Signings and how the roster looks

[BlueGold]

Didn't think we'd be active during the spring signing period but we were.

Rachel Skalnik, 5-8 combo guard from Owasso HS signed Friday.  Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State and First Team All-Oklahoma State Tournament (6A) selection.  Not a big scorer in high school but stepped it up when it counted, in the 6A state tournament back in March, scoring 17 in the Lady Rams' tournament-opening upset win over Choctaw, 12 in their upset win over 2-time 6A state champion Broken Arrow, and 13 against Midwest City in the state final game, which they lost 45-40.  I'm already a fan.  I watched the games and she was by far their emotional leader and leader on the court, she really played her heart out and willed her team to their two wins, and almost to a win in the final.  She left it all out there.

I pulled this from an article in the Tulsa World/Owasso Reporter, written by Christian Favalora, Sports Editor.  I really enjoyed reading the entire article, and this was one part that stood out:

Excerpt:

At her college signing ceremony on Friday, her father Lance Skalnik spoke to the witnessing crowd in Owasso's team room atop the athletic department. Grandparents were there, family, principles, and the entire Lady Ram team including coaches.

"This was only possible because of all the time you spent practicing, because of your wins and everything you did on the court," he said to the team. He became emotional as he implored them, "Do whatever you do for the team, don't do it for your personal stats, do it for the team, because in winning, we all succeed."

The state tournament, played at Oral Roberts University's Mabee Center, was the first time Misti Cussen had watched Owasso with Skalnik as a top priority.

She liked what she saw enough to make an offer.

Skalnik signed with ORU on Friday, joining a Division I athletic program that never would have pursued her had the Lady Rams not reached the state tournament.

"It doesn't take long to become a Skalnik fan," Cussen told the Owasso Reporter. "The more we watched the state tournament and focused in on Rachel a little more, the more we noticed how she glues everything together, her leadership and charisma."

Skalnik had scored 13 points in the state championship, though that fact never came up in conversation with Cussen. Instead the ORU coach was more concerned with what happened after Sklanik's fifth foul.

"She fouled out in the finals with Midwest City with about four minutes left in the game," Cussen said.  "And that child's rear end never touched the bench. She stayed on her feet the rest of the game just trying to give her team whatever she could give em."

She was locked in.

"Honestly, I never fully understood the circumstances until after the state tournament," Skalnik said. "Then, it was definitely a mind blower. You never know how God is going to work."

In Skalnik, the Golden Eagles get a fighter. A point guard, sure, but a spirited one.

The Lady Ram's career is laced with high performance.

She averaged 9.2 points per game, 3 assists and a steal as a senior and brought championships in all three regular season tournaments.

ORU has indicated intent to use Skalnik as a oneguard, calling her a "bluecollar player, a solid 5'8' with longer wingspan and good ability to handle the ball."

In the classroom, Skalnik has built a resume that competes with her sports achievements.

She was an academic state champion in soccer in 2014 and in basketball in 2015, when she was also academic All Conference in both sports and the "Mathlete of the Month" for her work in trigonometry.

She carries a 4.0 GPA and intends to explore studies in psychology ORU. 

Here's the link to the entire article: Rachel Skalnik owes her ORU signing to time on the bench

Another article by Mike Brown, Tulsa World: Owasso guard Rachel Skalnik signs with ORU

ORU Athletics release: ORU Rounds Out 2016-17 Class with Rachel Skalnik (has a nice picture of Rachel and her family and coaches at her signing ceremony)

Coach Cussen from the ORU release: "Rachel is a proven winner and leader. She is extremely well rounded athletically and academically, and her previous commitments to mission work and community service make her a fantastic fit for our program and university."

We also signed Holly Golden out of Evangelical Christian School in Fort Myers, Florida.  She's listed as 5-6 but when I watched her on video she seems taller than that.  Guess everyone looks taller on TV.  Anyway, she's a guard.  She signed a letter of intent but is classified as a preferred walk-on, which for those of you that may not know means that she was recruited but not offered an athletic scholarship for her freshman year.  It typically carries a guaranteed spot on the roster prior to committing to the school.  At many schools, preferred walk-ons receive many privileges that scholarship athletes enjoy, including free equipment from sponsors, clothing, and access to training facilities.  She'll be a member of the team, at least as a freshman, and has full rights to practice with the team.  

She averaged 23.5 points and 9.9 rebounds a game as a senior.  There wasn't a release by ORU on her signing per this: NCAA rules prohibit comments on preferred walk-ons until they have paid an orientation deposit and demonstrated a commitment to attending the school.  Found this article on her commitment and signing from her local paper, the News-Press: ECS' Golden signs with Oral Roberts

By my count, with Rachel's signing, and with the four we signed last November, and with the 10 we have coming back, we have all 15 available scholarships filled for next season.  The only reason it would be less would be if Esther Udoumoh is not on scholarship, which I personally can't confirm.  She's been on the team for two seasons so I expect she's on scholarship.

The 10 returnees, with their athletic year in school (2016-17 season):
Dorka Balla- Senior Forward
Lakota Beatty- Junior Guard (redshirt)
Jordan Doyle- Junior Guard
Faith Ihim- Junior Forward
Kaylan Mayberry- Junior Guard (redshirt)
Bria Pitts- Junior Guard (redshirt)
Esther Udoumoh- Junior Forward
Ashley Beatty- Sophomore Guard
Jordan Gilbert- Sophomore Guard (redshirt)
Maria Martianez- Sophomore Forward

The six newcomers (all incoming freshmen):
Montserrat Brotons 6-4 Center (Cocentaina, Spain)
Holly Golden 5-6 Guard (Evangelical Christian School, Fort Myers, FL)
Hillary Hurst 6-0 Guard (Woodward, HS (OK))
Maria Marti 6-3 Forward (Banyoles, Spain)
Alexa Scott 6-0 Forward (Norman North HS, Norman, OK)
Rachel Skalnik 5-8 Guard (Owasso HS (OK))

Montse and Maria both attend the same high school/prep school (Siglo XXI in Barcelona, Spain) as Maria Martianez did.

Personally, I like the fact that we signed as many as we did.  After this past season with the defections and injuries we were left playing with a short roster for more than half the season and pretty much all the way through conference, so having depth at all positions is good.  You never know what can happen.  I usually don't agree with filling the 15th scholarship, I think it is valuable when there might be a chance to pick up a graduate transfer in April/May/June that is eligible to play right away, but if we are filled with all 15 schollies than so be it, the coaches obviously had/have a plan.  

Looking ahead, we only lose Dorka to graduation after next season, and I'd love to see that scholarship end up going to Adair's Keni Jo Lippe.  Stud.

[ORUTerry]

Great review and analysis. Thanks for posting. 

[Bad Blood]

If she's a walk on that doesn't have a housing agreement then she hasn't signed an NLI or anything else. She might have scribbled her name on a made up document, but walk ons don't sign NLIs.

Also, preferred walk on is a totally made up term, especially for basketball. All players on the team have the same access to all facets of the program, walk on or scholarship, except (obviously) scholarship money.

[Bad Blood]

One more thing since I actually read the article: she obviously signed her housing deposit or it would be a violation for Coach Cussen to comment for the story in the local newspaper.

[BlueGold]

Thanks for helping to clarify my oversights on Coach Cussen's comments in the article about Holly, and how it confirms her status at ORU.  I suppose I could have used 'recruited walk-on' instead of 'preferred walk-on' in my discussion of her.  Preferred walk-on is used more in college football.  Arkansas WBB has a local player, Sydney Stout from Bixby, that they are calling a recruited walk-on.  According to information I found online, she 'inked her written offer of admission as a recruited walk-on' last November.  Anyway, the article on Holly's 'signing' did say that she signed as a preferred walk-on with us, although it didn't say that she signed a Letter of Intent, just that she signed something on the first day of the National Letter of Intent period for basketball.  I don't claim to be an expert on walk-ons or LOIs or compliance, just mentioned some of what I found in the article and pulled some other information from online sources about walk-ons to help in writing my post.  Thanks again for helping to clarify.

[Bad Blood]

Folks can use dress it up by putting "recruited" or "preferred" or any other term in front of it; all walk ons in basketball are virtually equal. Pretty much all walk ons are recruited in one way or another, otherwise they wouldn't be there. Tryouts almost never yield actual players. And in basketball, all team members receive virtually the same benefits of being on the team except scholarship money

[Old Titan]

11 hours ago, BlueGold said:

Thanks for helping to clarify my oversights on Coach Cussen's comments in the article about Holly, and how it confirms her status at ORU.  I suppose I could have used 'recruited walk-on' instead of 'preferred walk-on' in my discussion of her.  Preferred walk-on is used more in college football.  Arkansas WBB has a local player, Sydney Stout from Bixby, that they are calling a recruited walk-on.  According to information I found online, she 'inked her written offer of admission as a recruited walk-on' last November.  Anyway, the article on Holly's 'signing' did say that she signed as a preferred walk-on with us, although it didn't say that she signed a Letter of Intent, just that she signed something on the first day of the National Letter of Intent period for basketball.  I don't claim to be an expert on walk-ons or LOIs or compliance, just mentioned some of what I found in the article and pulled some other information from online sources about walk-ons to help in writing my post.  Thanks again for helping to clarify.

BlueGold, thanks for taking the time to post all that information on the women's team.  It is very appreciated by true ORU fans.

And, just think:  if it wasn't for posters like you who make the effort to start thought-provoking threads such as this one, how would the trolls who live only to nit-pick others' comments survive?

 

[theeagleman5]

...BlueGold is a true gentleman....TheEagleman appreciates the WBB posts he takes the time to compose because they are full of great info for someone like TheEagleman who is far from Tulsa and follows the the team on a casual basis.....keep it coming, bro!....

[Bad Blood]

4 hours ago, Old Titan said:

BlueGold, thanks for taking the time to post all that information on the women's team.  It is very appreciated by true ORU fans.

And, just think:  if it wasn't for posters like you who make the effort to start thought-provoking threads such as this one, how would the trolls who live only to nit-pick others' comments survive?

 

How exactly did this post contribute to the thread? I see not one shred of information or opinion regarding the ORU women's basketball team.

Honestly, as a lifelong supporter of ORU and one of the leaders of this message board, it angers me that I'll now have to scroll for an extra 0.47 seconds every time I access this thread.

[EagleManiac]

Bad Blood is lonely. 

[Bad Blood]

Bad Blood is not the one who brought OT into the discussion...

[Old Titan]

On 4/18/2016 at 4:46 PM, Bad Blood said:

Honestly, as a lifelong supporter of ORU and one of the leaders of this message board, it angers me that I'll now have to scroll for an extra 0.47 seconds every time I access this thread.

"...one of the leaders of this message board"??

Let's see:  140 posts over 5 years, every single one a "reply" to either criticize, correct, or otherwise belittle the contributors on this forum, without ONE SINGLE THREAD ORIGINATED to encourage discussion on a timely topic - that's your idea of being a "leader"?

Leaders lead.  Trolls troll.

P.S. When are we going to lunch, Hoss?

[Bad Blood]

Leading isn't about quantity or how long you've been hanging around. It's about quality, and in this space being both a thought leader and opinion shaper. If you're happy being LaTroy Hawkins, making 9,824 appearances over the course of a decade, that's cool. No shame in that. I'll be Bryce Harper and hit 140 walk-off grand slams.

[theeagleman5]

Bryce Harper only has 1 grand slam.....but TheEagleman admits he is really good......

[ORUalum]

i like to think of myself as the UL Washington of orusports.com.......i only post with a toothpick in mouth.

[Old Titan]

On 4/20/2016 at 2:34 PM, theeagleman5 said:

Bryce Harper only has 1 grand slam.....but TheEagleman admits he is really good......

Never let the facts stand in the way of being a tool. 

[Bad Blood]

31 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

Never let the facts stand in the way of being a tool. 

Dude that's not a nice thing to call somebody at all. I mean, yes, Bryce Harper has two grand slams and yes, eagleman5 should know that. But still, no reason to call him a tool.

[Old Titan]

5 minutes ago, Bad Blood said:

Dude that's not a nice thing to call somebody at all. I mean, yes, Bryce Harper has two grand slams and yes, eagleman5 should know that. But still, no reason to call him a tool.

Just 138 to go to make you quasi-credible.