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2014 NCAA Tournament


ORUTerry

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I thought I would start a thread where we can discuss the tournament and how our brackets are doing. As I posted in another thread, CBS Sports says that only 0.2% of the brackets submitted to their site are perfect after the first day of games. The Dayton-Ohio State game knocked out 81% of the participants - and it was the first game played/completed.

 

I lost two games on the first day:I had Cincinnati beating Harvard and North Carolina State beating St. Louis. The NCSU/St. Louis game was crazy; neither team could make free throws. NCSU was up by 16 points with about 5 minutes to go and lost when SLU started fouling them - and they could not make their free throws. I will say that I liked the point guard (Tyler Lewis) for NCSU. He is a slow, short player who looks to pass first - just like a point guard should. SLU left him open for the last shot and he missed (rimmed out) it. Tough for him.

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I was also 14 of 16, missing the Dayton win and the SLU comeback OT win.  The crazy thing is that I heard that 14 correct was in the 98th percentile - and yet I'm in a pool with 60 other guys and am in a eight way tie for first.  Go figure...

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My four heartbreaker losses on Thursday:

 

Ohio State to Dayton on a last-second play. :doh:

Arizona State to Texas on a last-second stickback. :doh: :doh:

St. Joe's in overtime to UConn. :doh: :doh: :doh:

N. Carolina State blowing a 16-point lead to lose in OT to St. Louis. :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh:

 

Picking Harvard and NDSU in the 12-5 games were the easy picks!

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Bob Hoffman and Mercer taking Duke to the wire in a 3/14 seed matchup.  Very entertaining game! Mercer in the lead with under two minutes. The previously cocky-acting players of Duke are starting to show some strain on their faces.

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Duke is done and Coach K whining to the refs right to the end....I love it!.... :clap:

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Bob Hoffman - didn't he interview for both the ORU and TU coaching positions? Nice job of coaching to take down Duke. It wrecks my bracket, but it is worth it to see Duke go down.

 

Notice the common attributes of the smaller teams who have defeated power conference schools? Lots of experience (NDSU has six seniors and Mercer has seven seniors) and they share the ball & are unslefish - making good passes to open teammates.

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i think Buffet's billion is safe....doubt anyone had Hoffman and Mercer taking down Duke

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i think Buffet's billion is safe....doubt anyone had Hoffman and Mercer taking down Duke

 

This is true - but if I had known they had seven(!) seniors, I might have considered picking them. Experience is a pretty good equalizer.

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Bob Hoffman - didn't he interview for both the ORU and TU coaching positions? Nice job of coaching to take down Duke. It wrecks my bracket, but it is worth it to see Duke go down.

 

 

Mercer's Bob Hoffman wanted ORU job in 1999, Tulsa job in 2005 and OU job in 2006. Things didn't go his way, but the dude can coach.

— Jimmie Tramel (@JimmieTramel)

March 21, 2014

 

good memory ORUTerry.  i did not remember him wanting the ORU job, but i do remember the absolute hatred for Hoffman on the TU message board when his name was mentioned for the TU job.

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Jabari Parker doesn't look like a very good NBA prospect to me.

 

There are better BIg 12 players that have never made it off the bench.

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I didn't get back on here quick enough and you guys made all my points! I remember Hoffman applying for the ORU job, at a time when I really liked him. I won't say I was disappointed when he didn't get it, but I hoped at the time he would. We've watched him migrate around the basketball ranks for years, and it's great to see his success. If you didn't see his on-court postgame interview, you should try to find it. It was really inspirational. Said some of the things we've observed here.

Mercer didn't play like a 14 seed. They played tough and smart. In some respects they beat Duke at their own game. Duke was forced to foul at the end and Mercer wins going away. I know I've made this point many times before, and I realize the strategy behind it, but I continue to find end of game fouling frustrating. Mercer PUT THE GAME AWAY at the foul line. So how did it help Duke? I'm not saying Duke shouldn't have done it - it's a strategy too deeply ingrained into the basketball psyche - I just question what good it did. It's a flawed concept.

Coach K came across gracious in defeat, which I always appreciate.

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Ask Saint Louis if it is a flawed concept.... they won last night fouling North Carolina State and having them miss their free throws.

 

I grant that most of the time it doesn't work, but I think coaches (and fans) want to appear that they are 'doing something' and not just giving up.

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I got all excited as I won all 16 yesterday but lost first 2 today! 2 guys out of 15 million are still alive in the Buffett contest as they had Mercer. NC st gave it away yesterday missing all those free throws

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Hoffman was among a half-dozen candidates for the ORU head coaching job in 1999 who each interviewed, then gave a full-blown press conference afterward. 

 

Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World was talking about it the other day on the radio - said the whole deal was bizarre.

 

Of course, assistant coach Scott Sutton was the odds-on favorite and was the last to interview.  Some wondered if the whole exercise was just window dressing before giving him the job.

 

Does anyone else remember who some of the other candidates were?  I remember one of them was an African-American assistant at OU - was it Ray Lopes, or Win Case? 

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That was a very strange operation. It made for an uncomfortable series of interviews. Not sure it was the best way to present ourselves. I guess the athletic department did it in an attempt to get maximum pr out of the hire. I think we could have used another method.

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ORU Coaching Candidates Take Questions

Oklahoman Published: April 29, 1999
;
 

TULSA (AP) - Candidates for head basketball coach at Oral Roberts University must field questions from reporters as well as the selection committee.

 

Athletic director Mike Carter is requiring candidates to appear at news conferences following their campus interviews.

 

Carter said he saw no reason for the media to "run all around town" trying to figure out whom the school was interviewing.

 

"If we were interviewing a series of head coaches whose programs were going to be negatively impacted by them coming public and pursuing this job, I didn't want to do that (news conferences)," he said. "But because we're dealing primarily with assistant coaches, I didn't see any major risks."

 

Former Murray State and Duquesne coach Scott Edgar and Oklahoma Baptist coach Bob Hoffman, were the first to appear before reporters Tuesday. Both said they were comfortable with the idea.

 

"It's only the second time that I've had contact with this type of process, and the other time was at Murray State, and I eventually became the head coach at that school," Edgar said.

 

ORU assistant Scott Sutton and Oklahoma assistant Ray Lopes were scheduled to appear at Wednesday's news conferences. Interviews also are scheduled with former Missouri assistant Kim Anderson, former Notre Dame assistant Parker Laketa and Arizona State assistant Russ Pennell.

 

Both Edgar and Hoffman professed their Christian faiths during Tuesday's news conference. ORU, a private Christian school, requires a "commitment to Christ" in its new coach.

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