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At the risk of offending some, for me it is a matter of what I call pride which this team has appeared to lack this year. Hopefully we come out and beat the Tommies tomorrow to rain a little on their parade. Their announcer kept saying this was their largest crowd of the year. If we are the league’s so-called “gold standard”, then play like we are. Sorry but I don’t buy that this series or game is meaningless. We have played that way too much this year. Make a statement tomorrow and win the series.

Found a second to jump on and catch up with all things ORUSports! I’m here for three weeks helping shoot a new TV series for Mercy Ships (click the link if you’re unfamiliar with the ministry). Though I’m not doing much in media any longer (instead focused on full-time ministry), I couldn’t turn down the invitation to help tell these important redemption stories. And since I’ve known about Mercy Ships for many years, it’s great to see first hand the incredible work they are doing. Prayers appreciated as we capture the sights, sounds, and stories of the amazing people we meet! (As a bonus, my luggage arrived a couple days after me! Yea God!)

Thx, Bogus Thx, Bogus Thx, Bogus Thx, Bogus Thx, Bogus Thx, Bogus Thx, Bogus

I can't take much more of this Issac hype. Look, I know he's a great guy. And I know he's scored a lot of points in his career, and based on his playing time historically, he's likely to have the opportunity to do pretty much the same thing this coming season, if he so chooses. But do you recall ORU only won TWELVE games last year and finished tied for LAST PLACE in the Summit League with him averaging 19+ points and 38+ minutes per game? To see a marked improvement for the TEAM next season, he must: Become less ball-dominant Look to involve his teammates more on offense Play better man-to-man defense Quit worrying about avoiding foul trouble that might cut his minutes on the floor Be a LEADER in both action and word Otherwise, there's a scary possibility he may once again lead the team in points scored, lead the team in minutes played, and lead the team back into the conference cellar.

First announcement I’ve seen. Our group of bigs will be interesting next year!

I saw this earlier in the year. It would be nice to have a NIL tournament for mid-majors that could pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I doubt that NIL tournaments will be for many other than the big boys. I wish we could afford to put together a regional NIL tournament that would include Wichita State, Missouri State, Tulsa, ORU, Little Rock, and North Texas with two days of triple headers and dodge any matchups that are already scheduled (i.e., TU/ORU and WSU/TU). Would people come to Tulsa to see mid-major basketball and spend money in the casinos, hotels, restaurants, and shop?? Rotate the tournament between Wichita, Tulsa, Springfield, Little Rock and Denison where the host team absorbs the teams' hotel costs but has two quality games on their schedule each year. Plus they are destinations that are easy for fanbases to get to. Proceeds for the games will be split evenly between the NIL programs; corporate sponsors would underwrite the costs and contribute to the NIL fund that gets split. Just a thought......

Hopefully Coach will give him enough minutes to accomplish this.

“MACK IS BACK” https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6OtO8yuSVK/?igsh=ZXQ5NTl2d2JzcWky That’s a HUGE momentum builder hopefully for the rest of this offseason!

If they were smart, they'd serve Bison Burgers.

Giving credit where credit is due...... Who would have thought that a retrofitted infielder that was converted to a first baseman would lead the team and league in fielding? With 434 chances, Drew Stahl has ZERO errors on a hot corner of the field. He is one of two players with a 1.000 fielding percentage and has the most chances of anyone in the league. There were plays early in the season that Drew wasn't able to get to. There were short hops that he failed to catch from his infielders. But he has learned the position and he has persevered into a very good first baseman. He has been a great teammate and a pillar on our teams' successes.

I received this response from Tim Johnson. We are working on this with Josh. Believe me - we have been frustrated as well. Don't know what the solution will be, but it has to get better! I thanked him for the response.

The Summit League should act quickly to invite the three Texas schools (Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and SFA) remaining in the WAC. While they may not accept, the timing is ideal as they may see the Summit as a lifeboat while on a sinking WAC ship. Adding three decent baseball programs would be great for the League. And, having additional Summit members south of ORU would somewhat help offset the power of the Dakota bloc.

The young man is a good athlete, and I agree with @Old Titan that the high release point is a positive. I also agree with @ORUalum11 that from where he is picking up his dribble- which is way too low and too far from his body- to that release point is slow and will have to improve to be an effective D1 scorer. But that's part of the transition from HS to college level basketball and something that the coaches will hopefully improve.

Like me, I'm sure most of you have enjoyed this stretch of 7 games in which the Golden Eagles have gone 6-1. I'm sure there are many explanations for this, with improved play in a number of areas. I've reviewed the box scores for these 7 games and focused on the things that have been driving me crazy. I created a simple table that focuses on those stats and attempts to illustrate their impact on runs allowed. Now baseball is a complex game so let's not confuse causation and correlation but I can't help but think improvement in these areas has contributed to our recent success. The season average is calculated using the 41 games prior to this 7 game stretch. As you can see, over these 7 game, runs allowed is down 4, more than half. Free passes are 2.6per game better than the season average. I was surprised errors are about the same. Maybe it was just the timing of errors. Also, I believe it was @MrsSmithwho pointed out it isn't always errors but the team not making plays that allowed a runner to be safe or advance. While not technically an error it is poor fielding. I wanted to look at hits with RISP but that isn't in the box score and my ADD kicked in before I could complete the task of trying to find it. I'm sure others have a perspective as to what has led to our recent success and I would welcome you to post those thoughts in this thread. Here's to a continuation of this trend of playing cleaner baseball.

Got to be one of the taller rosters ORU has had in the last decade. 10 guys 6'5 or taller!

Now THIS is ORU baseball!!!

So I noticed that @ttowncount upvoted this so I will provide some additional color that involves him. My recollection of my schedule in spring of 1983 was that I had Taxation in the Classroom Center at 1:20 MWF followed by Risk Management at 2:20 in the LRC. I attended Taxation dutifully as it was one of my favorite classes in my 4 years at ORU. Afterward I would be walking towards the LRC, with good intentions, and then those dang Manning twins would tempt me with Titans vs Whoever with first pitch at 2:30. I would fall prey to their encouragement and that was it for me. Mr. Haney would sometimes show up at JLJ around 3:45 and we would try to talk him into give us lecture highlights between innings but he always held strong.

Springmann mood:

One thing is clear: this is Coach Springmann’s team. He has shaken up the roster, kept a few key pieces, and brought in recruits that he believes he can mold into an effective team. This upcoming season will be a true test of his abilities as a head coach of a D1 program.

All we need now is Gilligan, and the Professor, and Mary Ann, and ... Seriously, he sounds like a great find!

If we sweep the Tommies this weekend they will finish at 14-12 in the SL and we will be 15-13-1. I believe we can get the job done and come home with the sweep of St. Thomas. So because the games are being played this Thursday, Friday and Saturday the question arises what do we do vis-a-vis Missouri State and pitching? Do we use any of our better staff Tuesday night in Springfield or save the best for the games at St. Thomas? Personally as much as I would like to win all 4 of the remaining regular season games including Missouri State, if push comes to shove I would bet the farm on the St. Thomas series. At this point the Missouri State game will not get us a higher seed in the Big Dance. So, play tough in all 4 games but beat the stuffing out of the Tommies. BTW, if we win all 4 remaining games we will finish at 27-27-1. Go Golden Eagles!

No chance Booker gets a league award. Someone with Dakota on their jersey who went 4 for 14 over the weekend and had 2 rbi will get it.

With ORU’s win and SDSU’s loss, ORU’s magic number for making the tourney is now TWO, in a combination of ORU wins and SDSU losses. With eight games total remaining for ORU and SDSU combined, ORU has a great chance of making the field. It would be ideal for ORU to win and SDSU to lose Sunday, so the Eagles spot in the tourney would be confirmed, and the UST series in St. Paul could be “risk-free”. I’m pretty sure that the Tommies are going to treat that final series against ORU as if it was their College World Series.

Who was that team that was wearing our uniforms tonight and where have they been all season?? That's the team I am familiar with and look forward to seeing them compete down the stretch.

Wooohoooo!!! Good Guys hang on 3-1 for a revenge win over OU.... TheEagleman is very surprised but hoping ORU can carry this momentum into the weekend vs. Omaha!! GO BLUE!!

Tim Johnson has the connections and opportunities to do much better than TU. To use a football metaphor, he needs to be patient and wait for the hole to open up before he rushes through it.

Saw this on the alumni Facebook page. Would be a lot of size!

Rev’s AC Madness was fun to watch. The players had a great time showing what they could do and interacting with the enthusiastic crowd. Carol and I could only stay for the first round. Here are a few thoughts: Mcbride was definitely the "General". He had something to do with almost every point scored by his team. He either made the basket or assisted a teammate who was either driving to the basket or in position for an open shot behind the arc. He was very jovial and talked to people in the crowd as he ran down the court. He did some really fancy dribbling while moving backwards. HCRS would not want to see that during a real game, but it was fun to watch. Kareem was a force to be reckoned with on both sides of the court. He made one of the most fantastic windmill slam dunks that I have ever seen. As he was in the air moving toward the basket, he caught the ball with outstretched arm parallel to his waist and slammed the ball so fast I didn't even see it pass through the net. Cam was crazy good. Even his teammates appeared to be shocked. He was draining threes and passing like Mid-Court Max. (Correction: Three pointers were only 2 pointers.) Here are a few photos taken on my iPhone:

UConn was really talented this year… but so were a lot of teams. What set them apart (in my opinion) was their teamwork. Basketball is a TEAM game and schools that play as a team are at an advantage. The rub is that every player has to buy into teamwork or it doesn’t work. Let’s hope this collection of players are cohesive and plays for the team instead of themselves. If they don’t, I want HCBS to bench them

I for one can’t handle another year of selfish hero ball. The girls were WAY more fun to watch last year than the guys! Bring back the teamwork!!

I like this class of newcomers. You have talented players who are used to winning: Luke Gray - state champion Carlos Rosario, Jackson Skipper - NCAA tournament experience Darius Robinson - Top 50 JUCO player Jojo Moore - 16th ranked player in the state of Texas Sam Alajiki - PAC 12 All-Freshman Team with deep international basketball experience Mathok Majok - extreme length and rim protector Perhaps the most important recruit was retaining Issac McBride, who easily could have left to go Power 5 and I’m sure he turned down a lot of money to come back to ORU. All in all I think there’s a good balance of upperclassmen (McBride, Miller, Alajiki, Rosario, Robinson, Herron) and underclassmen (Navarro, Braeden Moore, Jones, Majok, Skipper, Jojo Moore, Gray) where the future is definitely bright.

Interestingly enough, the one walk-on we have (Chase - 4.1/2.7/1.1 on 42%) actually has arguably (w/ Sam - 4.4/2.8/0.4 on 44%) has the best D1 stats of all those we signed this year. Chase may end up not being a typical walk-on. Of course, you can't always count previous data, as McBride went from 4.7/1.1/0.7 on 35% to 12.3/2.5/1.6 on 46% shooting coming to ORU. Vanover also had similar jumps. Hopefully a few of these guys can be developed in a similar way and we see more jumps in production in this new environment .

My trip has been extended one week…getting some amazing footage, stories and testimonies. The work here (and elsewhere) thru Mercy Ships is truly amazing!

I've taken some shots at the St Thomas facilities but we can learn a thing or two from their video broadcast. They just showed a great Jakob Hall strikeout montage while Dalton Patton is warming up. We've consistently received timely replays throughout the day. The camera follows the ball, at least as well as the facilities allow. Hats off to the Tommies broadcast team.

Come on Grip Over the last 4 games he's batting 0.250 and has scored 2 runs. He's not killing it but he's not 0-infinite either. He's at 100 pitches after 8 so his day should be done. A great performance in a very important game. 1 run on 4 hits, 1 walk, 66% K rate.

I find it a little interesting that two sources are saying he's a guard, while the UV website has him listed as a forward. Maybe he's trying to rebrand himself as a guard now. If so, where better than 4-guards-on-the-court-at-a-time University?

The crowd was decent for most of the students being gone. Beautiful, comfortable night; great pre-game dinner in the Grand Slam Club room; a few little league baseball teams bringing their parents out to the ball park with them; $1 hot dogs. What more Americana could you have for a national pasttime? The first 3-1/2 innings were done in 45 minutes - before we had to leave for Terry Unruh's retirement event at another part of the campus - but after we left, the bats came alive and Jakob pitched a stellar seven innings. Drew Stahl even had a magnificent play at first base that would not have happened in the earlier part of the season. Things are clicking for the good guys.

His MaxPrep videos make him look good. Hitting 3-pointers from 23-25 feet out, stealing dribbles, etc. He was committed to Siena, but decommitted in late March. This is a great get for us. I could see him fighting for playing time as a freshman.

It was a great night all around.

Signed, sealed and delivered!

Would have loved to have seen Nolan go to 7777 So. Lewis but he got a really nice academic scholarship at C of C and he fell in love with the city during a February visit.....it came down to Rutgers, Seton Hall and Charleston so it was a no brainer.....he's a pretty good pitcher and having fine Senior year but not sure he's good enough to play for a D-1 program like the C of C Cougars but he is an A student...we shall see when he gets there.....they have a very strong program probably better than ORU.....Nolan is a fine young man and last fall accepted Christ as has Lord and Savior during an invitation at his grandmother's funeral service.....so he has that going for him.....and his older brother Bennett graduates this week from U. of Colorado.....

Don’t let the Eags get hot!

BREAKING NEWS: VERY exciting to have tuned into today's 3:00pm game on the Summit League Network just in time to catch the end of the pregame show with Adam Hildebrand, complete with interviews and sponsor ads, in living color. Led right up to the national anthem and the start of the game - No. Missed. Pitches! And we all know who to thank for this upgrade in programming: "OTIS!! MY MAN!!"

What a cool signing Mathok Majok would be. I'm sure the kid has a great story, and what a fantastic name! Here's hoping the previously-discussed emphasis of working with the ORU big men this summer includes the following for MM: "Grab rebounds" "Block shots" "Don't foul" ...come to think of it, that wouldn't be a bad mantra for ALL the ORU big men this coming season.

I saw this morning that the Rangers are playing this afternoon. This will not be my most productive week. I made a B in Risk Management because of too many afternoon games at JLJ my senior year at ORU. Good old Jack Haney thought it was important that I attend his class.

Grant Nelson, 12-year veteran from NDSU, reportedly returning to Alabama for yet another season, since it pays so much better than not getting drafted.

"Hero ball" is like a cancer. Once it infects one player, it spreads to others. We saw a distinct difference in the team's chemistry between the non-conference schedule and when the team came back together after the Christmas break. The disastrous loss to UMKC looked like an anomaly when we turned it around the next game at Denver, but it was just the beginning of the end to the season. I don't possess any inside information on this subject - only the observations of the game and the comments made by others on this board, which were on point. Everyone has a role to play on the team and some may not have liked the role that they had in their post-Max era. HCRS will need to remedy this and make it known to all the players what they need to do to make the team successful. One thing I do know without seeing who will be on the floor at the beginning of the 2024-25 season.... Mackey will be the leader of this team. He will be the playmaker and the team better listen to him. HCRS needs to coach through Isaac and develop the next leader for the following season in preparation for Isaac's departure. Performance on the floor will dictate what role(s) are played by the team. Those that aren't able to perform should learn and get better - not sulk and look for greener pastures. If you want greener grass, water your own grass and make it grow. HCRS has a history of identifying and developing talent. Now he is getting the players on the seats in the bus that he wants to drive around.