Good game

[mrmaguda]

I just returned from the game. I thought ORU played good and with a lot of heart. Utah St. just got some breaks and played really well.

ORU was somewhat disappointing on defense. Utah St. had way too many open shots but that can be worked on.

ORU's offense was good. Green really needs to stay out of foul trouble.

The 1st half was rough to watch. I couldn't believe how many whistles there were. You could tell the refs made a conscious effort to put their whistles away in the 2nd half.

The crowd also came alive during the 2nd half and OT. They were sitting on their hands for most of the 1st half. The loudest they were in the 1st half was when that guy sunk the $200 putt.

Anyway, I wouldn't be too disappointed about the loss. ORU will still win a lot of games and they have a good chance of beating Utah St. in the rematch. I'm looking forward to the shootout. I think they can win it or at leats get to the final. Neither USC nor Marquette or that great. Good luck.

[EagleFanatic]

Id have disagree with you, I thought ORU played great D. It was the lack of shots falling, through out the game that hurt us in the end.

[ORUTerry]

Random thoughts about the game without seeing the stats: (in no particular order)

1. Utah State is a good team; well-coached and very disciplined. Their defensive effort was good for most of the game.

2. ORU's first half offense was offensive.... pitiful shooting. We had trouble with their zone and our shot selection was a bit questionable. Missed lots of open shots and had the wrong people shooting. Utah State had a lot to do with it.

3. Utah State's Carroll is a nice player - reminds me of Bryce Drew. When he got in a zone, he was unstoppable. Made some big time shots.

4. We showed toughness to get back in the game and take a lead. When we were up by 2 or 3 with the ball, we could not get a shot to fall to gain separation. The crowd was involved and ready to push the team forward. Our offense (shooting) was not 'on' tonight. Credit good defense by Utah State for a good part of that.

5. Green (4:31 left) and Owens (1:05 left) fouling out was big.... The Owens charging foul was questionable..... Yemi played the rest of the way (with Mickey). Ogunoye had trouble at the line in OT.

6. We shortened our bench in the second half. Meloy, Fowlkes and Vealy did not play any(?) in the 2nd half. I thought Riouse did a decent job on Carroll but his legs got tired at the end of the game. Wonder why we didn't put fresh legs in at the end sometime?

7. I thought our defense was actually pretty good. Not great, but also not bad. They made some good shots when they were well defended. They got open looks - but so did we.

8. The refs did not cost us the game.... but they didn't help us either. Do we ever get any home cooking? How about just a even trade? The 'Mid-Con Championship' ref was back (wasn't that him?)..... boy was he back. Why in the world do we let that guy in our gym? Utah State hand checked Green all night long.... I'd have no trouble with that if they (our friend) had not called us for - hand checking. I don't blame USU - whatever works. Utah State was also traveling (shuffling feet) - no call.

9. Tutt misses a running jumper at the end of regulation with about 3 seconds left and Mickey one hands a shot off the rebound also missing. Mickey did not realize that he had time to gather the ball in and shoot the ball. Oh well....

[EagleFanatic]

I think Micky had alost 10 seconds because the the other team rebounded and still had time to shoot a half court shot, but like you said, oh well.

[ORUTerry]

I was watching the clock and Mickey 'shot' the ball with 2.6 seconds left....

[MrsSmith]

This can be a positive for us. We'll see on Wednesday how they respond.

Tutt's shot was so off at times tonight - he didn't look himself - I hope that doesn't happen anymore.

[Dr. Cornelius]

We stunk. Couldn't an open shot all night. USU deserved to win. They beat us to every loose ball and always made the extra pass. Very good ball movement. If we make our shots the refs aren't a factor.

[ORUTerry]

Here is the story on the ORU web-site....

http://www.orugoldeneagles.com/index.php?url_channel_id=2&url_publish_channel_id=3833&url_subchannel_id=&well_id=2

[tmh8286]

And yet, Dr. C, we shot poorly in the first half and still had the ball with the game tied at the end of regulation and had two shots to win it. I disagree that we "stunk". Last year USU averaged 72 pts/game. Tonight they were at 61 in regulation. I really felt that this was the best defensive performance that I've seen from a Scott Sutton team. It may have looked otherwise because USU had some guys capable of incredible\y fast releases off the pass or dribble, but I thought that the effort was there.

If you consider that we shot very poorly in the first half, and yet if we would have made JUST ONE of those shots we win the game.

We may have been outhustled at times, but there were quite a few of those times when the ball just took a USU bounce. It happens, and that's all there is to it.

Overall a decent outing with a heart breaking conclusion, in my opinion.

[tmh8286]

After reviewing the box score I would have a hard time defending my claim for our good defense, given that USU shot 47% for the game!

But our shooting in the first half was even worse than I would have guessed - at only 29%.

[orumom]

USU has made it to the dance 4 of the last 6 years. Our coaches were the most intense that I have ever seen them!!! Intensity & focus roll down.

As ORUterry would say this is a marathon, not a spint. Better this happened now than later. We knew we wouldn't win every game this season, but now the question is, what will the team learn from it?

[EagleFanatic]

they were incredible shooters, but i think the defense was still good on our part.

[Dr. Cornelius]

I thought our interior defense was subpar. Our guards did a good job for the most part. I did think that #20 was traveling all night but if the ref isn't gonna call it... They got way too many easy baskets.

Did anyone else notice Caleb being forcibly turned by the hips several times so he couldn't get an entry pass? They were pawing at him all night. Frustrating. If I were Sutton I would have been ejected.

[ORUTerry]

Our interior defense was mostly okay. We had some trouble with back screens with our guards not covering - which allowed their backcourt to get baskets under the net.

[ORUTerry]

Just reviewed the game stats:

1. Way too many turnovers (18); Utah State also had 18. Guess you can expect that in an early season game. We must take better care of the ball. Buitt had six (!) turnovers to go with his five assists.

2. Beside poor shooting percentage for ORU, the thing that sticks out is the minutes played:

Tutt played 43 minutes

Bluitt played all 45 minutes - he never sat down!

Owens only played 20 minutes and,

Green only played 23 minutes

(having these guys on the bench that many minutes was a big factor in the game)

The only true subs used were Ogunoye (22 minutes) and Riouse (26 minutes). Fowlkes (4), Meloy (4) and Vealy (3) did not play significant minutes.

3. Very poor (and very un-like ORU) perimeter shooting. Shot 19.0% from 3-point line; only made 4 (of 21) three-pointers. Tutt made 3 and Riouse made the other one.

[maniac prez]

OK, I don't get it. What do you do to a zone, unless you are completely on from the outside, you have to drive and dish. Make the zone work, run those guys around!!!! And it was way too much pass and stand, or pass and ken or chris runs the baseline(which I don't think we passed it there even once). I think that Larry can't be playing guard against a zone, you have to have scoring threats at guard against a zone. I think our post game would have been way more effective if we rotated larry, caleb and mickey around on the inside and then used chris, andrew, eric at guard. I think eric would have been great in this game, use his athleticism to get inside, dish, hit a short jumper, and then use him on D on #20. We blew on the boards, we gave up a lot of second chances, I don't know what the rebounding edge was for the game, but I noticed alot of second chances for those guys. Big Mick was awesome, drawing charges, getting boards, blocking shots, putting a few in, I thought he was great after a slow start in pre-season. If we have so many athletic players and we are supposed to be so deep, we don't we ever sub!!!! It seemed like the only subs we had were because of fouls. Ken couldn't hit the broad side of a barn door in the first, and yet he didn't come out but for like 2 minutes!!! Caleb has to be smarter on D. JB has to do better with the ball, so many stupid mistakes, we need the mid-con leader in ast-TO ratio back, who is this imposter that we've seen for 3 games? This team will only go as far as its PG takes 'em, he makes a few better passes or drives and dishes instead of forcing some shots... who knows. You gotta love the resolve of the guys though, they fought back hard and made it back, caleb and larry fouling out did us in, we needed Ken to make it happen one more time for us, just didn't get the bounce this time... Hopefully we'll use a few more legs in Alaska, we're gonna play too many good teams this year to not sub...

[ORU GRAD]

Well , I've tried to keep quiet but I got to tell you we just simple got out coached. Yes, we shot poorly but we were not doing anything in the first half to exploit the zone. Where was the T? Sutton should have had one when Carrol traveled and had a no call. The final play was Tutt and the whole place and team knew it. Mickey was doing great and should have had that last shot. In my opinion their Coach was the difference factor. I know you guys don't like to hear it but even my wife noticed how their coach made a difference. I looked down and our coach in the OT was sitting with his head in his hands. Just my opinion and I'm sure you don't want to say anything about it! I love ORU as much as anyone but we have to do a better job of intensity.

[tmh8286]

Where was the T? Sutton should have had one when Carrol traveled and had a no call.

I said to ORUTerry that I thought Sutton should have been all over that call, and he said that Sutton had turned to say something to someone on the bench and his back was to the play, so he didn't see it. Just one of those things.

I assume you're talking about they play where Larry picked up his third foul?