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I thought about this and I don’t think we need to bring in 5 or 6 really good players. We just need to bring guys in who can work together well. I think the past few years we thought guys like Kareem and DJ, and even McBride were better players because they worked so well within the team with Max. However, individually, I don’t think they were as good as we thought. They were crucial pieces of a very good team, but last year, when we didn’t have the same group, they struggled to find their role. Being a really good 3rd or 4th option (on a team with one of the all-time greats) is a lot easier than being a good 2nd option. Same for McBride. Being a good 2nd or 3rd option is way easier than being the main guy. I guess my point is two things. First, it’s possible that our 30 win team last year wasn’t as talented individually as we thought. It may have just been a special group where the sum of the parts truly was greater than the whole (Mwamba and Vanover found that out). Second, in our conference, we don’t need super talented players that can all go out and get 20 points per game (though that would be nice). We need players that can work together within the system that Coach Springmann wants to run. The key is finding players that will buy in to the system and accept their role within the team. I think the coaches have had a plan all along, that’s why they weren’t all in on a bunch of high school kids. I don’t pretend to know what the plan was, I just think there was one. Hopefully they can go out and get the guys they need to have a great season.

I agree 2014Grad, I'm reading a lot of posts that are saying we need to bring in the right players, guys that will listen or want to play D. Who we bring in is important, but IMHO what we do with them once they are here is just as important. My concern is this season's roster is the most talented HCRS may have for several years, I don't see us bringing in a better on the ball defender than Kareem, or a better help side defender than DJ. Bedford was a really good pick up this year, really our only addition that contributed, so now we'll bring in 5 or 6 that are ready to play at a high level, hopefully but a very tall order. In the current college game, you don't build a team over years you have a very compressed period of time to get a bunch of new guys heading the same direction. Which is why coach is looking so heavily in the portal and at JUCO guys and not HS players. But we have to coach them once we get them here. The importance of team chemistry was mentioned, which I agree with but to me it's just different terminology for good coaching! You often hear it said a team has good chemistry when they make the extra pass for an open shot, or a guy gets beat on D and all of the other guys rotate to help and prevent an easy basket. IMHO that's not necessarily a team with chemistry, it's a well-coached team. HCRS is going into his 2nd year, and there is a learning curve for the job particularly things like clock management, timeout usage, in game adjustments, or substitution patterns. But coach has to do a better job this year of teaching the fundamentals. We have to play better D, rebound much tougher and get an offense that has the ball and the players moving and not just one guy playing one on one and 4 guys standing and watching. The players are 20-year-old kids, coach has to drive results, that's his job. Next year we are going to be as good as our coach. Hopefully, coach learned from this year and is ready to get us back on a positive track.

Extremely well said. This is what Kelsi Musick did and her team elevated tremendously in 1 year with 10 new players who bought into her system! Let's state the obvious , HCRS is a first year head coach and is still learning. If ORU in 2-3 years is in the same boat then clearly it is on the coach. We won't know definitively until Springmann has a hand picked team that he has worked with for a year or 2. Owning a business works the same way. The people I hire make me look really good, average or mediocre. Over many years i am much more careful who I hire and put in certain positions. The fact is you can be a very capable business owner or head coach and without the right people around you and perhaps who buy into your philosophy and system mediocrity will thrive. It is interesting to see on the message board there are 2 different viewpoints which makes for interesting discourse. If you turn a team around in one year like Kelsi did that is amazing and no doubt she has some incredible mojo but in my life and I would say for most people it takes time to create a winning program. I am extremely optimistic that we have a head coach who has been around the block and is solid as can be ethically and morally. We can debate the entire off season as to whether we have the right coach or whether he needs different players or a combination of both. It will be much clearer one year from now what line of reasoning is correct.

It's spring break, so I'd be surprised if more than a couple of dozen students are there. The last Media Guide they published was in 2016. It shows that the ladies were in the WNIT in 1983 in Texas and won 2 games. NCAA 5 times (1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008) and lost all. WNIT in 2010, lost. WNIT in 2011--won a first-round game in Texas and were 1-1 at home. NCAA in 2013, lost. WBI in 2015, won 2 games (Texas and NM) and lost in Louisiana. We need a win tomorrow night!!

"NEVER A DOUBT!!"

Chemistry is a huge part of the team. My hope is that they can find players that fit in. I'm sure it is HARD to know this. Players can say whatever to get recruited, but they may not be that person. Kind of like a job interview. We all need to be praying that the right players come to ORU!

This season was a bit up and down - and certainly disappointing for fans, players and coaches. Losing our playmaker (Abmas) and shot blocker/rebounder (Vanover) along with strong, tough defenders in Mwamba and Jurgens meant that we had to re-group and re-define ourselves. That meant a lot of changes in roles as guys tried to find their place. That obviously had to impact team chemistry. On top of that, we did not have a true point guard to run the offense and distribute the basketball. Our young/untried post players never seemed to figure how to grab rebounds. So far six players (plus two walk-ons) are leaving the program - which means the squad will definitely have a different look next year. This year's team was full of guys who have been at ORU for a while and I have to think that they were tough to coach in terms of what they expected and wanted to do. A fresh influx of players will give HCRS a chance to imprint his style and philosophy on the team.

The other thing besides the fact that students are on spring break is the fact that TU is playing Arkansas in the WBIT across town. We have undercut their crowd by offering free tickets, while they are charging $15/person for their tickets. It will be interesting to see who wins the entertainment contest between a paid, higher-quality opponent in Arkansas or a free, mid-major contest with Grambling State.

I guarantee they are nearly all SDSU fans. There just aren't that many great alternatives. Omaha would make some sense, but UNO is hosting a hockey regional in a couple weeks and I bet you'll never guess what arena they are using to host... it's Sioux Falls in the same arena as the basketball tournament. I think if SDSU fans travel so well, it may be worth considering Minneapolis is a different location is desired. It's a great recruiting territory and a great media market, with probably the most SL alumni of any city. UNO cares way more about hockey and they still have conference games over the same weekend as the SL tournament. Nobody in KC cares about UMKC, and Tulsa and Denver are too far. I think the league should maybe consider home locations for the first round or two, with the semi finals and finals in Minneapolis on a Saturday and Sunday. Minneapolis is also a huge travel hub, so it's one of the easiest SL cities to fly into for anyone who needs a flight.

Watch it here: https://oruathletics.com/watch/?Archive=559&type=Live

Sorry but TheEagleman is going with MAX and the Longhorns....I watched the CSU game last night and Virginia was just awful...a disgrace to the selection committee....will credit the Rams for the victory but they were just eh....a rested Texas team should beat them....GO LONGHORNS!!.....

Sorry - meant walk-ons. Will edit my post

He would make a great D-II player. That statement isn't meant to be disrespectful, but if he is interested in more playing time (other than in practice), he should venture out to Rogers State, NSU, OBU and other schools that could use his talent and the skills he has learned over the last 2-3 years in our system.

At the end of the day if they did move it to wherever (Omaha, Twin Cities or even Tulsa) would you sell 10,000 tickets as they do in South Dakota? It is unlikely, so of course you go with the sure thing. SDSU is the only game in the town and so of course their fanbase is pretty hard core. ORU's fanbase has grown off the charts in the last few years. I am just hoping the fans continue to support the Eagles during the rebuild.

Max gets a rematch with an old foe Colorado State. I am sure he has not forgotten the last time he faced them in Fort Collins (80-109 loss). Max also goes against an old foe from his Dallas high school days: Isaiah Stevens. They faced each other in AAU ball and even worked out together one summer. Should be an interesting matchup in Charlotte.

TheEagleman likes the home site idea for the first couple rounds and of course it's not fair to play the tournament in Sioux Falls every year....but The current format is a huge money maker for the Summit League....they ain't changing anything any time soon......

Very nice! Bittersweet but the #2 jersey is also now available...Wells might look pretty good in it!

I am hopeful for the portal, but outside of Issac I’m struggling to remember a solid transfer who’s stayed recently. For every Issac, there’s been some transfers that haven’t quite been able to produce(or get playing time). At the end of the day there still needs to be a level of coaching up and development that our staff is responsible for, or they’ll all just leave again next year. Here’s to Springmann and his staff stepping things up, bringing in but also keeping solid transfers.

Okay you're going to make me gush! You guys are the consummate ORU alums. You are at every ORU event, whether academic or athletic, that I attend, and quite a few that I don't! In fact, when I go to an event and you are in the crowd I know all is right with the world. There is no question about it - you guys are super fans!!

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...