Dr. Cornelius Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 2019-20 Predictions Athlon Street & Smith Lindy's NDSU NDSU NDSU ORU USD USD USD ORU ORU SDSU Omaha Omaha PFW SDUS SDSU Omaha PFW PFW UND WIU WIU WIU UND Denver Denver Denver UND All Summit League Athlon Street & Smith Lindy's Matt Holba (PFW) Tyler Hagedorn (USD) Vinnie Shahid (NDSU) Emannuel Nzekwesi (ORU) Emannuel Nzekwesi (ORU) Stanley Umude (USD) Vinnie Shahid (NDSU) Kevin Obanor (ORU) Kobe Webster (WIU) Stanley Umude (USD) Stanley Umude (USD) Emannuel Nzekwesi (ORU) Kobe Webster (WIU) Kobe Webster (WIU) Kevin Obanor (ORU) JT Gibson (Omaha) Triston Simpson (USD) Tyler Hagedorn (USD) Tyson Ward (NDSU) Kevin Obanor (ORU) Matt Holba (PFW) Marlon Stewart (UND) Matt Pile (Omaha) Tyson Ward (NDSU) Tyler Hagedorn (USD) Player of the Year Athlon Street & Smith Lindy's Emannuel Nzekwesi (ORU) Tyler Hagedorn (USD) Stanley Umude (USD) Newcomer of the Year Athlon Street & Smith Lindy's Doug Wilson (SDSU) Deondre Burns (ORU) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Thx for the composite view, Doc! In response to those tweets and emails several weeks ago re: MidMajorMadness.com picking ORU to finish second, I said something about wanting to see these particular publications instead, before assuming how ORU stacked up against the rest of the league. Well, the jury has spoken: ORU is considered a legitimate contender this year by the experts. I think a 2nd or 3rd Place finish would be great, considering how the program has languished of late. But, what kind of record are we talking about to finish that high: 12-4? 11-5? 10-6? That would mean a handful of road victories. But, where? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUJason Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Gotta win on the road against WIU, Denver, Omaha, and UND probably. Winning their home games is definitely a key as well. Even with some of Scott Sutton's weaker teams, until the last few years, he consistently won a lot of home games and was usually at worst a 4 or 5 seed in the Summit League tournament. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 27 minutes ago, ORUJason said: Gotta win on the road against WIU, Denver, Omaha, and UND probably. Winning their home games is definitely a key as well. Even with some of Scott Sutton's weaker teams, until the last few years, he consistently won a lot of home games and was usually at worst a 4 or 5 seed in the Summit League tournament. Most seasons since joining the Mid-Con/Summit, an ORU home loss in conference play was considered an abomination. Now, not so much. Need to get back to that sort of home court advantage if you want to finish in the upper division, similar to what the Dakota schools currently enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Win at home and split on the road is generally a great recipe for attaining contender status, which would lead to a 12-4 record. At this point, I think we still drop one at home, so 11-5 is more realistic. This would probably land us as the 2 or 3 seed, right where the pundits are predicting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 23 hours ago, TrueBlue82 said: Win at home and split on the road is generally a great recipe for attaining contender status, which would lead to a 12-4 record. At this point, I think we still drop one at home, so 11-5 is more realistic. This would probably land us as the 2 or 3 seed, right where the pundits are predicting. ...and yet when I delve into ORU's conference schedule, virtually every week looks at best like a split to me. Until somehow convinced otherwise, I'm still thinking something along the lines of 9-7; maybe 10-6, and a 4th-to-6th-in-the-middle-of-the-pack type of finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 Paul Mills @CoachMills I couldn’t be more excited to begin this journey with these guys! Practice #1 will happen later today. HERE. WE. GO. Sounds like Coach Mills is ready to kick some A$$...O/U prediction for wins this season remains at 15.5.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 So, am I a "Debbie Downer" for suggesting that the Athlon Summit League Preseason Player Of The Year might not be the best player on his own team? (Which is no slight of E-Man; just sayin' that Obanor kid was REALLY good the second half of the conference schedule last year.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cornelius Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Old Titan said: So, am I a "Debbie Downer" for suggesting that the Athlon Summit League Preseason Player Of The Year might not be the best player on his own team? (Which is no slight of E-Man; just sayin' that Obanor kid was REALLY good the second half of the conference schedule last year.) I generally agree that KO has a higher ceiling (already showing he can shoot well from the outside as well as on the block) but this team will only go as far as E-Man will take them. In order for ORU to have a successful season Nzekwesi needs to play like a POY candidate. Below is a blurb from Lindy's preseason preview on Obanor: Quote Though he received the Summit League's Sixth-man award, Kevin Obanor started Oral Roberts' final seven games and racked up double-doubles in five of them. He averaged 18.9 points and 9.7 rebounds in that stretch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 If ORU can just get ANY decent guard play this year (particularly on defense), those guys could BOTH have great years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cornelius Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 Just now, Old Titan said: If ORU can just get ANY decent guard play this year (particularly on defense), those guys could BOTH have great years. That's the big question... If Burns can help spell Sam, ease Abmas in, and RJ back I think ORU is definitely worthy of a top-3 preseason pick. Big if though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cornelius Posted October 7, 2019 Author Share Posted October 7, 2019 Official Summit League Pre-Season polls: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 Check out the comment from Elijah Lufile's brother Meshack - hope he's right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 TheEagleman won't believe it until confirmed by Shadrack and Obendego..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Ken Pomeroy’s preseason ranking of all 353 D-1 teams is out, and he’s not as excited about ORU (or the Bison) as everyone else: 129. South Dakota 165. North Dakota State 170. Omaha 194. ORU 208. South Dakota State 243. Fort Wayne 264. North Dakota 296. Western Illinois 303. Denver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 ORU non-conference D-1 opponent rankings, per KenPom. While he agrees with most that Iowa is a borderline Top-25 team, he also really likes Creighton and OSU. On the other end of the spectrum, he has Chicago State as arguably the worst team in all of D-1 basketball: 36. Creighton 40. Oklahoma State 41. Iowa 62. Wichita State 72. BYU 100. Tulsa 166. Missouri St. 259. Central Arkansas (exhibition) 282. Houston Baptist 351. Chicago St. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cornelius Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 12 hours ago, Old Titan said: Ken Pomeroy’s preseason ranking of all 353 D-1 teams is out, and he’s not as excited about ORU (or the Bison) as everyone else: 129. South Dakota 165. North Dakota State 170. Omaha 194. ORU 208. South Dakota State 243. Fort Wayne 264. North Dakota 396. Western Illinois 303. Denver Bart Torvik rankings for comparison: Ken Pomeroy Bart Torvik USD 129 137 NDSU 165 144 Omaha 170 268 ORU 194 180 SDSU 208 319 Ft. Wayne 243 292 UND 264 221 Denver 303 284 Western Illinois 396 253 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 CBS sports has ORU listed as 236 in their poll, behind Omaha and SDSU. They mention K.O. and Eman as being a solid 1-2 punch inside and nothing else about the team. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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