Tramel's ScissorTales: Brett Yormark faces resistance on Big 12 adding Gonzaga, UConn
Berry TramelBut Yormark still is getting pushback from his constituents.
Yormark held a Zoom conference with reporters Friday after the Big 12 spring meetings in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and reiterated his desire to upgrade the league’s already-robust basketball pedigree.
“We do see the upside in basketball moving forward for all the right reasons,” Yormark said, referring in part to his desire to break out basketball from future television negotiations. “We think it's undervalued, and there's a chance for us to double down as the No. 1 basketball conference in America.
“But football is the driver, and we all know that.”
Campus decision-makers know it best of all. Which is why there seems to be little interest in adding Gonzaga, a West Coast Conference member that doesn’t field a football team, or UConn, a Big East member that is the defending NCAA men’s basketball champion but a woebegone football program.
“I don’t see any movement for a non-Power Five,” a Big 12 athletic director told me. “I do not think there’s enough support to get them across the finish line.”
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Sources confirmed that the Big 12’s new television contract with ESPN and Fox accounts for expansion, automatically increasing the total payout to keep the payout-per-school the same if the new member is from a Power Five conference.
In other words, adding Pac-12 schools would not reduce the size of Big 12 members’ piece of the pie. But non-P5 additions could mean less money for the current members.
Some basketball people are excited about the possibility of adding huge hoops brands.
“You have to,” a Big 12 basketball coach told me. “People just have to wrap their arms around it. We’re losing two stalwarts. People can say what they want to, but OU and Texas (headed to the Southeastern Conference) are icons. They are national brands. Anytime you lose a brand, you're losing a little something.
“There's not another Oklahoma football out there. There's not another Texas brand out there. Our strength has to be in our numbers. What if we get Arizona basketball, Gonzaga?”
Well, Big 12 basketball would be grander than ever. But the league would be stretched farther than ever – Spokane, Washington, to Orlando – and travel budgets would be stretched.
“Whether to add teams? Play it out, see where real alignment goes,” said another Big 12 athletic director. “Some teams seem more logical than others.”
For all I know, Yormark is using the basketball schools as negotiating tactics to motivate the Pac-12 targets.
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Yormark does appear to be a big proponent of Connecticut, but some Big 12 decision-makers are skeptical. They acknowledge the basketball brand but point out that UConn has not invested heavily in football.
The Huskies play on state-owned Rentschler Field, a 38,000-seat stadium that opened in 2003 and is in East Hartford, 25 miles from the Storrs campus.
And UConn athletics get a big subsidy from the university.
“All it takes is one president to cut that,” said one Big 12 source. “I just don’t see it.”
Big 12 expansion continues to focus on the Pac-12, which now is less than 13 months from both losing Southern Cal and UCLA to the Big Ten, as well as the end of its television contract with ESPN and Fox.
Rampant speculation has centered on the Big 12 targeting the Pac-12's four-corner schools – Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Arizona State. The former two reportedly are interested in the Big 12, the other two not so much.
Yormark said his league is exploring “all options and considerations at this point in time.
“We had a great discussion about expansion, and we have a plan. As I've said all along, we have an appetite to be a national conference in our makeup from coast to coast, and we do believe in the upside of basketball moving forward as a collective group.”
But Yormark has a tough task in persuading Big 12 administrators to take on schools with little or no football impact.
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Nuggets defense collapses vs. Miami
We all were ready to coronate the Denver Nuggets, of which I was not the chiefest of sinners but certainly was on the list. I picked Denver in four games in these NBA Finals. A colleague wondered if the Nuggets were poised to start dominating the NBA going forward.
At least I had my head on that one. Win one NBA Finals before you start talking about winning three. Winning two straight home games is required to sweep the Finals.
And Denver didn’t win two straight home games. The Heat beat the Nuggets 111-108 in a rousing Game 2 Sunday night, and Denver reminded us why it is not yet a juggernaut.
The Nuggets still struggle on defense. Denver was 18th in defensive efficiency during the regular season, an absurdly low ranking for an NBA title contender. But the Nikola Jokic-led offense is so good, it rarely matters.
The Jokic-led offense was good Sunday night. But Denver’s defense still mattered.
The Heat made 48.7 percent of its shots, which is good. Miami made 17 of 35 of its 3-point shots (48.6 percent), which is great. The Heat also made 18 of 20 foul shots and committed just 11 turnovers, a perfectly acceptable amount.
It’s hard to win allowing that kind of offensive production and efficiency. That’s what Denver allowed, and Denver didn’t win.
The game turned twice, both times when the Nugget defense sprung leaks.
Denver led 50-35 midway through the second quarter, then the Nuggets scored 12 points in six possessions, and it was a ballgame again.
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The Nuggets led 83-75 after three quarters, then Miami scored 17 points on its first six possessions of the fourth period to take a 92-87 lead.
In that fourth-period spree, athletically-limited Duncan Robinson scored 10 straight Miami points, with two 3-pointers and two layups (one on a drive, one on a cut without the ball).
Miami is not an elite offensive team – 25th in the 30-team NBA in efficiency during the regular season. But the Heat has an outstanding coach, some shooters and two gritty, smart stars in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
Erik Spoelstra knows how to take advantage of inferior defense. The Nuggets start three sub-par defenders – Michael Porter Jr., Jokic and Jamal Murray – and even defensive ace Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was off. KCP twice fouled Gabe Vincent on 3-point shots, one of them a desperation heave as the shot clock was expiring. Those are the kinds of mistakes you can’t make in the NBA Finals.
Much has gone right for Denver in this series. Sunday night, its thin bench was excellent. The Nuggets played just three reserves, but Denver outscored Miami by 14 points in Bruce Brown’s 27 minutes, by 12 points in Jeff Green’s 16 minutes and by 8 points in Christian Braun’s 15½ minutes.
But Miami outscored Denver by 11 points in Jokic’s 42 minutes. That’s incredible. That can only happen when a so-so offense takes advantage of Denver’s squishy defense.
What can Nugget coach Mike Malone do? Is a lineup change in the offering? Perhaps. Brown made 31 starts this season; in this series, he’s clearly a more effective player than is Porter, who has made strides but whose defense remains clueless and who has made just three of 17 3-points through two games.
Denver’s roster isn’t deep enough to do too much else. And Brown already played more minutes than Porter’s 26:23, so such a change might not do more than adjust the starting rotation.
But it could set a tone that Malone is committing more to defense, which the Nuggets must do if they are to win this series.
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The List: OSU’s PGA Tour winners
Viktor Hovland walked off the 73rd hole of Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, and got a big treat – a handshake and a “well done” from golfing immortal Jack Nicklaus, who annually hosts the Memorial Tournament.
Hovland parred the first playoff hole to beat Denny McCarthy in one of the more prestigious tournaments on the PGA Tour.
“Little bit surreal right now, but obviously, playing Jack’s course and playing his tournament, and winning it, just shake my hand and giving me a couple words of encouragement, that’s pretty awesome,” said Norway’s Hovland, who was the 2018 U.S. Amateur and played at OSU from 2017-19.
Later, Hovland even joked with Nicklaus about Oklahoma State being “the real OSU,” a reference to Nicklaus’ beloved Ohio State.
The victory did something else for Hovland’s status – he moved into the top 10 on all-time PGA Tour wins by Cowboy golfers. Hovland’s fourth tour victory puts him in a tie for sixth. Here is the top 10:
1. Bob Tway 8: OSU’s only major winner, Tway won the 1986 PGA Championship. Tway, who played at OSU from 1978-81, also won the 1986 Andy Williams Open, the 1986 Westchester Classic, the 1986 Atlanta Golf Classic, the 1989 Memorial, the 1990 Las Vegas Invitational, the 1995 MCI Classic and the 2003 Canadian Open.
2. Bo Wininger 6: The biggest winner from the Cowboys’ Labron Harris era, Wininger played on Harris’ first four OSU teams, 1947-50. He won the 1955 Baton Rouge Open, the 1955 Arlington Hotel Open, the 1956 Kansas City Open, the 1962 Greater New Orleans Open Invitational, the 1962 Carling Open Invitational and the 1963 Greater New Orleans Open Invitational.
2. Hunter Mahan 6: Played at OSU from 2001-03 after transferring from Southern Cal, Mahan won the 2007 Travelers Championship, the 2010 Waste Management Open, the 2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the 2012 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, the 2012 Houston Open and the 2014 Barclays.
4. Scott Verplank 5: A Cowboy from 1983-86, Verplank won the 1985 Western Open as an amateur and also won the 1988 Buick Open, the 2000 Reno-Tahoe Open, the 2001 Canadian Open and the 2007 Byron Nelson Championship.
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4. Rickie Fowler 5: Fowler played two seasons at OSU, 2008 and 2009. His wins are the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship, the 2015 Players Championship, the 2015 Deutsche Bank Championship, the 2017 Honda Classic and the 2019 Phoenix Open.
6. Viktor Hovland 4: Hovland’s previous PGA Tour victories were the 2020 Puerto Rico Open, the 2020 Mayakoba Golf Classic and the 2021 World Wide Technology Championship.
6. Michael Bradley 4: The Cowboy from 1985-88 won the 1996 Buick Challenge, the 1998 Doral-Ryder Open, the 2009 Puerto Rico Open and the 2011 Puerto Rico Open.
6. Danny Edwards 4: The 1972-75 Cowboy won the 1977 Greater Greensboro Open, the 1982 Greater Greensboro Open, the 1983 Miller High Life and the 1985 Pensacola Open.
6. Mark Hayes 4: Hayes, a 1969-71 Cowboy, won the 1976 Byron Nelson Classic, the 1976 Pensacola Open, the 1977 Tournament Players Championship and the 1986 Tallahassee Open.
6. Doug Tewell 4: Tewell, a 1969-71 Cowboy, won the 1980 Sea Pines Heritage, the 1980 IVB-Golf Classic, the 1986 Los Angeles Open and the 1987 Pensacola Open.
6. Dave Eichelberger 4: Eichelberger played at OSU from 1963-65, then won the 1971 Greater Milwaukee Open, the 1977 Greater Milwaukee Open, the 1980 Bay Hill Classic and the 1981 Tallahassee Open.
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Mailbag: Bedlam football series
OU plays at OSU on November 4 in what figures to be the final Bedlam football game for awhile, barring a bowl game or an unlikely meeting in the 2023 Big 12 Championship Game.
Kirk: “Why don’t you cheerlead and shame both schools (Norman and Stillwater) to take advantage of this and play? Good for the state.”
Tramel: I've tried, and I'll try some more. But I don’t think it’s going to happen.
I sense no desire from OSU to continue the series. And while OU pinned itself in by declaring, on the day the story broke of its departure to the Southeastern Conference, that it wanted to continue to play Bedlam in all sports, it appears the Sooners are just fine with letting the football series end.
The big picture is that all of college football has been infiltrated by a wuss complex. No one wants to play anyone. The smaller picture is that the Bedlam rivalry is soiled by bad blood and bad attitudes. That’s a bad combination, when coupled with schedule manipulation.
Truthfully, I blame the networks. Until they start demanding better games and just say no to OSU-South Alabama and OU-Arkansas State, things aren’t going to change.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.