A disappointing season fuels debate: should Chad Weiberg move on from Oklahoma State baseball's coach, despite his past success?
This week on The Jones Report, Sooners Roundtable publisher Tyler Jones and OkState Roundtable editor Thomas Bridges touch on everything you need to know on what is happening in the SEC and Big 12 with the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
In Norman this week, the talk of the town is all about the Oklahoma Women’s Basketball team. The Sooners are headed west to Sacramento for the Sweet Sixteen on Saturday, to face-off against SEC foe South Carolina.
The Gamecocks present quite the challenge for OU, as the No. 1 seed in the Sacramento Region 4. However, the Sooners’ biggest win of the year came back in January when they upset South Carolina in an overtime win at home, 94-82. It was the only meeting of the season between the two squads.
The Sooners are coming in off of solid wins over No. 5 seed Michigan State and No. 13 seed Idaho, but this is by far their toughest challenge yet. The only team besides OU to beat South Carolina was Texas twice, most recently in the SEC Tournament.
Jones says that in order for the Sooners to have a shot, they have to play an A+ game, getting the most out of their dynamic duo of Raegan Beers and Aliayah Chavez. Beers and Chavez each had 18 points in the Sooners’ last win over Michigan State.
While he doesn’t see a win happening, Jones says that Jennie Baranczyk has done an outstanding job as the Sooners’ head coach and will have her team ready to go.
Meanwhile in Stillwater, Bridges is not so high on Oklahoma State baseball head coach Josh Holliday these days. Bridges believes that Holliday should be on the hot seat after a 16-10 start to the season, and he went further to say that he believes Holliday will get fired this year.
The Cowboys are currently on a two-game losing streak, and were recently manhandled by Missouri State, 16-2.
If the Cowboys move on from Holliday, it would not be the first coach that athletics director Chad Weiberg has fired this year after moving on from long-time head football coach Mike Gundy. While Holliday’s resume includes a College World Series appearance in 2016, the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2014, along with two Big 12 championships in 2014 and 2023, he hasn’t gotten the Cowboys past the regional of the NCAA Tournament since 2019.
Moving on from Holliday could be within the best interest of Oklahoma State. Weiberg’s recent hirings football coach Eric Morris, along with wrestling coach David Taylor, have shown a shift in that the athletic department is getting away from hiring within the OSU family.
Bridges isn’t denying that Holliday is a good coach, but believes it might be best for all parties involved to end this relationship, reaching a breaking point as they haven’t had much progress as a program in recent years.
Also on the show this week, Jones is joined by SI Oklahoma City Thunder writer Derek Parker. Parker breaks down the Thunder’s championship hopes, as well as what’s going on in March Madness.
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