NORMAN – Oklahoma rowing is set to compete in the Lake Wheeler Invite in Raleigh, N.C., this weekend, with competition scheduled to start in the morning on Friday, April 22 and conclude Saturday, April 23.

Lincoln Riley’s PR problem at USC prompts unenlightening essay about his time at OU.

I was really hoping that the last column I wrote about Lincoln Riley and his departure from Oklahoma would be just that – the last column I ever wrote about Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners.

I mean, you would think the USC Trojans’ head coach has so much on his plate at his new job that he would want to move on as much as anyone else. The Trojans are preparing for their spring game this weekend. Recruits need wooing. Boosters need handshaking. Bands need leading.

Turns out, however, Riley would have us believe he has been harboring an unbearable amount of regret about how his tenure in Norman ended. So much so that he felt compelled to publish an open letter in the Players’ Tribune explaining the curveball life threw his way.

In addition to a laundry list of wins by the program while he was both an assistant and head coach, the piece included nothing Riley hasn’t already said about his decision. Riley “absolutely own(ed)” that he “could have handled some parts of the situation better” – who’s to say what they were. He closed by letting everyone know about how great things are at USC and that he’s working really hard.

Oddly enough, the timing of Riley’s unburdening came on the heels of a rough couple of weeks at his new gig. First, Josh Conerly – one of the best offensive line recruits in the 2022 class and widely considered a lock for the Trojans – jilted USC at the last minute. Even worse, Conerly signed with Pac-12 rival Oregon and new Ducks head coach Dan Lanning, whose roots at Georgia stand in stark contrast to a coach who left his last job to avoid coaching in the SEC. Then, former OU players Spencer Rattler and Austin Stogner gave Riley’s leadership a less-than-stellar review in an article by Chris Low of ESPN published last week.

Considering the timing and the content, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Riley thinks he has a PR problem related to OU. And where there’s a PR problem in college football, there’s a recruiting problem.

Riley could have explained himself to a journalist. Los Angeles isn’t exactly hurting for media outlets, and he could have spoken with any number of writers who cover OU sports. Instead, Riley went to a forum where he couldn’t be challenged to offer his own glossy version of events.

If Riley is expecting gratitude for what he accomplished at OU, he got plenty of it when he was with the team. But if he’s already edgy enough about recruiting that he thought this was a good idea, it seems ominous that he chose to manage the optics around the situation rather than figuring out if he has a problem to fix.

Either way, this is all getting old.

OU’s new head coach is taking an accommodating approach to working with the media.

Recently, Lee Benson of News 9 in Oklahoma City put out a couple tweets about new Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables that went viral for all the wrong reasons:

Divorced from context, that sounds like a sycophantic hack playing the scorned lover over Lincoln Riley jilting the Sooners for USC. It would also seem like a particularly lame potshot at Riley, who served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at OU, for not coaching up the defense. An example of the dunking that commenced:

Except that’s not what Benson was talking about. In fact, he was referencing this:

Translation: Reporters don’t have footage of Riley doing any hands-on coaching from his time at OU because he kept a fanatically tight lid on the program.

The truth is Benson was far from alone among his professional peers in commenting on the access Venables has afforded members of the media during spring practice. The contrast with the previous regime points to what many beat reporters covering OU would certainly acknowledge in private: Riley’s relationship with the local media – to the extent one even existed – was terrible. (Obfuscating the truth when CeeDee Lamb sat out a nationally televised game against Baylor in 2019 proved Riley didn’t have any compunction about antagonizing the Chris Fowlers and Kirk Herbstreits of the CFB world, either.)

To be fair, petty turf wars break out all the time between media members and control-freak coaches. The standards for media access at college football programs around the country are trending towards ultra-restrictive policies on everything from opening practices to making players available for questions. Riley, however, cultivated a talent for eliding the truth and withholding basic information on matters like suspensions. It didn’t win him many fans on the beat during his five seasons as head coach – don’t let anyone tell you differently.

A new coach trying to curry favor with the local media is par for the course. Sitdowns with prominent local columnists and radio and TV interviews come with the territory. Venables has hit all those marks so far.

But OU’s new head coach seems to be going above and beyond the customary obligations to the fourth estate. Venables is sending surprise invitations to local reporters to observe practice sessions. He shot the breeze for roughly an hour with former OU standouts Gabe Ikard and Teddy Lehman on their podcast. When a bunk internet connection messed up portions of a Zoom call to discuss OU’s 2022 recruiting class, he did the same drill all over again the following day for 90 minutes.

After five years of Riley’s Bill Belichick act with the press, perhaps Venables is trying to distinguish himself from his predecessor. More likely, if you recall his time as defensive coordinator at OU from 1999 to 2011, this is just who Venables is. But even if Venables is simply going through his paces as a new head coach, the fact that he’s making the effort matters.

Winning over the media won’t help Venables if his teams aren’t winning on the field. However, his passion in front of a camera or behind a mic bleeds over into the message he’s sending to the public and to his players. That level of enthusiasm feels invigorating for fans who had grown accustomed to Riley constantly holding the outside world at arm’s length.

And if the Sooners do have a successful first season with Venables at the helm? Think of the time he’s putting in now with the media as laying a foundation to capitalize on even greater opportunities then.

LUBBOCK, Texas  —  The No. 3 Oklahoma women’s tennis team battled the No. 27 Texas Tech Red Raiders on Sunday afternoon, securing another conference victory, 5-2.

A fitting end to a strong season of college hoops.

The 2021-22 men’s college basketball season should go down as a pretty good one, as these things go. Although it didn’t produce many elite teams, the depth of quality squads meant you could find competitive, well-played contests almost every night. (Again, by college basketball standards.) Now it’s ending with a high-wattage Final Four.

At this point, no one is going to tell you anything you haven’t heard already about four of the sport’s most celebrated programs. We’ll just lay out how we see the games playing out.

No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 1 Kansas

Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

Two stories have loomed over this weekend’s de facto undercard.

First, the Jayhawks just played arguably their best basketball of the season in the second half of their beatdown of Miami. KU turned a horrible shooting performance in the final 20 minutes by the Hurricanes into a bevy of transition opportunities, as Miami’s six-point lead at halftime morphed into a 26-point victory for the Jayhawks.

If you’ve watched KU throughout the season, you know this team isn’t the machine that whipsawed The U on Sunday. Bill Self has assembled his typical group of talented players from positions one through five. It appears as though watching Remy Martin go to work has turned into this squad’s identity in the postseason. That’s different from what we saw during the regular season, and it’s not necessarily a good thing at this point in the tournament.

Second, what will the Wildcats do without guard Justin Moore? Although he’s not the most efficient offensive player, Moore is a classic Villanova guard:

• Shoots well off the dribble behind the three point arc;
• Strong enough to back down other wings and operate in the post;
• Doesn’t turn the ball over; and
• Deadly at the free throw line.

As an added bonus, Moore rebounds the ball exceedingly well for a guard. That’s what Nova won’t have at its disposal this weekend.

Caleb Daniels can replicate much of what Moore brings to the table – the Tulane transfer is a sixth starter for all intents and purposes. If Jay Wright has to work deeper into his bench, however, his team will start to feel the pinch.

With a week to prepare, Wright can probably cook up a game plan to offset the loss of Moore. The ability of the Wildcats’ to control tempo and the flow of the game also plays in their favor in this kind of setting. Think of it as winning by force of will.

The pick: Villanova in an upset.

No. 2 Duke vs. No. 8 North Carolina

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Blue Devils have played well in this tournament, but it feels as though the allure of the Mike Krzyzewski fairy tale is influencing perceptions of just how well Duke is playing. Keep in mind that this team was down five to a pedestrian Michigan State squad with five minutes remaining in the round of 32. The. Blue Devils also had to engineer a comeback in the second half against Texas Tech – a physically and mentally tough team, but one that showed its fair share of flaws on the offensive end during the season.

And that raises a key question about the run Coach K’s team is on. The adjusted offensive efficiency rankings of Duke’s four opponents in order (Cal State-Fullerton, Michigan State, Texas Tech, Arkansas) in the NCAA Tournament, per kenpom.com: 152, 31, 42 and 53. Rankings by three-point percentage: 191, 16, 254 and 316.

Duke has beaten three teams with pedestrian-to-bad offenses and downright horrid outside shooting in the last four games. Sparty is a notable exception, and the Blue Devils didn’t exactly clamp down on MSU in an 85-76 win. They won’t see that type of opponent this weekend.

It would make for a nice story if getting worked by UNC a few weeks ago on their home floor marked some kind of turning point in the season for the Blue Devils. Sometimes, though, winning streaks have more to do with who you’re playing than how.

The pick: Tar Heels ruin all the fun.

Championship: North Carolina over Villanova

The Wildcats will have a hard time with UNC’s length and athleticism, especially if Wright is using a shortened bench in Moore’s absence. UNC will hit the boards hard on both ends and wear Nova down in the second half.

Once-maligned Hubert Davis will capture a national title in his first season as head coach, with Oklahoma transfer forward Brady Manek taking home MVP honors.