Keenan Henderson Posted October 30, 2023 Share Posted October 30, 2023 We are about one week away from opening night. We have been through a lot of guessing and wondering what this version of the new Eagles will look like. A lot of new guys and of course a new head coach. It should be an interesting opening night with a lot of unknowns. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle88 Posted October 30, 2023 Share Posted October 30, 2023 Keenan I will give you my best guess. I optimistically hope we win and I believe we are capable but being an away game with a lot of new guys I would give the advantage to UT Arlington. I would predict a 10-12 point loss as UT Arlington should be a decent team. I hope I’m wrong but trying to be realistic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted October 30, 2023 Share Posted October 30, 2023 We probably won't know much about this ORU team until at least Thanksgiving....hard to see us winning at Arlington unless we have a couple guys shoot the lights out.... TheEagleman would love to see it but ORU rarely wins an opener on the road....when is the last time we did that?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted October 30, 2023 Author Share Posted October 30, 2023 ORU did beat Tulsa ten years ago on the road on opening night, when Obi and Billbury were leading the charge. The last true road win outside of Tulsa on opening night was in 1981 at Princeton. Maybe they are due to pull off an opening night road victory since it has been over 40 years. It is hard to know what ORU will do but UT Arlington brings in 10 new players and a brand new coaching staff. How does one scout a team like that? Maybe you watch a video of how the transfers did at other schools. Would love to see Coach Springmann get his first win on opening night! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cornelius Posted October 30, 2023 Share Posted October 30, 2023 ORU is really inexperienced in the post and will be counting on a true freshman (Jones) and a redshirt sophomore (Herron) that has played only a few minutes at the D1 level. UTA returns two starters from last season's team 6'9" F, Shemar Wilson and 6'6" G, Aaron Cash . Gaston-Chapman from TU is also a projected starter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted October 30, 2023 Share Posted October 30, 2023 TheEagleman was a spectator at that Princeton game in 1981.....the last opening road victory outside of Tulsa....as I recall ORU won by about 5 or 6 in a very sloppy contest over the Tigers.....probably more of the same a week from tonight in Arlington....it will be a tough one for ORU to win....agree we are due after 42 years.....who knows?? Maybe it's just our time..... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted October 30, 2023 Author Share Posted October 30, 2023 Opening night ORU will need to play solid defense and rebound the ball to win. Usually defense and rebounding take time to develop with new guys. Also the Eagles need the seniors (Thompson, McBride, Weaver, and Trey) to all have good games. This early in the season they will need to carry ORU to the winner's circle. My biggest concern is that the Eagles will start out slow and fall behind by 10-15 points. Then they spend the rest of the night using all their energy to fight back and make it a competitive game. I am hoping they can get off to good start next Monday night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan Posted October 30, 2023 Share Posted October 30, 2023 What do you guys think for the tempo of the team this season? KenPom still thinks a top 100 tempo, but with the new staff and PG, that seems pretty fast to me. Also 266 on D? With Springman's history I feel like we should be better than that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 On 10/29/2023 at 8:12 PM, Keenan Henderson said: ORU did beat Tulsa ten years ago on the road on opening night, when Obi and Billbury were leading the charge. The last true road win outside of Tulsa on opening night was in 1981 at Princeton. Maybe they are due to pull off an opening night road victory since it has been over 40 years. It is hard to know what ORU will do but UT Arlington brings in 10 new players and a brand new coaching staff. How does one scout a team like that? Maybe you watch a video of how the transfers did at other schools. Would love to see Coach Springmann get his first win on opening night! If UTA is operating with ten new players and a brand new coaching staff, I think ORU should have an advantage with the core of McBride, Thompson, and Weaver and a former assistant coach at the helm. I would rather play UTA for the first game of the season than in mid-December when they have some experience playing together. If the game was being played in the Mabee Center, I would definitely expect ORU to win. But, I think the maturity of the key returnees provides a great opportunity to pull off a road win on opening night. I'm certainly expecting a close game to be decided in the final minutes. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 Here is a small scouting report on the Mavs. UTA brought in many D1 transfers (around 7) and the two that stand out are Philip Russell and DaJuan Gordon. These guys are most likely their starting backcourt and should be an interesting matchup versus McBride and Thompson. Russell (5"10 point guard) averaged 18 points and 5 assists at Southeast Missouri State last year. Gordon (6'5 shooting guard) has been at Missouri, K-State, and New Mexico State and put up about 8 points and 4 rebounds throughout his career. These players have been solid at the D1 level but the rest of the transfers are mainly end of the bench guys or role players. The Mavs new coach has been an assistant at various schools and was at Kentucky last season with John Calapari. Just like Springman, this is his first game as a head coach at the D1 level. So somebody will win their first game as a head coach on Monday night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 ORU vs. UT-Arlington The Mavericks return three players from last year: Aaron Cash (6’6” guard) – graduate player: 7.7 ppg (44.4% FG%/39.4% 3-pt%), 4.2 rebounds and 0.50 assists – 22 minutes per game Brandyn Talbot (6’5” guard) – Junior: 5.3 ppg (35.4% FG%/34.9% 3-pt%), 1.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists – 15.8 minutes per game Shermar Wilson (6’9” forward) – Junior: 10.9 ppg (54.9% FG%), 7.8 rebounds and 1.0 blocks – 23.5 minutes per game The Mavericks have added 10 new players (8 transfers/2 freshmen): Phillip Russell (5’10” guard) – junior transfer from Saint Louis/SE Missouri DaJuan Gordon (6’5” guard) – graduate transfer from Missouri/Kansas State/New Mexico State Akili Vining (6’2” guard) - graduate transfer from Jacksonville State Sterling Gaston-Hapman (6’4” guard) – junior transfer from Tulsa Fabio Basili (6’4” guard) – sophomore transfer from Louisville Dwayne Koroma (6’8” forward) – sophomore transfer from Iona Fred Bagatskis (6’8” forward) - sophomore transfer from Georgia Tech Darrius Miles (6’10” center) – sophomore transfer from Odessa CC/W. Kentucky Makaih Williams (6’1” guard) – freshman Kade Douglas (6’2” guard) - freshman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 It will be very interesting to see if Russell is eligible to play given that this is his second transfer. I have heard/read that the NCAA is not granting eligibility to players with multiple transfers except under certain circumstances. Gordon should be okay as he evidently graduated from New Mexico State. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 UT Arlington looks about like what Deion Sanders did at Colorado with all those transfers. They are starting from scratch after an 11-21 record last year when their coach was fired about 2/3 of the way into the season. TrueBlue 82 was correct in saying we are catching the Mavs at a good time instead of later in the year when all their new transfers have meshed together. If I were Coach Springmann then I would put some pressure on these guys and see if ORU can force some turnovers. Usually when a team has so many new faces it is likely to turn the ball over because they are unfamilar with each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 42 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said: . . . If I were Coach Springmann then I would put some pressure on these guys and see if ORU can force some turnovers. Usually when a team has so many new faces it is likely to turn the ball over because they are unfamilar with each other. If he can - most of the time in these early season games play pretty sloppy, and neither is running like a well-oiled machine. We'll see if the Eagles have the cohesiveness to put pressure in the right places to force turnovers this early in the season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU40 Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 19 hours ago, tmh8286 said: If he can - most of the time in these early season games teams play pretty sloppy, and neither is running like a well-oiled machine. We'll see if the Eagles have the cohesiveness to put pressure in the right places to force turnovers this early in the season. This is a great point @tmh8286 particularly if we are starting a freshman. The biggest adjustment for freshman is on the defensive end of the court, a big guy knows how to lean on a post-up player and try to deny him the ball, where freshman bigs struggle is when they are on the weakside off the ball. They are slow to stop the dribble penetration or don't rotate over to stop the weakside pass to the help defender's guy who did help, (freshman are always slow to help the helper- if they get there at all it's usually late and they get the foul on the layup). It doesn't do any good if 3 or 4 guys play good D and shift and rotate only to give up an easy basket because one guy doesn't do his job. The best thing about freshman...they become sophomores! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 UTA will give ORU its best shot Monday night. Their Coach has had a long time to prepare for the Eagles and has most likely let his team know that ORU won 30 games/NCAA tournament last year. So expect the Mavs to want to win opening night in a big way for their new coach. On a side note, I would like to see ORU and UTA match up more regularly. They have only faced each other once in 10 years. That should not be with each campus being as close as it is. Plus, ORU should come to Dallas more often to help recuriting. Maybe this could be a regular match up much like ORU and Missouri State is every year. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Connor Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 I purchased 4 tickets for the UTA game using the link that was in the October 26th ORU Golden Eagle Club email. When I entered the promo code ORU23 it took me to the site showing that section 106 is reserved for ORU fans. The tickets were $5 each with no processing fee or tax, so I paid $20. 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORob2 Posted November 3, 2023 Share Posted November 3, 2023 ESPN’s Matchup Predictor powered by ESPN analytics favors the Mavs as well, 56%-44% - I’d say margin of error! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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