Latest news with #Four
USA Today
6 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Everything Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said after OU beat Oregon in the WCWS
Everything Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said after OU beat Oregon in the WCWS Bittersweet. That's how Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso described her team's win over Oregon on Sunday in the Women's College World Series. The Sooners eliminated the Ducks to secure a place in the final four of the WCWS with a 4-1 win. Oregon is coached by former OU player and assistant Melissa Lombardi. Oklahoma will play Texas Tech on Monday. If the Sooners win the initial game against the Red Raiders, the two will meet again immediately after in a winner-take-all game for a spot in the WCWS championship series. Gasso had nothing but positive things to say about her protege Sunday, though, and looked forward to facing a former Big 12 opponent for Monday. Patty Gasso's opening statement Huge win for the Sooners. Personally, kind of bittersweet, because those are my people on the other side. It's hard to play on such a platform that means so much and it's going to end somebody's season. It was hard, but super proud of that staff and all that they've done, so really proud of Missy (Lombardi) specifically getting back here. She's dreamed of this for a long time. Gone through a lot to get here. Really happy for her. This team I think it all started in the circle. (Kierston Deal) came out and really handled her business pretty well. Gave up a run, but that's expected. We answered back pretty quickly. And then we had Sam (Landry) come in in a good matchup with their three-hole, I believe, and just kind of let her ride it through. We're in elimination time now so you do everything and anything you can. Just super happy for Cyd Sanders. Her senior year, what a wonderful memory to have, these home runs. Really timely hitting for some of them. At the same time, we left a lot of runners on base, but that means we're getting on a lot. Very pleased. I'll tell you, just straight up, we win a game and we walk over and we shake hands and we walk in the dugout like 'Hey, OK' and I'm like 'Do you know what we just did? Does anyone know what we just did? We're in the Final Four.' 'Yeah, we're good. We're swag. Swaggy swag.' I'm just like, 'Somebody celebrate. Can we do something fun.' They're just the most calm, chill. Sometimes I'm like 'I don't know that you know. Do you know?' 'Yeah, we're good.' So I'm like OK. Hopefully we'll have some massive celebrations in the future. But I'm really happy and proud of these guys. Gasso on the challenge of having to beat Tech twice (Associated head coach JT Gasso) has got a lot of work to get going on. I do, to someone's point, we talked about the amount of elite pitchers we have faced and have had some success off of. That's what we're going to live off of. We're going to have to make a few adjustments for sure. But we're fighting. We're fighting for our lives now. That's what it's going to look like. It's going to be a fight on our side to say we will not surrender for anyone or anything. That's how we're going to approach it. Gasso on Oklahoma's pitching plan for Monday I like where we're at. I have no idea how we're piecing it together quite yet. But everybody is, they're going to empty their tanks, without question. Gasso on Sanders' clutch-ness Very needed for this offense. Cyd is exactly what you just saw. Very chill. Very easy-going. Does not get affected by much of anything. Just getting her swing on. Grein is tough. She is tough. Definitely facing her will help us tomorrow. But Cyd is just very unassuming. Doesn't get all caught up in the thought process. She just waits for her moment. Gasso on wanting to see her team respond after losing to Texas OK, the warm-up was better, for sure. Seven innings, they get distracted. They just look around a little bit. They talk some. They just kind of become spectators sometimes. I don't need them to be like the little kids in the 10-and-under teams in the dugout, but I do need them paying attention. They are. They just sometimes don't make a lot of noise. Every once in a while they'll create something. They were definitely more focused and ready today. They learned a valuable lesson. That's one thing we're doing this season is learning so many valuable lessons to help this team go into next year so much better than when we started. I'm on an amazing ride. I don't know how they feel. They don't share a lot. They just walk off the field, walk in the locker room like 'what are we having for dinner?' I'm like 'OK.' I want to celebrate with somebody, but it's swaggy but it's bizarre at the same time. Trying to figure it out. On Tech being a newcomer to the WCWS It's been cool to see new faces because that brings in more fans and fan bases. I've known coach Glasgow for quite a long time. I've watched his career move around some. He's an amazing coach. He really is. Some of the stuff he pulls out of his hat is pretty epic. He does it the right way. I really enjoy going up against him because you know you're going to have a battle. Ole Miss the same thing. I was also a member of the Big 12 for 30 years. To see a Big 12 team get in here that's a new name. That's really, really cool for the Big 12. Ole Miss just got on that hot run. Sometimes it's fun to follow those underdogs or Ole Miss that way. The experience, when you have a team that comes to the World Series - that's why I'm really excited for Missy because she really worked hard. Her standard and my standard are very similar and so to finally get her team here. I was just watching. I was a fan from afar. I was really rooting for them. It's going to edify and move her program to a new level. Gasso on whether four WCWS titles or nine straight elimination wins is more impressive Oh, I don't know. That's impressive. Nine is pretty dang impressive. That's character. That's like, we are not going to quit. So I love, love, love that. But it's also nice raising a trophy and taking an easier route. I do respect the fact that our team fights their tail off to the end. Gasso on preparing Sam Landry to face former coach and teammates I'm going to work on that. That's a good question. She's so different. She's quite different. She's quite a different pitcher than she was. And she really, really showcased, she threw really well tonight. Really well. I hope that will carry over for her and just really have tunnel vision and blinders on and not worry so much on that side but more about her girls on her side. Gasso on the importance of seeing her former assistants get love from current schools Thank you for asking that question. If you aren't investing in Melissa Lombardi then you're not paying attention. Not only is she a great coach and very organized and a hustling, hustling staff that recruits very well, but she's an extreme professional and does it the right way. Treats her players the right way. Expects hard work on the field but also her players walking through the line were very grateful for the game that we have, wished us luck. She is turning girls into women and that's what we've done at OU. That's what she was when she came to OU was a girl that turned into a woman. She's one of the best out there. There's no question about that.
Dubai Eye
a day ago
- Automotive
- Dubai Eye
Piastri on pole as McLaren lock out front row in Spain
Formula One leader Oscar Piastri seized pole position from teammate and title rival Lando Norris by a hefty margin as dominant McLaren locked out the front row in Spanish Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday. Red Bull's Max Verstappen, last year's winner, qualified third fastest in the same time as Mercedes' George Russell, who will start fourth because the reigning champion finished his lap first. Piastri had set a target time of one minute and 11.836 seconds in the top 10 shootout but Norris went 0.017 quicker thanks to an opportunistic aerodynamic tow, with McLaren still in a league of their own despite stricter front wing flex tests. Norris, winner in Monaco from pole last Sunday to close the gap at the top to three points, managed to improve further to 1:11.755 before Piastri clinched pole with a brilliant final lap of 1:11.546 - 0.209 seconds quicker around the Circuit de Catalunya. The pole was the Australian's fourth in nine races so far this season. "It wasn't the perfect lap but I think around here with the tyres going off so much through the lap it's very tough to do that," said Piastri, who said over the radio that Norris' slipstream was "cheeky". "I'm very happy with all the work we've put in." Norris said he had the pace but made a couple of small mistakes. "Just a couple of little mistakes. Turn One, where you don't want to make a mistake because it harms the tyres for the rest of the lap. A couple of little squiggles there. And Turn Four as well," he explained. "A good result for the team, a nice one-two and an interesting start for tomorrow," added the Briton, who started on pole last year but finished second. Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, winner a record-equalling six times in Spain, qualified fifth for Ferrari and ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc for the second time this season. Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli was sixth fastest, with Leclerc seventh after doing only one flying lap because he had run out of tyres. "I think we were one of the only cars to have only four new sets of softs for the whole of qualifying. All the others around us had five new softs," said the Monegasque. "I sacrificed today, I hope it will pay off tomorrow. If it doesn't, it's my fault." Alpine's Pierre Gasly will start eighth and Isack Hadjar ninth for Racing Bulls. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said the team had not been at all concerned by the flexi-wing saga, which rivals had hoped might slow the defending constructors' champions. "It entertained to have this kind of debate but our simulations said everything was very small. We weren't concerned from this point of view," the Italian told Sky Sports television. Spain's double world champion Fernando Alonso, yet to score a point this season, completed the top 10 for Aston Martin in front of his home crowd. Verstappen's team mate Yuki Tsunoda struggled again and qualified last with Alpine's Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto also on the back row after a problem pulling away from the pit lane exit at the end of the opening phase. Sauber's Brazilian rookie Gabriel Bortoleto did well to qualify 12th.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Former No. 1 pick Blake Griffin offers advice to Player of the Year Cooper Flagg
Former No. 1 pick Blake Griffin offers advice to Player of the Year Cooper Flagg Blake Griffin entered the NBA with high expectations as the No. 1 pick in 2009, and the former 13-year veteran recently offered some advice to likely top pick Cooper Flagg. Griffin was the Player of the Year and the clear choice to be the top pick in the draft after a stellar two-year run at Oklahoma. Though Griffin missed his first year due to a knee injury, the former All-American was the Rookie of the Year and an All-Star the following season. After living up to the hype to begin his career with the LA Clippers, Griffin is an ideal person to offer Flagg advice as he heads into the NBA. Griffin, speaking with Bryan Kalbrosky of For The Win, preached patience, with the draft less than four weeks away. Just enjoy it. It sounds sort of cliché, but it all goes by so quickly. You'll only experience this draft process one time. Soak it in and don't get too weighed down with all the other stuff. All the people around you will take care of all that. Just enjoy every single moment. Remember, this is just the beginning. As a young guy, you want everything right away. You want to get to everything. But your career is a marathon. Enjoy it. Appreciate all the hard work you've done to get to this point. Know that it continues. Flagg led Duke to the Final Four, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks on 38.5% shooting from 3-point range. He became the 22nd player in program history to be named a consensus first-team All-American. The 18-year-old knows a thing or two about expectations himself after entering this past season with high hopes as the consensus top recruit in the class of 2024. He was highly touted out of the Montverde Academy and eventually established himself as the face of the sport. Flagg is considered a lock to be selected with the first pick by the Dallas Mavericks and projects as the next generational player the organization can build around. Like Griffin, Flagg will have a highly anticipated rookie campaign next season.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
‘My first thought was ‘oh gosh, there's an end point': One of ‘Fab Four', Kane Williamson shares his thoughts on Virat Kohli's Test retirement
Being one of the 'Fab Four', a term coined by former New Zealand Captain Martin Crowe first in 2014 for the quartet of Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Steve Smith, Kiwi batsman Kane Williamson currently stands at the third highest run scorer among the four batsmen in Tests. While Kohli retired earlier this month after playing 123 Tests and amassing 9,230 runs, Williamson has played in 105 tests amassing 9,276 runs and is currently behind Smith's tally of 10,271 runs (116 Tests) and Root's tally of 13,006 runs (153 Tests). With the rest of the three of the 'Fab Four' batsmen still playing in Tests, 34-year-old Williamson has revealed how Kohli's retirement, a first among the four, made him wonder about having 'an end point'. 'My first thought was 'oh gosh, there's an end point. Because before that, you're on the journey, there's a pursuit there. And it's not connected to those other three, but we've all been playing at the same time, and we've all competed against each other for a long time and we all know each other pretty well. So then you do start to reflect a little bit. I know Virat pretty well, we've chatted a lot over the years, but you do realise that we're not just cricketers as well, we're human beings and your life situation changes.' Williamson told The Guardian in an interview. Williamson, who has a Test average of 54.88 runs, currently stands at 17th spot in the list of world's leading Test run scorers with Sachin Tendulkar sitting at the top with 15,921 runs. The Kiwi cricketer has arrived in England to play for Middlesex in the Vitality Blast as well County Championship and has shared his memories of playing country cricket in England. 'Summer's always got a nice buzz here in the UK and especially in London, so it's great to call it home for a few months. I know I really valued my time in England actually playing county cricket as a young player, getting exposed and having to learn. You're just constantly having to try and work things out but getting so many opportunities to do it. Whereas in most other parts of the world you're playing half as many games a year,' added Williamson. New Zealand will next play an international match when the team travels to Zimbabwe for a T20I series involving hosts Zimbabwe apart from South Africa and New Zealand in July before they play a two Test series against Zimbabwe. The 34-year-old also talked about how he sees red-ball cricket as 'the soul of the game'. 'The opportunities now are vast and that's an amazing thing. But my passion was for the red-ball game, that was the pinnacle, and that's where my aspirations were, growing up. I guess on the other side, you have the white-ball formats and they come and they go pretty quickly and there's so much of it going on, which presents a lot of fantastic opportunities, but yeah, when I talk about the soul of the game I still see that as the red-ball cricket,' said Williamson.
Time Business News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Business News
Harry Kappen: The Sonic Alchemist of Emotion, Memory, and Truth
Harry Kappen doesn't walk into a room and raise the decibel level. He walks in and tunes it. That's who he is—a musician, therapist, husband, father, observer of humanity. And when he creates music, it's not just to fill silence. It's to make sense of it. His latest album, Four , isn't your typical genre-hopping sonic experiment. It's a soul map—each track a pin dropped in an emotional landscape charted not for attention, but connection. 'Writing my music is like writing a book or painting a picture,' he tells me, his voice like a well-worn paperback, calm and textured. 'It's a reflection of how I feel at that moment.' And that's the key with Kappen—he doesn't create to impress. He creates to express. If someone out there hears themselves in his melody, it's not planned. It's fate. 'I'm not about someone else's heart,' he shrugs. 'Only the person who feels addressed is about that.' Harry's no stranger to the power of music beyond entertainment. As a music therapist, he's spent decades helping others unravel their own inner knots through sound. That experience, he says, taught him to confront his own vulnerabilities—not by burying them in lyrics, but by shaping them into them. 'Music has taught me to translate my feelings better than I can do verbally,' he confides. 'I'm fairly introverted. But music gives me a safe, universal way to express myself. That's the power of it.' Take 'Courage,' a track on Four that sounds like it was carved straight out of the marrow of devotion. It's not some overblown ballad about conquering dragons in the name of love. It's something braver: honest acceptance. 'Many people told me it was brave to move to another continent for love,' Harry recalls. 'But I don't see it as bravery. It's just being open. What could be more beautiful than accepting love as it comes to you?' That kind of wisdom can't be faked. And neither can his musical palette. Kappen's work spans rock, jazz, Latin grooves, even cinematic orchestration. It's not eclecticism for the sake of cool points. It's how his mind works. 'I grew up with rock and blues,' he says, 'but I don't want to limit myself to one style. Every song asks for its own approach.' He likens it to Bowie—not in a comparison of ego, but in fluidity of creative comfort. 'I don't feel at home in a genre,' he tells me, 'I feel at home in the act of building a song. Letting myself be carried by the mood.' And yet for all the sonic wanderlust, there's one instrument that remains the anchor—his guitar. It's been there since his youth, from the clean, reverent strums to the screaming solos. It's his voice when words fall short. And often, they do. When I ask how he finds time to write amidst being a father, husband, therapist, and human navigating the noise of the world, he just smiles. 'Car rides,' he says. 'My phone is full of ideas I sing while driving. I'm not in a hurry. I don't watch TV. Apparently, I'm good at time management.' And just like that, you remember: real artists don't chase time. They invite it to sit beside them while they create. Of course, the noise of the world is something Kappen doesn't ignore. 'Break These Chains' is his lyrical scalpel, cutting through the skin of fake news and division. But even here, he doesn't scream into the void. He whispers truth. 'I don't feel like a lone voice,' he insists. 'Many are worried—just in different ways. Making music helps me distance myself from the chaos. It positions me as an observer.' There's a boy inside Harry Kappen, still dreaming from the countryside of Groningen, watching Bonanza reruns and believing in endless summers. He hasn't gone away. He's just learned how to play chords. 'I hope to never lose that feeling,' he says. 'It's the basis of my musical pleasure.' And when all the sound fades, when the lights go down and the silence returns, who is Harry Kappen? 'A quiet, introverted guy,' he says without hesitation. 'Someone who laughs a lot, cooks for others, thinks a lot. And someone who picks up the guitar when it's quiet for too long.' Some people chase noise. Harry Kappen? He listens to the silence—and writes what it whispers. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
