21-22 Schedule

[ORU40]

1 hour ago, oruvoice said:

Yeah. Not sure about the complaints? This is about the same schedule as any other, over the past 20 years, with the addition of OSU at home. 

Personally, I was hoping for something a little better then what they've doing for the last 20 years. I was hoping for something more like-and I hate to say this- TU's OOC schedule (Air Force, Oregon St. Loyola Marymount-where by the way former ORU guard Charles Dorsey played before transferring to ORU, Ark Little Rock, So. Illinois) Only 1 power five conference team, but good teams that the average fan has heard of and might go so see play. 

 I knew we wouldn't be playing Duke and Carolina at home, but SW Christian, Rodgers St. and Haskell!! Those are home games for a team that just went to the sweet 16 that wont draw 500 people!

That's my complaint, I wanted a little bit of a schedule upgrade to build on the sweet 16 energy and maybe draw a few more fans into the newly renovated Mabee Center!

[Old Titan]

28 minutes ago, ORU40 said:

Personally, I was hoping for something a little better then what they've doing for the last 20 years. I was hoping for something more like-and I hate to say this- TU's OOC schedule (Air Force, Oregon St. Loyola Marymount-where by the way former ORU guard Charles Dorsey played before transferring to ORU, Ark Little Rock, So. Illinois) Only 1 power five conference team, but good teams that the average fan has heard of and might go so see play. 

 I knew we wouldn't be playing Duke and Carolina at home, but SW Christian, Rodgers St. and Haskell!! Those are home games for a team that just went to the sweet 16 that wont draw 500 people!

That's my complaint, I wanted a little bit of a schedule upgrade to build on the sweet 16 energy and maybe draw a few more fans into the newly renovated Mabee Center!

Those games cost money.  And, the opponent has to think they're getting something out of the match-up in the first place.

Low-and-mid-majors get upwards of six figures and more to play at Power 5 schools; no idea how much TU had to pay or promise to get Air Force and Oregon State in the Reynolds Center; I'm guessing those are home-and-home match-ups, maybe even 2-for-1's.

And we all know the best way for a coach at ANY level to get fired is losing to that li'l ol' bible college on South Lewis; Max Abmas or no Max Abmas.  90% of coaches look at playing ORU as a "lose/lose" proposition:  beat ORU, and it's merely expected, not celebrated.  Lose to ORU, and the wolves appear at the door.

Best thing ORU can do is just play who they can; and beat them.  Hard to do much more, all things considered.

[ORU40]

19 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

Those games cost money.  And, the opponent has to think they're getting something out of the match-up in the first place.

Low-and-mid-majors get upwards of six figures and more to play at Power 5 schools; no idea how much TU had to pay or promise to get Air Force and Oregon State in the Reynolds Center; I'm guessing those are home-and-home match-ups, maybe even 2-for-1's.

And we all know the best way for a coach at ANY level to get fired is losing to that li'l ol' bible college on South Lewis; Max Abmas or no Max Abmas.  90% of coaches look at playing ORU as a "lose/lose" proposition:  beat ORU, and it's merely expected, not celebrated.  Lose to ORU, and the wolves appear at the door.

Best thing ORU can do is just play who they can; and beat them.  Hard to do much more, all things considered.

A year ago I would have agreed with you 100% OT, but right now there are a lot of young low and mid-major and lower level power 5 conference coach's and schools that want to get their program a boost and  would love to get a chance at a sweet 16 team with the nations leading scorer. If they do beat us, it's a win they can now publicize, the game will more then likely get some ESPN time- at least a mention and if you lose you can still say your playing a sweet 16 team (look at the UTA OOC schedule announcement).  

We'll still get our wins, and winning the conference tourney is our ticket to the big dance anyway, so I think upgrading our OOC schedule would have helped in several ways- media, attendance, fan interest, recruiting etc...

It's just my humble opinion, but I think we should have used our sweet 16/Max return momentum to get some better opponents, particularly into the Mabee Center while the excitement and energy was there!       

[theeagleman5]

TheEagleman thinks that the road schedule is just fine.....very tough games but all winnable.....that's the good.....the home schedule while better than in the recent past still includes patsies SW Christian and Haskell...no offense to those fine institutions but playing them is a disgrace...sorry but ORU has no business scheduling  either.....Rogers State is fine....they usually show up and give us a fight at least and several years ago almost won at Mabee Center....but let's steer clear of the NAIA teams please.....just my 2 cents.....

[Old Titan]

1 hour ago, ORU40 said:

A year ago I would have agreed with you 100% OT, but right now there are a lot of young low and mid-major and lower level power 5 conference coach's and schools that want to get their program a boost and  would love to get a chance at a sweet 16 team with the nations leading scorer. If they do beat us, it's a win they can now publicize, the game will more then likely get some ESPN time- at least a mention and if you lose you can still say your playing a sweet 16 team (look at the UTA OOC schedule announcement).  

We'll still get our wins, and winning the conference tourney is our ticket to the big dance anyway, so I think upgrading our OOC schedule would have helped in several ways- media, attendance, fan interest, recruiting etc...

It's just my humble opinion, but I think we should have used our sweet 16/Max return momentum to get some better opponents, particularly into the Mabee Center while the excitement and energy was there!       

Well, again, home games cost a lot of money, and you have to convince the opponent to come in the first place.

I would imagine that everyone at ORU involved with the scheduling process would love to have seen big names playing in the Mabee Center again as a result of the Sweet Sixteen run and the Mabee Center renovation.

But, the reality is that ORU had a NET rating of 125 last season, sandwiched between a 10-15 Butler squad and Morehead State, both of whom upon inspection have worse home schedules this coming season than ORU.  It's just stinking hard to get big schools to come play when you're a low major!

[Keenan Henderson]

College Sports Madness has begun their top 144 team list and are up to about 75.  ORU is ranked 138 (been quite some time since the Eagles were on the list, try Green/Tutt days).  Some other opponents include Tulsa at 131, TCU at 116 and SDSU at 108.  So ORU is ranked second in the Summit League Predictions.  They think the Eagles will be in the CBI or CIT tournament at the end of the year.

[Bogus Smith]

45 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said:

College Sports Madness has begun their top 144 team list .....  They think the Eagles will be in the CBI or CIT tournament at the end of the year.

Let's hope that they are wrong.  Hope we can get a regular season championship with an NIT bid at a minimum.

[Keenan Henderson]

South Dakota State has their top nine players returning from last year, seems like we say that every year.  Baring a rash of injuries the Jackrabbits are going to be a handful no matter who they play. They have won most of the recent regular season championships but are only 1-3 in the tournament the last three years.  That would be ORU's saving grace that SDSU falls apart in the League Tournament again next year.

[TrueBlue82]

Overall, I think that it’s a decent schedule which will test the team without overwhelming them.   After all, how many years has it been since ORU had more HOME OOC games than AWAY/NEUTRAL???  My primary gripes are: 1) three non D-1 games, and 2) no exempt tourney appearances.  If we had scheduled another team similar to UTA at home to replace one of the non D-1 games, then I would be very pleased with the overall schedule. 

[theeagleman5]

Haskell???...geez....

[dave]

Totally agree Trueblue.

 

[Dr. BB]

I too was disappointed to see the 3 games (Rogers State, Southwestern Christian, Haskell) that were scheduled at the new Mabee Center.  I agree that surely some schools from the Horizon, AAC, Sunbelt, A-10, Conference USA, would be willing to come play us on a rotating basis.  I completed my doctorate at University of North Texas years ago, and that is a school worth considering.  At this point, even scheduling a Division II school like Midwestern State or West Texas A&M would be better than the 3 mentioned above.  The state of Texas alone has so many universities in Division I, it just seems that at least ONE would take the place of Haskell.  How about the Southland Conference that ORU had a brief stint in membership?  Anyway, I'm still excited about the upcoming season, but I feel that we missed a huge opportunity in showcasing our newly remodeled Mabee Center due to weak scheduling. 

[theeagleman5]

Dr. BB nails it in one of his first posts.....no wonder this guy has a doctorate.....brilliant commentary, sir!.....

[Dr. BB]

Thanks for the very kind words, Eagleman 5. 

[GoldenEagleFan]

Oklahoma State… return game (2020-21)

Tulsa…. Return game (2020-21 was canceled)

Houston Baptist… return game (2020-21 was canceled)

Missouri State… return game (2020-21 was canceled

UT-Arlington… return game (2020-21 was canceled). 
 

TCU… obviously a $$ game

Central Ark… new home/home series?

Colorado State… $$ game or new H/H Series?

It looks like the bulk of the schedule are return games from last season that got canceled….

In terms of Dr BB asking about scheduling D2 teams in Texas, I would assume those schools would cost ORU more money coming from farther distances? 

[GoldenEagleFan]

On 8/26/2021 at 4:29 PM, ORU40 said:

A year ago I would have agreed with you 100% OT, but right now there are a lot of young low and mid-major and lower level power 5 conference coach's and schools that want to get their program a boost and  would love to get a chance at a sweet 16 team with the nations leading scorer. If they do beat us, it's a win they can now publicize, the game will more then likely get some ESPN time- at least a mention and if you lose you can still say your playing a sweet 16 team (look at the UTA OOC schedule announcement).  

We'll still get our wins, and winning the conference tourney is our ticket to the big dance anyway, so I think upgrading our OOC schedule would have helped in several ways- media, attendance, fan interest, recruiting etc...

It's just my humble opinion, but I think we should have used our sweet 16/Max return momentum to get some better opponents, particularly into the Mabee Center while the excitement and energy was there!       

There isn’t a single P5 team in America that would want to play a good mid major team in a true road game. It just doesn’t happen. They have absolutely nothing to gain.
 

If they win, it was because they are supposed to. If they lose, the coach is almost immediately on the hot seat… in fact, a lot of the schools you are thinking would be interested (“lower level P5 programs looking to get a boost”) already have coaches on the hot seat, because they are “lower level P5 programs”. Recipe for getting fired is to go lose a road game against a mid major program!

[ORU40]

1 hour ago, GoldenEagleFan said:

There isn’t a single P5 team in America that would want to play a good mid major team in a true road game. It just doesn’t happen. They have absolutely nothing to gain.
 

If they win, it was because they are supposed to. If they lose, the coach is almost immediately on the hot seat… in fact, a lot of the schools you are thinking would be interested (“lower level P5 programs looking to get a boost”) already have coaches on the hot seat, because they are “lower level P5 programs”. Recipe for getting fired is to go lose a road game against a mid major program!

With all due respect GoldenEagleFan, it happens every year. Pac 12 sweet 16 Cinderella Oregon St. is playing at TU next season! That's definitely punching down for the Beavers and from a coach absolutely not on the hot seat. 

The question for ORU is;  do you want to be a basketball name program?- which by the way, President Roberts absolutely did!!!! or do we want to be a small mid-major that plays NAIA schools that none of us has heard of because its cheap and easy??

There's plenty of reasons and excuses to take the cheap and easy route, when President Roberts was still alive I played at ORU,  and he fully emphasized and supported that a nationally recognized BB program would bring attention and money to the ministry and university. It may have been a 100 years ago (and I hate to be that guy) but the reason in the 2 years I played at ORU we played at Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, Arkansas, and at home against Texas, Texas A&M, Okla St. and LSU and Tulsa twice a year was OR believed in a top notch BB program and the costs were outweighed by the benefits!!

College BB is like a shark, you have to keep moving, either grow or go backwards- you cant stand still, do we want to build on this years success or do we want to head back to small school oblivion? 

I just thought that since the team and coaching staff had over achieved and produced a miracle with a sweet 16 appearance we would maybe want to build on that success and upgrade the schedule a little. Lets build on our achievements and move forward not backwards!!!

Go Eagles!!!

 

 

[Old Titan]

When it comes to scheduling, Tulsa is a different animal than ORU, pure and simple.

Tulsa is an upper-level mid-major (or quasi high-major program; take your pick). They come from a football-playing conference with a decent cable TV contract that traditionally is a multi-bid league in basketball.  The best team in their league by February of each season is a Top 25 team, and last season one of their schools, Houston, made it to the Final Four.

ORU, on the other hand, has been a low-major for decades, coming from a basketball-centric conference (no D1 football) with a paltry little regional TV network, annually limited to a single automatic-qualifier for the big dance.  The best team in the league is rarely ranked in the Top 25 at any time during the season, and their best finish ever is two schools making it to the Sweet Sixteen (Valpo and ORU).

That is why a school such as Oregon State can justify playing at a school like Tulsa, and even then only on occasion.  But, they can hardly justify playing at an ORU, even for a paycheck.  It just would not fly with their fans, unless there were extenuating circumstances, such as a former Beaver star being the head coach of the Golden Eagles, or something similar.

It's going to take sustained excellence, from more than one program and over several seasons, for schools in the Summit League to raise their scheduling profile, and that includes ORU.  The encouraging thing is that ORU, NDSU and SDSU appear poised to possibly do just that very thing, IF their current coaches stay put (instead of jumping for the first decent job that comes along, as typically occurs) and the XDSU's don't elevate to D1 football status and jump to another league. 

All things considered, we could be entering a "Golden Age" of Summit League basketball, with the ultimate payoff being multiple bids for the NCAA tournament (as women's basketball has earned the past couple of seasons).  THAT is the sort of development that will ultimately improve ORU's chances for a better home non-conference schedule.