MORNING ROUNDUP
OU's Torrez wins Big 12 honor
OU sophomore Faith Torrez was named the Big 12 Gymnast of the Week on Tuesday after helping the Sooners to a firstplace finish at the Mean Girls Super 16 last week. Torrez claimed the all-around title with a career-high 39.625. It was her first time to break the 39.600 mark. It's the second-highest score in the nation this season.
She won on the beam with a 9.95, placed second on bars with a 9.95 and finished third on floor with a 9.875.
The award was her eighth of her career. Last season, Torrez won newcomer of the week seven times.
Jake Roberts to transfer for Sooners
Jake Roberts is coming home. The former Norman North standout and Baylor transfer tight end announced his commitment to OU on Monday. "There's only one Oklahoma," Roberts said via X, formerly Twitter. "I'm coming home. Boomer Sooner." Roberts is a junior who spent the first three years of his college career at North Texas under OU's new co-offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. Roberts spent this past season at Baylor. He caught 23 passes for 231 yards and one touchdown.
OU projected as No. 4 seed in latest ESPN Bracketology
The OU men's basketball team is a No. 4 seed in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi's latest
NCAA Tournament projections, which released Tuesday. The No. 9-ranked Sooners (13-1, 1-0) are off to their best start to a season since the 2015-16 campaign, and they began Big 12 play on Saturday with a 71-63 home win over Iowa State. It marked the first Quad 1 win of the season for OU, which is No. 22 in the latest NET rankings.
OU is projected to face No. 13-seeded Akron in Spokane, Washington, for the opening round of the Midwest region. The NCAA Tournament is scheduled to begin on March 19.
Titans fire Vrabel after back-to-back losing seasons
Tennessee Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk wants a fresh approach to compete in the NFL, so she fired coach Mike Vrabel on Tuesday morning after six seasons and losing 18 of the past 24 games.
Strunk said in a statement it was a decision “as difficult as any I've made.”
But she said she believes teams best positioned to win must be aligned and collaborate across the board. The Titans started that shift a year ago, hiring Ran Carthon as the franchise's first Black general manager and expanding its analytics staff. More changes were needed to “fully achieve our vision."
Strunk said she assessed the team throughout the season in an interview released by the team. The Titans went 7-10 in 2022 and just finished a 6-11 season Sunday.
The Titans now are the sixth NFL team at the moment looking for a new coach, joining Atlanta and Washington who fired coaches Monday. The Raiders, the Chargers and Panthers didn't wait for the season to end before firing coaches. Hired in January 2018, Vrabel went 56-48 overall, including a 2-3 record in the playoffs. He led the Titans to the AFC championship game in the 2019 season as part of three straight playoff berths. Tennessee lost at home in a wildcard game after the 2020 season and as the AFC's No. 1 seed capping the 2021 season.
Extra point
NBA: The Detroit Pistons say guard Cade Cunningham will miss at least a week with a left knee strain. The team says the injury was revealed on an MRI and he will be re-evaluated in seven to 10 days. Cunningham had been a bright spot on a team with an NBA-worst 3-33 record. He is averaging 22.8 points, 7.2 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game. Cunningham was injured in the second quarter of a 131-114 loss to the Denver Nuggets.