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Selection Sunday


Old Titan

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If Athletics, or the Golden Eagle Club, or the university, or Scott Sutton himself, is putting up $50K for ORU to host this first-round game, then it flies directly in the face of the gloom-and--doom post I started this thread with.

I LOVE IT when I'm wrong about stuff like this - what a jolt of adrenalin this announcement is!

Bravo to all who are responsible!!

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Wow. I too was assuming that the administration didn't support the costs of playing even in the CIT. Hosting the CBI is a whole other level of commitment, and a very positive sign for the future. I hope the community supports it and we sell some tickets. And win a game or five!

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Took me completely by surprise. I am glad we are playing. As I live over 1,000 miles from Mabee I will unfortunately be unable to attend in person. Does anyone know if there will be any TV coverage of the game? Either way, I will still be listening to Hax's call of the game on Tunein Radio. GO GOLDEN EAGLES!

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good news.....tall order for the marketing folks.  

 

only  a few days to try and get some people in the Mabee Center to play Rome's Gauchos.

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Awesome news!....glad that ORU will have at least one more game......and TheEagleman is really hoping for an ORU-Rider 2nd round matchup in nearby Lawrenceville, NJ.....I would have to find a way into the building if that happens..... :clap:

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And TUPond, how in God's green earth you can take anything that's been written in this thread as somehow being "happy" about getting mentioned on national TV as a "TU bad loss" is frankly beyond me.

The level of measurable frustration and angst among ORU fans right now is unprecedented in the digital "message board" age.

All you have to do is read it.

That may be true, OT, but compare it with what coaches and programs go through at other schools in similar situations. Where would you rather be - in Scott Sutton's position today, or in Barry Hinson's position FOR YEARS at Missouri State? Scott Sutton, or Doug Wojcik the last couple years he was at TU? Or how about Billy Gilispie at Kentucky? While our frustration is palpable to US, it doesn't come close to rising to the level of what is expressed at other programs.

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I think TU's current situation is similar to ORU's position a few years ago when we lost in the semi-finals to Western Illinois. One more tournament win would have put us in the NCAA tournament. I think the same is true for TU.

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I think if TU had lost in the finals to SMU they still would have been out.  They lost to a D-2 school and had no other big wins besides Temple and Connecticut.  They didn't have the resume to make the dance.  They weren't even listed in the first 4 out and I don't think they were listed in the next 4 out either.  They were on the outside looking in unless they won their conference, which is pretty much the same situation about 300 other D-1 schools are in as well.

 

They can blame their loss to ORU for keeping them out of the dance, but they didn't have enough quality wins.  Temple also didn't make the tournament.  The NCAA selection committee isn't quite as impressed with the AAC as the AAC members are, but I don't think TU fans want to admit that.  Why do you think Danny Manning took his first opportunity to get out of TU.

 

ORU's RPI right now is 163.  In many previous years we have been in double digits, but we lost some games we shouldn't have including several very close losses when we had the lead in the 2nd half.  You would think the way people talked about the "horrible" loss to ORU that we had an RPI of 300+ or something.  There are 351 D-1 teams, so 163rd, while not great, is still in the upper half of D-1 schools and we of course have a winning record.  With a couple CBI wins (easier said than done) we would have another 20-win season.  The loss to ORU did not keep TU out of the dance IMHO, but without question the loss to the D-2 school hung like an anchor around their neck.

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The "Drop ORU" argument is a coping mechanism to help TU fans still feel relevant.

 

Why didn't they beat one of their "real" rivals in one of the non-conference games they claim to care about? 

 

They went to Wichita State, got a decent OSU team on a neutral site, and got Oklahoma AT HOME. And were promptly ran off the floor of all of those games. Just like against ORU.

 

No one but TU's fans had them on any kind of pretend bubble. 

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Hoover says early losses, late losses, and getting drilled by WSU, OSU and OU all contributed.

 

John E. Hoover: What, exactly, hurt Tulsa?

 


And then there were the stunners: a 9-point loss at Oral Roberts in the season-opener and a 3-point setback against Division II Southeastern State at home less than a month later.

 

Haith missed the whole week of practice to be with his critically ill sister and returned just hours before tipoff of the loss to Southeastern State, and the loss to ORU was the team’s first game playing under their new coach. Win one of those (or another league game) and perhaps the committee would have granted clemency for the other.

 

Haith thinks the Southeastern State debacle didn’t influence the selection committee’s decision (it sure didn’t help) but he was hoping for some leniency on the ORU loss.

 

“Everybody talks about the Oral Roberts game,†Haith said. “I’m hoping the people on that committee would say, ‘Hey, you’ve got a new coach, their first game, and they played that doggone game on the road.’ â€

 

One thing is certain: Tulsa forward D’Andre Wright and whoever among his teammates who once felt ambivalent about playing ORU need never do so again.

After ORU took down TU 77-68 in the historic 50th meeting of the crosstown rivalry, Wright said, “They look forward to this game more than we do. I feel like that they have it circled on their schedule that they want to beat us and we kind of look at them as another nonconference game.â€

 

Now TU can look at it as another nonconference game that kept them out of the NCAA Tournament. Wright and his teammates know now the painful truth: every game matters.

 

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Actually sort of a backhanded compliment from Haith:  feels the loss was excusable, since it was at the Mabee Center.

 

Look, TU must anticipate being AT BEST an at-large team in most seasons, because it's HIGHLY likely (in the present AAC configuration), that UCONN, SMU, Memphis or Cincy will be the regular season and/or tournament champ.  And Houston may get good really quick, too, with Kelvin Sampson there.

 

TU must consider whether playing ANY traditionally sub-100 RPI team every other year on the road is worth the risk of the hit they would take in the Selection Committee suite.

 

I frankly don't think it IS worth the risk for TU, unless ORU is guaranteed to be safely worse than now, or TU is guaranteed to be considerably better.

 

As a comparison, do you really think OU and OSU football would be scheduling TU so much these days if the Golden Hurricane had at least a puncher's chance of beating them?

 

In a reversed role, would ORU not feel the same way?

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Seriously? TU and the AAC are not the old Big East. And sorry, but TU is far from being any type of basketball powerhouse. If they are using us as the reason for not getting into the Big Dance, they need to put down the crack bowl and back away from the liquor cabinet. And as for not playing us, what a joke. Maybe you in Tulsa look up to that school but outside of that area they are just another also ran.

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I took a closer look at TU's body of work this year.  If you want to drop ORU because we had a 163 RPI, then take a look at the rest of the schedule.  Out of the 20 wins Tulsa achieved this year, 13 of them were against teams with RPI's south of 213.  That's right folks, a whopping 65% of the Tulsa victories were against some of the weakest teams in D-I basketball.  They beat Tulane twice who had an RPI of 214.  They beat ECU twice who had an RPI of 220.  They beat Houston three times who had an RPI of 239.  They beat Missouri State one time who had an RPI of 247.  They beat UCF one time who had an RPI of 256.  They beat USF twice who had an RPI of 273.  They beat UALR once who had an RPI of 276 and of course who can forget that victory over powerhouse Abiline Christian who had an RPI of 325.  Oh and by the way, another of their victories was against Incarnate Word with an RPI of 160.  So in the end, 14 of their 20 victories or 70% of their wins were against teams with RPI's of 160 or below.  Looking further, if you throw in their victories over ULL (RPI 143) and Creighton (RPI 151) and that means that 16 of their 20 victories (80%) were against teams with RPI's somewhere south of 143.  Then of course, we could also discuss their loss to D-II Southeastern Oklahoma State.  Enough said!

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One last thing, if they want to drop teams with sub-100 RPI, one of their other victories was over Auburn (RPI 123) which means that a full 85% of their victories came over teams in that category.  Think about it, 17 of their 20 victories came against teams with triple digit RPI's!

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TU draws William and Mary in the first round of the NIT....interesting matchup.....and our friends at SDSU have to travel to a pi$$ed off Colorado State.....the Jacks will have their hands full.....and as far as the ORU-TU matchup?...well, TheEagleman says let's just put the argument to rest by beating their A$$ for a 3rd straight season next fall..... :*

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The "Drop ORU" argument is a coping mechanism to help TU fans still feel relevant.

 

Why didn't they beat one of their "real" rivals in one of the non-conference games they claim to care about? 

 

They went to Wichita State, got a decent OSU team on a neutral site, and got Oklahoma AT HOME. And were promptly ran off the floor of all of those games. Just like against ORU.

 

No one but TU's fans had them on any kind of pretend bubble. 

Love all the TU talk on this board!  LOL at the post that claims TU was never on the bubble!  Seriously?  I guess this "Maniac" has an excuse to not keep up with bracket projections since ORU never has a chance for an at large bid.  Anyway I hope both Tulsa teams win this week 'cause I'm not ready for spring football yet!

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