Wayman Tisdale

Wayman Tisdale died yesterday. a few perspectives from my side:

1. Wayman didn't resurrect OU basketball. Resurrection presumes a prior life. He breathed life into it. OU had one trip to the Final Four in 40 years and one conference championship in 30 when he got there. Per game attendance was less than 5,000 the season before his arrival. Two years later, it was 10,000 per game. I am a huge college hoops fan, and was blessed to be a college student after he and Coach Tubbs breathed life into the program in the mid 80s.
2. Wayman holds the season record for most points in a game. As a freshman, he broke Alvan Adams record of 691 points. As a sophomore he broke his own record. As a junior his broke his record again. Presently, those seasons are 6th, 2nd and 1st in Sooner history. As a point of reference, Blake Griffin's 2009 National Player of the Year season yielded the 7th highest point total in Sooner history. His turnaround jumper was special. Wayman caught the ball with his back to the basket and the ball was almost immediately redirected to the basket. There was no bounce, no attempt to knock over the defender. He was 6'9" and 240 pounds, but that size was not used to bull his way to the basket. There was just a quick shot up on the glass, and more than 57% of the time it went in.
3. As an ambassador for Sooner hoops, there was none better. Tisdale wore a huge grin on his face most of the time. He lit up a room, when he entered. Tubbs knew he had a cornerstone of a program when he recruited Wayman. College and NBA teammates are saying wonderful things about him. there are no scandals about Wayman.
4. As an NBA player, Wayman averaged 15 points per game and 6 rebounds over a 12 year career with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns, making an impact on and off the court with teammates, foes and media with his smile, generosity and concern for others.
5. As a musician, he was superb. Wayman was an accomplished jazz musician who wrote most of his own music. He recorded eight albums, all of which made Billboard's Top 10 for Contemporary Jazz, and one spent four weeks as the Billboard No. 1 Contemporary jazz album.
6. As a man of God, few mortals have walked the walk better. He was a pleasure to be around, and his faith made him stronger. Coach Tubbs said it best, "If God wants to build a basketball team, he has a great player now," Tubbs said. "And if he wants to build a band, he has a great bass player. Write a great story about him. He deserves it. Wayman Tisdale was a great man."

My condolences go out to all his family and those who knew him personally.

Wayman was a native of Tulsa, and the Tulsa World has a lot of stuff paying respects to Wayman.

Why The Newspapers are Losing

Yesterday's column by Berry Trammel should have been titled, "Holy Crap, can you believe they pay me to write?"

Last summer, Trammel was on the "get rid of Jarboe" bandwagon, as was I.

Chaisson copped a plea to four "gross misdemeanors" that are in lie with the code of conduct for an OU student. Reading that sentence just seems weird. Chaisson is labeled as a sociopath by Trammel, in the same piece that Adarius Bowman's marijuana arrest is inexplicably brought up.

I'll agree that Chaisson is a risk, but the column just doesn't make sense.

"...That’s not delinquent behavior. That’s sociopath behavior, and that moves out of even Father Flanagan’s domain, much less a football coach’s. Take Chaisson to sack quarterbacks, fine. But don’t take him thinking you’re going to fix him."

So, we're okay with taking a player for his football ability, but Stoops shouldn't consider planning to set the individual up for success with more accountability, more structure, perhaps expanding his horizons a bit and guiding him in making better life choices. Let's just treat him like a rented mule and turn him loose on society in four years.

Seemed Berry is taking writing tips from David Feherty, and working on offending everyone reading. Feherty is known for his irreverent humor. Perhaps Trammel can move his writing to the Comics section. Except it's not funny.

Capitalism

This week Sam Keller complained about not getting paid to play football, but former Sooner QB J.C. Watts has taken his single digit ACT score* and turned it into a six figure lobbying job for the Bowl Champsionship Series. What a country!

Watts career has gone from Sooner QB to CFL player to Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner to US Congressman to Lobbyist. Watts has earned $620k over the past five years lobbying on behalf of the BCS.

Not bad work, if you can get it. On the other hand, the efforts didn't seem to go so well last week in hearings. All the lobbying in the world doesn't help if you have Texas and it's electoral votes on the other side.

*I can't find a reference for this, but vividly remember in my teem years hearing Switzer say that JC made a 0 on his ACT. National average was around 17 at the time.

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Social Networking Rollout

We here at LandThieves captured a special video session as the Sooners rolled out their social networking policy a couple of weeks ago. Let's look in to this never before seen footage.

Friends O' LandThieves Expands

We're adding a new compadre to the LandThieves. Whiskey over at One Foot Down offers CFB coverage, with a slant toward Notre Dame. It's quite an accomplishment for me to acknowledge a FishEater blog, being that a) the Sooners last beat the Irish in 1956; b) Jimmy Clausen is their QB; c) the Irish were victors on the two losses that framed the Sooners 47 game unbeaten streak back in the day.

Be sure and check 'em out.

If Al Gore were a Longhorn