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TheEagleman works for CSAA Insurance in the Hamilton, NJ Contact Center....I am in systems support and we also have a large Contact Center in Oklahoma City and I often get calls for help from that office....late this afternoon, I got a call from the OKC center from a new employee named Reggie who needed help....as I was working on his policy I asked him if he was a Thunder fan and we got talking roundball...he mentioned in the conversation and he mentioned that he played in HS and College....when I asked him where, he said OKC Marshall and ORU....LOL.....turns out it was Reggie Tate....he was pretty surprised that I was an ORU graduate....he mentioned that he played with Chad Wilkenson, Nathan Binam and Kyan Brown....long story short....TheEagleman will be travelling to OKC for some training next week and Reggie and I plan to get together after work for a cold one or two.....I will be looking forward to that.....

I wasn't sure where to post this so the most people would see it. Barbara worked in the ORU athletic office until almost a year ago (into her 80's). In all of the years that I knew her, I never saw her without a smile and I never heard her say anything negative about anyone. It won't be the same at ORU games when we look across where she always sat with her daughter and grandchildren. Until we all meet again on Heaven's shore, may Barbara rest in peace.

Here's what I can tell you at this point: ORU will in fact return the game owed at Weber State as part of the Bracketbuster arrangement. The new contract with Missouri State features something you rarely see these days: home-and-home games in the same season. Actually had the same arrangement worked out with Danny Manning at TU, but he left before the contract could be signed, and new coach Frank Haith said no to the revised deal. ORU will once again play in a 4-game tournament that features two road games (at SEC and Pac-12 schools respectively) before facing two mid-majors at the neutral tournament site. In addition to the guarantee game at Oklahoma, ORU has at least one other guarantee game at a Top Twenty program within reasonable driving distance. So, here's how the non-conference schedule is shaping up: Exhibition Game #1 (H) Exhibition Game #2 (H) Tulsa (H) Non D-1 game (H) Tournament Game #1 (@ SEC school) Tournament Game #2,(@ PAC-12 school) Tournament Game #3 (mid-major @ neutral site) Tournament Game #4 (mid-major @ neutral site) Missouri State (H) Missouri State (A) Weber State (A) New Mexico State (H) Oklahoma (A) Guarantee game @ Top 20 school in region That's shaping up to be a really tough and really attractive schedule - has a little bit of everything.

I think the emphasis in basketball is greater in the Summit League than the SLC. I can see improvements in the Summit League in Baseball. Oral Roberts has great facilities as do other universities in the Summit. I also believe comments about SLC investment might be a little harsh. Below are a few examples. Houston Baptist University - Announced a $160,000,000 Investment. Part of the plan is a new multipurpose arena which will be the new basketball home. http://www.hbu.edu/About-HBU/The-Campus/The-Future-of-HBUs-Campus.aspx More details here starting on page 20-21 (page 11 of the pdf file): http://www.hbu.edu/HBU/media/HBU/publications/hbunews/NewsV-50_N2_09-2013.pdf "...A new basketball arena will anchor the space, providing the only entertainment venue in Houston that can cater to audiences of 3,000 to 5,000. This distinction will enable the University to lease the facility for a variety of concerts, conventions and other public events... (Excerpt from Page 22) University of New Orleans - Basketball - 10,000 seat on campus basketball arena - Lakefront Arena, home of the 1991 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four and home of the 2014 Sun Belt Conference Basketball tournament. Link to arena website: http://arena.uno.edu/building_info_overview.aspx Baseball - Maestri Field - $3,000,000 renovation in 2013 http://www.uno.edu/news/2013/SignsofProgressVisibleatSiteofUNOsMaestriFieldRenovationProject.aspx and http://www.uno.edu/news/2013/UniversityofNewOrleansCelebratesRenovationsatMaestriField.aspx Abilene Christian University - Recently received $55 Million from three donors toward $75 million academic and athletic facilities fund raising campaign. A portion of the money will be used to build a new track and soccer stadium in addition to a new on campus football stadium. Link to "Vision in Action" fund raising campaign (Track & Field/Soccer Stadium page): http://www.acu.edu/via/soccer.html University of Incarnate Word - I haven't seen any specific announcements for UIW. There are plans for enhancements, but they made end up using off-campus facilities for some of their athletics like UTSA is doing. Others Texas A&M - Corpus Christi - Completed construction in a $9.6 Million New Track and Field / Soccer Stadium last year. Link to Stadium website: http://www.tamucc.edu/marcom/stadium/index.html Basketball - Off-campus Arena - American Bank Center - http://americanbankcenter.com/info/history/ Baseball - Off-Campus Field - Whataburger Field and other TAMU-CC Facilities - http://goislanders.com/information/facilities/index Sam Houston State Baseball - Sanders Stadium opened in 2006 - http://www.gobearkats.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&&DB_OEM_ID=19900&ATCLID=1275332 Basketball - Johnson Coliseum - Four years younger than the Mabee Center - http://www.gobearkats.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=19900&ATCLID=1275315 There are some others also. For example, my university just completed a five year campaign raising $132,000,000. The original goal was $100,000,000. Of that amount over $20,000,000 was spent on athletics as part of over $60,000,000 in athletic improvements over the last five years. We have a new on-campus softball stadium that will be built this year. Also, coming up is $5,500,000 in renovations to our baseball stadium. Central Arkansas built a new baseball stadium opening in 2009. They have made improvements to other athletics facilities also.