They called him crazy for hyping Oklahoma at CWS. Here's why he believed — and was right
What changed for Oklahoma baseball? How Atlanta Regional launched Sooners turnaround.
The College World Series finals are set. While No. 5 North Carolina isn't a surprise, few expected unseeded Oklahoma to reach the CWS championship series.
When regional pools were unveiled for the 2026 NCAA Baseball Tournament, it looked like No. 2 Georgia Tech would traipse its way to supers. The Yellow Jackets had UIC and The Citadel, along with a shambling Oklahoma that was knocked out of the SEC tournament by the lowly 2026 iteration of LSU.
When Oklahoma was sent to the lower bracket by Georgia Tech at 9-3, the Sooners seemed DOA. Then they were able to dominate in a 15-8 win on the last day of the regional to force a decisive Game 7.
It seemed dire when they trailed 7-3 against the Yellow Jackets, but they ultimately rallied to win in extra innings and advanced to Lawrence Super Regional. Oklahoma didn't do that with a sledgehammer either. It did it with a chisel.
When looking at this version of Oklahoma, that's what's so impressive: The patience. It's not a team that panics. It doesn't make rash decisions, and that's reflective of its coach Skip Johnson.
When Kevin re-ranked the College World Series field before the Field of 8 started play, that's what stood out to him about this Sooners team when he ranked them second among the teams remaining, which was met with some derision, especially on Reddit.
"Shockingly bad list — just look at Kalshi for the odds favorites and post an article to save yourself the embarrassment," user TomSherman wrote.
"OU at #2 is absolutely insane," AppropriateCompany9 wrote.
It's reductive to call Oklahoma an underdog. The Sooners were one of baseball's hottest teams to start the year before they stumbled in SEC play and fell flat on their face in May. But in Atlanta and Lawrence, Kevin saw vestiges of the team that was throttling the Big 12 out of the gate, and in some ways had made itself even better.
In the interest of fairness, Georgia Tech was his pre-tournament pick to win the championship this year, and he got plenty of things wrong. Troy managed to defeat Ole Miss, shattering my conception it was eighth and Ole Miss was fourth. But after seeing what Oklahoma did in Atlanta and Lawrence, he asked myself "What would Skip Johnson do?" And in doing so, Kevin made a decision that was one part over-correction and one part educated guess: He put the Sooners second, over the likes of Texas and North Carolina and behind only Georgia (which he was also completely wrong on, given the Sooners beat the Bulldogs twice).
This Oklahoma team isn't a shambling Frankenstein team just powering through Omaha through sheer force of will. It's an old Porsche 911, a powerful machine assembled with care that needed a little bit of massaging to run. Johnson was the perfect tinkerer, hammering away in his front yard. He basically benched the regular season's usual Friday night starter Cam Johnson in favor of freshmen Cord Rager and Xander Mercurius.
Johnson's lack of rigidity is what makes him so good. He doesn't have a rotation, or a long reliever or a closer. He just has a bunch of guys. Cleveland Jackson threw long innings against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and he came on as a closer against Georgia. There's the aforementioned reshuffle with Johnson. And Rager and Mercurius — who will likely start the first two games of the final series against North Carolina — weren't even starters to start the year.
So, why did Kevin rank Oklahoma No. 2? Because this wasn't the same team that was ranked on the 31st line by the committee. It was a free-flowing, growing thing that was only going to get better. Now, it takes on a North Carolina team that has been incredibly impressive in its own right. Oklahoma winning a championship would be surprising. But maybe it shouldn't be so stunning after all.
As for the Reddit haters, at least one returned to provide some appreciation in hindsight.
"It's interesting to read older threads after all the dust has settled," poster silentlynumb wrote Thursday. "We as fans think we know more than the experts, but this list was pretty spot on."
And for the record, Kevin had UNC at No. 3 in his re-rank. So, stick to your guns.