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Tabor at ORU


theeagleman5

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Does anybody care?....i think this is the return of former ORU player Micah Retzlaff with his NAIA team or whatever they are.....heck, maybe they will even beat us?.....probably not.....I would expect the ORU squad to be a bit ticked...at least I would hope....of course, Coach Sutton will probably substitute liberally and likely not run up the score against a former player.....would he?.....TheEagleman calls it about 89-66 for the home team.....we could use a win before going on this 3 game road trip where we might not get any..... :|

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With the poor/inconsistant play of his team this year and mediocre results at best over the past five or so seasons.....is Scott Sutton on the hot seat at all?....we have seen attendence at Mabee Center drop from 4-5000 per game just a couple years ago to under 3000 most games this season except for TU.....and we have watched players subtracted from the team at the rate of a couple per year over the past few seasons....frankly, it's not good and this team is no fun to watch.....TheEagleman obviously isn't a season ticket holder but you guys out there can't be very happy with the product.....i think it has to be up for discussion.....just sayin'...... :nerd:

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i just hope Dederick Lee sees 25-30 minutes.  the guy needs something good to happen.  1-15 in FG attempts and a string of DNPs does not help the confidence.

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i just hope Dederick Lee sees 25-30 minutes.  the guy needs something good to happen.  1-15 in FG attempts and a string of DNPs does not help the confidence.

And while Darian Harris has turned the corner on his season lately (for the better), a big game tonight could give him the necessary boost to become a major contributor in the second half of the Summit season - and could make ORU a different team come March.

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We could use a different team....maybe we can sneak in DoMo with a haircut?.....that would really help....that kid played with a lot of heart.. :|

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ORU up 43-24 at half...Obi has 16 points....Sutton has used 10 players so far.....what's the deal with Bobby Word?...he hasn't been seeing much court time lately....hurt?... :|

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ORU pulls out a nail biter over Tabor....94-53.....Obi nets 22...Billbury 14....Henderson and Owens 10 each....Word does make an appearance with 8.....one disturbing trend continues....we shoot 13-24 from the FT line for 54%.....maybe we need to spend all day tomorrow just shooting FTs.....Golden Eagles head to the road at 11-10 for the next three games.....somebody needs to step up.....and Coach Sutton needs to step it up too........... :nerd:

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Scott Sutton will always have a nice cool seat at ORU as long as Mike Carter is athletic director.

Can not imagine Mike dropping the hammer on Scott after all these years - he would retire before he did that, and let his successor make that call.

Besides, it's not like Scott is 5-15; he's 11-10 and tied for 3rd place in the Summit.

He just needs a couple of better recruiting classes. The question is whether that's easier said than done....

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Yeah....TheEagleman knows that Scott isn't going anywhere soon....unless he decided to leave on his own....but it seems those job opportunities have now dried up....just a little frustrating stuck in this rut over the past few years and Sutton hasn't really come up with that big time player like Caleb, Tutt or DoMo......maybe Javan White or Chris Crawford will be that guy?..... :eagles:

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Noticed that Dederick Lee had a career high 9 points last night....at least he got some PT.....anybody at the game comment on how he looked?....also attendence listed at 2398.....hummm?.....I am guessing that number may have been a bit inflated......maybe 398?...... :|

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Yeah....TheEagleman knows that Scott isn't going anywhere soon....unless he decided to leave on his own....but it seems those job opportunities have now dried up....just a little frustrating stuck in this rut over the past few years and Sutton hasn't really come up with that big time player like Caleb, Tutt or DoMo......maybe Javan White or Chris Crawford will be that guy?..... :eagles:

 

What makes you assume Scott was responsible for landing those guys, or is equally responsible for the drop in current talent?

 

Typically, assistant coaches find the players; head coaches close the deals...

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OT,

do you think they will pursue a JUCO big man?  they will be pretty young with post players of White, Owens, and the BTW big man.

 

not sure what to think about Conley....after what i witnessed NDSU's back up post (Warner) do to him, i don't know if he can play the 4 or 5 in the Summit.  the move away from the athletes of the Southland to the larger, space-eating big men of the Summit has adversely affected him more than anyone on the team.

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Juco's aren't what they used to be for talent.  Unlike "the old days", a lot of those kids are not ready to contribute immediately when they hit campus.  Not sure why that is.

 

It's going to take a season or two to get the roster more Summit-ready.  Need some height!

 

Meanwhile, ORU has a small but athletic roster that is trying to play Summit-style, rather than exploiting the advantages they have.

 

For example, when was the last time ORU pressed full-court just for the hell of it, instead of in desperation when trailing in the last minutes?  Did you see how bad the press looked the last of couple of possessions against SDSU?  No one knew what to do or where to go, because they never run it!

 

Why not "release the hounds" with all these little quick guys??  Just sayin'...

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Ultimately, the Head Coach is responsible......but just trying to make the point that we haven't recruited many top notch players over the past few years....TheEagleman agrees that the current team was more suited to play in the Southland....but heck, we didn't do very well down there either.....frankly, I just think the ORU mens basketball program has gone stale......you guys who fork out the $$$ for tickets can't be pleased with the direction of the program..... :nerd:

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A few observations.

 

I was out of town for a couple of weeks and missed all the games between the 13th and 24th. Last night was my first night back at the Mabee.

 

Maybe I still have jet lag, but watching our team...even though we won by a huge margin, it still felt like the team was a little distracted--like we had 5 guys on the floor who weren't very well acquainted and were each doing their own thing. I wondered: do these guys know each other? like each other? enjoy playing basketball together?

 

Then I looked around the Mabee Center: about 15 students in that section, and in each of the other sections, maybe 50 or so fans. Is it possible that the women's team gets a larger turnout? Maybe because it was a nonconference game against a non-D1 team, folks took a pass. But this small crowd could help explain why there seems to be so little energy on the floor. If the team feels it has no support from its natural fan base (students/faculty/staff/alumni) and locals, how easy is it to get excited about playing?

 

The saddest thing for me, though, was the haircuts! Have they not read the story of Samson? :talk: Korey, Albert--what have you done???? (Bring back Robert Jarvis!)

 

I agree with all that's been said. We aren't recruiting the type of player we need. I can only imagine how difficult it is for the coaches to get great players who will fit in at ORU.

 

As a diehard fan and alum who has had season tickets for a decade or so, and who never missed a game in 4 years as a student--yes, I'm disappointed in this season. But it's our first year back in the Summit, and I have to (need to!) believe that we can only go up from here.

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I noticed the same thing about the student section while watching the game online, how empty it was.  What's the deal with the students?  It's not like ORU's a commuter school, pretty much everyone lives on campus, so finding their way to the Mabee isn't too big of a challenge unless they forgot how to walk.  

 

I don't mind excuses like having to study but when I was a student I worked around it as best I could and rarely missed a game.  Back then it was more of an event to us, and we looked at it like it was a good opportunity to hang out and have fun with our brothers and the girls from our sister wing.  The student sections (note, plural) back during my time were always packed for every game.  Now, geesh.  

 

And last night, there were more students there at the start than usual to pad the attendance because it was Academic Night and they were there to be honored for their good work in the classroom.  Speaking of, 170 of the 250 student-athletes were honored for having a 3.0 gpa or better and 36 for having a gpa at or above 3.8. Pretty impressive, but then again our student-athletes have a strong academic history, having posted a combined gpa over 3.0 for 15 straight years.

 

Can't speak for the non-college portion of the crowd that wasn't there.  I'm sure playing a team like Tabor contributed to the low turnout.  

 

The women haven't drawn well at all, even when compared with the past couple of seasons.  Again, no student turnout.  And they usually play good at home and there's a lot to cheer about with them.  When only 600 people are sitting in the gold section it really exaggerates how many empty seats there are.  

 

A marketing person I'm not.  We can't and shouldn't want to give away too many free tickets, so I'm not sure what else we can be doing to promote the programs to the local community?  The students are another deal though.  I'm disappointed that they don't come out.

 

 

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I think apathy is rampant regarding the basketball program right now. Student turnout is low (although I think there are students scattered throughout the crowd. Why sit in the end zones when there are plenty of mid-court seats available? We had several sitting down around us), fans that have followed the team for years don't show up any more, we were playing an NAIA team with no name recognition, it was a Tuesday night (only night worse is Wednesday); it was a savage combination for getting fans to turn out. Die-hards were there (well, MOST of them were . . . ;-)) and few others.

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Actually, Tabor had a fairly nice showing of fans - I don't know if they were locals or if they traveled with the team, but there were a number of them scattered around, and, as often is the case with visiting teams, a group behind their bench.

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