OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — There are two methods to take a look at Saturday’s first recreation of the Ladies’s School World Collection slate. One is that the No. 1 seed, a historic dynasty, is enjoying a scrappy unseeded underdog that has gotten scorching on the proper time.
Or extra merely: It is Oklahoma vs. Texas (3 p.m. ET, ABC and ESPN App).
The 55-2 Sooners definitely might’ve anticipated to be right here, placing collectively one of the dominant seasons within the historical past of the game. In the meantime, in February, the Longhorns went 0-5 within the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational and followers weren’t precisely reserving lodge rooms in Oklahoma Metropolis.
However fast-forward to June, and the Longhorns are dealing with the Sooners within the winners bracket in OKC after a 7-2 win over No. 5 UCLA.
In between, the unthinkable occurred: On April 16, behind the arm of Hailey Dolcini, Texas beat Oklahoma, snapping the Sooners’ 40-game profitable streak general and a 23-game profitable streak in opposition to the Longhorns. It wasn’t a cure-all for Texas’ season; the Longhorns nonetheless dropped all three video games in a collection in opposition to Oklahoma State a couple of week later, they usually misplaced once more to the Cowgirls within the Huge 12 event. However within the Seattle Regional and the Fayetteville Tremendous Regional, the Longhorns went on a tear, going 5-2 with collection wins over No. 11 Washington and No. 5 Arkansas, the latter a confidence-building victory earlier than a decidedly dwelling crowd.
Sound acquainted?
The Longhorns will get a heavy dose of crimson and cream on Saturday, enjoying the defending champ Sooners simply 20 miles from their Norman campus.
Earlier than the Horns’ first-round recreation in opposition to UCLA, Texas star Janae Jefferson, a four-time All-American, knew what was in retailer for her group.
“I am not anticipating us to get a lot help from the OU followers out right here,” she mentioned, earlier than saying the Longhorns’ devoted have been nonetheless rowdy in Arkansas. “We’ll want that help for certain. We’re prepared.”
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Historical past will not be on the Longhorns’ aspect, both. The Sooners have gained 5 nationwide championships, together with final season’s. Texas, in the meantime, has made simply six appearances general within the WCWS, with this being its first since 2013. That was the 12 months of the one earlier Texas-OU matchup in Oklahoma Metropolis, the place the Sooners run-ruled the Longhorns 10-2.
However Dolcini is the rationale for Texas’ long-shot hopes at a second win over OU this 12 months. In two begins in opposition to the Sooners this season, she has allowed simply 5 complete runs, giving up three in a 3-0 loss on April 14, then two extra in a 4-2 win two days later.
Two of Oklahoma’s greatest threats, Tiare Jennings and Jocelyn Alo, are hitless in 13 at-bats in opposition to Dolcini this 12 months, based on ESPN Stats & Information. And whereas the Sooners have been held to 3 hits or fewer simply thrice all season, two have been in opposition to Dolcini.
“It was actually attacking them with no worry,” Dolcini mentioned. “You have to belief that your greatest stuff will beat their greatest swings and hold the ball down for a group that hits numerous lengthy balls.”
It was a exceptional initiation into the Pink River Rivalry for Dolcini, an excellent senior switch from Fresno State who was dealing with the Sooners for the primary time in burnt orange in that collection.
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“It isn’t all the time one of the best group that wins,” Texas coach Mike White mentioned on Wednesday. “It is the group that performs one of the best, and on that specific day, we performed higher than they did. That they had their No. 1 pitcher [Jordy Bahl] throwing in opposition to us. It was a 0-0 recreation for some time, and we have been in a position to rating a giant hit on the proper time, and Hailey pitched one heck of a recreation, and that is what it’s a must to do.
The Sooners do not want any miracles with the machine that coach Patty Gasso has constructed. However they’re additionally coming off a Recreation 1 displaying that included the return of Bahl, who had been out with arm soreness since Might 6.
“We want her, however these two pitchers (Hope Trautwein, 19-1, 0.51 ERA; and Nicole Might, 15-0, 0.99) have been crushing it,” Gasso mentioned on Thursday. “So including Jordy (21-1, 0.95, 199 strikeouts in 132⅔ innings) to the combination and making you now practice for 3 completely different pitchers as an alternative of two is troublesome for groups.”
Oklahoma nice Alo, the game’s all-time dwelling run chief, says the Texas loss earlier within the season was a giant issue within the Sooners’ run so far, too.
“I’ve performed with numerous actually particular groups,” Alo mentioned on Wednesday. “Been right here for 5 years, so I’ve had my fair proportion. I feel that is one of the best group I have been on simply due to how full we’re and the way tight-knit we’re. Once more, I’ve by no means seen a pitching workers like this, they usually simply like to cube us up at observe, so I really feel like that is what makes us good. Simply iron sharpening iron daily. I feel I noticed this group actually begin trending in the proper course, I feel, after we misplaced to Texas, and I’ve simply seen us come out of some actually robust spots and deal with it with grace and fervour.”
A peaking Texas group and an Oklahoma squad on the cusp of historic greatness. Two weeks in the past, the No. 4 Texas girls’s tennis group upset No. 2 Oklahoma, which was 32-2 and set a program report for wins, for the nationwide title.
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Can Texas softball discover the system for yet one more upset of its personal?
“I’ve all the time mentioned good pitching beats good hitting, particularly in stress conditions, and Hailey was in a position to put collectively top-of-the-line video games of her profession, and that is the best way to do it,” White mentioned earlier this week. “Hopefully, we will repeat it someday.”
WATCH: Cedric Golden on how Texas football left Arkansas with a win
The No. 3 Longhorns took a 20-10 win in Fayetteville.
If Texas and Texas A&M win out, the winner of the Nov. 30 game will automatically advance to the SEC championship game Dec. 7 in Atlanta.
Texas and Texas A&M are are tied atop the SEC standings at 5-1 with four teams behind them with two losses each.
Only two teams control their destiny when it comes to winning the Southeastern Conference. And they play another.
But not this weekend.
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Texas football and Texas A&M football are on a collision course to play for a spot in the conference title game, but that hype won’t reach a fevered pitch until Thanksgiving weekend.
The path is open but the winning still must happen to get there. Either say, the Horns and Aggies can’t assume wins are coming against either Kentucky or Auburn. Too many upsets have already happened to buy into point spreads or an opponent’s recent struggles.
When the No. 3 Longhorns take the field for Senior Day against the unranked Wildcats, they will apparently walk into Royal-Memorial with no thoughts of the Aggies and the resumption of a football rivalry that’s been lying dormant for the last 14 years.
The same goes for the guys in College Station (wink, wink).
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Horns face a Kentucky team that’s struggled lately
Since losing 13-12 against Georgia on Sept. 14, the 4-6 Wildcats have gone 1-4 in conference play. But that win was a 20-17 doozy at Ole Miss, which is currently playing as well as anyone in the country.
The league has been all over the place in 2024 from that UK upset in Oxford to Vanderbilt posting wins over Alabama and at Kentucky one season after the Commodores went 2-10 overall and 0-8 in conference play.
“That’s obviously the craziness of the SEC,” UT tight end Gunnar Helm said. “Everybody’s good and everybody’s beating everybody. There’s not one team that’s sticking out that’s beating everybody like there’s been in years past. So everybody’s good. Every road win in the SEC is huge, and we know that, but obviously, we’ve got to move forward and get ready for a great Kentucky team coming in here.”
The Longhorns avoided the upset bug in a real dogfight over the weekend, and the 20-10 decision over Arkansas was rightfully celebrated by a locker room that’s won 10 straight road games dating back to the 2022 season. Six of those victories have come by double digits.
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One thing is for certain. If I’m either one of those teams from Texas that sit atop the conference with 5-1 records, the last thing I’d want would be to be stuck in a quagmire of programs that could all finish the regular season at 6-2 and be at the mercy the tiebreaker gods. That should go double for Texas which lost to Georgia, one of those that’s desperate to remain inside the top 12 of the College Football Playoff rankings.
Texas is no stranger to scoreboard watching
Coach Steve Sarkisian said the Horns can take a lesson from the 2023 team that was scoreboard-watching as it fought to secure a spot in the playoff, which was just four teams at the time.
“We were at the mercy of other teams dictating our fate and our future,” Sarkisian said. “Last year, we said, ‘Hey, we’re going to control what we do’ and we’ve kind of continued to sing that same song this year with what we’re doing. I think our players, in a weird way, they see all that.”
The big difference is the comfort in them knowing that two wins and another in Atlanta will get them a first-round bye and a spot in the national quarterfinals.
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“They recognize that, but they’re so focused on what’s happening right now and what’s right in front oft hem, that I don’t know if they’re that concerned about that,” Sarkisian said. “But they’re so focused on ‘Man, I just want to play good this week,’ and that for a coach… that’s a really good place to be.”
As for Saturday, expect to see a lot of pregame pageantry as locker room veterans like Helm, Jahdae Barron, Barryn Sorrell, Alfred Collins, Jake Majors, left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. and yes, quarterback Quinn Ewers — who was mum on the possibility of coming back for a fourth season — will take center stage. But the goal is the goal.
The Horns aren’t winning with style, but they’re winning behind a defense that’s on pace to be the best in school history and an offense that has made the right plays at the right time to keep its conference title dreams on the right track.
Three seasons after a 5-7 nightmare that was its head coach’s first season, the Horns are so close to making SEC history, which would come with beating their heated rival when a whole nation will be watching.
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LUBBOCK — Darrion Williams scored 19 points, Elijah Hawkins and JT Toppin posted double-doubles, and Texas Tech breezed to a 98-64 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Monday night.
Williams made 8 of 11 shots with two 3-pointers, adding four rebounds and four assists for the Red Raiders (4-0). Hawkins finished with 10 points and 11 assists, while Toppin pitched in with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Kevin Overton came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers and score 17. Chance McMillian pitched in with 11 points and six assists. Reserve Devan Cambridge scored 10.
Christian Moore scored 21 points to lead the Golden Lions (1-5), who have lost all five of their games on the road. Moore hit 9 of 15 shots with two 3-pointers and handed out five assists. Dante Sawyer scored 13 off the bench on 5-for-10 shooting.
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Williams had 14 points by halftime and Toppin scored eight with seven rebounds to guide Texas Tech to a 47-28 advantage. Sawyer had nine first-half points to lead UAPB. The Red Raiders shot 52.9% from the floor in the first 20 minutes with six 3-pointers. The Golden Lions shot 52.2% overall but they took 20 fewer shots and made just 1 of 7 from beyond the arc.
Kerwin Walton hit a 3-pointer with 7:15 left to play to give the Red Raiders their largest lead at 88-46.
Texas Tech will play Saint Joseph’s in the UKG Legends Classic on Thursday.
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Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire looking for offensive spark against Oklahoma State
Best in Texas poll (Nov. 18): Top 5 remains intact; North Texas slides
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Find more Texas Tech coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Texas education officials are expected to hold a vote on Monday on the use of Bible readings in the public school curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade English and language arts classes.
The board listened to hours of testimonies from those for and against “Bluebonnet learning”, a new curriculum that will affect millions of the state’s elementary public school students.
Those in favor of a Bible-infused curriculum argue that the holy book contextualizes material about famous artworks or texts like Leonardo da Vinci’s mural painting The Last Supper and Dr Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Specifically, as the New York Times notes, The Last Supper would be taught to fifth-grade students through an account of the final meal shared by Jesus and his 12 disciples. The lesson would also involve several verses from the Gospel of Matthew.
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In the instance of King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, King uses biblical characters in his letter to clergymen around the south. Advocates for this curriculum argue that students would need biblical context to comprehend the letter.
The Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog organization which advocates for religious freedom, individual liberties and public education, opposes the curriculum on the grounds that it is biased towards one religion, Christianity.
Carisa Lopez, deputy director of Texas Freedom Network, spoke out against the curriculum during a hearing in September, saying: “Teaching about the influence of religion in history and culture is an important part of a well-rounded education, but you can’t turn public schools into Sunday schools. This is fundamentally a question of respect for religious freedom. Public schools can’t favor one particular religion and promote religious beliefs many students and their families simply don’t share.”
The Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the second largest teacher’s union in the country, said in a statement ahead of the vote that it believed this curriculum “violate[s] the separation of church and state and the academic freedom of our classroom” and “the sanctity of the teaching profession”.
David R Brockman, a Christian theologian and religious studies scholar who reviewed the curriculum, told the Times that while he has “long been an advocate of teaching about religion in public schools”, he believes lessons should be factual, balanced and not promote one religion over another. He emphasized to the outlet that the Texas curriculum did not adhere to those tenets.
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While the curriculum would not be mandatory if approved by the board, schools would be financially incentivized to adopt the new religious-leaning curriculum, receiving roughly $60 per student from the state.
The US constitution prevents public schools from promoting or advancing any particular religion, but states like Texas are part of a growing trend of conservative Christian ideology in public school classrooms.
Oklahoma’s state superintendent, Ryan Walters, announced earlier this year that all schools were required to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments. Around the same time, Louisiana became the first state to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom.
Texas was also notably the first state to allow public schools to hire religious chaplains as school counselors.
This movement will likely see support from the upcoming administration of the president-elect, Donald Trump, who in addition to calling for the shuttering of the federal department of education, has vowed to bring prayer back in schools.
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If approved, districts could begin using the curriculum by August 2025.
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