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Mailbag Friday: how Steph Curry once saved my marriage

• Favorite non-OSU athletes
• Fantasy B12 starting five
• Robert Redford doppleganger

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Really been enjoying the mailbag questions lately — you guys keep ’em coming and I’ll keep trying to post it every Friday.

Kyle, I am heading up to Columbus tomorrow morning for The Memorial. Never been to a golf event of any kind. What I should do to make the most of the experience? -Cole

Rule No. 1 is don’t follow Tiger. Following Tiger is the worst experience you can have on a golf course. The crowds are monstrous, the mood is too intense, and the marshals are more uptight than Kendrick Perkins at a dribbling exhibition.

My routine — post up your chair on a hole on the back nine and go find Bo Van Pelt or Charles Howell and just watch them until you feel like sitting down. Nobody really follows those guys but it’s just as good of an aesthetic experience when you’re there (maybe better if you’re an OSU fan) as watching Tiger or Rory or whoever.

It’s so difficult to tell where the ball is going and where it lands in person that it’s not even worth it to follow one of the big dogs, you’re better off chasing the little guys and enjoying how good they are at professional golf.

What do you think Jeremy Smith will do stat wise this year -@jamiedonwheat

You have to go all the way back to 2007 to find an OSU running Back (Dantrell Savage) who didn’t have more than 1,000 yards in a year. Here are the last six years of OSU’s leading rusher total:

2012 – 1,417
2011 – 1,216
2010 – 1,548
2009 – 1,218
2008 – 1,555
2007 – 1,272

So it’s pretty hard to see Smith not getting something like 1,300 and 15 TD if (and that’s a big if with Smith) he stays healthy.

Who wins in a bar fight. Monken or Holgs? -@kade_g34

I think we’ve talked about this before but it has to be Holgorsen.

I can see Monken talking all kinds of trash after a few Bud heavies and he might be able to roll up that bro dude in his first post-college fight or that accountant nerd out for his bachelor party who had too many Hurricanes

Holgs, on the other hand, is crazy.

Holgorsen is the dude who just sits there and sips straight whiskey all night and doesn’t really say anything — maybe shoots some pool[1. What are the odds Holgy is elite at pool? Probably like 3-2, right?] — then you turn around all of a sudden and he’s pulling a blade out of his sock after somebody walks off with the girl he had his eye on and you have to form tackle him to keep him from committing a felony.

Holgy is in the Tyson Zone as is right now — there isn’t a story you could tell me about him I wouldn’t believe. Really, nothing.

You have made some references from time to time, but what sports / practice squads were you apart of at OSU? -@wirevibebrian

I was a walk-on for the baseball team (when Frank was there) for one semester before getting cut. The way that works is they take like 40-45 guys in the fall then cut that down to 35 in the spring. I pitched and I was easily the worst one out there thus the chopping block.

So when people online are like “doooood, you have no idea what these college athletes are like, your a fat blogger in your parentz basement!” — I mean, I understand the stereotype, I think it’s an easy one to make. But I actually do appreciate and understand how ridiculous college athletes are because I lived the fact that I wasn’t good enough to be one of them. What I don’t fully appreciate or understand is how absurd pros are.

After that experience I spent two years on the girls basketball scout team. Basically we would go run OU’s offense or Kansas’ defense against our girls team twice a week which was cool because we got to practice in GIA and got free shoes and gear and stuff.

My best girls practice team story[1. Other than the one about the time Andrea Riley crossed me over and put my on my butt…] (and I think I’ve told this before) is this:

We were playing as OU’s defense one day and Coach Budke came up to us and said “look, these girls are phenomenal, I want you guys to go as hard as you can. Nolan (my buddy and part-time contributor to the blog), you’re going to be Courtney Paris — she might be the best rebounder in the history of women’s college basketball so I want you to get after it.”

First possession down one of the guards goes up for a layup and Nolan comes from the weak side — I swear to you this is true — and pins the ball against the square on the backboard.

So Budke blows the whistle, stops practice, gets all the guys together and says “yeah….uh….Courtney Paris can’t do that.

Coach Budke was the best.

Who in our generation is the closest comparable actor to Robert Redford? -@thegools

There was a great profile of Redford in Esquire last month — for some reason I forgot (or didn’t know) he started the Sundance Film Festival.

He had a great line in there talking about how he loved doing small films — movies he could control and put his imprint on. This is what he said about his relationship with Warner Brothers and wanting to make one of his smaller movies called The Candidate:

They’d say, “If you do this larger film, we’ll let you make [The Candidate].”

He served the masses because it gave him the freedom (financially and otherwise) to honor his craft.

As for somebody who’s like that now…probably has to be Leo, doesn’t it? It feels like he’s the guy who sinks into his work the way Redford used to (does). He makes the big-boy movies (Inception, Titanic, Departed, etc.) but some of his greatest film is from Revolutionary Road (watch it tonight if you haven’t) and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape — neither of which was a big-boy movie.

He’s probably not as indie as Redford was but remember Redford didn’t create Sundance until he was 42 (Leo is 38) so I’ll give that some time.

Better shot at winning conference title, football or basketball -@jamesonreyonlds

It has to be basketball, doesn’t it? I mean I get the Travis Ford effect and all that but football is too unpredictable — there are seven teams it seems like that could win the conference in football.

I don’t think Tech, Iowa State, or Kansas is winning it but you could talk me into any of the other seven.

In hoops it’s just OSU and Wiggins Kansas, right? So while the smart money in hoops might be on KU, the smarter OSU money will be on hoops.

Favorite TV show right now? I’m stuck on Game of Thrones. -@cooper4391

I haven’t gotten into GoT yet but I hear good things. The only two I’m watching currently are Mad Men and Breaking Bad. BB is probably more thrilling and intense but I love Mad Men. I usually judge a TV show based on how much it makes me think after having watched it and I catch myself thinking about Mad Men off and on throughout the week.

I want to read and listen to every critical written and said about it. It’s all-time — the replacement for my Friday Night Lights void.

If you had to pick a sleeper upset in our #pokes season who’d you pick to shatter our dreams and why? -@revchrismclain

Has to be Baylor, right?[1. I’m basically just completely ignoring the Iowa State game in Ames. Don’t even care about you, Cyclones. Not even going to talk about it.]

Mississippi State isn’t really a sleeper and if we lose to UTSA or Lamar then, my gosh, I don’t know what’s going to happen. They might have to shut down the comments section at NewsOK.com.

Baylor’s going to be good again (much to my chagrin) and I could see us sitting at something like 8-2 heading to the Baylor-OU finale with the conference on the line and laying another egg while Bryce Petty drops 730 and five en route to a All-Big 12 first team nomination.

Maybe I just have Baylor issues though.

Chandler, Joey or Ross? -@scottdeanty

Monica.

Who is your all-time favorite non-OkState male and female athlete? Why? -@mttruelove

Love this question and I’ll go ahead and assume you mean college athletes.

The two male names that first popped in my head were KD and Steph Curry. I really felt like Durant was like one of those child prodigies at Texas who you knew was going to be famous one day. Watching him play was like watching this thing nobody else had discovered (NBA people etc.) and you wanted to just keep it a secret for the rest of time because you wanted it to keep being your thing. The Oden/Durant question from that draft was a joke to me because of how uniquely grand he was.

His games were must-see TV for me that one year — I didn’t miss any of it. The first half he dropped in Allen Fieldhouse is probably the greatest 20 minutes of basketball I’ve ever witnessed. Bill Self was just giggling on the sideline — like he didn’t even care his team was getting smoked, he was just glad he was there in person for the show.

One of my favorite Curry memories is driving back to Stillwater from Houston after spring break in 2008 and listening to John Thompson call the Davidson-Georgetown game when Curry just could not miss. The radio was cutting in and out depending on where I was so all I heard were these intermittent screams of bliss when Curry would rock another 26-footer. Should be noted that Thompson’s son was coaching for Georgetown and he still couldn’t hold back his glee.

True Steph Curry story (you can ask @mattquade12) that I can’t believe I’m about to tell you because my wife will end my life when she finds out this is on the Internet, but whatever.

Jen (my wife now) and I had been dating for a little while then broke up late in the summer of 2008 for a few months. Quade and I went to watch Davidson play OU in Norman that November and Curry had 44 while getting double-teamed the entire game. OU was playing a triangle and two and Curry was launching 30-footers like “meh, I’m good, gonna beat OU by myself tonight[1. He almost did.].”

I was so inspired by the performance (again, true story) that I got back together with Jen that night and we were engaged 13 months later.

Oh, and favorite female athlete is…uh…does Missy Franklin count?

What’s the best way to play golf during work hours? -@titleisteights

It has to be this, no?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJlzHuvDtRM

Fantasy big 12 basketball team for this upcoming season. Starting five and 1st guy off bench and head coach. #PFmailbag -@sethkrug1

PG: Marcus Smart — duh.
SG: Markel Brown — [turns on Kansas film from last year, smiles].
SF: Andrew Wiggins — though you could probably play him anywhere.
PF: Melvin Ejim — led the conference in rebounding and on a squad full of scorers, that matters.
C: Cory Jefferson — What he did to Smart in GIA last year should have a kids filter for online viewing.

Bench: Brady Heslip — I can’t believe I’m doing this but I want somebody off my bench who can light it up from three and Heslip is the returning guy who had the best percentage and most threes made from last year. Three goggles for everybody!

Coach: Self

Enjoy your weekend.

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