Happy Friday, friends and fans! I hope your Memorial Day Weekend is off to a terrific start! Here’s a little nugget you can share with your family and friends if you’re heading to the lake or having yourself a nice cookout. According to the South Point Las Vegas sports books, the Oklahoma Sooners are currently 12-point favorites over the Texas Longhorns. Of course that spread will change between now and OU/Texas week, but it’s interesting to see where it stands as of today.

Considering how close some of these last few Red River games have been, I would be a bit hesitant to pick the Sooners to cover a 12-point spread, but it sure would be nice to put another classic whoopin’ on UT! A win is a win in that game, and I’ll never complain about a ‘W’ over those guys.

Now let’s move onto this week’s Friday edition of Hot Links! Kyler Murray is listed as day-to-day after exiting Thursday’s game, Oklahoma Softball continues its run towards the WCWS in Game 1 of the Super Regionals, and more!

OU Links

• Speaking of Mayfield, check him out with other NFL rookies as they attempt to paint their team’s logos. All things considered, I’d say Mayfield’s was one of the top paintings, but some of these logos are borderline impossible for most people to recreate. Hilarious stuff right here.

• Kyler Murray is now listed as day-to-day after an awkward slide caused him to miss most of yesterday’s win against Texas. It sounds like he’ll be fine in the long run, but only time will tell how much baseball he may miss going forward.
• There is still a divide in the fan base when it coms to Oklahoma’s Big 12 membership. Should OU leave, or should OU stay? When you take everything into account, the Sooners are in a prime position across athletics, and all this success has given the Big 12 conference some much-needed stability.
• Since I can’t watch Baker Mayfield ball out on the field during the offseason, I’ll settle for watching Baker Mayfield having a ball on the dance floor. How can you not root for this guy?

• Remember folks — the Super Regional Round starts today at 4 p.m. The Sooners host the Arkansas Razorbacks in a best two-out-of-three series. Let’s go, OU!

• Coach Patty Gasso says pinch-runner Hannah Sparks is her own toughest critic. Coming from a small town in Alabama, Sparks never imagined she could be where she is today, and she’s since made tremendous strides in her growth as a person during her time in Norman.
• ICYMI (we did during the OU baseball game), OU will host Vanderbilt on Jan. 26 as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Side note: I want UT/A&M and Kansas/Missouri, but it’ll never happen (or at least not anytime soon) and we’ll just have to live with it.
• Oklahoma’s Brad Dalke has a chance set himself apart from just about every past Sooner golfer this weekend at the NCAA Championships. He’s already on pace to finish with a program-best career mark with a 70.86 stroke average. Winning back-to-back national titles would likely cement his legacy.
• It’s been relatively quiet on the recruiting front for the Sooners, but John Shinn isn’t worried about Oklahoma losing a substantial amount of momentum, especially with the No. 2 class in the nation.
• Speaking of recruiting, Bryce Young, the No. 1 dual-threat QB for the 2020 class, says he wants to make his commitment decision this summer, either in July or August. Young has visited Oklahoma three times and has a really good relationship with Lincoln Riley.

Around the Sports World

• ‘Hard Knocks’ is a gripping reality show that covers NFL teams in the preseason. If there was a college football equivalent (not including Netflix’s ‘Last Chance U’), which teams would make for the best TV? My money is on Lane Kiffin and the Florida Atlantic Owls.
• C.J. Harris, a preferred walk-on defensive back at Auburn, has been ruled ineligible for his use of cannabis oil to treat his epilepsy. The NCAA has strict rules against any kind of cannabis use, and currently makes no exceptions for medicinal purposes. One might think this will change (and should change) in years to come, but this is the reality at this moment.
• Chris Paul gave Steph Curry a taste of his own medicine with this disrespectful shimmy right in Curry’s face. I’m totally here for more of this.

• Speaking of Chris Paul, he went down after a floater attempt in the late stages of Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, and by the looks of it he suffered some sort of injury in the area of his right hamstring.

• This Ole Miss pitcher just completely forgot how to play baseball. Luckily for him and his team, the Rebels didn’t pay for it with a loss, but c’mon dude. How in the world does this happen?

Stick to Sports!

• James Mangold, who directed the critically acclaimed X-Men movie Logan, is reportedly co-writing and directing a Star Wars spin-off film focused around the character ‘Boba Fett’, a renowned bounty hunter in the franchise’s lore. Boba Fett first appeared in the 1980 classic The Empire Strikes Back, and was given a look into his back story in the prequels that were released decades later. The Boba Fett character has developed a cult following from many Star Wars fans over the years, so a stand-alone film is sure to stir up a lot of interest.

Follow Crimson & Cream Machine on Twitter!