Regional Finals time. 2 p.m. start on ESPN+.

OU advances with a win, plays a win-or-go-home game with a loss at 4:30.

@Bryan Clinton and I are on hand.

Lineups:

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A lot has happened in the past couple years but nice to be on here with a few familiar faces.

***got duped by a fake looking CBS account***

Figured I’d turn into a “excited to be back” and doing the Barry & Mack Show for OU Insider thread.

Out of curiosity, I looked at Seat Geek. There are a lot of tickets for sale for Sunday's session, including a good number at reasonable prices. So, if others want to see the Sooners in the playoffs at Love's Field, they certainly can do so.

Sunday Tickets: https://seatgeek.com/ncaa-softball-...ets/college-softball/2024-05-19-2-pm/16876079

Inside the stadium there was a recurring announcement of an official "NCAA ticket exchange" site, but I have not been to find the link to that site for today's OU softball game.

Go Sooners! Beat the Ducks!

Takeaways and notes from OU's 6-3 win over Oregon.

Quotes and postgame video included:

Sooners taking on Oregon at 2 p.m. on ESPN.

@Bryan Clinton and I are on hand.

Winner advances to tomorrow's Regional Final. Loser plays against the winner of Boston/Cleveland State at 7 p.m. tonight.

Wife just bought me a year sub for my birthday! She sees me watching OUInsider every week and surprised me! Boomer

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Enjoy..looking forward to a 4 part series on Summer. I'll post written stories here and speak to others on the pod. Looking forward to providing an insider look into summer workouts and how that period builds the teams character for that season.

Their fans are talking so much crap that I am annoyed. They have too much false confidence. It's time to show them who little brother is! Piss on Midzou!

Sooners open the Norman Regional against Cleveland State at Love's Field.

Nicole May will be in the circle.

Game time is 7:05 p.m. CT on ESPNU.

Lineup:

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Trailer looks pretty damn good!
Sucks that I have a $4500 PC and will likely have to spend another $400 just to play this game but ohhhh welllll 🤷‍♂️

Sam Franklin should make a name for himself soon:

That’s now 9 in a row with tonight’s win over Texas.

Need your help to try to explain to my wife. And since I only played on the line back in my playing days, I hope you can help. What is the difference between a split end, wide receiver and a flanker? When someone is lining up in the slot, what roll does he play besides catching balls?

"I think the Big 12 Tournament just allowed us — again, I keep saying it — (to just play) free and I think you can actually see that when we're playing now."

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Brandon and I both did some digging this evening and have confirmed that ULM transfer Adin Huntington will visit Oklahoma on Wednesday. Huntington had 16 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks last season, and previously spent time at Kent State. Listed at 6-foot-1 and 281 pounds.

One year of eligibility remaining. Certainly a different body type than Jermayne Lole, but for my money, he’s a better overall player.

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The latest D1Baseball field of 64 projections are out and have Oklahoma as the #10 National Seed.

In this region, OU would face Nebraska, Northeastern and Little Rock.

The Sooners beat Nebraska earlier this year in Arlington. Thoughts on this region?

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Okay, folks... it was a busy day for me as I made several stops in the state of Kansas. The first stop was Blue Valley High, where I checked in with Dawson Merritt.

A couple things to note here right off the top:

1) Missouri is no longer in contention, and Merritt has cancelled his official visit to Columbia.
2) Merritt's visit to Alabama on the weekend of April 20 was not an OV, but an unofficial. He'll be back in Tuscaloosa on June 7 for his official with the Tide.

Now for the meat and potatoes of this update. The only predictions across the industry favor the Crimson Tide right now, but I'd actually put Alabama third in the race as of this moment. After a nearly hour-long conversation with Merritt, I'm comfortable asserting that Oklahoma is running second... and it's actually Nebraska that is best positioned to land the blue-chipper's commitment. As Merritt explained to me, the Cornhuskers have made him feel like a need more than a want, and that's meant a lot to him. The entire Nebraska staff has been actively engaged in his recruitment, and so too has one Dylan Raiola. Make no mistake: the Blackshirts' prized freshman quarterback is putting the program on his shoulders in every way. He's essentially taken it upon himself to run point on Nebraska's pursuit of several top 2025 targets, including Merritt, Cortez Mills and David Sanders. And plenty of those top targets are biting on the proverbial lure that Raiola has cast. The Huskers may land a few big fish in this recruiting cycle, and if that comes to pass, it'll be due in large part to Raiola's relentless efforts. Merritt acknowledged that his best peer-to-peer relationship at any of his final three schools is his relationship with Raiola, and he likens the Huskers' ballyhooed QB to Patrick Mahomes.

As far as the Sooners are concerned, Merritt has strong bonds with a number of folks in the OU camp. Miguel Chavis has effectively served as Merritt's primary recruiter throughout the process, even though the Sooners see him as an off-ball linebacker. Chavis has obviously spent a lot of time in the Kansas City area over the last couple of cycles, so it was he who first evaluated and offered Merritt on the Sooners' behalf. However, Zac Alley, Brent Venables and Jay Valai have all been substantially involved in recruiting Merritt. Valai has a particularly interesting angle here, as he very briefly overlapped with Merritt's father Dave on the Chiefs staff. The Merritt family also has a great relationship with Dasan McCullough's family, as Deland McCullough (Dasan's father) and Dave Merritt were also colleagues in Kansas City at one point. In fact, Merritt told me that Dasan's mother Darnell will often stay at the Merritts' house when she shuttles back and forth between Oklahoma and Notre Dame (Deland is currently the running backs coach for the Fighting Irish). Obviously, Oklahoma will get the last official visit from Merritt on June 21, and the elite defender told me that he was on FaceTime with the OU staff for over an hour yesterday. There's a lot of trust there, as well as an outstanding alignment of values between Merritt and Oklahoma.

Alabama is in the race because of the fact that while at Washington, Kalen DeBoer and his staff gave Merritt one of his very first scholarship offers. Moreover, Merritt noted that DeBoer has done nothing but win no matter where he's coached, and explained that he enjoys the campus environment and strong program culture at Alabama. That said, he also admitted that he hasn't really clicked with the players in Tuscaloosa to the extent that he's clicked with the players in Lincoln and Norman. That's a big deal, as Merritt is looking for a true brotherhood wherever he ends up. The Crimson Tide shouldn't be discounted, though, as Merritt said he has the strongest individual player-to-coach relationship with Alabama outside linebackers coach Christian Robinson.

It's too early to call this race, but if I were to enter a prediction today, it would favor Nebraska. This is a battle that Oklahoma will have to win in the bottom of the ninth, as it were. They'll get the last swing at Merritt one way or another, and there's plenty of reason to believe that Oklahoma's current commits can help sway the head-hunting linebacker come the ChampU BBQ. Merritt admitted that Alabama had the juice in his recruitment until his most recent visit to Nebraska, at which point the Cornhuskers surged in a major way. So this is absolutely a recruitment in which securing the last visit matters. OU is pitching Merritt on a future as the next Isaiah Simmons. He's also got an opportunity to be part of a resurrection at Nebraska, and an opportunity to play for the most decorated program of the 21st century down in Tuscaloosa. Will he be willing to lay aside those opportunities to be a Sooner? It's more than plausible, but it all hinges on what happens from the 21st through the 23rd of June.

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OU's gonna get an official visit here. Working to connect with ZRS himself for an interview, but the Sooners offered him over the weekend due to the justifiable unease over the Dawson Merritt situation, and things have moved pretty quickly as far as the OV plans. ZRS and Kamar Archie are now the two LB's that have OU official visits set in stone.

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I was watching Paul Pierce this morning discuss the Shai vs Jokic MVP ,and his point was if Shai had more nationally televised games this season he probably would've won it. Just got me thinking is he right? Bally Sports has made it not only difficult for fans to watch but also seems to be hurting the players even more!


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