ORU at Denver

[Eaglefan 21]

Happy New Years to all of you! I think I'm soft on this young team but it felt like we played 7 on 5 and still won. Refs let several drives with heavy contact go as no calls and whistled all kinds of ticky tack fouls, especially our guys trying to defend Bruner on screens. It was maddening. Kareem with a workhorse performance, took 21 total shots(has to be a record for him), had 10 boards, and 4 blocks. Bedford had the quietest 17 points I can ever remember seeing, but he hit the FT's when we needed them. Anyone know Herron's wingspan?? Geeze, I thought several times that he was wayyyy late with his help defense but he took care of business with 5 blocks. Also, there has been a small hole in my ORU basketball heart since Elijah Lufile left, I think Ashton Smith will fit it nicely. Dude is an animal. Tough win against an improved Denver team with the country's leading scorer, questionable foul calls, and high altitude. I'm feeling much better about the Eagles in 2024!

13 minutes ago, Otis 83 said:

I was hoping to watch the replay tonight but I guess they've got a lot on their hands at MidCo sports.  Is there a high school hockey tournament in Bismark today?

I just checked and it is available to watch under the replay tab now. Enjoy!

[theeagleman5]

Shocking win today in Denver.....TheEagleman didn't see that one coming at all....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

[tmh8286]

3 hours ago, TrueBlue82 said:

Happy Belated Birthday tmh8286!  Just what you wanted for the day after your birthday, a Golden Eagle WIN!!!

Thanks, Blue! The Golden Eagles pulled out the win just for my birthday, and for that I am

ly  grateful!! (See what I did there?)

And the timing was perfect - today IS my b-day!!

[Keenan Henderson]

ORU has now beaten Denver 7 straight times, including 5 in a row in the Mile High City.  Before that, they had never won at Denver.  Coach said in the post game that he challenged the guys and even spoke to some of them one on one after the KC game.  The wake up call worked.

I thought Trey made some nice passes to set up the big guys and he seems to be looking more to pass then just shoot.  That shows some maturity from the senior.  His assist to turnover ratio is pretty high this year: a little over 3 to 1.

 

[tmh8286]

3 hours ago, Old Titan said:

What a gritty win!

Only got to listen to the first half; looking forward to watching the replay in the morning.

You're gonna love it!!  The officiating by Old Baldy will give you heartburn, though.

[ORUJason]

What is remarkable about the Denver game is that we took 73 shots and only 15 were 3-point attempts.  So we took 58 2-point FG attempts.  This seems like a change from most of the rest of this season where if we get an open look at a 3-pointer then we take it.

In fact, for this game only 20.5% of our attempts were 3-pointers while during the first 12 games of this season, 45% of our attempts were 3-pointers.

There could have been a scouting reason for this or perhaps Denver extended their defense to take away the 3-pointers.  I believe there will be several games this year where the best winning strategy is to lean on the 2-point shot rather than simply riding the 3-pointer roller coaster.

[Dave Connor]

4 hours ago, Old Titan said:

What a gritty win!

Only got to listen to the first half; looking forward to watching the replay in the morning.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! You might not find the replay posted on January 1st. I looked for the ORU vs KC replay yesterday, but it was not posted until today. I hope that will not be standard procedure for the ???fabulous??? MidCo Sports Network.

[Dave Connor]

Good news! I just checked, and the ORU versus Denver men’s basketball game replay is already available on the MidCo Sports Network. 

[Idig32]

12 hours ago, tmh8286 said:

You're gonna love it!!  The officiating by Old Baldy will give you heartburn, though.

Yeah, that guy has issues. He inserted himself into the game way too much. He had multiple times where he either overruled another referee’s call or called for a review for another referee’s call. There were other instances where he made a call in an area that it seemed was another referee’s responsibility. Naturally, he did this most of the time when the original call would benefit ORU. It’s the kind of stuff you might see in high school officiating. It’s bad seeing it in high school games, but it’s really bad when it’s a college game.  

[Keenan Henderson]

With the new rule about block/charge, which is basically the referee almost always calls a block.  So, Denver has figured this out, and their guards basically act like a full back and plow into the defender.  Then they call a block, except for once when Trey got a charge call.  It is a strange new rule but Denver took advantage of it.  

The other strange call was on Herron without 3-4 minutes to go: they called a 3 second lane violation at a key moment in the game.  Who does that?  Never see that 3 second call.  Sure it happens but once in a blue moon.

[tmh8286]

2 hours ago, Keenan Henderson said:

The other strange call was on Herron without 3-4 minutes to go: they called a 3 second lane violation at a key moment in the game.  Who does that?  Never see that 3 second call.  Sure it happens but once in a blue moon.

Which official called it???????

[tmh8286]

2 hours ago, Idig32 said:

Yeah, that guy has issues. He inserted himself into the game way too much. He had multiple times where he either overruled another referee’s call or called for a review for another referee’s call. There were other instances where he made a call in an area that it seemed was another referee’s responsibility. Naturally, he did this most of the time when the original call would benefit ORU. It’s the kind of stuff you might see in high school officiating. It’s bad seeing it in high school games, but it’s really bad when it’s a college game.  

In a game at Mabee last season, after he made an egregious call, the crowd booed so hard and so loud and so long that his bald head turned bright red!! We were discussing that memory as we watched the game last night! 

Last night he came across the court to overrule an out-of-bounds call in ORU's favor made by the closest official, and the replay showed the ball CLEARLY coming off the Denver player.

As bad as he is, all is forgiven since ORU won!!

[theeagleman5]

Baldy is probably an atheist. 

[tmh8286]

14 minutes ago, theeagleman5 said:

Baldy is probably an atheist. 

You know, that very subject came up last night!!!

[Keenan Henderson]

The bald guy called the 3 second lane violation with 4:20 to go and score tied at 62-62.  Herron got tied up with the Denver big in an arm bar and was honestly in the lane for 3 seconds but that is called about once a year.  Tough call.

[tmh8286]

49 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said:

The bald guy called the 3 second lane violation with 4:20 to go and score tied at 62-62.  Herron got tied up with the Denver big in an arm bar and was honestly in the lane for 3 seconds but that is called about once a year.  Tough call.

My point exactly . . .

[Old Titan]

A little bit about a lot following a replay of Coach Springmann's first career road victory:

• There's the old coaching axiom that goes "Practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect."  I would suggest that a similar rule of thumb applies to effort:  "Effort doesn't win ball games; winning effort wins ball games."  ORU not only played harder Sunday than Friday; they played smarter and less selfishly.  Winning combination!
• I think it was TrueBlue82 who mentioned in another thread that Denver might be just as taxed by travel as ORU, since they played at Omaha Friday night.  The Pioneers did look a little worn-out at times Sunday; Tommy Bruner particularly.  He may have scored 32 points in the overtime affair, but that was on 23 shots from the field and 9 free throw attempts.  The defense on him all afternoon was excellent.
• After Friday night, I said two things had to change or else we could expect another blowout in Denver.  The first change was a different offense, which we not only saw but which led to ORU's most effective stretches of scoring, featuring downhill pick-and-roll ball screens TOWARD the rim instead of AWAY from it, and cuts to the basket without the ball resulting in a wealth of dunks and lay-ups.  Was particularly impressed with the down screens from Kareem for Ashton on the block that produced a number of great looks for both of them in the opening minutes of the second half, leading to a double-digit lead.  Sadly, don't remember seeing those particular sets again following the first second-half media timeout, and instead the points were hard to come by due to that *@$#%!& "weave" offense out top that typically leads to too much dribbling by the guards and too many forced shots in isolation.  Thank goodness Kareem was dialed in from deep late!
• The second change needed was better rebounding.  Hard to call it "better" when the Golden Eagles still gave up 12 offensive rebounds, but considering they also grabbed 12 offensive caroms themselves and broke even with the Pioneers with 35 rebounds total, it was literally and figuratively a wash.  Which, combined with ORU's strengths in other facets of the game, should more times than not be enough to beat most Summit teams.
• Ashton Smith and Jalen Miller are quickly making up for lost time and growing with every appearance.  More, please.
• Same for Sir Issac, but I volunteer to spend time with him working on that point-blank jump hook.  He needs to either square up to the basket or stay at a 90-degree angle, but not in between!
• I like Pablo Navarro.  He may play crazy at times, but it's my kind of crazy.  He deserves more minutes, too.
• The referee who looks like Daddy Warbucks is Mark Riggs, and he's probably called as many (if not more) Summit League games than any other official in recent seasons.  Yes, he loves the sound of his own whistle, and yes, sometimes his calls are silly and/or puzzling, but there's something I've noticed over time.  One, he seems to like ORU's team, and is pretty chatty with the players and the coaches.  Secondly, ORU seems to win a lot when he's calling the game.  Perhaps it's because we fans don't notice that he's just as bad for the other team as he is for ORU.  Coaches will always tell you that, regardless of whether a ref makes a lot of calls or not many, what they want is consistency on the calls, throughout the game and on both ends of the floor.  Riggs may be bad, but at least he's consistently bad for both teams, the whole game long! 
• Did the Midco Sports Plus replay cut out with :05 to go for anyone else, leading directly to the pregame babble for SDSU and UND?  Is it asking too much for $79.99 a year to see the WHOLE game, particularly the FINAL SECONDS OF OVERTIME??
• I said I could not in good conscience pick this ORU team to win a road game until they accomplished the feat.  Well, they did!  Not sure when I might pick them to do it again, but at least we've seen they are capable of doing so. 

[ORU40]

57 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

The referee who looks like Daddy Warbucks is Mark Riggs, and he's probably called as many (if not more) Summit League games than any other official in recent seasons.  Yes, he loves the sound of his own whistle, and yes, sometimes his calls are silly and/or puzzling, but there's something I've noticed over time.  One, he seems to like ORU's team, and is pretty chatty with the players and the coaches.  Secondly, ORU seems to win a lot when he's calling the game.  Perhaps it's because we fans don't notice that he's just as bad for the other team as he is for ORU.  Coaches will always tell you that, regardless of whether a ref makes a lot of calls or not many, what they want is consistency on the calls, throughout the game and on both ends of the floor.  Riggs may be bad, but at least he's consistently bad for both teams, the whole game long! 

That's usually good for the players. It's always easy to jump on the refs, like with the 3 second lane violation call on Sir Isaac. But as a player you want the ref's talking to you, they will usually say things like "get out of the lane 22" or "get your hand off 40" or "let him go 40"(heard that one a lot), which is giving a player a little warning. It's the baseline ref, and he's behind you as a player but you definitely hear it. If Herron was getting warnings and ignoring them, then don't be surprised with the call. Most refs give you a verbal, if you don't listen... it's on you. It's the refs that don't talk to you that you need to worry about!

Even with 10,000 people going nuts and you can't even hear the ball bouncing; you can always hear the refs, your teammates and your coach (sometimes...if you want to)!