Daily Bullets (Mar. 11): Pokes Win Big 12 Tourney, Yor Anei Blossoming

Spring ball fires up today – let the rumor mill begin. I’ll take the over on “You won’t believe Tylan caught this” comments and the under on “Chuba looks completely different” comments – it’s only been three months since we’ve seen the guy. 

Bullets Rundown

• James Washington next in line for a promotion
• Pokes win the title more of than not at B12 Tourney
• Yor Anei continues to bloom

Scores

• Wrestling: Pokes win Big 12, six individual titles
BB: OSU 3, Michigan 2
MTen: OSU 4, Memphis 2 and OSU 4, Oral Roberts 0
WTen: OSU 4, Wichita State 0
WGolf: 16th at Rucker Invitational

OSU Bullets

• Word broke over the weekend the Pittsburgh Steelers traded their No. 1 receiver – leaving an opportunity for James Washington to move up the depth chart.

James Washington, a second-round pick in 2018, has obvious talent, but he struggled to find a rhythm as a rookie — although he did encourage with a pair of 60-plus-yard performances late in the year. [ESPN]

There’s still free agency and the draft ahead in the NFL calendar, there could be other solutions, but at this point, it appears the Steelers put a vote of confidence in James Washington to fill some of the void left by Antonio Brown.

• Lowe’s may be calling John Smith if they run out of hardware this week – the Pokes come home from Tulsa flush with medals.

A wild weekend of wrestling in Tulsa saw six Cowboys win conference titles, nine wrestlers qualify for the NCAA tournament, and OSU bring home its seventh straight conference title. [PFB]

Taking home the title on six of ten possible weights is nasty and nine of ten to the NCAAs is more impressive than the Big 12 potentially sending out to the Big Dance in basketball.

• Loved a sequence from Yor Anei on Saturday as the Pokes staved off a Mountaineer comeback

For his seventh block, Anei denied Jermaine Haley’s shot when OSU fought to preserve a 79-74 lead with 2:16 left. Anei followed with an offensive play that electrified the crowd.

Isaac Likekele, a freshman guard, dished the basketball to Anei, who attempted a dunk. The ball rolled around the rim before it fell through the hoop, giving the Cowboys an 81-74 lead. [O’Colly].

Seeing a 6’10” basketball player on the roster in OSU orange showing signs of impacting the game as a freshman is a wild feeling. Can you imagine the rim running/shot blocking he could be doing as an upperclassman?

• I’m looking forward to watching the Pokes take on TCU Wednesday – the glass half full to finishing tenth would have been another shot at OU in the 7-10 game.

Thank you, Cowboy fans. We felt your support all season, and we're ready to make some noise in KC. #c2e #okstate pic.twitter.com/M8osxZZC2d

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) March 10, 2019

• One of the more palpable differences between Boynton’s offenses and Ford’s is the ball movement. It just feels like the ball moves an extra handful of times every possession.

"The reason we're going to get this done is because of you and your faith in our program."

Let's get cinematic on Saturday's win over the Mountaineers. #c2e #okstate pic.twitter.com/bXpWAuV8GQ

— Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) March 11, 2019

• Love this Jamaal Charles comp on Justice Hill.

.@CowboyFB @jhill21_ has won all of the Big 12 Awards for RB’s. He went to Indy and shredded the field. He is the fastest most explosive RB in this draft and if you want the best “COMP” he is #JamaalCharles. That ain’t bad! Oh yeah; pure class. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/7rw03r1kdV

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) March 10, 2019

Non-OSU Bullets

• Avoiding planning fallacy and estimating times better

• Finished this leadership read by a well-known pastor, had some good concepts especially for the under-30 crowd

• Pretty solid tips on how to avoid ruminating over your mistakes

• This idea of “homecomers” and reversing the trend of Millennials -> big cities was interesting