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ORU vs. NDSU Semi Final


theeagleman5

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A really disappointing end to the season.....and last night was why ORU needed to get one of the top 2 seeds and the night off....we were gassed......and outclassed.....TheEagleman has no explanation for the lack of playing time for our bigs and strange game plan against an NDSU squad that the coaches were very familiar with...still SMH over such a listless performance against the Bison....in a situation where we should have been playing with a ton of emotion.....really one of the most head scratching games of the past few seasons......hopefully ORU will get a CBI/CIT bid and a chance to finish on a more positive note.....this was terrible.....BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!   🤮

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Another thing that was surprising about last night was the performance of the veterans: Francis, DJ, Kareem, and Jurgens. These guys have been at ORU for a combined 12 seasons and were the core group from last season. Yet in the biggest game of the year they all struggled going 4-20 from the field. I can understand one or two having an off night but all four? That is very strange and basically they had the same problem in Fargo.

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I have a hard time thinking we were "gassed", after a week off and just the second game in two nights. 

I recall when I was that age and can't imagine being gassed. Maybe a little if we made it to game 3 in 3 nights.

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4 hours ago, EagleManiac said:

Agreed. It was a great read and summarized the struggles of the season well. Does anybody have the ability to post it here? 

Did u try to look at it sometimes u get a few free views

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4 hours ago, ORU40 said:

Unfortunately, it wouldn't surprise me at all! If you were a big, would you want to play in this current system? I'm worried about the transfer portal and the effect on recruiting.

Agree with you 100%

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13 minutes ago, jmg1984 said:

Did u try to look at it sometimes u get a few free views

I have a TW subscription and read it. I just thought others may want to read here, but not tech savvy enough to post it. 

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The Tulsa World?  Sorry but its been a crappy publication for 50 years.....🤮

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5 minutes ago, theeagleman5 said:

The Tulsa World?  Sorry but its been a crappy publication for 50 years.....🤮

It may not be a reputable news source like CNN or MSNBC, but we've had pretty good coverage this season from Bryce McKinnis and Bill Haisten. No complaints from me. 

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That loss last night just shows how hard it is to build a mid major that frequently goes to the NCAA tournament . Outside of the number 1 team The Zags, almost no one does.  ORU was hunted by other teams this year and you could tell NDSU wanted some payback after losing in the championship game last year.

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1 hour ago, EagleManiac said:

It may not be a reputable news source like CNN or MSNBC

Michael Jordan Reaction GIF

1 hour ago, EagleManiac said:

but we've had pretty good coverage this season from Bryce McKinnis and Bill Haisten. No complaints from me. 

Completely agree! Tulsa World coverage actually hasn't been too bad lately.

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6 hours ago, EagleManiac said:

Agreed. It was a great read and summarized the struggles of the season well. Does anybody have the ability to post it here? 

Check out this link: tulsaworld.com/tncms/asset/editorial/e7392728-9ea3-11ec-960a-3b198ee6169e
 

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4 hours ago, oruvoice said:

I have a hard time thinking we were "gassed", after a week off and just the second game in two nights. 

I recall when I was that age and can't imagine being gassed. Maybe a little if we made it to game 3 in 3 nights.

I could not agree with you more.  Last year 3 games in 3 nights including an OT game was not a problem.  Let's not make excuses people. 

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It’s a tough loss, and I agree that the coaches didn’t have a good game at all. However, coaches only have a couple of chances to try different strategies. If there were unlimited time, then eventually every coach would find the strategy that works best in a given game. With limited time though, a coach has to go with his gut.  
 

I would guess that the coaches simply didn’t think we could beat NDSU at their own game. Especially after they showed they could shut down Lufile. So, the alternative strategy is to play small and make them adjust to our game. As we saw, that didn’t work at all, but again, there’s really only a couple of  opportunities to pick a strategy in a game. We picked a strategy that didn’t work, but going to a big lineup could have been equally as bad, if not worse. Maybe next year we try something different. 

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I think Bill is spot on as much as I wish wasn't the case. Looking to the transfer portal will be critical. We have to get our defense figured out to become a complete team. Much like the San Diego Chargers under Dan Fouts and Air Correal they could put on an offensive show that amazed us all but couldn't stop the other team from scoring thus never winning a Super Bowl.

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TheEagleman agrees totally, 88.....Haiston hit the nail on the head on all counts.....Coach Mills needs to find some taller defensive players or ORU is never going to compete with the top teams in the Summit League....😬

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1 hour ago, eagle88 said:

Looking to the transfer portal will be critical.

We are not going to solve our defense problems in the portal. We have good defense players, Kareem, Carlos an Francis are very good defenders, we have bigger stronger athletes- we are not going to find a better athlete then Herron!!! If our defensive "strategy" remains to leave guys getting backed down one on one with no help, I don't care who we get in the portal, we are not going stop any one or beat any good teams(our last 2 home games and the conf tourney showed us this very clearly and painfully).  If we are going to continue to play small with this defensive scheme we can't be surprised when we remain a middle of the pack Summit league team!  

Not only is our defense "strategy" ridiculous, young guys or new guys coming into a program used to earn playing time initially on the defensive end of the court, for some reason we got away from that and it showed!! I really liked Eaglefan21's review of our roster and thoughts on potential transfers, the one I found most interesting was Phipps, I'm paraphrasing but basically a once sentence review that said seems to be a coaches favorite and doesn't need a bigger role. As you all know I was critical of Trey this year, and I apologize as that  was misplaced. It's coach Mills that made the error of playing him as much as he did. Why is he a favorite? I'm sure he's a very nice young man, and a hard worker, but his play did not warrant the role and minutes he was "given".   

Coaches of course have favorites, Max has "earned" favored status, the veterans that helped you get to the sweet 16 have "earned" favored status. I think that coaches decision to play Phipps as much as he did probably hurt our chemistry this year and may cost us some very good talent, both in transfers( if we saw that some guys should have been playing more, those guys sitting there definitely did to)  and loss of recruits(particularly the big guys we need to be competitive against the XDSU's).  I'm not picking on Trey, I do think he could help us in the future, I'm disappointed in coach Mills- to play him starter minutes all year was ridiculous, particularly when you see what a complete none factor he was in the conf tourney (1-10 from the field and 0-5 from 3). Had we played Lufile and Herron those minutes all year we may not have just had a better record, but developed them to help us against bigger teams in the conf tourney and insured retaining them both because lets be honest if we lose 1 or both of those 2 that would really hurt the program!!

We need to make some changes this off season in our system, our style of play, our rotations, player development, recruiting and our overall philosophy!  I like coach Mills and hope he really reflects on what worked this season and what didn't(the 3 small guard line up absolutely did not work)!! Right now we have an opportunity, we are at a crossroads in the programs future direction, I hope we can learn from this year, improve and continue to move the program forward in a positive way!! Go Eagles!!     

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