Liberty-ORU

[eagle88]

It appears both the ORU players and coaches are growing up and learning to make adjustments when necessary. Last night’s game had a big time feel to it! ORU had a fairly big stage last night and they performed well. Max played well and delivered on a big stage. Kareem and McBride were keys to our win and Patrick “the Beast” Mwamba is the spark plug to this team! His energy and willingness to go for any and every ball is awesome. Finally we have a guy that gives us some offensive rebounds! Patrick can do it all and could well be the difference maker that determines how far we go this year. Liberty definitely is a good team and we had to earn this win which in years past we may not have done. Bring on SW Missouri State!

[ORU40]

9 hours ago, TrueBlue82 said:

I’ve often critiqued Coach Mills’ in-game adjustments (or rather, lack thereof) and never thought of his ability with Xs and Os as a core strength.

But, tonight, he and the staff tightened some things up at halftime, and vastly improved the defense in the second half.  He also adjusted his normal rotation in the second half, as Phipps did not play, and Mwamba, Jurgens and Thompson had more playing time than usual, which improved the overall defensive effort.  Kudos to Coach Mills for some very good coaching decisions tonight which played a huge role in earning the W.  

Coach reducing his rotation to 7 is the best decision/adjustment he has made during his tenure at ORU!! The defensive energy, effort and toughness is night and day better with Patrick playing more minutes and getting Carlos and Kareem playing additional minutes is a huge defensive plus.

The offense is also much improved, we still get plenty of 3's but with Patrick, Carlos and Kareem attacking the basket off the dribble, moving, cutting, backing smaller guys down and just attacking gives us a great alternative to just 5 guys outside the 3-point line that puts so much pressure on the defense it makes us very difficult to stop. Not only does it make our offense multi-dimensional, it makes our 3 looks much cleaner for Max, McBride and everyone else.

The biggest improvement is in the overall toughness!! we play much more physical D and our offense is attacking we are much stronger on the boards and are actually getting offensive rebounds and loose balls, this type of effort, energy and toughness is fun to watch and will win a lot of games!!! 

   

 

[TrueBlue82]

2 hours ago, Cletus said:

Mwanba's 3 pointers and Kareem's spin arounds to score were excellent. 

Adam’s play-by-play call of:

“not the first defender for Thompson to put in the spin-cycle”

was a classic.  

[Old Titan]

Remember Tony Allen from Oklahoma State, who went on to a long NBA career as a defensive stalwart for the Memphis Grizzlies?

Well, Patrick Mwamba is Tony Allen, with a better outside shot. 

Not hyperbole:  Patrick Mwamba is a hidden gem of an NBA prospect.  His defensive prowess on the perimeter is naturally uncanny. I could see him locking down lanky NBA 2-guards for the next decade in the league. 

And he might become the first Summit League player to win both Sixth Man of the Year AND Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. 

That is, if any Summit League observers outside the 918 ever decide to take note of ORU this year, rather than concentrating all their time and efforts trying to solve SDSU’s and NDSU’s current woes (another rant for another thread). 

[Ting]

15 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

Remember Tony Allen from Oklahoma State, who went on to a long NBA career as a defensive stalwart for the Memphis Grizzlies?

Well, Patrick Mwamba is Tony Allen, with a better outside shot. 

Not hyperbole:  Patrick Mwamba is a hidden gem of an NBA prospect.  His defensive prowess on the perimeter is naturally uncanny. I could see him locking down lanky NBA 2-guards for the next decade in the league. 

And he might become the first Summit League player to win both Sixth Man of the Year AND Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. 

That is, if any Summit League observers outside the 918 ever decide to take note of ORU this year, rather than concentrating all their time and efforts trying to solve SDSU’s and NDSU’s current woes (another rant for another thread). 

If mwamba develops like you and I and the rest of the forum members hope, we might need to set up an annual golden eagle club Africa missions trip heavily geared to spending time around the nba Africa academy…. With a coach or two joining in the mix.

[titansforever]

1 hour ago, Ting said:

If mwamba develops like you and I and the rest of the forum members hope, we might need to set up an annual golden eagle club Africa missions trip heavily geared to spending time around the nba Africa academy…. With a coach or two joining in the mix.

This brings to mind the John Grisham book, Sooley, which is all about players from Africa trying to get to the U.S. to play in college and ultimately, in the NBA. Great book. I recommend it!

[Bogus Smith]

3 minutes ago, titansforever said:

This brings to mind the John Grisham book, Sooley, which is all about players from Africa trying to get to the U.S. to play in college and ultimately, in the NBA. Great book. I recommend it!

For those that like basketball, this is a great story.  Reminded me of the ORU run in the Sweet 16 as it was written around that same time.

[theeagleman5]

After 11 games TheEagleman thinks you can see why Lufile is gone....loved Elijah but with Mwamba his minutes likely would have been seriously reduced....now there may have been other reasons as well but Patrick Mwamba is a big time force on this ORU squad....he will pay dividends as we move into the Summit League portion of the season.....agree with the comments about his energy and physical presence which is sorely needed.....

[Bogus Smith]

4 minutes ago, theeagleman5 said:

After 11 games TheEagleman thinks you can see why Lufile is gone....loved Elijah but with Mwamba his minutes likely would have been seriously reduced....now there may have been other reasons as well but Patrick Mwamba is a big time force on this ORU squad....he will pay dividends as we move into the Summit League portion of the season.....agree with the comments about his energy and physical presence which is sorely needed.....

And don't forget the return of Sir Isaac.  We are hopefully going to get stronger on the inside and have the opportunity to build on what we have seen so far in our first eleven games.

[Bogus Smith]

For those that like to read "the other side of the story", here is the article of last night's game from Liberty's perspective.

Abmas, ORU take advantage of Liberty miscues to pull away in second half

[theeagleman5]

Come on, Coach....GET SOME SLEEP!!!  

[Otis 83]

14 hours ago, dave said:

It was good to see ORU shut down the back door cuts in the paint. And how important is Mwamba to this team? Wow! 

Very important.  The physicality, the defense and the outside shooting are all making a big difference for this team.  I'm especially impressed by his ball handling skills.  Quite a package and a good get from the transfer portal.

[Keenan Henderson]

I liked that drive where McGhee came to the basket lifted the ball and Connor simply took it from him.  Not sure if that is a block or steal but Connor may have had an advantage in that match up!  7'5 vs 5'9

[ORUTerry]

8 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said:

I liked that drive where McGhee came to the basket lifted the ball and Connor simply took it from him.  Not sure if that is a block or steal but Connor may have had an advantage in that match up!  7'5 vs 5'9

I turned to my son and asked him if that was a steal or block - I vote block since it would help Connor lead the nation in that category. BTW, I am not sure our statistician is correctly giving Vanover the correct amount of blocks. He was under counted by at least one in the UCA game and I thought he had more than 3 last night.

[titansforever]

1 minute ago, ORUTerry said:

I turned to my son and asked him if that was a steal or block - I vote block since it would help Connor lead the nation in that category. BTW, I am not sure our statistician is correctly giving Vanover the correct amount of blocks. He was under counted by at least one in the UCA game and I thought he had more than 3 last night.

I was wondering the same thing, and asked the friend sitting next to me. She thought it was a block. I vote BLOCK! 

I love how calm Connor looks out there. "Block a shot? Who -- me??"  He just reaches up and gives the ball a little push and -- NO basket!

[Old Titan]

I discussed this at length with ORUTerry last night after the game:  someone with either the basketball staff or in Athletics needs to have a chat with the media relations director re: how the stat crew (individual?) defines a blocked shot.

If Conner smothers a guy attempting a shot, either taking the ball completely out of the shooter's hand before it leaves his fingers, or knocking it away where it is corralled by a teammate, that is a "Shot Attempt/Block/Defensive Rebound", NOT a "Turnover/Steal".

There is no way Conner had only THREE blocks last night; should have been twice that number.  Not to mention how many shots he alters without touching them, which is tantamount to a block in the end result (but obviously can not be logged as such.).

Shout out to my stat crew running mate back in the day, TrueBlue82 - am I wrong here?

[ORUTerry]

Abmas, ORU take advantage of Liberty miscues to pull away in second half  (Lynchburg News Advance)

 

ORU Coach Mills Analyzes 84-70 Win Over Liberty

[TrueBlue82]

1 hour ago, Old Titan said:

I discussed this at length with ORUTerry last night after the game:  someone with either the basketball staff or in Athletics needs to have a chat with the media relations director re: how the stat crew (individual?) defines a blocked shot.

If Conner smothers a guy attempting a shot, either taking the ball completely out of the shooter's hand before it leaves his fingers, or knocking it away where it is corralled by a teammate, that is a "Shot Attempt/Block/Defensive Rebound", NOT a "Turnover/Steal".

There is no way Conner had only THREE blocks last night; should have been twice that number.  Not to mention how many shots he alters without touching them, which is tantamount to a block in the end result (but obviously can not be logged as such.).

Shout out to my stat crew running mate back in the day, TrueBlue82 - am I wrong here?

I was having a similar conversation with my son the other day, and totally agree that Connor's blocks are being under-reported IMHO.  At many schools, an athletic department rep will review the game on film afterwards and update/correct the stats for such errors.  I hope ORU is doing the same.