Happy Tuesday, friends and fans!

After one season with the Kansas Jayhawks, freshman shooting guard Bryce Thompson announced his decision to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal on Tuesday. As a five-star recruit in the class of 2020, Thompson — a Tulsa native — chose KU over the Oklahoma Sooners, Oklahoma State Cowboys and North Carolina Tar Heels.

What makes this development particularly intriguing for OU is the fact that Thompson is from the state of Oklahoma (graduated from Booker T. Washington) and had the Sooners among his list of finalists before he ultimately chose Kansas. It’s worth mentioning, however, that the strong relationship with Lon Kruger is what kept OU in the race in the first place, so it’s up to Porter Moser to act quickly to form a rapport.

Over the course of the 2020-21 college basketball season, Thompson averaged 4.6 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists in more than 17 minutes per game. His freshman season was interrupted twice by injuries — the first being a cracked vertebrae in his lower back and the other being a broken right index finger. In total, the 6’5 guard played 20 of his team’s 30 games.

Thus far, it remains to be seen where Thompson is leaning as far as any decisions are concerned. One thing is for certain: OU is looking to replenish its own roster with an influx of young talent following the exodus of players since this past season came to an end.

Now onto today’s Hot Links! ESPN’s FPI predicts big things from Oklahoma this season, Clayton Smith draws some lofty comparisons, Steph passes Wilt and more!

OU Links

• Tonight at 6:30 p.m. CT, Oklahoma Baseball (16-15) will host Texas Southern inside L. Dale Mitchell Park. This will be the first of two meetings between the Sooners and the Tigers, with the second set for Wednesday afternoon. Tonight’s contest can be streamed live on SoonerSports.TV.

• ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) has been updated to reflect how teams stack up thus far in the offseason, and OU checks in at No. 2 overall behind the reigning national champions — the Alabama Crimson Tide. Also from around the Big 12 are the Iowa State Cyclones at No. 4, Oklahoma State Cowboys at No. 9, Texas Longhorns at No. 12, TCU Horned Frogs at No. 19, the Texas Tech Red Raiders at No. 21 and the West Virginia Mountaineers at No. 24.
• Speaking of rankings, Sooner Softball (30-0) unsurprisingly checks in at No. 1 according to the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Poll for the seventh consecutive week. Boomer!
• Pro Football Focus recently highlighted the fact that former Oklahoma DE Ronnie Perkins is the only edge rusher in the current draft class who graded out over 90 in both run defense and pass rushing.

• Speaking of standout OU edge players, true freshman Clayton Smith has continued to impress his coaches and teammates this spring with how well he’s adjusting to the speed of the collegiate game. SI Sooners’ John Hoover has more.
• 247 Sports’ Kevin Flaherty recently shared his personal bold predictions for each Big 12 team going into the 2021 college football season, such as Oklahoma winning a playoff semifinal game and the Kansas Jayhawks surprising everyone with multiple victories.

Around the Sports World

• Long-time New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman announced his retirement on Monday after 12 prolific seasons in Foxborough.
• Also on Monday, Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray went down with a knee injury in a 116-107 loss to the Golden State Warriors and was later confirmed to have suffered a torn ACL. He is expected to miss the remainder of the 2020-21 NBA season.
• The reigning Super Bowl winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers have reportedly signed former Cincinnati Bengals running back Giovani Bernard to a one-year contract deal.
• In college football news, the AAC has joined the ACC and the MAC by eliminating penalties against intraconference transfers. This means that players can now transfer within the same conference without being forced to sit out the upcoming season.
• On Monday night, Stephen Curry passed NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain as the Golden State Warriors’ all-time scoring leader with a 53-point performance against the Denver Nuggets. In his career, Curry has now amassed 17,818 total points.

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