Oklahoma Sooners

#BlueChipBattles : RecruitingNation summoned its writers from around the country to outline the recruiting battles for the ESPN 150's top 10 prospects.

Plus, rank the battles in SportsNation.

#TopFBMixtapes: Athlete mixtapes are all the rage in this highlight-crazed era of sports. We reached out to our Twitter followers to find out which 2014 football stars had the best highlight reels on YouTube, then had our staff rank and comment on the top submissions.

Tom Luginbill writes : After talking to many coaches across the country and hearing their frustrations, here are their five biggest complaints about homemade highlight videos.

There are still seven months before the start of the 2013 season, and the teams and their order figure to change frequently, but it's never too early to take a look at the Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2013.

And with three national championships in the past four years, there's no reason to change the team that's on top. Oklahoma will try to make it back to the top from the No. 17 spot.

Also see:

• RecruitingNation's Too Early Top 25 recruiting update
• Early 2013 power rankings for the Big 12, and all the conferences

On ESPNU's RecruitingNation show, SoonerNation's Brandon Chatmon discusses the latest with former Oklahoma commit Greg Bryant (Delray Beach, Fla./American Heritage-Boca-Delray).

There had been whispers about the level of commitment running back Greg Bryant (Delray Beach, Fla./American Heritage-Boca Delray) had to Oklahoma over the last few weeks.

Bryant's father silenced those whispers by announcing Monday night that his son has decommitted from the Sooners, he confirmed via text message.

Bryant, ranked No. 30 in the ESPN 150 and No. 2 at running back, committed to OU on an unofficial visit March 31. However, since his commitment, Bryant has not seen the Oklahoma campus and has visited Auburn and South Carolina.

Read the rest of the story on ESPN.com.

The rain delay couldn’t wake up the Oklahoma bats as South Carolina cruised to a 5-1 win Monday to eliminate the Sooners and advance to the College World Series:

How the game was won: The Gamecocks executed out of the rain delay. The Sooners did not. OU first baseman Evan Mistich made an errant throw to third on a sacrifice bunt, allowing the Gamecocks to score their first run in the top of the seventh inning. South Carolina added another run on a wild pitch. In the bottom of the inning, meanwhile, OU’s Jack Mayfield was thrown out at third on a missed hit-and-run. After walking the first two batters, South Carolina was able to limit the damage to one run.

Play of the game: With OU trying to keep the deficit at one run in the eighth, South Carolina’s Tanner English laid down a gorgeous bunt between the pitcher and first baseman with two outs. Mayfield couldn’t make a play to first, and Adam Matthews scored from third to put the Gamecocks 3-1. OU was clearly deflated by the bunt, and gave up two more runs in the inning.

Player of the game: Jonathan Gray pitched six brilliant innings Sunday before the rain delay. Gray struck out nine batters and allowed only three hits. Who knows what would have happened had the game not been delayed a day and Gray had been able to continue pitching?

Stat of the game: The Gamecocks have now won 21 straight NCAA tournament games dating back to 2010.
What it means: Considering their postseason hopes were on the brink with two weeks left in the regular season, the Sooners made quite the run. South Carolina is making a run of historic proportions and will be one of the favorites again in Omaha.

The last time South Carolina lost a postseason baseball game?

Go back to the opener of the 2010 College World Series, when Oklahoma prevailed over South Carolina 4-3. The Gamecocks bounced back to eliminate OU in extra innings, and haven’t looked back. South Carolina went on to win back-to-back national championships, and last weekend ran its unprecedented NCAA tournament-winning streak to 19 games by sweeping the Columbia Regional.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, OU will get another crack at the Gamecocks in Game 1 of the Super Regional, which will be televised on ESPNU. Game 2 is set for 7 p.m. on Sunday on ESPNU, and the if-necessary game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday and would be televised by ESPN2.

“I think that streak is outstanding,” said OU coach Sunny Golloway. “It’s long and I think that we need to have something to say about it.”

The winner of the USC-Oklahoma super regional will earn a trip to Omaha for the College World Series, which get started June 15, and will face the winner of the Florida-N.C. State super regional.

First, OU will have to get past arguably the most dominant program of the last decade. The good news, however, is that the Sooners are red-hot after going through the loser’s bracket to capture the Charlottesville Regional. After dropping the opener to Appalachian State after a rain delay, OU came back to beat Army, host Virginia and Appalachian State twice.

To end the conference season, the Sooners also swept national seed Baylor and advanced to the Big 12 tournament championship game before losing by a run to Missouri.

“Oklahoma has been hot down the stretch,” South Carolina associate head coach Chad Holbrook told a local radio station this week. “They’ve always pitched extremely well. I don’t think they swing the ball from an offensive-numbers standpoint like Appalachian State, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hit. They have some guys that we played against in Omaha a couple of years ago still on the team. They’re going to have some experience.”

One of those guys is outfielder Cody Reine, who propelled the Sooners to Omaha in 2010 with four home runs in the super regional series victory at Virginia. He had six RBIs last weekend in the first win over Appalachian State. Reine, Max White and the still-surging Matt Oberste give OU some pop in the middle of the lineup. But if the Sooners are going to be the ones that finally take down South Carolina, it will be because of what they are capable of on the mound. Starters Jordan John (8-7, 2.29 ERA), Dillon Overton (6-3, 3.16 ERA) and Jonathan Gray (8-4, 3.32 ERA) were all stellar in Charlottesville, and left-handed closer Steven Okert (drafted in the fourth round by the Giants last week) has been virtually unhittable the last month of the season.

“Like coach says, somebody has to beat us twice in a weekend,” John said before the postseason. “With our pitching staff and how we’re going, I feel like that gives us a great chance.”