Welp. It was a rough week to be an Oklahoma State fan (with a few bright spots). If you’ve been too busy to keep up with all things OSU, don’t worry, I gotchu. This post might also be for you if you (for whatever reason) give a damn about my opinion on the big news of the weekend.

Like the nice guy I am, I think it would be a good idea to have a nice pick-me-up before diving into all that stuff right now. Whenever I need to be cheered up, I turn on some Toto, and I crank it up to eleven!

You’re welcome.

Basketball

There was a lot of excitement building toward this week. The tournament is upon us, we have a resurging basketball program... aaaaaand then everything comes crashing down for the Pokes.

March Sadness

The matchup between #10 seed Oklahoma State and #7 seed Michigan proved to be one of the best games of the first round. The Pokes owned the boards and the paint, but Michigan was EN FUEGO from behind the arc. I actually went to the game, and watched Michigan warm up. They didn’t get in a layup line, they all just spread out and played Around The World. One of the players accidentally had his foot on the line during one of his shots, and Coach Beilein suspended him for the rest of the tournament for conduct detrimental to the team. They were having fun with it though. I snapped a picture of them right before tipoff:

The first half of the this game was neck-and-neck. Both teams started off stale on the offensive side of the ball, but that alllll changed. Both teams started getting open shots and hitting them. The second half of this game is the real story though.

Michigan fields a lineup in which every player can shoot the ball. The Wolverines were 11-15 from behind the arc in the second half, and finished with a school record 16 three pointers. No matter how many times we made a big bucket down low, Michigan hit big shot after big shot. Over half of the 11 made three point makes were contested or difficult shots. Michigan has been the hottest team in the country in the last month, and they used their momentum to carry themselves past the Cowboys, 92-91.

Oh, and Jawun Evans had the entire city of Las Vegas in the palm of his hand.

Bye Bye Brad

Ugh. Some pretty shocking news came in the wake of our loss to Michigan in that Brad Underwood took a job at the University of Illinois. The fans, media and many of the players didn’t know that this was happening until seeing Twitter catch fire on Saturday afternoon. This move sounds like it happened just as fast for Underwood as it did for us. According to Berry Tramel from The Oklahoman, Underwood wanted $3 million per year, and was only offered $2.2 from Oklahoma State Athletic Director, Mike Holder. Illinois decided to pay him what he was asking for, and he jumped on a plane and got the hell out of Dodge.

Also, there’s no way that this was just about the money, right? How do you say all the BS that Brad Underwood told the Oklahoma State community, only to move after one year? According to Berry Tramel’s sources, Underwood and Holder didn’t see eye-to-eye when it came to Oklahoma State basketball and what it could be in the future.

When discussing the value of OSU basketball on campus, the source said, Holder told Underwood he was asking for Final Four-type money and that the Cowboys currently are on a level of Iowa State, Texas Tech and Kansas State in the Big 12.

“He was going to Illinois the moment Holder said that to him,” the source said. “What he was looking for, Holder's vision for the program, ‘I believe you can get us up to KU and Bill Self and blah-blah,' and that just wasn't what he heard.”

Berry has done an outstanding job keeping on top of this story, and you can read his full article here.

Who will be the next head basketball coach at Oklahoma State? I have a suggestion:

Further coaching search articles will be releasing all throughout the week, so make sure to keep up with CRFF!

Football

It’s March, what the hell is a football?

Ummm... Well, I guess Gundy went snake hunting.

Hey Wild Bill, take care of our boy. We can’t afford to lose our football coach too.

Baseball

While everyone is focused on the basketball dumpster fire, the baseball team is putting on a clinic on how to win. They are up to seven straight wins, and they swept two series this week, New Mexico and Northwestern State.

Outfielders Ryan Sluder and Garrett McCain, and utility infielder Andrew Rosa have been hot on the offensive end for the Cowboys. Blake Battenfield threw a seven inning one-hitter on Tuesday, and Joe Lienhard came back the next day and threw for 6 1/3, only allowing one hit himself.

Cowboy baseball looks to keep the momentum going against OU and TCU next week.

Wrestling

(writers note: Please don’t make me talk about wrestling. I seriously don’t know anything.) (editors note: You can do it! We all have faith in you.)

NCAA Wrestling Championships were going on this weekend, and Oklahoma State performed very well as usual. To save you from my terrible insight about this sport, I’ll leave it up to the professionals:

What’s Going On Around the Big 12

The Big Dance

The Sweet Sixteen is up on us, and Kansas, Baylor and West Virginia are the only Big 12 survivors. Kansas State and Oklahoma State lost in the their opening rounds, and Iowa State got bumped in the round of 32.

Baylor was expecting to face off against powerhouse Duke in the Sweet Sixteen, but South Carolina had different plans. No. 3 seed Baylor and No. 7 seed South Carolina will face off on Friday at 6:30 p.m.

No. 1 seed Kansas will face off against Caleb Swanigan and the No. 4 seed Purdue Boilermakers in their Sweet Sixteen matchup. The two teams will play on Thursday at 8:40 p.m.

No. 4 seed West Virginia takes on Nigel Williams-Goss and the No. 1 Gonzaga Bulldogs. The two teams square off Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

What’s Happening This Week?

• Bedlam Baseball on Tuesday at home. 6:30. Be there. The baseball team then heads to Fort Worth, Texas for a three game series against TCU starting on Friday.
• The softball girls are hosting Texas starting on Friday.

Go Pokes!