jmg1984 Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 2 hours ago, eagle88 said: 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. Dolphins with Marino also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted March 9, 2022 Author Share Posted March 9, 2022 TheEagleman also likes Coach Mills....but really confused about his lack of working in Herron, Clover and Plet especially during the last month of the regular season and the tournament.....and only 17 minutes of Eli in the NDSU game.....I don't get it...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg1984 Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 1 hour ago, theeagleman5 said: TheEagleman also likes Coach Mills....but really confused about his lack of working in Herron, Clover and Plet especially during the last month of the regular season and the tournament.....and only 17 minutes of Eli in the NDSU game.....I don't get it...... Right! how are these guys gonna get better if they're not playing a lot against good competition Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. BB Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 I personally feel that Coach Mills does not know what he is doing. Remember, he has never been a head coach, but was an assistant at Baylor for many years. After the miracle from last year, Mills was given a 10 year contract extension. I think we will regret this generosity. To not play Herron, Clover, and Piet is not only short sighted, but indicates a level of incompetence that destroys future signings and encourages transfer portal activity among our best players. Mills should be a preacher at a charismatic church, not a head basketball coach at the Division 1 level. There is no doubt that Phipps is the "teacher's favorite" for unknown reasons, while the Big 3 players already mentioned seem to be ignored. I moved back to Tulsa last year after my Texas retirement just to live close to ORU basketball. I drove the 9 hours to watch the games in Sioux Falls, and drove the 9 hours back on my 70th birthday. My financial generosity to the Golden Eagle Club has only weakened my checkbook. I can only hope that Mills wakes up. Maybe his own assistant coaches will become more assertive, but I am not holding my breath. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted March 10, 2022 Author Share Posted March 10, 2022 Dr. BB....that's a very interesting take and TheEagleman also scratches his balding head at some of the moves or lack of moves made by Coach Mills...sometimes Paul is likeable and at other times he can be irritating...I have never met the man and only see what i see on TV and read in the media.....this is a great topic for discussion.....hard to believe a guy in basketball for 30 years doesn't know what he's doing.....but i do believe in the "Peter Principle".....so there's that..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. BB Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Eagleman5, I appreciate your feedback. I too have never met the man personally. I have heard him speak at a pregame dinner, apologizing to the crowd for the fight he sort of instigated in North Dakota. I also have heard him apologize for getting a technical foul called on him during a crucial time in game 3 of last year's tourney vs. Arkansas. The Peter Principle is an excellent point you made. I do think he has been promoted to his level of incompetency. I am just afraid a handful of players who sat on the bench this year will try and exit the ORU Program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg1984 Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 1 hour ago, Dr. BB said: I personally feel that Coach Mills does not know what he is doing. Remember, he has never been a head coach, but was an assistant at Baylor for many years. After the miracle from last year, Mills was given a 10 year contract extension. I think we will regret this generosity. To not play Herron, Clover, and Piet is not only short sighted, but indicates a level of incompetence that destroys future signings and encourages transfer portal activity among our best players. Mills should be a preacher at a charismatic church, not a head basketball coach at the Division 1 level. There is no doubt that Phipps is the "teacher's favorite" for unknown reasons, while the Big 3 players already mentioned seem to be ignored. I moved back to Tulsa last year after my Texas retirement just to live close to ORU basketball. I drove the 9 hours to watch the games in Sioux Falls, and drove the 9 hours back on my 70th birthday. My financial generosity to the Golden Eagle Club has only weakened my checkbook. I can only hope that Mills wakes up. Maybe his own assistant coaches will become more assertive, but I am not holding my breath. All I can think of is the def of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaglefan 21 Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Mills is an interesting individual. It was said in another thread but his post-game appearances are pretty Jekyl and Hyde. He was such an amazing ambassador for our school during our NCAA tournament run but after losses he is mopey and barely answers the questions. At least he shows up for the postgame now, in his first two years, he would just skip them entirely and that was embarrasing. Coach Lee from South Dakota, who I think gives off a real jerk vibe and looks like a bond villian, is able to put it together after a loss and give the other team credit. Mills rarely does that. In regards to his actual coaching, I think Mills is improving the program. We have signed the best recruits in 10 years, our attendance is up, we have our best record in a long time, and we are fun to watch. We were terrible at rebounding and defense last year and both have dramatically improved(looking back, it's ironic that a rebound putback by Obanor and a defense stop by lacis sent us the NCAA tournament). We have 5 players on the roster who shot over 40% from 3 (Herron and Bergans are a small sample size) and several others who shot over 33% which should have made us very hard to guard, except it didn't. Now, this is purely my opinion, but I think coach is a little bit of a gambler (it has paid off a couple of times, particularly in the Florida game last March). He lost Obanor, which i'm sure wasn't part of the plan, and with him we lost a lethal pick and pop/roll game and an impressive post scorer . Lufile was out of shape and recovering from a medical condition and the rest of the bigs were young and unproven. So he gambled, he put Lacis and Weaver in tough spot, forcing them to guard people way outside of their weight class when both should have been playing the 3 or maybe a little time at the 4. We refused to double team, maybe thinking that if our opponents are making 2's and we are making 40% of our 3's we will beat them. However, our offense just never allowed our guys to make as many 3's as we needed to win. After the first game of the season against Colorado state,the writing was starting to show on the wall that we were going to need to change or just try to force our way to wins through massive amounts of 3 pointers. Again, just my 2 cents as a fan with minimal coaching experience. I give Lacis and Weaver a lot of credit, they worked hard but it takes a lot out of you to battle guys much bigger then you all night and then still try to have energy to make 3 pointers. It's like a body shot in boxing, it takes the wind out of you. Adding the problem is that neither of our starting bigs got to the free-throw line with any regularity. Sir Issac Herron shot more free throws then either Lacis or Weaver and grabbed half as many offensive rebounds as either of our starting forwards and he played 140 total minutes on the year (nearly 500 minutes less then weaver or lacis). It is baffling that we didn't start Herron. If he would have fouled out of every game, it still would have been better then how he was used. The same could have been said for Plet and Clover. Experience is the best teacher. I'm not here to rag on Mills as I truly like him and I'm grateful for him but this is a fan board, if we aren't being critical then what is the point? For what it is worth, I love that Mills seems to connect so well with the players and most seem to generally love playing for him. I think he is honest about playing time and really goes after the guys who are a good fit in our system. I am hopeful, I think Mills is the guy but there is still some growing to be done and the X's and O's will need to drastically improve. Max Abmas won't be here forever to cover a multitude of offensive woes..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 That is good point Eaglefan 21. When Max does eventually leave then we will really know how good of a Coach he is. Mills is a good recruiter and has had a lot of success finding studs out of the state of Texas. Sure we will find more and as Herron puts on some muscle, he will be one of them. Clover looks good on paper (size, strength) but he seems to really struggle finishing around the rim. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaglefan 21 Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Just now, Keenan Henderson said: That is good point Eaglefan 21. When Max does eventually leave then we will really know how good of a Coach he is. Mills is a good recruiter and has had a lot of success finding studs out of the state of Texas. Sure we will find more and as Herron puts on some muscle, he will be one of them. Clover looks good on paper (size, strength) but he seems to really struggle finishing around the rim. Yeah I've always liked Clover. Super long arms, big strong guy, and a pretty good free-throw shooter but he has a bit of that Albert Owens syndrome... built like a tank but hasn't quite figured out how to use his body. I'm guessing his buddy BIg Maple can give him some tips. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU40 Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 17 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said: That is good point Eaglefan 21. When Max does eventually leave then we will really know how good of a Coach he is. Good points Eaglefan21 and Keenan, I would add that we have a pretty good sample size on coach Mills and his system. In 5 years he's under 500, well under 500 against division 1 teams and he's had either KO or Max or KO & Max for 4 of those 5 years. In my opinion his current system/style of play doesn't work, really good players made it work briefly! But overall you cant say we can just plug anyone into our system and be successful. If you look at this past season, a lot of the stats(3pt% particularly) were padded in blow outs against the NAIA and bottom of the pack Summit teams. We didn't have many good 3 point shooting games against better teams with Max, and we aren't going to be getting many better shooters then Max anytime soon. We have to expand past an offense that relies almost solely of shooting 3's. We beat 3 division 1 teams with winning records this year with Max!!! I'm afraid we could really see a huge drop off once Max is gone! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 They interviewed Coach Henderson after SDSU won the Tournament and asked him how they went 21-0 this season. He said we knew we could score but really had to work hard on defense in the offseason. Very simple. Hopefully Coach Mills is listening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idig32 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Coach Mills is only below .500 because Scott Sutton left a pretty terrible roster behind. Let’s not forget how bad some of those rosters were. Essentially, Coach Mills had to start from scratch with building a roster. ORU has come a long way in Coach Mills tenure. Much farther than any of us thought in 5 years (I don’t remember anyone saying we would be in a Sweet Sixteen within 4 years of hiring Coach Mills). The talent on this roster is light years ahead of where we were. Just the fact that people are worried about losing some of the benchwarmers to transfer is proof of that. In the latter years of the Sutton tenure, we would’ve begged someone to take some of the benchwarmers on those teams. We also kept losing our best players to transfer (Daquan Jeffries, for instance). As for worrying about guys transferring: First, Coach Mills recruited these guys, and I am sure he knows how good they are, and what their expectations are for playing time. The other thing I wonder about is this: in the transfer portal era, is it possible Coach Mills doesn’t want to show how good some of our developing players are before we get a chance to really give them meaningful minutes? The point has been brought up elsewhere how most of the guys would have to transfer down a level if they wanted to leave. So really, their best chance of being on a good team is to wait their turn here. I was thinking about this the other day, and we could have Abmas, Jurgens, Thompson, Weaver, and Lufile back next year. After next year, we probably won’t have any of those guys, which means it’ll likely be Amboree as a sophomore, McBride as a Senior, Luka as a Junior, Herron as a Junior, and then Plet or Clover at Center. Bergens and Phipps could still be around too. My point is that if guys like Herron and Luka can wait a little bit, then they will get their chance to play. I think that’s the long term plan, but whether they’re patient enough to bring it to fruition is another question entirely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.