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Such a joke. Current POY flavor-of-the-week Trent Massner held to 9 points on something like 4-for-12 shooting. It’s telling how, once guys like Grant Nelson at NDSU and Massner at WIU get a little national run after a nice game or two, they get totally shut down once they become the focus of the opposing team’s scouting report. Meanwhile, Max Abmas has played with a freaking bullseye on his back for three seasons now, and has consistently delivered, even though the VERY FIRST LINE of every opponent’s “keys to success” in the pregame locker room is “#1 Stop Max Abmas”.

I think you are getting what you want. Some might say "meets or exceeds". So far (2-2-23): 25.7 minutes 13.5 points 6.8 rebounds 3.3 blocks lots of deflections (is that really a stat?) - .6 steals 34.7% behind the arc 51.8% overall shooting 83.3% from the line 1.3 fouls 80% reduction in attempted drives and passes through the paint (I made up the %)

Outside of the shop(s) linked thru the athletics website are there any other options to purchase ORU gear? Frankly the current offerings are pretty sad and I’m surprised we don’t have more team gear available considering the trajectory of the program. This has always been an opportunity.

Macro point: We shouldn’t have to have a contact in the Athletic Dept or bid on a basket at the Courtside Countdown to get team gear. I know dozens of ORU alum who are reconnecting with the university due to the recent success of the basketball program but unfortunately are not interested in purchasing a $60 Port Authority hoodie with generic branding.

No, I finally got her to lift the ban. Which is great, because I would sure hate to miss out on this brand of in-depth reporting:

My prediction:

Different era and kind of basketball. If you didn’t defend you didn’t play with Sutton, unless you were better than your problems. Back then offense couldn’t move as freely. Hand checking was easier to do. I could guard 1-4. That’s because I could be a bit more physical with the quicker smaller guards. Now, you get one touch then it’s a foul. They cracked down on that 4-5 years ago. Marcus Lewis was ahead of his time. I loved his game. He had great touch and a feel for the game. Great passer. If he could shoot a lick, he would have easily fought for POY in the conference. Fun Tutt story. On my official visit, I had to guard Tutt. The guys I played with told me he could shoot, like really shoot. Well I managed to hold my own up until game point. Tutt brings the ball up the floor takes a couple dribbles past half court and knocks it down. Everyone on my team is upset because I let home shoot it. I was like he was dang near at half court… All I hear: “Welcome to D1 young fella!”

I gotta tell you, as someone who closely follows The Mitchell Report, I didn't see this coming.

You've read my posts on this board and you think I have friends?

every road game scares me...travel, illness, North Forty referees, inspired home team play, etc. all play a factor.

She's back to covering TU full-time this season, which must feel like a prison sentence. Tulsa World legend Barry Lewis has been covering ORU this year (he's typically there stringing for the AP, anyway), though columnist Bill Haisten was at all three of the recent home games and logged stories on two of them. Perhaps jockeying for a round-trip ticket to cover ORU should they make the NCAA tounament...

I'm the only one with Kareem, and I put him all the way up on my first team It's great to see see all the names, and the memories they helped recall. Again, probably recency bias, and a belief that the box score on occasion does not adequately show a players contribution, I still feel like I would draft Kareem as a starter from the field above. I wonder how all these players would be different, playing under Sutton/Mills Jarvis was one of the most exciting players and fun personalities to watch, but I always felt Marcus Lewis got half the touches he deserved. I remember Ken being the first player I watched that I felt was almost "automatic". Wasn't super athletic, but could get open, and when he shot, I always thought it'd be going in. Injuries caused his numbers to dip a bit mid career, but the Tutt/Green era was special, and the crowds they drew, just grew and grew.

Yemi Ogunoye - could guard 1 through 5. Limited offensively due to his shot, but more times then not he was on the floor. Had to be. Great leadership on and off the floor. Marchello Vealy - could have been amazing. I’ve never met another human being like him lol. I’d take Shawn Glover over Carlos and McBride. I don’t have stats to back it up, but Junior Robert Jarvis was pretty darn good. Was leading 6th man of the year in the country. I’d put him up against Obi. Kareem over Slo is silly. Obi over Tutt could be argued. I’m going with Tutt. I may be a little biased.

Reminds me of his final 3-4 seasons at ORU, except for the winning. Call me crazy, but I always sensed that Scott fell into coaching because it was the family business, not because HE was passionate about it. I fear he may be one of those guys to get to the end of his life to discover he never really lived it.

I think Meloy had to be convinced to come back for his final season since he had graduated and been admitted to law school. He played infrequently the following season and Sutton, to his eternal shame, never put Meloy into the NCAA game - even though we were getting blown out. I heard that Andrew was bitter about that. At times, Sutton could be clueless - and classless

Eagles on to Glendale to face KC in the Super Bowl.....Deal with it.......lol......

Did you forget you were talking about Scott Sutton? Seems par for the course. Admittedly, I was only on the outside looking in, but he always struck me as a guy to farm out all the work to assistants (scouting, recruiting, etc.), swing by Ron's every day for lunch, and phone it in during the games. I am sure he was probably a nice guy but not someone I'd describe as 'driven.'

Great report, ridiculous comments.

OT's reference above about Cleveland State is spot on. Cleveland State is the classic commuter/community college campus that morphed into a 16,000 student university. It sits right off of downtown Cleveland and as we like to say, Cleveland is Detroit but without the glitter, or perhaps the Eagleman would undertand it like this; Philly is Cleveland but without the glitter, you know, the mistake by the lake.

Millionaire. Making 6 figures to hold a clip board. Zero stress. Happy wife and kids. If that's a "bust", then sign me up.

Try this one: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnsUpXtrjBN/?igshid=NTdlMDg3MTY=

Winning on the road is always difficult even if playing at Haskell.....well....maybe that's a stretch but the game at KC tomorrow night, St. Thomas and SDSU all will require maximum effort from the Good Guys.....KC crowd will be pumped as ORU always has the target on our backs being undefeated in Summit League play.....thankfully we will have two busloads of students and the always boistrous KC area Alums in attendance....TheEagleman expects a hard fought 40 minute game just like at Mabee Center last month but the Golden Eagles will pull it out at the end....ORU 78 Kansas City 73......GO BLUE!!!

Mills teams at ORU have a history of struggling against league opponents the second time around; February last season was a disaster defensively. But, I've been amazed at what the staff has dialed up so far this season, particularly on the defensive end. Every game seems to feature a new defensive wrinkle, and the results bear out the improvement. Fascinated to see how the team performs with so many days to prepare for an opponent!

By the numbers… Haslametrics has this as ORU 76-65. Sounds realistic to me…

Not sure what happened with Lufile in the G League, but based on his Instagram stories, it seems that he signed on with the CEBL Brampton Honey Badgers. It's not on their website yet, but his name is on their roster on their Instagram post.

Does she still have you blocked on Twitter?

I want to be able to buy a legit baseball hat like the players wear. We used to offer that I'm pretty sure. I did get a nice polo for Christmas and last year I got the 1/4 zip similar to what Mills wears when he walks the mall.

The enrollment at WIU is over 2 times the enrollment at ORU. To be fair, I'd say we had almost as many students attend our recent home stand as they had in total attendance when "the crowds swelled."

Perhaps the only time in modern history that Cleveland State was described as pastoral...

At the ORU-TU game in December, I was shocked by the quantity and quality of the gear that TU had available. I thought all small schools were stuck with the same low quality gear, offered for years at a time. Somebody needs to get on this. I think the market is there for people wanting to buy nice gear - I know I want to!

Max is double-teamed and triple-teamed everywhere he goes, against every team's best defenders, and he still scores 25-30 ppg. The only successful defender against Max comes from within - Max "only" scored 18 against Omaha the other night, but it wasn't because of their stifling defense. Max was getting open looks, his shots just weren't falling. I almost posted this after the game: if ONE SINGLE STAT in the box score had been different, then the game wouldn't have been close - if Max had scored his usual 28-30 points, the game would have been over early, and the psychological effect of that may have led to a much wider point margin. But it didn't go that way, and that's why we play the games.

This discussion on ORU busts is priceless and TheEagleman is loving it....Hunter McClintock...lol.....Bobby Word and Jake Lliteras.....oh how times have changed.....

Alabama will take over that territory on the map.

Interesting night in the Summit. Three of the four ROAD teams were actually slight favorites tonight, but only one (St Thomas) was able to pull off the win. NDSU and WIU were also favored, but missed a chance to move away from the "parity pack" in the middle of the conference. Omaha now seems destined to play in the 8/9 seed tourney game on opening night, with the winner to play ORU, if the Eagles hold onto their title lead. With our close encounters with Omaha this season, I wouldn't mind seeing them in a different slot of the bracket. ORU +3 SDSU +1 NDSU - even Western - even KC - even St Thomas - even Denver -1 USD -1 Omaha -3 UND - 10 seed

This should be Cade's last year at ORU. He will be a high round draft pick if things go according to plan. He's a very good pitcher.

Mills said during the Al Jerkins interview, that he felt like the two areas we needed improvement in the most was rebounding, and "personnel", which I understood to mean, basically scouting players/and defending certain players better. #21 Mitchell and #5 Allen seemed a notch above the rest offensively, and with Mills comments this week, I hope we have a focused effort on those guys. If we contain those two, I'm confident we can win by double digits.

LOL - I found it. Mark Zuckerberg is apparently filtering your posts from my timeline...

New Mexico at Utah St tonight on FS1...interesting viewing for ORU fans....

Good coaches win...GREAT COACHES COVER!...GO BLUE!!!

Poor Al… Semi-retired in Knoxville, TN and quite literally and figuratively “phoning it in” on his show every morning. I mean, c’mon now: if Max’s name truly was pronounced “ASS-muss”, don’t you think he would have changed it by now??

The graphic above also lays out the challenges ahead with the remaining schedule. Seventeen of ORU's twenty wins have come against Q4 and non-D1 opponents. The rest of the regular season includes 3 games with Q3 and 4 games with Q4 opponents, a much more difficult path. While ORU can certainly win out, the Golden Eagle faithful shouldn't be too perplexed about a loss (or two or three), and suddenly become despondent that the team peaked "too early". No, the schedule just got tougher. And, realistically, I don't see the NCAA offering a bid to ORU if they win from here on out, and then lose in the Summit title game (ending with a 29-5 record). Therefore, all that REALLY matters is getting ready for the three games on March 4, 6 and 7 in Sioux Falls.

Eagleman, I love that post. A lot of the basketball players in the 70's and early 80's weren't on the right path, but still great people! As the years go by, I know several guys, like Charles Dorsey and myself who have worked on moving back to the right path! We all grow up, have kids and families and mature. The seed was planted and even with some of us hard cases the seed grows! I've been very Blessed!!!

Nothing wrong with pointing out the good and bad about a coach. He's an adult and is paid handsomely. And, like anything/anyone else...it's usually a mixed bag. Yes, he took us the the Sweet 16 and brought great exposure to the program and University! Yes, he's a below .500 head coach against D-1 competition. Yes, he seems like a genuine Christian and is unashamed. And yes, he has introvert qualities and doesn't seem to feel it necessary to do much pubilc/media relations. All points are true. The good and not so good. Let us also remember that after 4 straight conference titles and 3 straight NCAA appearances, most all of us would have agreed that Scott Sutton should receive a lifetime contract. As the ever wise ORUTerry would say...things are never as good as they appear or as bad as they seem. Or, something like that.