Stephen A. Smith: ‘I want to know what’s in the water in Oklahoma’

The unprecedented success that is Oklahoma softball is much more than a local or regional thing. It has reached national attention, and national sports commentator Stephen A. Smith wants to know what is it in the water down there “where the wind come sweepin’ down the plain.”

College softball is not a subject that typically draws much, if any, comment from the dogmatic and never-at-a-loss-for-words Smith, a regular fixture on ESPN’s “First Take” program. But the Sooners’ dominant performance this season in smashing their way to a record-tying third consecutive national championship was too much for the animated TV sports critic to casually dismiss.

"“I want an investigation,” Smith offered to viewers of the program on Friday. “I want to know what’s in the water in Oklahoma. Something,” he said.Not only have they won three consecutive national championships, they are 56-4, 59-3 and 61-1…Over the last three years, that is 176-8.”"

He went on to point out that OU has won five national titles in the last seven seasons the Women’s College World Series has been played, and in one of the two years in which they didn’t come out the winner (2019), they were national runner-up.

Smith compared Oklahoma’s level of domination in recent years to that of UCLA basketball with John Wooden and the Boston Celtics of the 1960s and ’70s.

"“The level of domination going on in Oklahoma at the University of Oklahoma with this softball team is unreal,” he said.“It is something special, and all I can say to all the young ladies out there, anybody that wants to learn how to play softball in a winning way, the place to visit is Oklahoma University.”"

Like the closing lyrics in the award-winning musical “Oklahoma!” “You’re doin’ fine Oklahoma!”

Sooner softball is more than A-OK.