Jump to content

ORU at Missouri St...thoughts/predictions?


theeagleman5

Recommended Posts

TheEagleman knows it's still five days until the opener but thought I would start a thread to discuss the game.....comments on our opponent and what we might expect from the Bears?  The secretiveness of Coach Mills about this years' team...we have had no exhibition games or Blue/White scrimmage to evaluate the talent of this ORU squad.....is the Coach trying to keep his game plan/style of play  hidden from Missouri State?...or does he just not want them to know how bad we are?....who knows? Does anybody have a clue about the starting five?....let the discussions/predictions begin....TheEagleman will withhold his final prediction until game day.....:tb-blue: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

KenPom has the following prediction: Missouri St. 74-69 (70%)

Since nobody has really seen the team in action yet it's hard to make prediction. This will be the Bears' first game under Coach Dana Ford; the Bears were picked 8th in the MVC preseason poll (ahead of Evansville & Drake).

Unless Missouri St. has vastly improved I think this game should be decided within a couple possessions either way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It will be interesting to see how all the new guys do on the road in a first game.  How will they handle the jitters?  Both teams are pretty even.  They have three players returning (based on ESPN) and we have four.  They have a new coach and we have a 2nd year coach. But the home court advantage is worth ten points so final score maybe 78-68. As far as the starting five it seems that we will most likely see the three returners from last year (Kearns, E-man, and Miller) along with Jurgens and maybe Smith.  Saying that only because everyone is raving about Smith and Jurgens. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said:

It will be interesting to see how all the new guys do on the road in a first game.  How will they handle the jitters?

Good point. Hard to tell how newcomers will react in a road environment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The home advantage is very likely the key factor in this game.....ORU beat the Bears last year at Mabee Center but historically has not played well up in Hammons Arena....my big question is....Has Coach Mills been playing possum with this years' team?....we know nothing and have not even seen these guys in a scrimmage....are we better than expected?...or will be stink?....😋

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tough place to play when the fans are into the game. 

“Defense Travels” - but does this ORU team play any?  

Freshmen and Euros are not typically known for their great D. 

Foul fest; the Bears feast from the charity stripe in an 83-71 hot mess. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Missouri State has good height in the frontcourt with 2 Freshman and a 6' 10"/6'11"  along with two Junior Guards 6;3" and 6' 5". They start a 6'5" Forward JC Transfer. As for height, they match up very good but having a new coach and new players and young we have a shot to win this one. I don't believe we will show up as an Evangel. I figure even with home court advantage, this game is a win. We have experience in the frontcourt and some backcourt experience. I am like Dr. Cornelius and give it a win in a close one 68-65.ORU GRAD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of your posters came over to the Missouri State board and offered up some thoughts on the game so I figured I would return the favor here. 

In all my time following Missouri State athletics, this team is the biggest mystery of all of them. Generally, you know who is going to be pretty good, who was pretty good as a recruit, what style you will play on offense/defense and have a baseline for what things will be like when games start and whether the season is a rebuilding year, competitive year, or something in-between. This team though, is quite unique due to a number of factors:

1. There are five transfers on this team currently sitting out and not eligible for this game. The Bears have put in waivers for four of them already and are awaiting word (one of the transfers is a walk-on transfer from DII). Missouri State is holding out hope to hear something on the transfers this weekend, but especially on Jared Ridder. Ridder is a freshman transfer from Xavier who sat out last year but since he was enrolled with Xavier for the start of the fall semester last year, he does not satisfy the two semester residency rule. He never practiced with Xavier and Springfield is his hometown so they're hopeful. He would change things quite a bit as a former Missouri Gatorade POY and a 4-star recruit. He's a 6-9 F who can really shoot it. 

2. Three other players new to the team have hardly been seen before. One, Josh Webster, is a grad transfer from Texas Tech and was the #1 Juco PG coming out, but barely played with Texas Tech and is learning a new system here. The other two are 6-10 Polish twins who are here as freshmen. As you can imagine, there is limited film on both of them, but they did both play for the U18 Polish national team. Szymon Wojcik is the one who will probably start and he's a shooter. He had 16 against Evangel in the fans first real view of him with the program. His brother, Jan, is a slasher type who has more to learn to make a big impact. 

3. The remaining players are a 6-11 RS freshman, Darian Scott, who is merely a rim runner. 6-5 Keandre Cook is a Juco wing transfer who will be relied on to be a slasher. Kabir Muhammad is a power player used as an undersized forward. 6-5, 230 is a Juco transfer and was highly rated. 

4. Coach Ford has said the way he wants to play here (3's, FT's, layups only) is a different philosophy than he used last year at Tennessee State. He says it's because he had limited access to talent at that school and had to play with what he had, but we will see. 

Missouri State has 15 players on their roster, but only 10 available for the game, with one being a walk-on from last year, Ross Owens. Look for them to start the following players:

PG- Josh Webster, 6-3, transfer from Texas Tech

SG- Jared Dixon, 6-4, probably leading returning player. 

SF- Keandre Cook, 6-5, Juco transfer

PF- Szymon Wojcik, 6-10, Polish freshman

C- Obediah Church, 6-7, returning player is a high flyer. 

Because of the home court advantage, I'll say the Bears win it in a 5-point game, but that's mainly just hope because this is one where both teams have a lot of unknowns going into the game. Good luck this season. 

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dr. Cornelius said:

Probable starters according to the ORU Pregame Notes:

  • Kearns
  • Jürgens
  • Saunders
  • Nzekwesi
  • Smith

 

Big fan of moving E-Man back to the 4...….he just did not show a consistent enough shot to play the 3 last yr

I'll go with --- Missouri St  83   ORU  65

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little surprising to see Saunders in the lineup. 3 guard offense. I was hoping to see Miller in the frontcourt with Smith and Eman. I will be watching on ESPN! I would like to see a new ORU ! 

ORU GRAD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's face it....both of these team aren't very good right now....at least the pre-season projections say neither will contend for a league title....but who really knows?....MSU pounded on the Little Sisters of the Poor (Evangel) and ORU hasn't taken the court against anybody in public.....but here's one thing.....we cannot ignore history here....ORU season opening wins on the road have been few and far between over the past half century.....the Golden Eagles did beat Tulsa back in 2012 at Reynolds for their most recent opening road win....but that win was still in our home town....in order to find an opening win on the road (opponents' home court not a neutral site) prior to that you have to go all the way back to 1981 when then as the Titans, ORU won at Princeton in a game where a very young Eagleman was in attendance.....and unfortunately, I will not be in Springfield, MO on Tuesday night.....sounds like the Bears may be playing with a short bench and who knows what kind of bench the Golden Eagles will have.....TheEagleman would love to see ORU open with a 1-0 record but history is not with us.....heck, maybe Coach Paul Mills has been so secretive because he's hiding what he has from Missouri State.....In Mills We Trust????….YES!!!....I will go out on a huge limb and predict what hasn't happened outside of the City of Tulsa in the past 37 years....and opening ORU road win....Missouri State stinks and the Golden Eagles take advantage of that on Tuesday night.....The Good Guys bus home on I-44 with a 72-64 victory...….EXPECT A MIRACLE!!!!….:shield-logo:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ORU is a 6 point dog for tonight's game at Missouri State....O/U is 142.5.....TheEagleman is thinking about teasing ORU and the under....but a very small play because this game is completely unpredictable.....I have made HUGE $$$ over the past two seasons on ORU men's basketball because we have been so bad....let's see how things go tonight before TheEagleman starts counting any money this year....🤑

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Without an exhibition game or even a blue-white scrimmage, it is impossible to have an idea about this year's squad. We have lots of new players and that means they need to get used to each other and Mills' system. That means we might be a bit ragged/disjointed early in the season. It comes down to making baskets and stopping the other team.

When was the last time ORU started a true freshman (Jurgens) in the first game of the season at the off-guard position? Was it Ken Tutt?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, theeagleman5 said:

ORU is a 6 point dog for tonight's game at Missouri State....O/U is 142.5.....TheEagleman is thinking about teasing ORU and the under....but a very small play because this game is completely unpredictable.....I have made HUGE $$$ over the past two seasons on ORU men's basketball because we have been so bad....let's see how things go tonight before TheEagleman starts counting any money this year....🤑

Missouri State -6 in Springfield means Vegas thinks the two teams are basically equal on a neutral floor. 

Cant see it - I would take the Bears and lay the wood, plus the over on what I predict will be a +50 free throw game. 

That being said, let’s just sit back and see how completely WRONG I probably am (since I’ve cashed maybe a half-dozen tickets in Vegas in my entire life). LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excited for the season to finally get under way. Thanks to the Missouri State poster for the report above. Sounds like they're in a similar situation to us with a nearly entirely new squad. Is this game being broadcast on ESPN?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...