Randy’s Blog

A long time ago, I had a tattered, worn out copy of a book called "Strange Energies, Hidden Powers":

There was a chapter about pyramids and all the strange phenomena associated with them. Supposedly fruit lasted longer and razor blades got sharper inside a pyramid-shaped object. There was all sorts of other stuff I don't remember. But it made me curious, so I decided to run an experiment at the time. I made a small pyramid out of cardboard, and put the old razor I'd been shaving with inside. After several days, I took it out and shaved with it. My first thought was that it really was sharper! My second thought was that I really had no objective way to test the sharpness, so it might just be wishful thinking. Thus the result of my experiment was inconclusive.

Fast forward to earlier this year. I saw an article online about a "gold pyramid in Illinois". I'd never heard of it, and I thought it couldn't possibly be real, but I read the article anyway. And it turned out to be a real thing! In 1977, a pyramid-crazed man built a house for his family in the shape of a pyramid, and later had it plated in gold sheets. It became such a local sensation that he started offering tours of his house. I looked up where it was, and discovered it was only about 40 minutes from where we live! Crazy! I couldn't believe we'd lived here over 10 years and never heard about this before.

So I added it to the top of my to-do list, and when it was time for my birthday, I decided we should go check it out. I really didn't know what to expect, so I set my expectations fairly low. Most of the tour was actually a presentation by the son of the guy who built the house, and it turned out to be really entertaining. He talked about what it was like growing up with a pyramid-obsessed father and all the benefits and challenges they've had over the years with such an unusual house.

They also have a 3-pyramid, 4-car garage. And yes, they have a moat in front of their house (more on that later):

Even the fireplace is pyramid shaped!

The house has six floors. The first floor has a conference room and all sorts of Egyptian-themed artifacts:

There are several interesting things that happened to the family:

In the 1980's, after the house became a big sensation, the tourism branch of the Egyptian government got wind of it, called them, and said "You're getting a lot of people interested in Egypt. Why don't you start selling tours to Egypt?" So they did, and they sold a lot of them. The family got to go to Egypt a number of times, and eventually they sold so many tours that the Egyptian government allowed the family to go on a special behind-the-scenes tour where they got to see artifacts the public isn't allowed to see.

During one of the trips, the pyramid-obsessed father saw a large statue of King Ramses II, and decided he wanted one just like it. So he had one built:

It's 55 feet tall! There's an airport in a nearby town and apparently pilots really like the statue, because it's oriented due west, so it's easy to get their bearings from it.

The other crazy thing is that shortly after it was built, a natural spring appeared directly underneath their house. He said that in mythology, pyramids attract water. (I haven't tried to verify that yet.) So they rerouted some of the water and now they have a big pond for a backyard and a moat around their house. They also learned the spring water was drinkable, and due to popular demand, they've started bottling and selling it as Gold Pyramid Water.

I bought a few bottles (which are themselves shaped like pyramids), and it was pretty good. Normally I don't like water to have a taste. Their water did have a taste, but it was a good one. Apparently sometime next year it will be available to purchase in stores.

The guy did talk about some of the mysterious pyramid-power claims. He seemed to strike a good balance of not believing all the crazy claims, but also not taking history books and mainstream science as unshakable truth. 

So it was worth the trip in my opinion.

Every so often, when I see something interesting, I'll pull out my phone and take a picture. But then I promptly forget about it, and over time those one-off photos get drowned out amidst all the vacation pictures in my photo collection. So I've rescued a few of them from obscurity and assembled them below.

This photo is looking directly underneath my bird feeder. A bird and rabbit were sharing the bounty of seeds that had fallen to the ground:

Another photo underneath the bird feeder. This time a rabbit was just chillaxing in the yard:

A full moon rising over the nearby pond:

Our neighbors have fake deer in their yard. One evening as Wendy and I headed out for a walk, we noticed two real deer cautiously approaching the fake ones. They seemed a bit confused by their motionless comrades:

Last winter I noticed a huge bird on the fence in our back yard! I thought it was an owl at first, but after we looked at it through binoculars, we decided it was a red-tailed hawk. It sat there for at least 15-20 minutes. I wish you could see it more clearly, but this was the most my phone's camera would zoom in:

During a walk last fall, I was amazed at how many geese were in the pond, and how loud they were. I recorded a video, but by the time it started recording, the geese had begun to fly away. You can still see a lot of them, though:

Finally, these aren't random one-time photos, but I saw them in my collection and I don't think I ever shared them. Last fall we went to the Morton Arboretum to see the fall colors. When we got there, we discovered they were displaying a series of extremely impressive Lego sculptures. I took more pictures of Legos than I did of trees! Here are some of the most impressive ones:

We took a much-needed trip to Sam's today, to stock up on items. I dutifully made a list of everything we needed, but then I forgot to bring the list. Bummer! We managed to remember almost everything, but we forgot the pine nuts. Oh well.

While we were there, we bought a giant book of word search puzzles, on impulse:

As you can see, it has over 375 puzzles, so it should last a while. This afternoon I flipped it open and solved a random puzzle. Its theme was "Chess Terms" and there were 29 different chess-related words or phrases. I was surprised how many terms I'd never heard before. Some didn't even sound like words! So I did a bit of research to see what they meant. Here's a partial list:

Closed File: A column on a chessboard containing black and white pawns. It is, therefore, not good for rooks or queens.

En Prise: French for "in take", referring to a piece that can be captured by the opponent.

Fianchetto: A bishop positioned on a long diagonal of the board, such as directly above the knight (after moving the knight's pawn out of the way).

Fide: An acronym for the World Chess Federation: Fédération internationale des échecs.

Fool's Mate: The fastest possible checkmate, aka "two-move checkmate".

Ja'Doube: French for "I adjust". Saying this phrase indicates you're going to adjust a piece (by centering it in the square), not move it.

Skewer: A tactic where a valuable piece is attacked and forced to move away, allowing the piece behind it to be captured. Apparently it's also called the X-ray attack.

Swindle: When a player in a losing position manages to trick his opponent and pull out a win or draw.

Woodpusher: A weak player who moves pieces without any plan.

Zugzwang: German for "compulsion to move". When a player is forced to make a move that worsens his position.

There was also a 30th "mystery word", which had 8 characters but it was up to you to find. I looked for a while, but I kept thinking what if it's another outlandish word like zugzwang? So I gave up and looked in the back of the book. Turns out it was "castling", which seemed so obvious in hindsight. Once I knew what it was, I found it right away.

Apparently my knowledge of chess is not as strong as I thought.

My multi-year quest has ended. Last night, I watched the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was a two-part episode titled "All Good Things...". I'd never seen it before, nor heard anything about it. But it was remarkably good and very dramatic. It wasn't just a great end to the series, it was one of the best episodes of the entire series. I'm amazed they were able to pull that off. I was a little sad when the episode started, knowing that this was it. No more adventures with Captain Picard and the crew, once it was over.

I've seen several TV shows where the final episode turns into a retrospective, with clips from past episodes. Thankfully, they didn't do that. There was a bit of looking to the past, but there was also a lot of looking forward, where we see one possible future of what happens to the characters. I thought that was a bold move by the writers, and I loved it. One of the highlights for me was seeing Data 25 years in the future. We're shown Data's house, and we see that he owns dozens of cats, who are seemingly draped everywhere. It was a subtle and fun joke.

Several months ago Wendy read an article that mentioned what the final line in this episode was. I asked her not to tell me; I didn't want to be spoiled. I had a few guesses what it might be, but I was totally surprised. Not what I thought at all. It's a great line, spoken by Picard, as he's doing something he's never done before. What a great ending. I will miss the show.

In other Star Trek news, a couple of weeks ago Wendy went to her piano class, and her teacher excitedly said "Wendy! Did you know that if you have Amazon Prime, you can watch all 7 seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation?" Wendy laughed and said she knew all about it, and then explained my quest. Later, her teacher said "Maybe after I finish The Next Generation, I'll watch Deep Space Nine!" I have so much respect for Wendy's piano teacher now.

I've heard lots of good things about Deep Space Nine, so I think I'll have to watch it next. But I might take a short break first.

• Only the Provolonely Burger (comes with provolone)
  
• The Final Kraut Down Burger (comes with sauerkraut)
• I Fought the Slaw Burger (And the Slaw Won)
  
• If Looks Could Kale Burger
  
• Blondes Have More Fun-gus Burger (comes with mushrooms)
  
• Chile Relleno-You-Didn't Burger
  
• The Cauliflower's Cumin From Inside the House Burger (comes with cauliflower & cumin)
  

I think the Chile Relleno one is my all-time favorite.

In the better-late-than-never category, at the end of last year Wendy and I went on a Caribbean cruise with her family. A few of the highlights for me include:

• Eating late-night jumbo chocolate chip cookies from the cafe in the ship's library.
• Remembering our passports. Actually, we forgot our passports, but a couple of minutes after we left the house to go to the airport, we remembered them!
• Mayan ruins!

Allow me to elaborate. 

Ever since we both took a class in college called "Maya, Aztec, and Inca", we've thought it would be cool to visit some of the ruins we learned about. So we were both looking forward to a shore excursion on our cruise that visited the Mayan ruins in Coba, Mexico. There were several other Mayan-ruin excursions we could have picked, but Coba sounded the most interesting because you're allowed to climb to the top of one of the ruins! More on that shortly.

Truth be told, I had another reason I was excited about the excursion. You may recall that long ago I wrote a blog post about the book Encounters with Star People by Ardy Sixkiller Clarke. Shortly after writing that, I read her next book, Sky People: Untold Stories of Alien Encounters in Mesoamerica, wherein she travels through Central America, interviewing indigenous people about the sky people from their legends. One of her stops included Coba, where she interviewed a bicycle-taxi driver who has seen many UFOs over the Coba ruins, especially over a nearby lake.

Spoiler alert: I did not see a UFO on our excursion. I don't even think I saw an IFO.

But, back to our cruise. The day of the excursion arrived. Our cruise ship docked at Cozumel Island, where we promptly got onto another ship, this one much smaller, which took us on a very fast and very choppy ride to the mainland. There we met a tour guide who walked us through a shopping district until we arrived at a parking lot full of buses. We rode a bus nearly two hours to the Coba site, where we traded one tour guide for another, and we got to stretch our legs by walking over a mile through a humid Mexican jungle.

At the end of our hot and sweaty hike, we were greeted by the tallest pyramid on the Yucatan peninsula:

My first thought when I saw it was "Wow, that's huge!" 

My second thought was "I have to climb it!"

I'm not sure the picture does justice to how tall the thing is. Or how steep! But, my mind was set, so I started the climb. And very quickly had to stop to take a break. The steps were really steep! It was exhausting work. My heart was pounding. And I'd only climbed at most a third of the way. But, my mind was still set, so I kept at it, taking frequent breaks.

I didn't give any thought to getting back down. I'd deal with that later. But I did notice it was so steep that some people were descending by sitting on a step and scooting down one at a time!

Eventually, I made it to the top. If you look closely, you can see me at the top, in the brown shirt, holding my camera:

Here's the view from the top, looking down:

Another view from the top, looking over the jungle. You can just make out two lakes in the distance. UFO hotspots?

And here's a video I recorded at the top:

After taking lots of pictures and recording the video, I started back down. The funny thing is that it really didn't bother me; I wasn't that nervous. I got into a good rhythm going down: firmly planting my right leg, stepping down with my left leg, bringing my right leg down, and repeating. Going down was so much easier than going up! About halfway down, my right leg got tired from always being the anchor. I thought about switching sides and planting with my left leg, but I decided against it. Why mess with success? So I just let my right leg be tired, and eventually I made it down.

See if you can spot me during my descent:

As a reward for my exhausting climb, I got to walk another mile through the humid Mexican jungle to get back to the bus. And the next day I discovered yet another reward: my right leg was excruciatingly sore! And it lasted for days! I don't think I've ever had a muscle be that sore. Maybe I should have switched sides, after all.

Anyway, it was a great experience. I'm glad I got to climb a Mayan pyramid.

Earlier this year, Fox aired a 6-episode reboot of the X-Files, which I watched with great interest. It was so good to have Mulder and Scully back on TV. The 3rd episode, Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster, was pure genius. An instant classic. I kept thinking about it for days after it aired, and even now I marvel at how unique, creative, and funny the story was. I recommend it! It's a "monster of the week" style episode, which means the plot is self-contained, so you don't need to know any of the long-running mythology of the series. I hope we get more X-Files seasons in the future, so we can, hopefully, get more episodes as good as that one.

Around the time the X-Files aired, I was reading The Super Natural by Whitley Strieber and Jeffrey Kripal. 

It's a very unique book. The two authors take turns writing chapters. First, Whitley Strieber, a best-selling author who's had a number of what is popularly called "alien abductions", writes about some of his experiences. Then, Jeffrey Kripal, a professor of religion at Rice University, analyzes Whitley's accounts through the lens of comparative religious studies. It seems like an odd combination at first, but the more you read Kripal's analysis, the more fascinating it becomes. And it's also rather amazing, and refreshing, that an academic takes the UFO subject so seriously.

The chapters by Whitley are good, but since I've read a number of his previous books about his experiences, there wasn't a lot that was new. His first book about his experiences was Communion, published in 1987. It skyrocketed the "alien abduction" phenomenon into the mainstream consciousness, became a best-selling title, and caused a firestorm of controversy. It also led to Whitley being criticized, ridiculed, and even spat upon in public.

But, not everyone reacted so negatively. Shortly after the book was published, he began receiving a lot of letters from people who had similar experiences. He estimates he received around half a million letters; he and his wife stopped counting after they reached 200,000. For a while, the post office delivered their mail in large canvas bags. His wife, who recently passed away, took it upon herself to read and categorize all of the letters. One conclusion she reached is that whatever this phenomenon is, it "has something to do with what we call death". There were many letters from people who saw their deceased family/friends in connection with UFOs. In Whitley's case, during an abduction he saw an acquaintance of his who was in the military. He tried to contact that person afterwards, only to learn that person had died several months prior to the event.

Which brings us to the other author, Jeffrey Kripal. He says that as a professor of religious studies, he doesn't really study religions. He studies their building blocks. Specifically, the anomalous events that lead to their creation. That was a big surprise to me! It makes "comparative religious studies" sound far more interesting than I would have ever guessed.

In the chapters that Kripal writes, he introduces and then applies techniques used by scholars when studying religions. There are 9 different techniques he discusses; a few examples include:

• the act of comparison
• studying how things appear, rather than what they are or how they work (aka phenomenology)
  
• placing events within historical context

The second and third techniques were especially interesting. He says that "making a cut" between how something appears and what it actually is, is very effective. It lets you study some fairly wild and incredulous events, because you're not claiming the events are "real" or "true", you're just studying what they look like. 

Also interesting is that historical context is one of the main reasons he takes Whitley's accounts seriously. When you look through the historical record of upstate New York, where Whitley's events took place, it doesn't take long to find many similar accounts from other people going as far back as the late 1800s. And if you step way, way back, he says, the history of religions is full of beings descending from the sky to inspire, educate, and/or terrorize humans.

That almost makes it sound like he's a proponent of the "ancient alien" theory, which is so popular on the History Channel these days, but that's not the case. The UFO phenomenon, he says, has been framed by our technology-focused, spiritually-naive culture, which ignores the more unusual evidence, such as abductees seeing dead people. If anything, he thinks we need to adopt a more magical/spiritual mindset from ancient cultures, where there was a place for these things: people who experienced them were called shamans, seers, prophets, mystics, etc.

And that, finally, brings us to the whole point of the book. When you put all of the UFO-related evidence on the table, and (using that act of comparison) compare them with all the other anomalous events throughout the history of religions, the evidence starts to look similar, and not so anomalous. Kripal claims the evidence points to a fundamental human experience, a basic capability that we all possess. In other words, all of the strange, paranormal, supernatural experiences are really just part of the natural world. We just have too limited a notion of what the "natural world" really is. Hence the title of the book "Super Natural" is two words, not one.

Well, that's my take on it, at least. The book is really deep, and I've only barely skimmed the surface. I probably need to read it again to absorb more of it. And if this all sounds weird, trust me, I haven't even mentioned the really weird parts of the book. I also feel like the terminology introduced in the book takes a step towards explaining some of the strange experiences Whitley describes. And that is no small feat.

A few more noteworthy aspects of the book:

The footnotes were fantastic. There are over 100 of them, which mention further sources of information, almost all of which sound fascinating. I feel like I could spend a good 10 years reading all the referenced books, and be quite happy doing so. Happily, I discovered I already own 2 of the books mentioned in the footnotes, having bought them at a company book sale but never gotten around to reading them. I just finished reading one (Journal of a UFO Investigator), which is what prompted me to write this enormous-sized blog post. 

Even some of Kripal's other books sound fascinating, too. His previous book, Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal, discusses how some of the most influential science fiction authors and comic book creators of the 20th century were inspired by their personal experiences with the paranormal.

The Super Natural also gave me a tremendous new appreciation for Charles Fort, a researcher of anomalous events who lived during the late 1800s/early 1900s. I'd heard of him before; the magazine Fortean Times is named after him, and in the X-Files episode I mentioned above, Mulder quotes Fort at the beginning. What I did not realize is just how advanced and sophisticated his research was. He had a sense of humor, too. The title of his book The Book of the Damned (published 1919) referred to paranormal experiences and how they were ignored by both science and religion. For the most part, that's still true today, but books like The Super Natural offer a glimmer of hope.

The weather here has been fairly typical for this time of year. Short bursts of beautiful 70+ degree days, followed by a week or more of 50's and low 60's. In other words, agonizing. Yesterday one of the long stretches of colder weather began. At the very least, I have managed to go on one bike ride around the neighborhood on a 70-degree day.

So, to pass the time, and to remind myself of what fun lies ahead, here's a breakdown of the bike gear I've accumulated over the past few years. I don't make any claims that these are the best products out there, I just claim that they're the things I use.

Giant Sedona Bikes

I remember when we bought these in March 2012. A few days later the temperatures spiked to 80-degrees. In March! So that was really good timing.

In February of this year, I took them to the bike shop for tune-ups, since they had a special discount going on. It was probably good I did; the mechanic said both bikes needed a new chain and new front gears. The bikes are also super clean now, too. Most of the trails we ride on are dirt paths, so the bikes had gotten quite dusty.

Allen Trunk Bike Rack

This is a standard trunk-mount bike rack, with straps that hook to the edges of the trunk. I bought it from Amazon here. It holds two bikes, although it's a bit tricky to get them both on without getting the pedals tangled up with the other bike's spokes. It usually takes me once or twice in the spring to remember the best way to fit them both on. I also keep a couple bungee cords in the car, which I use to secure the front wheel of each bike, so they're not bouncing around during the drive.

Sigma 1609 Bike Computer

This was a birthday gift from Wendy. I mainly use it to keep track of mileage and riding time. At the start of each spring, I reset the odometer so I can keep a running total for the year. And each time I start a bike ride I reset the trip odometer so I can track mileage for just that ride. It also tracks current, average, and maximum speed. I think the fastest I've ever gone on the bike is somewhere around 25-30 mph, when going down a steep hill. That's scary enough. I cannot imagine the professional riders who hit 60 mph when going down a mountain.

It's a really useful gadget. I'm glad to have it.

Giro Indicator Bike Helmet

Safety first! I always wear this when going out on the trails. Not much to say about it.

Nishiki Saddle Bag

This is a basic bag that hooks underneath the saddle. I bought it from Dick's Sporting Goods. It's been fine, although one of the seams is starting to come undone, so I should probably get a new one at some point. I usually keep snacks, loose change, a bike tool, kleenex, and a map in here. There's not much space, so those things usually fill it pretty full.

At some point I may opt for a larger bag that fits over the rear wheel. Then I could take an actual lunch, not just a snack bar.

Camelbak Hydration Backpack

I am enormously pleased with my Camelbak. It was my 10-year anniversary gift at work, which I wrote about here. It stores a huge amount of water. I love it.

Polar Insulated Water Bottle

If I know it's going to be a short trip, I take one of these instead my Camelbak. They were a birthday gift from Wendy. I am impressed with their powers of insulation: even on hot days, ice water stays icy for a surprisingly long time.

Cargo Mountain Bike Shorts

These are two shorts in one: spandex shorts covered by cargo shorts. But the best part is the extra padding in the seat, which helps a lot during long rides. You won't be surprised to learn these were a birthday gift from Wendy.

Double Dry Fit Socks

When I bought these, I wasn't intending them as biking socks. I just wanted short socks. But then I wore them on a bike ride, and the socks were so short and so breathable that I could feel air flowing around my feet, keeping them cool on a really hot day. So now they're biking socks. And my feet are happy.

That's my list of biking gear. As I type this, the temperature outside is 44 degrees, with a 10 mph wind from the north, making it feel like 39. And it's raining. But some day, eventually, I will get to use all of these items on a bright, sunny and warm day.

It was a tough loss yesterday for the Sooners in their first Final Four in 14 years. Difficult to stomach. I think this headline sums it up well:

Sooners' dream season ends with a nightmare finish

Last week, though, in the lead up to the Final Four, my hopes and dreams were still in tact. Reality had not yet crushed them so cruelly and callously. So last week I dove head first into the mass of media coverage.

I decided that my Big 12 River wasn't big enough. It only had regional stories. It was time to go national. So I went to Google News, did a search for oklahoma sooners basketball, and created a Google alert to notify me whenever it found a new story with those keywords. Over the course of the week, I read nearly every story it found. Here's a bit of what I read.

It wasn't just a tough final game for the Sooners, it was a tough 3 weeks of the tournament:

• The first week of the tournament, backup center Akolda Manyang learned his brother committed suicide. He left the team to be with his family and didn't return.
• The second week freshman Christian James learned two of his friends, and his high school girlfriend, were killed in a car accident.
• The third week starting center Khadeem Lattin's grandmother died.

It's almost unreal that all of that happened to one team during March Madness.

In more cheerful news, if you read only one story about Buddy Hield, read this one. It is absolutely charming.

ESPN The Magazine has an excellent article, A Beautiful Burden, about Khadeem Lattin and his grandfather, and the racism both have encountered during their playing careers.

The Sooners have been making it to the Final Four in 14-year spans. 2016. 2002. 1988. There's a basketball athletic trainer at OU who's been there 29 years, so this was his third Final Four with the Sooners.

There's a lot of love out there for head coach Lon Kruger. He's coached at K-State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV, and now Oklahoma. I came across several articles from newspapers in Las Vegas and Florida that praised the job Kruger did in rebuilding their programs. He's still fondly remembered at both places. Florida especially, because he took them to the Final Four in 1994. "Lon is the guy who made Florida basketball," says one analyst.

Rolling Stone had a great article interviewing some of Kruger's former players. My favorite story was from a former Florida player who remembered his team falling behind 12-0 early in a game, when Kruger called timeout. The player expected to be chewed out big time in the huddle, but instead Kruger took out the dry-erase board, drew a big smiley face, and told the players to take a deep breath and relax. They would be fine.

David Boren, the president at OU, absolutely loves Lon Kruger. He enthusiastically told a group of people that Kruger is one of the greatest hires ever at Oklahoma, and then spent 4 minutes explaining why that was a fact, and not an opinion. It all boils down to making students better people, not just better basketball players.

Here's to better days for the Sooners.

The Oklahoma Sooners are headed to the Final Four! The past several days Wendy and I have been reading, sharing, and discussing lots of sports articles with each other. There are several great story lines.

The best article was from ESPN about how head coach Lon Kruger is the nicest guy in college basketball. According to an assistant coach, his biggest vice is vanilla ice cream, and the one thing that annoys him most is selfish play. I was especially stunned at how athletic Kruger was. After playing basketball and baseball at K-State in the early 70's, he was drafted by the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, the MLB's St. Louis Cardinals, and was invited to the NFL's Dallas Cowboys rookie camp!!

And then there's Buddy Hield, who grew up in the Bahamas, and, after deciding to come back for his senior year, has become the best and most exciting player in college basketball. Buddy himself wrote an article, More Than Enough, about growing up poor in the Bahamas and having to make his own basketball goals out of milk crates and bicycle tire rims. It's another must read article. When the next NBA season starts, I'm totally buying NBA League Pass so I can watch whatever team Buddy goes to.

Then there's Buddy's mom, who gets too nervous to watch his games, so she wanders the hallways of the arena during the last few minutes of each game.

The best story line, in my opinion, (and the reason I really, really wanted OU to make the Final Four) is of Khadeem Lattin, a sophomore forward for OU, and his grandfather David "Big Daddy" Lattin. 50 years ago, the grandfather played for Texas Western, which won the NCAA tournament. That was a landmark win, because they were the first team with an all-black starting lineup to win the tournament. They beat an all-white Kentucky team. Disney even made a movie about it in 2006 called Glory Road. Now, 50 years later, that team will be honored at this years Final Four. So the grandfather will be there for the ceremony, and now his grandson will be there playing in his own Final Four! Such a great story. This article has more info.

And then there's the tragic story of Akolda Manyang, a junior center for OU. Two weeks ago, shortly after OU's first-round win against Cal-State Bakersfield, Manyang learned his older brother had died unexpectedly. He left the team to be with his family and has been with them ever since. Last I heard, there was a chance he would rejoin the team for the Final Four, but given how much time off he's had, it's uncertain if he would play. The team dedicated their second-round win to him, and want to keep winning so he can return to the team.

Whew! It's been so much fun watching this team play. Four of the five starters have started over 100 games together at OU, which is a rare feat. As this article mentions, just making the Final Four is a heroic feat, and whenever this team plays its last game, it will mark the end of an era for Oklahoma basketball.