Hello, friends and fans! So the spring semester has officially started today for the students at the University of Oklahoma. It’s also game day for the Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball team! The No 4. ranked Sooners are on the road against a Kansas State Wildcats team that has had Oklahoma’s number in Manhattan for quite some time now. Will the Sooners be able to put an end to the misery in the Octagon of Doom?

In today’s edition of Hot Links, Bennie Wylie enters the Sooner fold, Baker Mayfield is up for the Lombardi Award, the Rockets and Clippers had an old-school altercation in the locker room and more!

OU Links

• New strength coach Bennie Wylie is ready to make himself known around his new stomping grounds. From all accounts, this seems like a great hire. And for the quick C&C Machine rundown of Wylie’s background, check this out. Welcome aboard, Bennie!

• Bob Stoops talked about what he would tell players who complained to him about former strength coach Jerry Schmidt’s tough regime. He told them Schmitty wasn’t going anywhere, and if they didn’t figure things out, they weren’t going to see the field.
• Baker Mayfield is a candidate for the Lombardi Award, and the finalists will be announced on Monday, January 22nd. This award differs from the Rotary Lombardi Award, because all positions are eligible for this award, not just linemen or linebackers.
• With Bookie Radley-Hiles now officially enrolled and on campus, Lincoln Riley released his unique signee announcement video with former Sooner receiver Kenny Stills’ help. I said it before, but these were such a great idea and a resounding success with the players. Welcome to Norman, Bookie!

• After the Kansas Jayhawks defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers, KU is now being projected as a one-seed for the NCAA Tournament in SB Nation’s latest Bracketology update. Meanwhile the Oklahoma Sooners are currently sitting in a two-seed slot. The stretch run in this conference is going to be insane.
• Even though Lon Kruger has many special memories in Kansas State’s Bramlage Coliseum from his playing days, his Sooners have lost five consecutive meetings in the building. Kruger would like to see that trend to start to shift in the other direction tonight.
• Last season, Oklahoma was extremely young and had a difficult time closing games. This season, the Sooners are becoming one of the best teams in crunch time.
• Congratulations to the Oklahoma women’s gymnastics team for posting the highest score in the nation so far! I love this even more because it came against Georgia. Yeah, I’m still salty, what’s it to ya?

Around the Sports World

• So some Houston Rockets players and some L.A. Clippers players found themselves in a heated disagreement after the game in one of the locker rooms. There is a lot of questioning about what actually went down, but whatever happened called for the LAPD to show up.
• The guys on TNT had a great time with this whole ordeal, too. Shaq couldn’t stop laughing and Chuck was straight up flabbergasted. Great stuff!

• Indiana Pacer Myles Turner celebrated so hard for his team that he ripped his pants in a place you definitely never want to rip your pants.
• Heisman finalist running back Bryce Love is returning to Stanford for the 2018 season. After watching Love throughout the season, and during the Heisman ceremony, I know I’m going to be a big fan of his this year.
• SB Nation’s Bill Connelly is ranking the top 100 games of the 2017 college football season over the coming days. Several Big 12 games made this part of the list, but still no Oklahoma games just yet. Check out games 100-71 in the first installment.
• How did this glorious fail of a tweet make it through? I don’t really know, but I’m sure glad that it did. You keep up the great work, Dickie V! Most folks your age don’t handle the Twitter as well as you do, so we’ll let this slide.

Stick to Sports!

• So the folks at Hyperkin are bringing back the Game Boy in a big way. It’s called Ultra Game Boy. Basically, it’s a console cartridge that outfits a smart phone. The nostalgia factor for me is through the roof. I’m so excited I can honestly barely type.

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