Oklahoma Sooners Basketball: THEY’RE BRINGING BACK TOP DAUG

Earlier today, the Oklahoma Sooners Men’s Basketball Twitter account sent out some curious tweets, perhaps leading one to believe that someone had forgotten to lock the phone screen. Perhaps it was someone’s kid, or even... a dog?

Castiglione’s tweet (as well as a few retweets of @dog_feelings) many of us all to ask an important question. Could it be? Had they finally, at long last, heard our cries of “BRING BACK TOP DAUG!”? Was OU’s beloved, long-lost basketball mascot making a return to the Lloyd Noble Center?

At this point, OU fans had begun to figure out that all signs pointed to ‘yes’.

Sure enough, it was all real. At around 5:30 p.m., a post from the mascot’s Twitter account confirmed the news, with the official OU hoops account later confirming that he will be revealed next Tuesday at the game vs. Kansas.

Top Daug was first introduced in the mid-80s and was the program’s official announcement up until being replaced by “Boomer” and “Sooner” (aka the Horse Pigs) in 2004. The new mascots have never been embraced.

Ever since, loyal Oklahoma hoops fans have been clamoring for his return, with the student section once going so far as to chant “WE WANT TOP DAUG” in the direction of the new mascots early in their tenure (this led to at least one of them running up into the tunnel, as I recall).

The permanence of this return is yet to be announced, but this is a welcome development for all long-time Oklahoma basketball supporters no matter the circumstances. I sincerely hope that the Horse Pigs never step foot in the Lloyd Noble Center again, but that’s just me (but it’s also you, probably).

Now all we need is a new arena.