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A friend of mine actually bought tickets for a bunch of us to the TU-Wichita pillow fight on the 31st. Looking forward to basically booing everyone in sight.

True evidence of conference-wide parity/mediocrity: for the first time in three years (due to undefeated regular season and conference champions the past two seasons), the Summit League has already completed the "Circle of Sicko", where EVERYONE in the league has beaten somebody, who beat somebody, who beat somebody, etc., etc., ad nauseum:

A big part of player motivation is accountability. I’ve played for strict coaches with systems, and chill coaches with none, and I definitely had more effort when I know what my coach wanted of me, how to do it, and the consequences if I didn’t(playing time, benched, suicides etc). If ORU was losing to Power 5 schools everyday, then yes there is a talent gap, but we are losing to teams in the WEAKEST summit league in YEARS and not making any adjustments. That, at least 51% of it, must fall in the coache(s) not just Springmann, but the whole staff also. I don’t know what’s going on in that practice gym, but coaching is about motivating, implementing systems and accountability in addition to the X’s and O’s, and right now we don’t have much of the first three. P.S - I’ve been lurking this board for 12+ years since I was a student. I mean all that with respect Eagleman!

Oh, the violations were ridiculous. One of them was providing athletes an inordinate number of meal tickets for the cafeteria. Another one was the Converse rep giving players too many pairs of shoes. A third was allowing athletes to use the WATS line (remember those?) in the athletic department to call their families back home at night. The most serious charge was paying for a couple of plane tickets so players without cars could go home for Christmas and make it back in time for practice starting back up. Not a single one of them had anything to do with recruiting enticements, or academic fraud, or players' gambling involvement, or paying for girlfriends' medical procedures, or any other of the variety of serious stuff that major programs like North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, etc. got/get away with on an annual basis. This was back when the NCAA wielded a BIG stick; just a couple of years before they gave SMU the death penalty for football violations. The NCAA policy when it came to investigations: if they showed up on your campus, you're toast. They weren't leaving town till they dug up enough dirt to justify their visit (and the expenses that went along with it). Funny how times have changed...

Yes, he did. The guy(s) responsible for his conversion to Islam had (made?) him write a letter to the NCAA listing chapter and verse any violations he witnessed. And while the violations were minor, the 2-year probation was not: it cost head coach Lake Kelly his job, and prevented a really good Midwestern City Conference championship team from playing in the NCAA tournament in Ken Hayes' first season (1978-79). I understand Lionel is recovering nicely from his surgery; wishing him a speedy return to good health. But I doubt he's going into the ORU Athletics Hall of Fame anytime soon...

A little bit about a lot, looking up from the cellar: Normally I would look at league standings in mid-January and say something like "Still lots of games to play!" but at this point that observation feels more like a prison sentence than an opportunity... ...because the problems that reared their collective heads back in November are the same problems today: too much dribbling "hero ball", no rebounding, no depth (at least in terms of the rotation that the staff chooses to put on the floor). Couldn't disagree more with the mention in an earlier post of "no need to double-team the post at this level". This level is EXACTLY where you need to double-team the post IF your post men can't play man-up defense in the paint (which ORU's can't). Did we learn nothing from the Dakota post players abusing the ORU interior in the post-Obanor-pre-Vanover season of Summit play? Remember SDSU's Luke Appel's epic "YOU CAN'T GUARD ME!" game at the Mabee Center? THAT was from refusing to double the post. Post players and forwards from the Great White North are taught the following from childbirth: "Kick the ball out if you're doubled in the paint; but draw a foul getting to the basket if it's one-on-one". THAT is how the Bi-zun got to the line so much on Saturday, not a referee conspiracy. I get nauseus watching 6'10" post players stand flat-footed with their hands at their side while rebound after rebound are gathered by more motivated opponents. Josh Jones at one point Saturday actually tried to punch out a loose rebound, rather than gather it in while standing alone. WHY, for heaven's sake? It's not going to bite you! If I was playing a drinking game where I took a shot for every time an ORU post player stuck his leg out while setting a moving screen out top, I would have been drunk by the third media timeout and in need of a 30-day program by game's end. Sir Issac Herron likes to add the additional shove in the back, just in case the referee needs anything else to go by. When was the last time an ORU starting guard actually tried to pass the ball late in the shot clock, as opposed to firing up a three or driving wildly to the basket hoping for a bail-out call? Maybe they would, if they had confidence in anyone down on the block? I for one would rather watch reserves trying hard and failing as opposed to regulars not trying hard and also failing, both in the post and on the perimeter.

They're ALL "must wins". They ALL circle ORU on their calendars.

VERY tempted to wear my ORU hoodie and/or hat to stare down the blue hairs in their crossing-guard-yellow windbreakers: "HEY - WHAT ARE YOU LOOKIN' AT, OLD TIMER??"

You want to borrow this to make it interesting?

Eagleman, I have to hand it to you...you are more than likely going to be very close with this prediction. The Shockers currently 8-10 but, more importantly, 0-5 in conference play. Their best candidates to get those 3 additional wins probably are Temple, UTSA, Tulsa and Rice at home. Tulsa is such a dumpster fire that maybe they get a win at the Reynolds Center on 1/31. That could be a very ugly game. Haven't had the time to check the mood of the Shockers fan base but I doubt it is forgiving and understanding.

He came through the surgery well and thanked those who prayed. He said, “Glory to God!”

Fortunately our season tickets came with ladies tickets also. Coach Musick getting a lot out of that group of ladies. They need more talent, but they are playing as a team. Coach Musick basically starting 5 guards(4 guards and a true wing), and the next 2 off the bench are guards also(5’5” and 5’7”). In those top 7, only 1 player is 6’ tall. Yet watched them dominate the boards in the first quarter of play. I think last home game they had 16 rebounds in that first quarter.

I still believe in this team as well. The easiest and fastest way to get better is to have more effort. We have good shooters and solid bigs. As much as the offensive system is lacking in movement at times, our offense isn’t really all that bad. We barely turn the ball over (9.2 per game is 1st in the Summit, 6th nationally) and we shoot an effective field goal percentage of 52.5% (fourth in the Summit, 120th nationally). Our scoring of 75.8ppg is 3rd best in the Summit League, 158th nationally. NDSU and SDSU are 78.3ppg and 77.1ppg respectively. While the offense isn’t at the level it probably could be, it’s good enough to win a lot of games in the Summit. Defense could be the problem. However, our opponents are only shooting 43.45%, so it’s not all that bad. With our good shooting and the fact that we barely turn the ball over, we should be able to win most games. The issue is rebounding, as has been mentioned elsewhere. We get out-rebounded on average by 7 rebounds per game. Those 7 extra shots are a big reason teams are able to beat us, despite most teams being worst shooting teams. So, how do we fix the rebounding? Here’s what I think. Rebounding, in theory, is an easy problem to fix. It’s mostly an effort thing, right? But it’s also about mental focus. Size obviously plays a role as well, but we have enough size on the floor most of the time that it shouldn’t be causing us to give up offensive rebounds. The mental focus side of things is the most important I think. I don’t think any of our players are afraid of playing with extreme effort. However, making your body put out the effort to make sure your team gets every possible rebound takes a completely locked in mindset. If you play with this mindset long enough it should become a habit. Then, rebounding isn’t quite as hard. I think this is why some teams are so good at rebounding year after year. The coaches have built a culture where rebounding is almost second nature. Since our team obviously hasn’t built the proper habits yet, or developed the right mindset, it will take the team several games probably before it becomes a habit. On every shot, every player will have to make sure they are mentally locked in enough to make the effort. They will have to do this on every possession of each game. It will be a grind. The coaches will have to be disciplined as well to make sure they’re holding guys accountable for any lack of effort on rebounds. Also, I think the coaches should be emphasizing it so much in practice that they don’t practice other things. For example, it’s pointless to practice how they want to cover screens or contest threes if the other team is going to just grab the offensive rebound half the time anyways.

The dribble weave and iso-ball is exactly what we saw the last several years of Sutton. The opposing team doesn't really have to expend much effort because the ball movement is predictable. I don't know how you fix the obvious effort deficiency on defense. Almost every possession a shot will go up and every Golden Eagle player is just flatfooted watching the ball. You have to move to get the ball . Most of the players are the same as previous seasons. The Coaching staff is still comprised of Springmann and Patterson. What has caused the extreme drop off in effort and Basketball IQ? It doesn't make sense that losing Mills, Abmas, Jurgens, etc. would cause players to completely forget how to rebound.

My first thought after reading those grades is that it's a good thing Western Illinois ditched the Summit, or we might have a three-way fight for first place, leaving the rest of the league with the best hopes of a distant fourth place. I think that sometimes when you're too emotionally connected to an outcome you tend to read too much into that outcome, so in ORU's case it's easy to be overly pessimistic. That said, here's what I feel about this team at the midpoint in the season: Rebounding issues identified themselves very early in the season, and at midpoint they seem to be getting worse, not better. At least they haven't improved to any consistent level. Our defense is weak, creating frustration. At one point during the game last night, Adam described action on the court as, "{North Dakota player} charged past two Oral Robert defenders for the layup." I was watching that play. Can you call two players that don't move to disrupt the play or put a hand up or do ANYTHING in the way of defense, "defenders"? Our big guys seem to continue to struggle with positioning, boxing out, and shooting. They are inconsistent under the basket. There are probably other issues that could be addressed, but those are the three biggies. Those, and perhaps the lack of running discernable plays on offense. I'm not really good at seeing that sort of thing, so I can't really comment on it other than to say it seems we play one-on-one isolation offense more than I'd like personally. To me, all of these things can improve with coaching. Not sure we're seeing the improvement I would expect along those lines. So, to me I might say B- is higher than I would give - but not a lot. You also need to consider the positives - strong back court, continued growth of Isaac and Kareem as players (I'd say the same about DJ, except that he seems to have lost a little mojo since returning from his injury or whatever it was. I assume he continues to play hurt). Plus a couple quality wins and a couple of near misses against quality teams. You also have to take into consideration what Keenan said - every new coach since I've been following ORU basketball has struggled in their first season. After that, in following seasons they improved. The future may tell us more about Coach Springmann's grade than the present.

Just not impressed with coaching. Inconsistency in play is always a coaching issue. Defense doesn’t seem to have a system. They give up post passes but also don’t guard the three. Force them baseline in one play and middle on the next. Typical rotation is struggling but don’t sub other players that could give a spark. Next year we will have to rely on the next 5 players since there will be so many grads but no one else is getting experience. Doesn’t make sense with experience we have on the team why we can’t win. We always play to the level of our competition, which is a major problem.

TheEagleman may have to adjust that record from 14-17 to about 11-20.....could be a long season for the former ORU Coach....what's his name again?