It was interesting to see how McGuinness stud Daniel Orton has narrowed his list down in recruiting. He has a top seven and it appears that it will be a very tough for either OU or Oklahoma State to land him.

     He says Kentucky is at the top of his list. He likes the fact that the Wildcats are all about basketball, not football. That’s why I think before it’s all over with Kansas is going to be right there. Don’t forget that former KU star Cal Henry has been coaching him this summer on that Athletes First team.

     The other five schools are Ohio State, UCONN, OU, Texas and UCLA.

     Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford has a lot of catching up to do. Orton seems a little concerned about the Cowboys because they haven’t made it into a NCAA tournament for three straight years. He will sit back and watch the style the Pokes play and how many wins they can garner this season.

     He has been to a lot of Oklahoma games and he has seen all of the empty seats. He says he wants to see how the fans will support this year’s club with Blake Griffin and Willie Warren.

     What will probably happen, if history is followed, is that there will be a lot of empty seats in December, but when conference play begins the Lloyd Noble will be close to capacity. And that will probably not be good enough to land this 6-10, 260 pound senior.

     By the way, has anyone thought about how much the Sonics will hurt OU and OSU hoops? And they will definitely hurt OU more because of how close Oklahoma City is to Norman.

     The buzz about the Sonics is tremendous. Everywhere you go people are talking about them. There’s no doubt the NBA is big-time. And the entertainment dollar people have can be stretched just so far, particularly the way gas prices are these days 

     What OU and OSU is going to have to do to fill the arenas is win, and I’m not just talking about getting into an NCAA tournament. If the Cowboys and Sooners are just average, they are going to be severely hurt by the new NBA team in OKC. 

     You never know just how good a recruit is going to be until you get him on campus. Or unless his name is Adrian Peterson. Everyone kind of figured he would be pretty good.

     Anyway, the Oklahoma coaching staff is really excited about the commitment from Tom Wort that they received a couple of months ago. Wort is a linebacker from New Braunfels, TX. Now he’s not the biggest at 6-1, 210 pounds. But he’s one of the fastest linebackers you’ll see. He runs a 4.42 40.

     He shunned the likes of Florida, Miami, UCLA. LSU and Nebraska to give the verbal commitment to OU. He will graduate high school in Demcember and head to OU a month later.

     How good do the Sooners think he is?

     “He’s the best linebacker that we’ve seen in 10 years in the state of Texas,” said one insider. “He is a great prospect. He’s going to be big-time.”

     Does that mean the Sooners thinks he’s even better than Derrick Johnson? If you remember Johnson was a prep star in Wacxo, went on to Texas and became an All-American and then a first round NFL selection.”

     “Yes, we think he is a better prospect.”

      There are those asking why the Sooners are taking so many linebackers in the class of 2009. The already have five verbally committed for the upcoming recruiting class.
    The reason is easy to answer. After the 2009 campaign, the Sooners graduate five linebackers–Ryan Reynolds, Lamont Robinson, Keenan Clayton, Mike Balogun and J.R. Bryant. So they had to stock up in the upcoming recruiting class.

     And by the way, the more you hear rumblings, Reynolds may have a huge fight on his hand to keep his starting middle linebacking job. If Travis Lewis solidfies himself on the outside, like the Sooners think he will, Austin Box will be moved to the middle. The Sooners love the athleticism of this former all-stater from Enid. It’s all about getting your best players on the field at the same time.

     It is a late recruting batttle that now features three teams.

     When Ekpe Udoh announced he was transferring from the University of Michigan, he got a lot of attention. Sure, he’s still raw, but he did lead the Big 10 Conference in blocked shots this past year. And it’s not always easy to find an athletic big man.

     Well, Udoh has said he will decide between Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Baylor. The Bears became a late entrant into the picture. He was already visited all three schools and is currently in the process of doing it one more time and should have a decision very shortly.

     Obviously Oklahoma State is very much in the picture because he played at Edmond Santa Fe with current Cowboy starter Obi Muonelo. The pair have been long time friends.

     Also, the Cowboys have a big-time need for some help up front. Even though Udoh has a long ways to go offensively, he could come in and help right away.

     The pitch the Sooners are throwing is that he could be the man to come in and replace Blake Griffin when the Sooner sophomore exits for the NBA next season. Also, they are telling him he could improve immensely going against Griffin in practice every day.

     Udoh will have to sit out next season and then will have two years of eligibility remaining.

     It’s interesting that neither OSU or OU offered this athletic big man a scholarship coming out of high school. It’s also interesting that many think it will be Baylor who eventually will land Udoh.

     The Oklahoma coaching staff seemed confident that star recruit Joshua Jarboe would eventually get his legal problems settled and make it to Norman. The target date they thought would be somewhere around mid-June.

     Well, it’s happened sooner than that.

     Jarboe, the highly sought-after wide receiver from Georgia had his felony charges of bringing a gun to his high school dropped from a felony to a misdemeanor. The  OU athletic department has a policy in which a student charged with a felony can not be on scholarship.

     What Jarboe’s legal team did was accept the plea bargain verdict. That will allow him to join the Sooner team. That had been some concern that even if Jarboe’s legal problems were taken care of that he still wasn’t out of the woods because he needed to qualify academically. But one OU insider insisted that he has gotten a qualifying score on his ACT.

     You can bet that Bob Stoops will have a short leash on this prize recruit. Oklahoma is taking a chance with Jarboe. But they say everyone that they talk with about this outstanding athlete says he’s a good kid and this is the first time that he has been in trouble.

     Jarboe will get a chance to help the Sooners immediately. The OU receiving corps was not impressive during the spring. Now bring in a healthy Adron Tennell, Ryan Broyles and freshman like Jarboe and you might have a chance to be pretty good in this department.

     They are hoping that Jarboe can eventually be another Malcolm Kelley and stretch the field. He’s a big target at 6-3 and has 4.45 speed in the 40. Still to be decided is when he will arrive in Norman this summer.

     We lost a great one.

     And I’m not just talking about the ability of a former wishbone quarterback. Sure, in my opinion Jack Mildren was the best option signal caller Barry Switzer ever coached. He made things look so easy.

     But Mildren was more than an ex-jock. He was a good guy. I was amazed with the courage he showed as he was battling cancer. During the last football season we would do a 20 minute show at 6 p.m.

     Off the air we would talk about that battle with cancer. At that time he looked like he was winning the battle. He always had a smile on his face, even though he knew it could come back. 

     This guy was tough.

     I was amazed how he fit so quickly into sports talk radio. He worked his butt off to find out what was going on in sports. He was an expert. He was on the internet all the time. He was reading all kind of newspapers.

     It was important to Jack Mildren to be good at what he was doing. And that he was. He wouldn’t back off giving his opinion. He was fair. That was a major part of his personality.

     I had known Jack Mildren for about 40 years. Where ever you went, you weren’t going to hear someone say a negative word. How could you not like this guy? He treated everyone with a certain kindness.

     Tears are coming to my eyes as I write this. I will miss Jack Mildren. He was a great football player, but even a better person.