ORU at OU

[WingMaaaan]

DEFLECT DEFLECT DEFLECT

1 hour ago, ORUalum said:

 

DEFLECT DEFLECT DEFLECT 

[ORUIllini]

I'm not ready to write this season off yet....it will really hurt if Javan does not return, which is what my gut tells me will be the case...and at this point, would it even be wise to play?

I read somewhere today that ORU has the 16th toughest schedule to date this college basketball season, couple that with injuries and a deflated ego after the collapse against Ole Miss...kind of a perfect storm.

For me, the next 5 games I think will be a great indicator of the conference portion of the season...I believe that ORU will beat John Brown and take a loss at Creighton

The other 3 games of @ Missouri St. and home to UALR and Richmond are all games that ORU can win, I still believe, with or without Javan. 

If ORU goes 4-1 or 3-2 over that stretch I think it can lead to better results in Summit play....anything else and we could be looking at an RPI in the 300's

[ORUalum]

15 minutes ago, ORUIllini said:

I'm not ready to write this season off yet....it will really hurt if Javan does not return, which is what my gut tells me will be the case...and at this point, would it even be wise to play?

I read somewhere today that ORU has the 16th toughest schedule to date this college basketball season, couple that with injuries and a deflated ego after the collapse against Ole Miss...kind of a perfect storm.

For me, the next 5 games I think will be a great indicator of the conference portion of the season...I believe that ORU will beat John Brown and take a loss at Creighton

The other 3 games of @ Missouri St. and home to UALR and Richmond are all games that ORU can win, I still believe, with or without Javan. 

If ORU goes 4-1 or 3-2 over that stretch I think it can lead to better results in Summit play....anything else and we could be looking at an RPI in the 300's

if they turn things, the model is 2008-09......2-10 non-conference (John Brown and South Florida) and 14-4 in conference......(then lost 1st game of conf tournament to SDSU in Sioux Falls)

• Robert Jarvis
• Marcus Lewis
• Domo
• Kevin Ford
• Andre Hardy
• Kyron Stokes
• Kelvin Sango

i think the league is down from last year; does this team have the talent, desire, coaching to turn things........to be determined.

[ORU82]

Yes, tough schedule but how do you get run off the floor by Montana and hang with Baylor, Mississipi and Michigan State?  Same question regarding Loyola and TU loses?  That asked/said, I still think we have some talented kids on this team.  

[TrueBlue82]

6 hours ago, ORUIllini said:

I'm not ready to write this season off yet....it will really hurt if Javan does not return, which is what my gut tells me will be the case...and at this point, would it even be wise to play?

Really good question... if Javan is "healthy" by the first of January, do you bring him back for Summit play to try to salvage a season, or use the medical redshirt to fully recover and gain an extra full season?  At this point, I would lean towards the latter...

[ManiacAlum]

Just a whole bunch of random thoughts I had while watching the game against OU:

-I used to set 20-pt losses as a benchmark for "bad losses". Depending on the opponent 15-pts may be more accurate. But at least ORU could take pride in not getting routinely trounced despite playing brutal schedules. Going back through the results of the last 12 years, I counted a total of 12 of these type of losses. We've already had 4 of them this season. The fact three of them are to Montana, Oakland and Loyola doesn't help.

-Our opponent 3-pt FG% is 43%, which is 342nd nationally. The best shooters in the world hit three's at around a 40% clip. We are giving this up to TEAMS. This, along with our providing little resistance in keeping opponents from getting to the basket at-will, our inability to find opponents in transition, and a much improved Summit League, don't bode well for the rest of the season but I hope that I'm wrong.

-Fun fact: Ole Miss is one spot below us at 343. We hit 11 treys against them.

-Lon Kruger has taken 5 teams to the NCAA tournament and is fresh off a Final Four run. Yet, even in a game in which they were going to win handily anyway, he and his staff have the attention to detail in doubling the post early, frustrating Albert and essentially taking ORU out of the game. On the other hand, we seemed to respond to OU's pressure basically the same way we did during the last year of the Capel era, which is not good. I didn't pay attention to see how much they were using a version of a 1-3-1, but their guards were pushing up almost full court before things started getting out of hand....

-...Which sort of depresses me about the Michigan State game. I appreciate the effort the team gave coming off the TU loss, but it kind of highlights how much Sutton coached ORU teams struggle against teams that play anything more than a vanilla half-court man defense (they may have pressed, I listened on the radio, but I can't remember MSU ever doing this). Izzo's teams do play outstanding defense in the half-court, of course, but for an ORU team that already settles for outside shots, a decent shooting night and not turning the ball over would give us a chance to keep it closer. Now, I can't pretend that I thought it would be THAT close, with ORU having a chance to win. But they were playing w/o Miles Bridges and have a 15-point loss to Baylor on their resume. I feel like any team that wants to pressure ORU into turning it over and then score 80, 90+ can and will.

-Jalen Bradley is ORU's best player. He's a D1 offensive player/shooter, but you can't ask him to do it for 35 minutes, handle the ball and defend much bigger guards. He's a victim of his own success in that we complain when he doesn't shoot well, but we've had an army of undersized guards the last 5 years who shouldn't have been on the floor in a D1 game.

-Two years ago after the OU game I declared that Albert Owens would be a Summit League POY. Well for that to happen he's got to be more aggressive around the rim and learn how to pass when necessary. I felt like Caleb Green would do the same things as a young player- trying to spin out of double and triple teams but developed to be almost as deadly a passer as he was a scorer.

-Chris Miller got a pass in the post, dropped his shoulder and knocked an OU player back about 5 feet before putting in a little baby hook. I stood and applauded. 

-At times I forgot that Emmanuel was on the floor, then we would make a super athletic move and I would be reminded that he can be great. Don't know how I could miss a guy already averaging 12 and 9.

-I also came up with two hypotheses regarding the current state of ORU basketball:

• The first I called "The Southland Theory" in which I've basically convinced myself that, for whatever reason, we stopped recruiting players that may have had limited offensive skills but physically could be 'stoppers' in favor of players who may have been able to score at the high school/JUCO levels and just hoped that their deficiencies (size, defense) would still translate to this level. And I've concluded that this was due to us switching conferences and encountering a different style of play... if for no other reason than that's when it started happening. Looking at that 2008-09 roster, players like Sango and Stokes weren't scorers, and Andre Hardy was basically a football player, but that was a solid team.
• The second I haven't named, but it theorizes that a decent player from a good high school basketball program would be more valuable to a school like ORU than a star player from a regular program. This is just from seeing the efforts of players like Miller and Kris Martin compared to some of the players who have decided to take their talents elsewhere. The caveat being all-world type players (Green, Morrison). This is probably obvious to others but was just an epiphany to me as I watched the garbage time of this game.

 

[ManiacAlum]

4 hours ago, TrueBlue82 said:

Really good question... if Javan is "healthy" by the first of January, do you bring him back for Summit play to try to salvage a season, or use the medical redshirt to fully recover and gain an extra full season?  At this point, I would lean towards the latter...

I agree. And I think we will get a pretty good indicator of what the rest of the season will look like with the last 4 OOC games and opening Summit play @Denver and @IPFW.

[Old Titan]

17 hours ago, oruvoice said:

Reminds me of the video they made in the offseason..."We on the Team".

Bradley released the ball below the bottom of the backboard.

That's simply not a D-1 move - he (and anyone else who throws up crap like that at this level) deserves to get swatted.

[theeagleman5]

Expect Jalen to look really good against John Brown tomorrow night.....he will be right in his element....Bradley will probably throw in 33 points.....

[EagleManiac]

Bradley played well against both Michigan State and OU. Probably better than any of our other guards. It's a bummer he's short, but he's one of the better players on our team right now. Not sure where all the hate is coming from.

[oruvoice]

2 hours ago, EagleManiac said:

Bradley played well against both Michigan State and OU. Probably better than any of our other guards. It's a bummer he's short, but he's one of the better players on our team right now. Not sure where all the hate is coming from.

Agreed. The young man plays hard. And right now, he's about the best we got...

[Old Titan]

3 hours ago, EagleManiac said:

Bradley played well against both Michigan State and OU. Probably better than any of our other guards. It's a bummer he's short, but he's one of the better players on our team right now. Not sure where all the hate is coming from.

This isn't about being short - it's about choices with the ball.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  if a point guard drives on a straight line to the basket and can't finish at the rim, he leaves his entire team on an island:  virtually impossible to get an offensive rebound, and he leaves his teammates out-of-position and outnumbered going back the other way.

I used to roast Luke Spencer-Gardner for the exact same move throughout his career; once costing ORU a Mid-Con conference tournament game with an empty drive like that in the waning seconds.

It's nothing personal; just an armchair-coach thang:  I hate "hero ball"!

[WingMaaaan]

6 hours ago, EagleManiac said:

Bradley played well against both Michigan State and OU. Probably better than any of our other guards. It's a bummer he's short, but he's one of the better players on our team right now. Not sure where all the hate is coming from.

 

 

 

 

Would push back a tad on the criticism being categorized as hate. Jalen has a lot of responsiblity on this team and so far he hasn't played at the level that a lot of us expect him to. If you're going to be 2nd on the team in field goals attempted but 8th on the team in field goal percentage, you should start making some changes in how you play the game. Jalen has a Player Efficency Rating of of 14.2 which puts him at #48 among other Summit League players this season. Our strength of schedule (0.6063) is higher than anyone else in the league (closest: IPFW, 0.5336) but hey we make our own schedule.  He also ranks #10 among Summit League players in minutes played and is also top 10 in turnover percentage. This is not good news for a team that thinks he's one of our better players. I would personally vote for putting a portion of those possesions in a younger players hands and hope to build towards the future. 

[theeagleman5]

Well said, WingMaaaan......well said....+1.....

[ORU82]

While we are talking, why can't we develop more of an inside game utilizing not only Big E and AJ but also Miller and White.  I realize it may take time to develop meaning we will probably lose some games, but how is that any different then what has happened so far this year?  In other words, why have Bradley drive to the bucket when you have 4 bigs you can throw on the floor who IMHO are better suited to mix it up down low?  I realize Miller can foul out in a span of 2 minutes, but he is a big boy and those I believe are teachable mistakes.  Start getting physical under the bucket on both ends of the floor.  Go to an inside game and establish dominance there.  That in turn will open up the outside game eventually.  Just my $.02.

[ORUTerry]

We were sorely outmatched against OU. Their players were taller and more athletic. It was pretty stark. Our guards could not get any space to make shots or passes. OU plays really tough defense and we couldn't handle it.  We looked like we had never seen pressure defense before. Our guards just fell apart. 

Our post players had trouble because OU was taller and quicker. It was good to see Miller play extended minutes and only commit one foul. 

This team needs to gain some confidence - and play smarter/tougher. 

[ORU82]

Ok, but having two 6'8" guys, a 6'9" guy and a 6'10" guy is not exactly a small lineup.  Secondly, my point goes way beyond the OU game.  If you remove Obi from last year's team, you probably get similar results as to where we are now.  Further, continuing along the same path I do not believe to be the answer.  In other words, this train wreck has been occurring over a period of time, not just this year.  That goes to coaching.  We have a staff who at least for the HC has been here for 18 years, so it is not like they inherited a bad situation, they created it.  

[Dr. Cornelius]

29 minutes ago, ORU82 said:

Further, continuing along the same path I do not believe to be the answer.  In other words, this train wreck has been occurring over a period of time, not just this year.  That goes to coaching.  We have a staff who at least for the HC has been here for 18 years, so it is not like they inherited a bad situation, they created it.  

Hard to argue against.

But what should be the way going forward? Perry coached at the highest level in AAU; I would see if he can bring in some better recruits.