Hello once again, friends and fans. It’s basically a wintery mess out there if you live anywhere around central Oklahoma, so stay warm and off the roads if you can. As far as what’s happening with the Oklahoma Sooners on the sports front, the women’s basketball team won its Senior Night game against Iowa State and the softball team is gearing up for much nicer weather in Palm Springs, California for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.

But back to the Winter Olympics, I mean the Oklahoma weather. When everything is frozen over, covered in sheets of ice, there is but one thing to do: Boomer Sooner.

It’s amazing what people will do with enough time to kill and the right opportunity. Don’t try that at home, folks, but it’s still very cool because Oklahoma.

Now onto the Cold Hot Links, where Orlando Brown could follow in his father’s large footsteps and become a Baltimore Raven, Trae Young is still projected as a top five player if he chooses to declare for the NBA, and Maddie Manning is finally able to take part in Senior Night after waiting for years on the road to recovery.

OU Links

• Orlando Brown is poised for a first-round selection in the upcoming NFL Draft. Beyond that, the Baltimore Ravens could be the team that picks him up. What’s special about that is that the Ravens are a team Brown’s father once played for. Being in the same locker room his father once claimed as his own would be a tremendous honor for Orlando.
• What this group of receivers has done for Lincoln Riley’s offense is amazing. More than that, Riley’s offense allowed each one of these players to shine when it was their time. If you’re a big time, up-and-coming receiver, take notice. At Oklahoma, you’ll have every opportunity to make a name for yourself.

• Like Coach Riley, Bill Bedenbaugh has been at the forefront of one of the best and most consistent units in all of college football. Bedenbaugh will probably never receive the amount of credit he deserves for the players he recruits and the way he develops them, but numbers like these certainly speak to his value as a coach.

• The Oklahoma Sooners have struggled mightily on the basketball court, and Trae Young hasn’t been his prolific self for much of this stretch, but NBA scouts still project Young as a top five talent when it comes to the NBA Draft.
• The recruiting class of 2019 is loaded with quality wide receiver talent. What’s more, Oklahoma is in a great position with several of these elite targets. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out RJ Young’s thought’s about the top WR targets for the Sooners in this recruiting cycle.
• Maddie Manning never thought she’d still be playing for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2018 back when she first arrived on campus. After two consecutive ACL tears, Manning’s senior night was finally taken off hold, and the wait was absolutely worth it.
• Speaking of Maddie, she and the rest of the seniors closed out Senior Night in style as the Oklahoma women’s basketball team defeated the Iowa State Cyclones 80-71. Boomer!

• It’ll be a couple of late contests as the Sooners’ softball squad travels west to take on Arizona State in a non-conference matchup and Team Japan in an exhibition game. Check out the link below for all the details on how you can catch the action! You won’t want to miss it.

• The Oklahoma golf team is now ranked 4th in the nation after a solid second-place showing in the Puerto Rico Classic. The Sooners are coming off a national championship and are looking to repeat this season.

Around the Sports World

• The USA Women’s Hockey team defeated Canada in a 3-2 shootout for the Gold Medal! That’s payback for how things ended in Sochi, back in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Here’s how it all went down. U-S-A!

• So how long has it been since every college football team’s last first round draft pick? For Iowa State, the nation’s longest drought is likely to continue past this year.
• The Louisville Cardinals are now the first college basketball team to have a national title vacated from them following the scandal that led to Rick Pitino’s firing.
• San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard has been out with a quad injury for quite a while, and now head coach Greg Popovich says that Leonard’s return is unlikely for this season.
• How do we know this isn’t really just Kareem bringing back some ridiculous sky hooks? Kidding, of course. Cool stuff.

Stick to Sports!

• Netflix is rebooting the 1960’s hit television series Lost in Space. I never saw the original show, but growing up I heard a lot about it from some of my older family members. I’m definitely interested in seeing this after watching this trailer.

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