU’s guards on this carton of half-and-half I’m using with my eleventy-first cup of coffee:

Doperbo over at Barking Carnival says DeLoss Dodds has a novel idea on how to fund the new turf at DKR: sell grass. Hasn’t that been tried before?

Actually, I have a better idea for raising the money, although admittedly I stole it from the Orange Aggies plans to recoup losses in the T. Boone hedge fund:

The KU guys over at Oread Boom Kings break the shocking news that Lerch-like stiff Cole Aldrich will return next season. Color me shocked.

Mizzou fan Boo Radley at Atomic Teeth compares Mizzou’s loss in another West Regional final to a Greek allegory.

For the recruitniks out there like our own atlantasooner, the Tortilla Retort’s Dedfischer updates the status of Tech’s 2010 prospects.

Lastly, the Red Dirt Kings have posted an interview with OU’s all-star hoops recruits Tiny Gallon and Tommy Mason-Griffin.

While basking in the Big 8′s success in another postseason, here’s your one-stop shopping, blogowebs roundup for the beginning of your Sweet 16 week:

This morning’s genius from Red Dirt King’s Dirt Monkey says OU still has yet to play their best basketball. That’s a scary thought … if you’re Syracuse

The Barking Carnival guys really don’t want to bitch about the officiating in their loss to Duke on Saturday, yet there sure is a lot of evidence to the contrary.

Our Rock Chalk friends at Oread Boom Kings seem to think they’re landing Lance Stephenson, the all-time leading scorer in New York prep hoops history. The kid’s been on recruiting radars since junior high. Apparently he has really big feet, too.

Football junkie and recruitnik Dedfischer over at the Tortilla Retort likes what he sees with Tech DE signee Aundrey Barr.

Mizzou fan Phenomenal Smith over at Atomic Teeth relays Ken Pomeroy’s projection that OU has a 48% chance of beating Syracuse. Pomeroy’s brackets are getting hammered, so take it fwiw.

Ogle Madness continues over at The Lost Ogle. #1 seed Gary England will drop some flat earth knowledge on appropriately-seeded, #9 Channel 9 sixth-man Toby Rowland while #4 seed Carrie Underwood puts her pipes up against the inmate running the asylum, #5 seed Mark Rodgers.

This is just too freaking cool. The guys at Atomic Teeth have put together an interactive spreadsheet that allows you to plug in the various scenarios to predict Big 12 tournament seeding.

Here are some of the scenarios I ran:

• Obviously if OU wins out, they’re the #1 seed. It’s very possible that could happen, although games at Austin, Kansas in Norman two days later, and at Columbia are still looming. The Sooners can go 1-2 and still get the #1 seed, as long as those two losses are on the road and they hold serve at home. Basically, OU cannot lose to Kansas and get the #1 seed without help (Kansas losing again to, say, Missouri).
• Likewise, if Kansas wins out, they get the #1 seed, putting OU on the Missouri side of the bracket. Kansas plays four out of its last five at home, the one exception of course is their game in Norman. I think KU will handle UT at the Phog, so the Hawks basically have a two-game season: Mizzou and OU.
• Here’s where things get a little interesting. Mizzou can get the #1 seed if OU loses to both them and Kansas. In that scenario, the Sooners would fall to the #3 seed and likely meet Kansas on Saturday. Just like OU and Kansas, if Mizzou wins out, they’re the #1 seed.
• Barring a major collapse, UT will end up as the 4 seed, on the same side of the bracket as Oklahoma. Texas has two steep hills to climb with OU in Austin this weekend, then having to go to Lawrence on March 7. They can drop those two games, win out and still be 11-5 10-6 in the conference, which would put them solidly in the 4 slot. Now, say something completely bizarre happens like a Russian sattelite meteor hits Austin and the Longhorns run the table. That would put them on the opposite side of the bracket as OU (provided OU beat everybody except Texas, and Missouri won at Lawrence). However, if UT wins out and OU loses just once (to UT), UT’s still the 4 seed if Kansas beats Mizzou, meaning they’ll have to deal with Blake Griffin on Saturday.
• I didn’t run any scenarios for OSU because, frankly, I didn’t care. Knock yourselves out.