Happy Friday, friends and fans!

This weekend, the No. 1 seeded Oklahoma Sooners softball team is playing at home for the final time this season. It’s bittersweet in that regard, but the team wouldn’t have it any other way as this is NCAA Super Regional action! 16th seeded Northwestern out of the Big Ten is OU’s opponent for a best two-out-of-three series. The winner will be rewarded with a shiny ticket to OKC for the Women’s College World Series next week.

The Wildcats have been on a surge for the latter half of the season, and it all stemmed from their previous trip to Norman. During the OU Home Tournament, Oklahoma trounced Northwestern twice. First time was a 7-0 win for the Sooners, and the second was an 8-0 run-ruling. The temperature outside was still around freezing back then, so needless to say the feel of these next games should be quite different.

For those outside of Marita Hynes Field, tune in to ESPN2 at 2 p.m. CT to catch Game 1 of this Super Regional. If last weekend’s regional play was any indication, anything can happen on any given diamond. Good luck, ladies!

Now on to this week’s Friday edition of Hot Links! The Burly Boys are going for more glory on the links, Lincoln Riley shares updates on a couple key defensive players, Auburn baseball completely chokes against LSU and more!

OU Links

• The men’s golf team begins first round play of the NCAA Championships today at 12:32 p.m. CT. OU’s group is paired up with Texas and Vanderbilt, and you can follow the live scoring here. Good luck, Sooners!

• The trio of Quade Cummins, Brad Dalke and Blaine Hale call themselves ‘The Burly Boys’ because on the outside they certainly fit the part. All lightheartedness aside, the group of veterans has been on a mission to win another national title for the program that originally brought them together, writes Tyler Palmateer of the Norman Transcript.
• Local beat writers caught up with Lincoln Riley on Thursday, and the coach provided updates on the statuses of Jalen Redmond and Caleb Kelly, who have both been sidelined due to medical reasons. Riley also talked about why this summer period is especially crucial for the program moving forward, writes Eric Bailey of the Tulsa World.
• Speaking of Riley, he dropped two eyes emojis yesterday. It’s beginning to look a lot like recruiting Christmas.

• With former Oklahoma men’s basketball assistant coach Chris Crutchfield now at Arkansas, the Sooners are in the market for a replacement hire. Jeff Goodman reports that Miami’s Pooh Williamson and FIU’s David Cason are in the mix. I spy some Florida connections.

• Former OU pitcher Austin Hansen once played the role of reliever, but lately he’s become quite the weapon as a starter with the River Bandits, a minor league affiliate for the Houston Astros. Currently, he has a scoreless innings streak of 23, and he’s only getting better with every pitch.
• In case you missed it, the OU baseball team allowed 14 runs in an inning against TCU. It was terrible.
• With how much the NCAA transfer portal is altering the landscape of college football, Allen Kenney caught up with The Athletic’s Max Olson to discuss the ins and outs of the exploding phenomenon in his latest Blatant Homerism Podcast.

Around the Sports World

• Klay Thompson found out he wasn’t named First, Second or Third Team All-NBA and looked pretty salty. Also, I don't think he necessarily intended to throw direct shade at Kemba Walker, but he kind of did. Oh well, I guess this just means he’ll score 40 a game in the Finals now.

• Daniel Jones isn’t back to steady the passing game (not that he was particularly steady), but the Duke Blue Devils should still be a sneaky good team in the ACC this season. Bill Connelly takes a closer look at David Cutcliffe’s 2019 squad in his preview.
• A successful Hail Mary is the ultimate high-low moment in the game of football. Typically, one team is seconds away from celebrating a win, while the other is about to wallow in defeat. Then all of a sudden, the roles reverse completely and mayhem ensues. With that in mind, what are some of the most memorable Hail Marys in the NFL?
• I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a baseball game end this way. If I was at this game as a fan on the losing side of it, I’d have to stay in my seat for a good 30 minutes trying to wrap my mind around the absurdity of what I just witnessed.

Stick to Sports!

• For folks who have money to blow and no where to go in Queensland, Australia, ScUber is a new ride-sharing mode that takes passengers on trips in a submarine for a little underwater sight-seeing. This is the first time something like this has been available for the public, but at about $2,000 a session, I don’t expect everybody who wants to go can even afford it. Still cool, though.

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