Review of 19-20 season

[Keenan Henderson]

Any thoughts on the past season? Maybe your favorite game, player or moment. What worked or did not work for the Golden Eagles? Keep the faith in tough times: Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

[ORU GRAD]

On 3/19/2020 at 10:27 PM, Keenan Henderson said:

Any thoughts on the past season? Maybe your favorite game, player or moment. What worked or did not work for the Golden Eagles? Keep the faith in tough times: Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Well, I guess I will start this discussion. This season has been full of surprises. Some positive and some negative. I will start with the negative to end on a positive note.

1. Loss of D.J at the beginning of the season. 2. Terrible non-conference home schedule with very little competition and cream puffs. 3.  Poor senior transfer from        Oklahoma (Wasted Scholarship) 4. Terrible loss to Denver with a few seconds on the clock and foul on three point shot to help lose that game that would have given us a 10-6 record for the conference. 5. On road win/loss record was 4-13. 

1.The great transfer point guard Dre Burns. 2. The unexpected addition of Freshman recruit Max Abmas  3. Addition of Elijah Lufile with big future upside  4. Nice game against Omaha in the Summit League Tournament especially the last half. 5 Eman had a great season overall.

Hopefully a good recruiting year for 20-21. 

[Keenan Henderson]

Would agree with you ORU grad. The only thing to maybe add is that RJ really came on strong at the end of the year. He had a 3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, which I think was first in the league. He may not be a great shooter or scorer but if RJ stays healthy he should be a leader next year.

[ORU GRAD]

11 hours ago, Keenan Henderson said:

Would agree with you ORU grad. The only thing to maybe add is that RJ really came on strong at the end of the year. He had a 3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, which I think was first in the league. He may not be a great shooter or scorer but if RJ stays healthy he should be a leader next year.

Yes, the last game of the season he showed up big for a small guard. He has the grit of a winner. 

[ORUJason]

RJ is quick and tenacious and he stayed healthy for most of last year.  He has grown in confidence, ability, and understanding how to use his speed to push the fast break and force opponent’s turnovers.  Hopefully he can stay healthy next year and continue to improve.

[theeagleman5]

TheEagleman loves RJ....he will be welcomed back.....also DJ Weaver will help to replace E-man.....Abmas was huge...gonna be a good one.....will Elijah start at Center???  or do we have someone coming in?....

[EagleManiac]

RJ is arguably the best guard on the court. He's got basketball IQ that nobody on the team even comes close to (Abmas will get there). I'll be interested to see if KO comes back next year. 

[Keenan Henderson]

32 minutes ago, EagleManiac said:

RJ is arguably the best guard on the court. He's got basketball IQ that nobody on the team even comes close to (Abmas will get there). I'll be interested to see if KO comes back next year. 

KO should be back because he already used his red shirt season, so if he transferred then he would lose a season. Thinking next year's starting five (unless they find a really good graduate transfer or someone gets injured): RJ, Max, DJ, K.O., and Lufile. Still unsure about recruiting: seems like the Eagles have commitments from Stevens and the high school center from Texas (6'8 Clover) but still no official signings. If they do sign those two then you would think that they would both be ready to help off the bench. Clover is rated highly in Texas high school basketball ( top 20-25), around where DJ was when he came to ORU.

[ORU GRAD]

1 hour ago, Keenan Henderson said:

KO should be back because he already used his red shirt season, so if he transferred then he would lose a season. Thinking next year's starting five (unless they find a really good graduate transfer or someone gets injured): RJ, Max, DJ, K.O., and Lufile. Still unsure about recruiting: seems like the Eagles have commitments from Stevens and the high school center from Texas (6'8 Clover) but still no official signings. If they do sign those two then you would think that they would both be ready to help off the bench. Clover is rated highly in Texas high school basketball ( top 20-25), around where DJ was when he came to ORU.

Add Kereem Thompson From East Central. Looks to be a great shooter and good height at 6' 6". Would come in with 3 years of elgibility. Like what I saw on video.

[ORUTerry]

I heard from a good source that Stevens and Clover signed LOI’s in the Fall. 

[ORU GRAD]

11 minutes ago, ORUTerry said:

I heard from a good source that Stevens and Clover signed LOI’s in the Fall. 

With Thompson verbally committed we still have two more scholarships available.  Maybe a Dre replacement and big.

[Old Titan]

1 hour ago, ORUTerry said:

I heard from a good source that Stevens and Clover signed LOI’s in the Fall. 

Would love to hear from your good source why that news was, for all intents & purposes, buried at the time. 

[Old Titan]

6 hours ago, ORU GRAD said:

Add Kereem Thompson From East Central. Looks to be a great shooter and good height at 6' 6". Would come in with 3 years of elgibility. Like what I saw on video.

From what I saw, he’s Hunter McLintock 2.0...

[Dr. Cornelius]

1 hour ago, Old Titan said:

From what I saw, he’s Hunter McLintock 2.0...

McClintock's video did have superior music.

All these YouTube highlight videos should be taken with a boulder of salt... I do think Thompson will fare a little better though. He scores in a variety of ways and has size at 6'6" which is something we have lacked in a guard for a while.

[ORU GRAD]

13 minutes ago, Dr. Cornelius said:

McClintock's video did have superior music.

All these YouTube highlight videos should be taken with a boulder of salt... I do think Thompson will fare a little better though. He scores in a variety of ways and has size at 6'6" which is something we have lacked in a guard for a while.

Solo is a pretty good judge of talent. Dre was pretty decent talent.

[theeagleman5]

Hunter McLintock….LOL....any oldie but goodie.....I had forgotten about him.....probably a fine insurance salesman or HS Ass't coach right now.....

[Keenan Henderson]

Getting back to the year in review. The Eagles had talent, experience (5 seniors) and potential but never jelled together. We saw signs of it in three games: at IPFW (24 point blowout that was not even that close), South Dakota (15 point win agaisnt a 20 game winner), and the Omaha game in the tournament (27 point blowout). Not sure why the pieces just never seemed to come together but that is the difference between a good team and a great team.

[Old Titan]

1 hour ago, Keenan Henderson said:

Not sure why the pieces just never seemed to come together but that is the difference between a good team and a great team.

Actually, it’s the difference between a team whose identity is obsessed by 3-point shooting instead of consistent defense.
 

Maybe some day this coaching staff will simply amass enough offensive firepower to overcome their annual defensive shortcomings. 
 

But, don’t hold your breath...