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Y’all all need to be shopping at Hobby Lobby this weekend.

The University and the Athletic Dept. have both seen a dramatic increases in web traffic over the past week or so (references below). The message board has also had an increase in visitors (with the peak in the hours following the Florida win) MANY MANY MANY times what we normally experience. Thanks to all the browsers, posters, & especially the donors who help to keep the message board going!

As I alluded to in my “mea culpa” post on another thread, I was under the false impression he was insecure, to the point of being antisocial. It seemed like he was trying too hard to be quotable at some times. And his apparent disdain for public appearances, his coaches shows, and post-game interviews only served to fuel that perception, in my case at least. But it all changed for me in Sioux Falls. With each win in the tournament he seemed to relax and become more genuine. And with each game since, he has exploded with personality, growing more and more confident and sounding more and more WISE. I’ve never seen such a transformation in a public persona in such a short time. It’s pretty obvious now it was there all along, but for some reason only now are we seeing the whole package It’s like some hokey Hollywood script where the leading character is convinced he needs to “fake it till he makes it”, only to realize in the end that he had what it takes to make it all along. All he needed to do was relax, and be himself...which was plenty enough.

Sports Business Journal w/Mike Carter...

GMA....not quite Tiger Beat but still nice

For those of you who are going to Indy, there's going to be a tailgating party beginning at 3 p.m. tomorrow. The host is Jeff Hines, an '89 grad. He's bringing his smoker and cooking pork! Not sure yet of the location; he said somewhere within 2 blocks of the arena. I'll post when I know more.

Major League Baseball-dot-freaking-com story on Paul Mills favorite team? What’s next: People magazine? The National Inquirer? Tiger Beat??

“GET ME MART GREEN!!!”

WHAT A GREAT STORY!!! If you haven't read it yet, take five minutes and do it. And what a fantastic support staff ORU/Paul Mills apparently has, between Springmann, Bozeman, Patterson, and Upshaw. They sound like really awesome guys; so grateful this Sweet 16 run has afforded us all the opportunity to get to know them better.

I'm happy for Paul Mills. Not only does he get his bonus for hitting several big incentives this year, he will get a nice bump in salary for himself and his coaches! Listening to the interview he did on Gottlieb's podcast, coach made it clear that he took a pay cut to come to ORU. He said when Jerome Tang turned it down for the money, he was ready to take the offer. His gamble is about to payoff big time! Congratulations, Coach Mills!

We need a catchy nickname like Phi Slamma Jamma. Something like Max & The Miracles. We're missing a window. Maybe someone in media relations can coin some catchy name and feed it to the media. Beat Arky and watch it really take off. Just a thought.

It usually doesn't happen that way, unless you take an underdog mid-major deep into the NCAA tourney. Andy Enfield was as at FGCU(which had or has, no where near ORU's pedigree or schedule, etc.) two years total and went 15-17 his first year in the Atlantic Sun Conference, then took a #15 seed to the sweet 16 and was hired by USC in the Pac 12. The recognition and excitement with a nationally publicized tourney run makes hiring a candidate from a mid- major very easy for AD's and university presidents. Hopefully, ORU's #1 priority right now is locking up coach Mills because he is currently a white hot commodity!!

Another distraction to diminish your productivity. To use this opportunity to “go into every man’s world” I changed my Teams background to the Mabee court. So every work call they see our arena and I get to spread the word about ORU. Early in the week some of my coworkers who don’t know me well thought it was a bit and asked me how I got ORU gear overnight.

I will be at the game with my 14 year old grandson and his friend. They are super excited! My wife and i started taking him to ORU games when he was a baby so he is ALL in! I am getting so much enjoyment watching his reaction these past 2 weeks. During the Florida game he said it felt like his heart was pounding out of his chest.

From my few observations of Coach Mills, he is an unassuming person. People always see people like that as invisible until something important comes along, and then, it's the other side (not him), who are surprised. He was the same person all along. People take those folks for granted because they aren't loud. Even the players seem like that to me, from the interviews I have heard. It's refreshing in a world filled with pointless noise.

I agree. He is throwing quotable phrases everywhere: press conferences, radio/tv interviews, etc. His stories and responses in multiple venues have been great. He is unapologetic in his faith and the mission of the school. It’s like he came from central casting as the guy we want to represent ORU as a basketball coach.

Interesting quote from the Argus Leader (Zimmer) article (bolded emphasis mine): They’ve become tournament darlings, previously media-allergic coach Paul Mills is suddenly mugging for the cameras, and players like Max Abmas and Kevin Obanor, previously well-known to only those who are intense followers of the Summit League, have become household names. This has been one of the most surprising observations for me from the NCAA run. I've always thought of Coach Mills as a high character guy, but I've felt that he has never been a very good interview, and this quote from a Sioux Falls Summit follower validates my opinion. But this week, he has been OFF THE CHARTS, saying everything I had always hoped to hear coming from the mouth of an ORU coach - and doing it effortlessly, seemingly unscripted, on the highest stage. What flipped the switch??? I am VERY, VERY pleasantly surprised...

It’s always a question of time and access. During the season, when games are bunched together, guys have classes, and practice time is figuratively and literally limited, there is not as much time for teams to watch film as a group like we may all remember doing in days of old for basketball and/or football. “Back in my day” (eye roll) an assistant coach was assigned to do “the scout” on an opponent, and he would pull together whatever written and video info he could on that team, which the staff would then use to formulate a game plan. That game plan was then presented to the team during on-the-floor practices and in what was called “the film room” (doubt that’s what it’s called now). Those film room seesions would include visual instruction on a white board or screen, and whatever video there was time and availability to watch. But now, and particularly in THIS tournament, they have SO much more time on their hands, and SO many more resources to gather so much data, there is no telling how much video the coaches AND players have watched. I mean, it beats watching soap operas in the hotel room. Suffice it to say that our guys and the Hogs are probably so used to watching each other on video, they could run each other’s offenses in their sleep by now.

I will be wearing the same clothes and watching in the same room. Tempted to attend the watch party at the Mabee Center, but I hate to change what worked before.

I'll be there.

I’m retired and am having a hard time keeping up. Lol.

Is anyone on this board getting any work done this week? Just asking for a friend....

Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills nearly fought Kevin Bacon in Vegas barbershop By Peter Botte March 25, 2021 | 11:10am https://nypost.com/2021/03/25/oral-roberts-paul-mills-nearly-fought-kevin-bacon-in-barbershop/