Daily Bullets (Dec. 31): Gundy’s In His Sweet Spot, Tylan -> Brayden?

Happy late Christmas – Gundy landed a four-star defensive lineman transfer.

Bullets Rundown

• Gundy’s excited – we consider why
• Tylan’s baton to Brayden? (plz stay Tylan)
• Cowboy Basketball’s big battle

Scores

• WBB: Cowgirls 84, Duquesne 41

OSU Bullets

• For all of the frustration with single-digit win seasons and recruiting classes in the 40s, Mike Gundy is walking into a familiar scenario where he’s had proven results.

“I’m so excited about the future of Oklahoma State football,” he said. “I can’t wait to get started. … We’ll fly home (Saturday), and I’ll probably go to work the next day because I’m so excited about the players we have coming back and where we’re at, the improvements we’ve made in all areas.”

That enthusiasm may come in handy as he starts the process of replacing arguably his best assistant while trying to retain the rest of his staff, all uncertainties with roots stretching right back to Gundy. [NewsOK]

The things that frustrate and limit and constrain have to be held in tension with the things that Mike Gundy does that built the highest floor Cowboy Football has ever had.

• If there was anything… anything good that has come from Tylan Wallace’s injury it’s the development of Brayden Johnson.

“So Brayden was in our featured spot and he played like the guy that can be in that spot.”

For the season, Johnson had 23 catches for 491 yards and four touchdowns

“He’s made huge strides, especially this year,” running back Chuba Hubbard said. “He’s fast. He needed to work on his hands and his routes. And he did that all last year, and it shows.” [NewsOK]

You can teach route running but not speed, right? Hands may be another story. Johnson needs to spend every waking hour with a jugs machine to have a shot at getting into Wallace’s ballpark as a ball tracker.

• What battle does Cowboy Basketball need to win every night to be a tournament team?

When outrebounding foes this season, the Cowboys are 6-0. When getting outrebounded, they’re 2-3, and they’re 1-0 when equaling their opponent’s rebounds.

So, OSU has outrebounded just half of its opponents this season. It’s not horrible considering how solid the Pokes’ nonconference schedule was, but improving in the area could determine whether or not this is a tournament team. [PFB]

If OSU can get Yor Anei to do his best Steven Adams impression and pin down the opponent’s best big man, the experienced and savvy wings (McGriff, Waters, Dziagwa) should be able to pull down the boards, right?

• Bill Haisten says that Tyreek Hill’s punt-return in Bedlam was the play of the decade in Oklahoma sports

• KHP has been a blast to watch this year.

Ch. II: pic.twitter.com/QGvDM6MuWL

— Kolby Harvell-Peel (@kolbypeel) December 30, 2019

• This nasty Cade Cunningham dunk made the rounds yesterday.

So @CadeCunningham_ just did this pic.twitter.com/lyTazTtQ1D

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) December 31, 2019

Non-OSU Bullets

• My boy Steven Adams went on this NBA pod and it was delightful
• This NYT piece by Douthat was thought provoking
• How this abandoned mining town in Iceland helped win WWII

-> Finished my book challenge for 2019 and found that some books on a topic/style were best read in bunches – these three groupings were probably my favorites on the year:

• Helpful mind-shaping non-fiction (some faith-based): Digital Minimalism + The Common Rule + Tech-Wise Family

• Fantastic human stories (fiction and non) Educated + Ordinary Grace + The Great Alone + Where the Crawdads Sing

• Entertaining sci-fi reads (think Inception not Star Trek) – Recursion +  An Absolutely Remarkable Thing + 11/22/63

• Favorite book overall: The Reckoning by John Grisham