Jump to content

Schedule 22-23


Keenan Henderson

Recommended Posts

It is that time of the year to start thinking about ORU's schedule for the upcoming season.  Any thoughts or ideas about opponents, especially in the non-conference season?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think Coach Mills is a fan, but I would love to see ORU in some type of a MTE around Thanksgiving or Christmas, maybe even with some TV exposure....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ORUIllini said:

I don't think Coach Mills is a fan, but I would love to see ORU in some type of a MTE around Thanksgiving or Christmas, maybe even with some TV exposure....

I second that. I think last year's Sweet Sixteen run has enough legs to attract some good teams/media.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Selfishly speaking, my ideas for road games next season:

@UAB, @Alabama, @Auburn, @Belmont & @Vandy.  😉

Rob

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would agree with you ORob 1, we need some new teams on the schedule this year.  It seems like Coach Mills only wants to play about the same teams over and over again (Wichita State, Missouri State, and OSU).  Yes, some of those teams we have a contract with but hoping for some fresh faces this year on the non-conference schedule.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah.... let's go coach....ORU needs to play some fresh blood maybe back East....lots of decent Mid Majors in the Philadelphia Metro Area.......Penn, LaSalle, Temple, Drexel, St. Josephs, Rider, Delaware and Princeton all within an hour of TheEagleman.....or how about St. Peter's??.....come on, Paul!?!?!?:hc_mills:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, ORob1 said:

Selfishly speaking, my ideas for road games next season:

@UAB, @Alabama, @Auburn, @Belmont & @Vandy.  😉

Rob

I second these!😂

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have some good news and bad news for all of you Golden Eagle faithful like myself that longs to see ORU play a much more exciting non conference schedule. The good news is that our basketball program is on the rise. The bad news is after talking with Tim Johnson this week no one wants to play us. 50 calls have been made and so far no takers. Duke was considering playing us and decided we were too good. For a mid major like ORU playing a big school on the road pays a lot of bills. We can schedule home and away but the good teams all want to be at their place first which doesn’t help us for next year. So if any of you have connections with big schools and can get them to schedule us that would be great. Tim and I both agreed that even as good as we are getting our odds would not be great at beating a big time program on the road so not sure what these schools are thinking? Plus if I were coaching a Duke for instance playing a school like us would give their players experience against our style of play that they may see in post season. Growing pains for a program on the rise! Expect a Miracle!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try this instead of basically making a tour of the State of Alabama, schedule a road trip starting at Penn State, then motor an hour over to Pittsburgh to play Pitt then head south about 50 miles and play WVU, then head into Ohio for games at The Ohio State University and finally Greater Cincinnati for either UC, Xavier, Kentucky or Indiana.  Play some great money games and get a lot of exposure in a vastly more populated area (i.e.:  within a 250 mile radius of Pittsburgh resides 2/3rd's of the entire population of the United States).  I also agree with the Eagleman that we need to make a swing into the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region annually to give all of us in that area who faithfully support ORU the opportunity to see the Golden Eagles live. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, eagle88 said:

I have some good news and bad news for all of you Golden Eagle faithful like myself that longs to see ORU play a much more exciting non conference schedule. The good news is that our basketball program is on the rise. The bad news is after talking with Tim Johnson this week no one wants to play us. 50 calls have been made and so far no takers. Duke was considering playing us and decided we were too good. For a mid major like ORU playing a big school on the road pays a lot of bills. We can schedule home and away but the good teams all want to be at their place first which doesn’t help us for next year. So if any of you have connections with big schools and can get them to schedule us that would be great. Tim and I both agreed that even as good as we are getting our odds would not be great at beating a big time program on the road so not sure what these schools are thinking? Plus if I were coaching a Duke for instance playing a school like us would give their players experience against our style of play that they may see in post season. Growing pains for a program on the rise! Expect a Miracle!

Sorry, but that “nobody will play us” excuse is an old one.

Nothing that ORU hasn’t had to deal with in MANY prior years, with MUCH better squads than the past two seasons. 

Sounds like whoever is making those “phone calls” needs to re-evaluate his script. 

Better yet, just send ‘em tape of ORU “defending” the post in the final ten games of last season.

Those P5 teams will be linin’ up to visit the Mabee Center! 🤣

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OT your last post should generate a good discussion amongst all of us that desire our schedule to encompass high profile schools. Just to be clear I heard what I said in my last post from the AD firsthand. We make between $80-$150k when we play schools like TCU and Arkansas. Last year we made $150k playing at TCU. Tim told me they tried to cancel the game but we had already signed the contract and wouldn’t let them out of it. He told me that we need to schedule 4 or so games on the road against high profile schools to generate $500k which helps fund the athletic department. Right now if we can’t schedule such teams then that $500k has to be raised by other means. So taking what I heard at face value why wouldn’t the guy reading the script not want to schedule $ making games? We could schedule P5 schools at the Mabee Center but that would cost us a lot of $ that we don’t have. When we play a team like Missouri State at home and away it is not a $ maker I have been told. I know in years past we have always played big schools on the road and occasionally at home so to be completely honest I don’t have a good answer. I am truly searching to find an answer and solution. Are times changing? I truly would be surprised if the powers to be are not trying hard to schedule big schools. That would be like cutting your own throat! Any suggestions that any of you give I am more than willing to take to Tim. We are all in this together and want what is best for our Golden Eagles!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I may be mistaken but it seems like Mills wants to stay within our geographic region as opposed to playing anyone anywhere which was the MO under Sutton. It honestly is a way better strategy in terms of rest and overall team health.

But I very much doubt Arkansas or EVERY single BIG12 school would say no. Might have to hit up some PAC12, SEC, or B1G schools.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Dr C. I will ask him that specific question.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/5/2022 at 10:56 PM, ORU82 said:

Try this instead of basically making a tour of the State of Alabama, schedule a road trip starting at Penn State, then motor an hour over to Pittsburgh to play Pitt then head south about 50 miles and play WVU, then head into Ohio for games at The Ohio State University and finally Greater Cincinnati for either UC, Xavier, Kentucky or Indiana.  Play some great money games and get a lot of exposure in a vastly more populated area (i.e.:  within a 250 mile radius of Pittsburgh resides 2/3rd's of the entire population of the United States).  I also agree with the Eagleman that we need to make a swing into the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region annually to give all of us in that area who faithfully support ORU the opportunity to see the Golden Eagles live. 

82:

I was really kinda joking when I suggested ORU visit nearly every D1 school that surrounds God’s country (Huntsville, AL, where I live)…although it would also be nice for Kareem Thompson and his family in nearby Florence, AL as well.  Didn’t coaches/programs used to try to play at least one game near the home towns of their Seniors?  I suppose that’s a thing of the past…

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TheEagleman totally agrees with Old Titan.....why would teams NOT want to play ORU? Just send them the tape of us NOT playing a lick of defense in most games.....and they really can't be afraid of our 7-3 three point shooter can they?..... come on, man.....I am Born Again not born yesterday.....no decent Power 5 team should be afraid to schedule ORU......makes absolutely zero sense.......time to get some decent opponents on the schedule like we used to do 10-15 years ago!!! 😮

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too agree that it makes no sense. Those are the exact words the AD used when I was in his office last week. Has there ever been a time in our lives where so many things don’t make sense? Like our current President campaigning in his basement while his opponent drew thousands of people wherever he went , having to wait over a year in many cases to get a car, having pot shops on every street corner in Oklahoma, the list  could go on. Just because something doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean it is not true. I am not excited about playing Haskell College and Southwestern University again this year! I have a year of eligibility left and may walk on to try to get some minutes in those games! Maybe we could get Mills to put some of us former Alum who played intramurals in the game when we are up by 50 points. I would seriously encourage all of you who want to see us play better competition to call or email to see what can be done. I would say for now this whole thing is a paradox..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the AD may be trying to sell the Brooklyn bridge, we can schedule top teams if we want to. We will of course have to travel, but there is no way any power 5 school is afraid to play us, and the AD saying Duke wont play us because we "are too good" is laugh out loud funny/ridiculous!!!

IMHO its the AD not doing everything needed to get it done! I played 2 years at ORU and granted it was few years ago, but AD's Bob Brooks and Larry Cochell with the basketball coach's got the best teams in the country on ORU's schedule. Most were home and homes ( one year played at the Mabee and one year at their place) and some we only played at their place, but if you want to play the best you may have to do it on their terms( that's what Anyone, Anytime, Anyplace means), but it can be done.

Over just my 2 seasons our OOC games included: Home and Home- Texas, Texas A & M, Oklahoma St., Kansas St., Tulsa. Home only- LSU. Road games only- Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, Arkansas, San Diego St., Bradley. That's almost 20 OOC games against the best teams in the country in just 2 seasons, and I'm sure everyone on this board has memories of the teams during their time on campus playing top competition!! 

That fantastic sweet 16 run is now 2 seasons ago, if we want to stay relevant in college basketball and continue to grow our program we need to play and occasionally beat the big boys, nothing helps keep the attendance up and student & local interest like beating a Texas or Okla St.!! It has to be a priority, we need the full university committed; the president, AD and coaches.  

ORU basketball has a long, proud history of playing the best- anytime, anywhere! We need to get back to that, the AD/program needs to stop making these weak/not believable excuses and get it done!!

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I completely agree ORU40, we use to play some impressive teams all across the country including WVU, Xavier and Penn State during the later Sutton years.  For fun I searched Gonzaga's OOC schedule to determine who they play and found it very interesting.  In recent years they have played Washington and UNC in Spokane.  Washington appears to have been a home/away deal.  UNC looked like a one and done so I assume Gonzaga paid a ton to have UNC show up in Spokane.  However, in recent years they have played Texas, Alabama, UCLA, Texas Tech, WVU, Baylor, Auburn, Kansas and Duke, all on the road in various November/December holiday tournaments.  They have also played Texas A&M and Arizona at their arenas'.  My point here is that it appears they take the approach of anyone, anytime, anywhere.  In short, we could and should be scheduling way above what we currently schedule.  I also agree that if you want to elevate your program on a national level you need to get off the porch and run with the big dogs.  No guts, no glory.  Just my $0.02.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...