OU football: Four-star offensive tackle Cayden Green commits to Sooners

Four-star offensive tackle Cayden Green committed to Oklahoma on Friday.

The 6-foot-5, 315-pound lineman from Lee's Summit, Missouri, chose the Sooners over LSU, Missouri and Nebraska.

Green is the No. 34 overall prospect by Rivals and he ranks as the No. 2 prospect from the state of Missouri in the 2023 class.

With 12 total commitments in the 2023 class, Rivals ranks OU 26th in the nation with four four-star players (Green, receiver Jaquaize Pettaway, linebacker Phil Picciotti and quarterback Jackson Arnold).

More:A look at The Oklahoman's 2023 Super 30 football recruiting series

Pogacar extends lead in Tour de France

Tadej Pogačar heard the Tour de France would return to the summit of La Planche des Belles Filles this year, he wanted to win there again.

The Slovenian pulled if off on Friday in a nail-biting finish on the steep gravel slope of the mountain where he took the yellow jersey for the first time in 2020.

Victory in the first summit finish of this year's Tour extended his lead after taking over the yellow jersey on Thursday.

“It was in my mind already a really, really long time, maybe since the route was already (revealed). It was a big, big goal to win today,” Pogačar said.

Pogačar caught, first, Lennard Kämna, who came agonizingly close to a breakaway win, and then Jonas Vingegaard with one last sprint at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles, a ski resort in the Vosges mountains of eastern France, near the German border. Pogačar had his family watching on and had extra motivation to win to mark the launch of his own cancer research foundation on Friday.

He started the 176-kilometer (109-mile) stage with a four-second lead over Neilson Powless and ended it with a 35-second advantage over Vingegaard.

Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour winner, sat third, 1 minute, 10 seconds back, and his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Adam Yates was 8 seconds further behind.

American rider Powless, Aleksandr Vlasov and Daniel Martinez were among the general classification contenders who lost time.

Lillard agrees to extension

Trailblazers star Damian Lillard has agreed to a two-year contract extension to stay in Portland, according to multiple reports.

Portland reportedly finalized an extension with the six-time All-Star worth close to $122 million. The contract is set to begin in the 2025–26 season, and carries a player option for the 2026–27 season. The deal also adds another two years to a four-year, $176 million extension the 31-year-old signed in July ’19.

Lillard reportedly plans to opt-in to his player option for the 2024–25 season as part of the agreement.

Iowa AD doesn't expect Big 10 to add more schools in near future

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta says the Big Ten has received inquiries from schools interested in becoming members in the week since the additions of Southern California and UCLA were announced.

He said he doubts the conference will expand further in the near future. The Big Ten voted to bring in USC and UCLA in 2024, making it a 16-team conference.

“I know the Big Ten has taken calls, and they inform us when they take calls just so we have a general idea," Barta said at a news conference. "But if I were predicting, I’m not predicting that we would be adding any more in the near future. We’ll see.”

Barta says conference leaders discussed Notre Dame last year after Texas and Oklahoma announced they would join the SEC by 2025. Barta said if Notre Dame applied to the Big Ten, he probably would be supportive.

Extra points

OKC DODGERS 11, LAS VEGAS 2: The Oklahoma City Dodgers hit four home runs, including two by Eddy Alvarez, as they evened their series against the Las Vegas Aviators on Thursday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The Dodgers scored four runs in the first inning on a RBI double by Michael Busch and three-run home run by James Outman. The Dodgers’ lead extended to 6-0 in the second inning when Alvarez hit a two-run single. Oklahoma City pushed the lead to 9-0 via a solo home run by Alvarez in the fourth inning and a two-run homer by Jason Martin in the fifth inning. Alvarez hit his second homer of the night in the sixth inning and added a RBI single in the eighth inning to finish the scoring.

TRACK AND FIELD: Officials have confirmed that Russians will not be allowed to compete at this month’s world championships due to the war in Ukraine. The federation banned Russians from major international events shortly after the country invaded Ukraine in February. The world track and field championships begin next Friday and run through July 24.

—Staff and wire reports

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football recruiting: Cayden Green commits to Sooners' 2023 class