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I had been following twitter pretty religiously when the portal opened. ORU probably had 20 to 30 prospects that we were in “contact” with. However, over the last three weeks or so things have gotten very, very quiet. It makes me thing that three possible things are happening, with a possible fusion option of 2 and 3 together. 1.) worst scenario- we are striking out in the portal and with the juco guys so the staff is ready for a rebuild and is looking to build with college freshman for next year. It’s harder to find info about who is recruiting high schoolers with the portal being the rage. 2.) we have slowed down reaching out to portal prospects as we are confident in our ability to sign some of the juco guys and other players we have been pursuing in the portal. 3.) many of the current players are coming back. My hope is that the truth is a fusion of options 2 and 3 . Perhaps we can get McBride and Bedford to return and combine them with a couple of strong juco’s like Hubbard, Lajae Jones, and Brody Robinson and a couple of other solid portal players to create an experienced enough team to make some noise next year. Sounds like we will know more soon.

This team manages to collapse over and over. Just such a head-scratcher.

This is good feedback. I'm just hopeful that our women's teams will not be forced to play against biological men. I'm thankful that ORU protects our girls, including one of mine currently attending!

Yep just a really disappointing ending to what could have been the week the turnaround started. Instead it is just more of the same.

Wear some ORU logo wear so that Frank can recognize the "friendlies"!

Our ministry will be in Paris this summer during the Olympics doing street performances and outreach! (We've been in Europe every summer for the last 10 years except 20/21 Covid years)

Had the privilege of bumping into @Old Titan on Twitter this week in a thread that posed the question "What's the biggest music act you've seen in the smallest venue?" Old Titan responded with Ray Charles and Tina Turner at Ziegfeld's Dinner Theatre in Tulsa. I responded with Talking Heads at the Cain's Ballroom in 1979. Anyone else want to play the game? I did see Robert Guillaume doing stand-up at Ziegfeld's but he's not a music act so it doesn't qualify. P.S. I will always call it Twitter. Sue me!

Heartbreaking. Top of the ninth was the beginning of the end: nothing to show for 1st-and-third and the heart of the lineup batting with just one out (strikeout & line out from #4 and #5 hitters).

Not necessarily a discussion for this board, but I think Phipps would be moving on for more playing time and, if that is the case, he would get more minutes in D-II. Bedford may be looking for something more than what ORU would be offering.

No offense from me tmh as I have driven inumerable threads off topic. So let's bring it back to small venues. The Eagleman saw Bonnie Rait open up for Jackson Brown at the Mabee center. In 1980, I saw Bonnie Rait open for Muddy Waters at The Cain's Ballroom. She came out with that slide guitar and delivered the goods! I remember her resting one of her cowboy boots on the monitor at the front of the stage, fling her red hair back and flat out play the blues. I somehow convinced a a number of guys on my wing, who were very solid citizens if you know what I mean, to join me for this event. A couple of them had probably never been in a bar in their lives. I had read in Rolling Stone a few months earlier that Muddy Waters had married a young lady in her 20s and, at the time, I predicted Muddy wasn't going to live much longer. So I told these fine young men if they wanted to see a legitmate blues legend this was their chance. We had a great time and no one broke the honor code. I had seen Muddy Waters open for Eric Clapton a year or so earlier. He was great that night at the Cain's. Had to sit on a stool most of the night but his guitar playing and singing were incredible. He did get off the stool and dance a jig during his signature hit Mannish Boy. Muddy passed away three years later so I wasn't too far off on my prediction. I've lost touch with all but one of those guys. I wonder if they remember the night that "wild" freshman took them to The Cains!

The only player with an option to return is McBride. Where is @Bogus Smithfinger wag gif? Lol.

Oddly enough the stream came on shortly after I emailed the commissioner.

Nope. I'm listening to Adam because the Summit League Network on MidcoMinus is a complete waste of my money.

Mylon Lefevre surely was one of the great Christian rockers of all time and a fabulous speaker.....incredible story of redemption....originally one of the Singing Lefevre's gospel group back in the 60s he wrote the famous hymn WITHOUT HIM which was loved by Elvis Presley who recorded it on a gospel album making teenage Mylon a very rich man before he even hit 20. I remember Mylon saying in his testimony that he started receiving royalty checks of over $90K per month when he was just 18 which led him down a dark path of booze and drugs....Mylon got kicked out of the family singing group and went down the secular route playing with some of the all time greats of the 70s...his record with the great Alvin Lee of Ten Years After was a classic....On the Road to Freedom....but Mylon sunk deeper into the drug culture of the time and recalled snorting coke thru $100 bills with the Allman Bros in their hotel room....but the Lord never lets us go too far and Mylon was invited to a Second Chapter of Acts concert where he gave his life back to the Lord and began a changing of his ways around 1980....wound up humbled as a janitor at his old church in Atlanta where he began playing with some guys that became Broken Heart....the rest is history......unfortunately after his heart attack and retirement from Broken Heart he almost died but got involved with the WOF movement in Texas with Kenneth Copeland and that decision was part of what cost him his first marriage....he claimed his heart was fully healed after praying with Copeland and his wife....and yeah his daughter is married to Newboys founder Peter Furler....TheEagleman a huge fan of Mylon back in the day and his music and testimony helped bring me back to the Lord after some doubting and roaming in the early 80s.....I will always be thankful to Mylon and his ministry.....his 2nd wife Christie still carries on the ministry since his death last September......the Lord works in mysterious ways......RIP MYLON!!!

Make no mistake friends, I do intend to let my contacts in the athletic department know that he is blaming them for the problems we are experiencing with the SLN. I also intend to reply to the commisioner asking him why member institutioins could start games on time and post replays in a timely manner and last year but can't manage to do that consistently this year. Only one thing changed Finally, I would encourage others to communicate similar themes to the league and to ORU. There's no change without the peasants rising up.

When you move from one organization to another, you are only trading one set of problems for another set of problems - no organization/team is perfect. These student-athletes are going to find this out earlier than later in their lives if they continue to change schools every year (and probably never graduate if they change more than twice). Find a school/team that values you for the person you are and game you have. If they are developing your skills and you are getting the education that you need to make a great living (if you work hard), you have found the school for you!

I was a valet at Ziegfield's one summer in high school, so I saw a bunch of fading Vegas-style acts in that venue. I think that little cinder block building on the southeast corner of 71st & Sheridan is now a hospice facility. Talk about irony: "Acts check in, but they don't check out!" P.S. Very jealous that you saw David Byrne & Co. at "Tulsa's Timeless Little Honky Tonk". Add them to a long list of "Wish I'd Been There!" acts who have played "The Cain's" on their way up: The Police, U2, The Ramones, Van Halen, Foo Fighters, The Pretenders, etc.