W E E K E N D E D I T I O N | F E B R U A R Y 2 1 - 2 4 , 2 0 19 | T W I C E W E E K LY I N P R I N T | O U D A I LY. C O M
PHOTO GRAPHIC BY CAITLYN EPES/THE DAILY
Jamal Bieniemy has been an integral part of OU’s men’s basketball team as a true freshman.
KNOW THY BIENIEMY Freshman point guard goes from benchwarmer to beacon of hope for Sooners in tumultuous season
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railing 69-67 with just 54 seconds remaining in the Texas Class 6A basketball state semifinals, the Katy Tompkins Falcons were in need of a hero. The Falcons had just blown an eight-point lead over the South Garland Colonels by giving up 10 straight points, and it appeared they might have blown a chance for a championship as well. As Tompkins head coach Bobby Sanders huddled his team near the bench, he called out just one player to save the Falcons’ season: “Jamal (Bieniemy),” Sanders recalled saying. “You’ve just got to make a play right now.” Bieniemy, then a senior point guard for the Falcons, responded to his coach’s call by hitting a three-pointer with just 22 seconds remaining in the game. The Falcons went on to win 80-76 in overtime, and Bieniemy went on to cement himself in Katy Tompkins history. The former high school hero is now a freshman at OU, and although his dream of earning a state championship ring is over, his quest for a national championship has just begun.
PARKER PRIMROSE • @PARKER_PRIMROSE From being a skinny Texas kid with loads of potential to becoming the future of OU basketball, Bieniemy has excelled at every level and has helped lead his teams to consistent success. As the Sooners prepare for a final push for the postseason, Bieniemy can give them hope both now and for years to come. “He’s committed to helping OU win every single game he plays in,” Sanders said. “When he’s on a team, he’s committed to that team, and there’s no selfishness about him, he just wants his team to win.” THE PROSPECT Bieniemy was raised by a family of athletes. His father, Troy Bieniemy, played football at Grambling State, and his uncle, Eric Bieniemy, who is now the offensive coordinator for Kansas City’s NFL team, was an AllAmerican running back at the University of Colorado and p l ay e d i n t h e N F L f o r n i n e seasons. According to Troy, Jamal’s constant exposure to athletic success served as an up-close example of how to excel on and
off the court. “ Ja m a l ’s b e e n a r o u n d high-level athletes most of his life,” Troy said. “What he got to see was, a lot of those guys, they’re just normal people. They’ve just got extraordinary physical gifts ... He always notices that those guys sacrifice a lot, and if they want to be good at what they do, that’s what it takes.” W h i l e g e t t i n g t o g ro w u p around professional athletes, it became apparent that Jamal also had a unique athletic skill set, as he began to find success in both football and basketball. Ultimately, basketball would become his favorite to play. “He was one of those kids that was really good in all sports, and everything he tried, he excelled in,” Troy said. “He was a really good football player ... but I know for a fact basketball became the No. 1 sport for him because he played basketball or worked on it without anybody telling him to.” It wasn’t just his dad who noticed his talent at a young age. Others also began to catch on that the Katy, Texas, native was something special. Sanders said
he knew Jamal was different when he saw him as a sixth grader in an open gym. “( Jamal) was this tiny little skinny kid, but he wanted to win every pickup game, and he played really hard the whole time,” Sanders said. “Most guys in pickup games just jog around. He’s out there fighting to win and also seeing the floor better than anybody else out there, as a sixth grader.” Jamal went on to be a fouryear starter on the high school team and set program records in points, assists and steals. He was ranked as four-star prospect according to 247Sports.com and was seen as the No. 7 player in the state of Texas. When he started making college visits, OU wasn’t near the top of his list. But in a twist of fate, a visit to Oklahoma State ended up revealing his love for the Sooners. “Me and my parents went up for a game to Stillwater to see OSU versus OU and my mom really, really liked coach Kruger and how he coached, and then he started recruiting me,” Jamal said. “When I came here, I just really liked the environment and
the coaching staff and players. I fell in love with it.” THE PLAYER Jamal began his first col lege season on the bench, the only freshman on the most experienced roster in the Big 12. Despite initially playing as a reserve, the six-foot-four, 181 pound guard made his presence felt early, earning a team-high five steals against UTSA in just his second career game. As the 2018-2019 season has worn on, Jamal’s role has only grown. He made his first start on Jan. 19 against Texas, where he scored 11 points and shot 50 percent from the behind the arc. Since then, he’s made eight more starts and has averaged more than 32 minutes per game. Trae Young, who now starts for the Atlanta Hawks as a rookie, averaged 35.4 minutes per game during his single season at OU. “Jamal was in the shadows a little bit at the beginning of the season,” senior center Jamuni McNeace said. “He wasn’t out
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OUHSC landscapers face possible privatization Further layoffs spark worry that work may soon be outsourced JORDAN MILLER @jordanrmillerr
Editor’s note: This story uses quotes and information from a source who wished to remain anonymous due to this story’s sensitive nature. The identity of the source, referred to here as Jack Walter, is known to The Daily. After five employees from the OU Health Sciences Center were terminated Feb. 7, some say OU President James Gallogly’s justifications for their firing were untrue. The five positions — assigned to turf management — accounted
for 29 percent of the campus landscaping department and were terminated due to changes in the campus’ landscaping requirements, a university spokesperson said. In a Feb. 7 interview with The Daily, Gallogly said the majority of these positions were seasonal workers and that the university was “paying for a lot of those folks to sit around and wait for the summer to come spring planting season.” Jack Walter, a source with knowledge of the situation, said there is still work for the landscapers to do in the wintertime like trimming trees, blowing leaves, mulching leaves, snow and ice removal, pruning and picking up litter. “For him to say they were just sitting around and students were just paying them to do nothing ... It’s insulting, and it’s just not true,”
Walter said. Former landscaper and gardener Ivan Wright was terminated in the recent layoffs and also said there was still work to do during the winter, and said even when there was inclement weather, employees worked in the greenhouse. “(The work) was steady,” Wright said. Walter said the university is planning on outsourcing turf management by putting out a bid to solicit offers from private companies. He worries that the recent reduction in staff will justify further privatization of the department and said these reductions are “closer to 50 percent” of OUHSC landscaping compared to last year due to positions that have remained unfilled. “(The department was) stretched thin to begin with, and
then this will make it almost impossible, almost impossible,” Walter said. “It pretty much guts the department. I think it sets (the department) up for failure ... So my fear is that this is just piecemeal privatization — (the landscaping department is) the first step in that.” University spokesperson Lauren Brookey said in an email that there have been no decisions made “regarding using or not using outside contractors” regarding landscaping, but Walter said he thinks from here the university will privatize departments like housekeeping and other service units. According to a statement from Gallogly the day of the layoffs, the 28 positions terminated — mainly from the HSC’s landscaping department and Information Technology — will save the
university about $2 million annually. However, Walter said since the university will hire out the services for landscaping at the HSC, “there’s no guarantee that those bids will be cheaper than what (the department) could have provided.” Brookey said the possibility of privatization of landscaping is “premature” due to the recent appointment of Eric Conrad as vice president of operations. Conrad’s official start date is Feb. 25, according to an OU Info statement. “The question is premature in light of the expectation that the new Operations Vice President will evaluate and make decisions about future maintenance and operations needs,” Brookey said. Jordan Miller
jordan.r.miller-1@ou.edu