2019-2020 Expectations

[Eaglefan 21]

Saw on Verbal Commits that Emir is transfering. I always thought he played hard but I'm guessing he wasn't a fit at center for the defense schemes we are running.

[ORU GRAD]

 

1 hour ago, Eaglefan 21 said:

Saw on Verbal Commits that Emir is transfering. I always thought he played hard but I'm guessing he wasn't a fit at center for the defense schemes we are running.

Emir did not play that last game and Jurgens did not either. Maybe we lose both? I did like some aspects of Jurgens game though. I hope he stays. However, that leaves two openings as we know today. I have a feeling there are more changes to come. South Dakota State was one and done last night against Texas.

Their season is now over. I hope North Dakota wins the game tonight. 

[theeagleman5]

Love the Bison tonight teased with the Over....in fact, TheEagleman loves it a LOT....

[Dr. Cornelius]

On 3/19/2019 at 1:10 PM, Old Titan said:

Does anyone else EVER consider defensive play in making these off-season predictions?

Until whoever is on the roster - and on the sidelines - commits to making fundamental defensive play a priority, I see no reason for the results to dramatically change in the near future.

SDSU has done pretty well the past 4-5 seasons completely disregarding the defensive end.

[theeagleman5]

Cha-ching....NDSU advances to face Duke on Friday....its like taking candy from a baby....

[ORU GRAD]

4 hours ago, ORU GRAD said:

 

Emir did not play that last game and Jurgens did not either. Maybe we lose both? I did like some aspects of Jurgens game though. I hope he stays. However, that leaves two openings as we know today. I have a feeling there are more changes to come. South Dakota State was one and done last night against Texas.

Their season is now over. I hope North Dakota wins the game tonight. 

Got my hope tonight. Bison win and going to play Duke! 

[ORUTerry]

Ahmedic seems like a nice guy and also enjoys ORU. He worked hard in the off season to lose weight and increase his quickness. Emir can set good screens and is the best player to run the pick-and-roll. Unfortunately our guards did they him the ball. 

[Old Titan]

15 hours ago, Dr. Cornelius said:

SDSU has done pretty well the past 4-5 seasons completely disregarding the defensive end.

Yeah, and if ORU had a 3,000-point scorer like Mike Daum returning next season, defense wouldn’t matter that much to me, either. 

But, Caleb Green ain’t walking through that door next year. Neither is Greg Sutton, Anthony Roberts, Mark Acres, or Richard Fuqua.  ORU needs to learn to play some defense, period, or it’s just going to be higher-scoring losses next year.

(And to suggest SDSU played no defense during the last few years is really a stretch, though their last two games of this season were pretty weak defensive efforts).

 

[Dr. Cornelius]

13 hours ago, Old Titan said:

Yeah, and if ORU had a 3,000-point scorer like Mike Daum returning next season, defense wouldn’t matter that much to me, either. 

But, Caleb Green ain’t walking through that door next year. Neither is Greg Sutton, Anthony Roberts, Mark Acres, or Richard Fuqua.  ORU needs to learn to play some defense, period, or it’s just going to be higher-scoring losses next year.

(And to suggest SDSU played no defense during the last few years is really a stretch, though their last two games of this season were pretty weak defensive efforts).

 

HAVE to get stops to win. Completely agree on that. Unless some pride is taken in shutting down the guy in guy in front them ORU will continue to lose.

I was being facetious regarding SDSU... they obviously didn't ignore defense but they have been an offense-first team - relying on their firepower to overwhelm opponents.

 

[ORU GRAD]

Now that our recruiting is pretty much over with 13 players on no big to add depth to our Roster, what are the expectations? We picked up a point guard grad transfer in Burns, a 6'5 grad transfer in Lazenby (OU) along with new freshmen Abmas and Milton. Also, Jones will be a new addition as he sat out last year. I am assuming Lazenby will play the 3 with Abmas and Fuqua playing at the point. Jones should play the 2 as a shooting guard. We will most likely see a 3 guard lineup or even go to a four-guard set. An 18 win season may be a possibility.  ???????????????

[Dr. Cornelius]

Unless Lazenby is a walkon I don’t understand the signing. Will he get minutes over Lācis or Weaver?

Without a replacement for Kerwin in the middle I think finishing under .500 is a big possibility.

[ORU82]

I too have concerns.  Not to put Lazenby down but his resume so far is vanilla at best.  Unless he really catches fire I would not be playing him over either Lacis or Weaver.  As a matter of fact I would only be using him to give others a breather.  However I could be totally wrong.  I would have liked to have gotten another “big” to take Kerwin’s place.  Oh well, I guess we will see soon enough.  Go Golden Eagles!

[Old Titan]

Very underwhelmed so far with the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 signing periods for ORU.

With the (hopefully notable) exception of Abmas, the signings announced so far were the stuff of late-summer after-thoughts during the 20-win years.

[Keenan Henderson]

2019-2020 will be a completely different team then what Mills had his first two years.  ORU still has some good inside players in K.O. and E-man but everyone else  on the team plays on the perimeter.  Hopefully they use that to their advantage by playing a more fast paced up tempo style that uses some trapping on defense.  No more inside out and trying to control the glass.  The pieces are there  for a winning season and possible top three finish in league play, if they can stay healthy and come together in unity.  

[ORUJason]

How will they defend teams with 2 true forwards or a center and a true forward?  This looks like a 4 guard lineup and if Obanor or EMan get injured, then foul trouble could lead to a 5 guard lineup.  Where is the beef?

[Old Titan]

I’m guessing this roster gives up a LOT of points per game. 

Remains to be seen if they can score enough to compensate.

[ORU GRAD]

Now that our recruiting is pretty much over with 13 players on no big to add depth to our Roster, what are the expectations? We picked up a point guard grad transfer in Burns, a 6'5 grad transfer in Lazenby (OU) along with new freshmen Abmas and Milton. Also, Jones will be a new addition as he sat out last year. I am assuming Lazenby will play the 3 with Abmas and Fuqua playing at the point. Jones should play the 2 as a shooting guard. We will most likely see a 3 guard lineup or even go to a four-guard set. An 18 win season may be a possibility.  ???????????????

If a starting five of Eman, Obanor, Weaver, Lacis, and Kerns would happen, then we only have Lazenby and Jones that can step in for a 3 and a 4 maybe, but really we have nine guards and four at the most frontcourt players. We will be playing a three-guard lineup most of the time and even if foul trouble with the bigs means four-guard lineup. Why they chose not to replace at least one of the bigs that are gone is puzzling.

[Dr. Cornelius]

It's still early... When was the last time the actual roster for ORU basketball on the night of the first pre-season game was the same as in the early signing period? I still think we'll see some changes (just based on history).