Denver at ORU

[GoldenEagleFan]

Nice 3-game home stand to win all 3 and make up ground after the UND/NDSU road trip. This upcoming road trip to St Thomas and SDSU will be tough to steal a game, but I do think the 5 games after this road swing are important to stay hot before the Summit League Tournament. 

[eagle88]

Definitely an exciting game with lots of twists and turns! We overall played well except for the 1st 5 minutes of the 2nd half which could have cost us the game. A big concern of mine is that we play too much individual/ hero ball which against good teams will most likely prove costly. I like how our guys are hustling and playing more physical which is showing up in the rebounding stats. Less individual ball and more passing looking for the open guy in my opinion will be critical down the stretch and a key if we hope to win our conference tournament.

[Texasgrip]

2 hours ago, ORUJason said:

I was out of town and not able to watch the game but one observation from the box score: Miller played 18 minutes and was 0-2 on FGs, 0-2 on FTs, 1 rebound, 0 assists, 0 blocks, and 0 steals.  I do think Miller brings some defensive intensity off the bench but that isn’t much of a box score.

A friend of mine was complaining that Springmann seems to sub-in Miller to replace whatever ORU player has been playing well or shooting well. 

It was only my 3rd game to watch in person this season, and easily Miller's weakest showing of the three. I still like his intensity and effort - I think he could be a strong #6 or #7 coming in. 

Last night his first appearance was due to Bedford picking up his 2nd foul (even though he was playing "well.") But you're right - Miller didn't have a great game.

Similar to Phipps - who came in and cost us right away on both ends of the court. Yet, he redeemed himself with those two cold FTs in place of Bedford down the stretch!

[ORUTerry]

General observations from the game against Denver:

• Nice crowd that was loud at times - especially towards the end of the game when the team needed it. 
• ORU started out strong and built a nice lead (22-6 at the 12:00 minute mark. We then stagnated a bit, committed several turnovers and they hit shots so that at 3:46 the score was 33-30. We then hit several three pointers and other shots to end the half at 44-34. 
• Bruner is a nice player, but he is no Max Abmas. He forced some shots and played a bit chippy. Saw him do a couple of things that were unnecessary (grabbing, bulldozing thru the lane, etc. ) - probably out of frustration. He missed 8 minutes of the game because of his foul position. Scored 22 on 21 shots - versus McBride’s 34 points on 18 shots. 
• Denver took 27 shots in the first half - 23 which were three pointers. That is a pretty crazy stat. They ended the game with 62 shots - with 38 of those three pointers. 
• Denver came out blazing in the 2nd half - scoring 22 points in the 4:19 minutes while we managed to score 4 points. 
• We committed turnovers in bunches and ended up with a total of 17 for the game. That totally out of character for this team. It was our guards: Thompson (4), Bedford (5) and McBride (6). By the 15:30 mark, we were down by 10 points. 
• Denver zoned us for a significant time (off & on) during the game. It was active and we had to work the ball to get open looks. Their length and athleticism caused us problems. 
• At the 12:19 mark, Coach Springman was T’d up for contesting a call; he thought a called block should have been a goal tending. I think he passed the half court line while talking with the ref. It did not seem egregious, but you could argue that it spurred the team on because we slowly clawed our way back into the game. It helped that Denver stopped making shots. 
• Our post players seem to be open on every pick & roll. Most of the time they are wide open. The problem is our guards can’t or won’t make that pass… except for Thompson. Maybe it’s because he is tall enough to see/make the pass. If we ever figure that out, it could be really devastating. 
• Late threes by Weaver and McBride were huge, along with Bedford’s rebounding and Phipps coming off the bench to make 2 very important free throws. 

[ORUSwagger]

1 hour ago, ORUTerry said:

General observations from the game against Denver:

• Nice crowd that was loud at times - especially towards the end of the game when the team needed it. 
• ORU started out strong and built a nice lead (22-6 at the 12:00 minute mark. We then stagnated a bit, committed several turnovers and they hit shots so that at 3:46 the score was 33-30. We then hit several three pointers and other shots to end the half at 44-34. 
• Bruner is a nice player, but he is no Max Abmas. He forced some shots and played a bit chippy. Saw him do a couple of things that were unnecessary (grabbing, bulldozing thru the lane, etc. ) - probably out of frustration. He missed 8 minutes of the game because of his foul position. Scored 22 on 21 shots - versus McBride’s 34 points on 18 shots. 
• Denver took 27 shots in the first half - 23 which were three pointers. That is a pretty crazy stat. They ended the game with 62 shots - with 38 of those three pointers. 
• Denver came out blazing in the 2nd half - scoring 22 points in the 4:19 minutes while we managed to score 4 points. 
• We committed turnovers in bunches and ended up with a total of 17 for the game. That totally out of character for this team. It was our guards: Thompson (4), Bedford (5) and McBride (6). By the 15:30 mark, we were down by 10 points. 
• Denver zoned us for a significant time (off & on) during the game. It was active and we had to work the ball to get open looks. Their length and athleticism caused us problems. 
• At the 12:19 mark, Coach Springman was T’d up for contesting a call; he thought a called block should have been a goal tending. I think he passed the half court line while talking with the ref. It did not seem egregious, but you could argue that it spurred the team on because we slowly clawed our way back into the game. It helped that Denver stopped making shots. 
• Our post players seem to be open on every pick & roll. Most of the time they are wide open. The problem is our guards can’t or won’t make that pass… except for Thompson. Maybe it’s because he is tall enough to see/make the pass. If we ever figure that out, it could be really devastating. 
• Late threes by Weaver and McBride were huge, along with Bedford’s rebounding and Phipps coming off the bench to make 2 very important free throws. 

[Keenan Henderson]

The Denver game was a summary of the season: lots of curves and twists and turns.  That is why ORU is 11-11.  At times they look good (Tulsa, SDSU, and @Denver) and other times the Eagles have really struggled (KC, St. Thomas, and North Dakota).

Not sure this will change: I think we will continue to see a lot of ups and downs the rest of the season but hopefully ORU is on an upward swing by the Summit League Tournament.

[GoldenEagleFan]

3 hours ago, ORUTerry said:

Our post players seem to be open on every pick & roll. Most of the time they are wide open. The problem is our guards can’t or won’t make that pass… except for Thompson. Maybe it’s because he is tall enough to see/make the pass. If we ever figure that out, it could be really devastating

Disagree - McBride made several passes to Herron off the pick and roll the last several games. A few were even lobs at the rim. Agree that Kareem’s height helps, but I have been impressed with McBride’s assists to the roll man during this 3-game home stretch. 

[ORUTerry]

31 minutes ago, GoldenEagleFan said:

Disagree - McBride made several passes to Herron off the pick and roll the last several games. A few were even lobs at the rim. Agree that Kareem’s height helps, but I have been impressed with McBride’s assists to the roll man during this 3-game home stretch. 

You’re right. I was too definitive in my statement. I just think we can use that play a lot more than we do. 

[Sterns78]

1) Mackey gave Bruner fits. I was sitting under their basket in first half (our bench end), and McBride’s quick hands frustrated Bruner, knocking the ball off Bruner’s knee and out of bounds, etc. 
2) Jalen’s leaping ability reminded me of Lamont Reid’s vertical. 

3) Foul call on their 3 before halftime looked sketchy. 
4) DJ’s 3 was like the Sweet 16 shot. We never trailed after those. 
5) Mackey showed what he could do against a premier player. 

[dave]

9 hours ago, Sterns78 said:
2) Jalen’s leaping ability reminded me of Lamont Reid’s vertical. 
4) DJ’s 3 was like the Sweet 16 shot. We never trailed after those. 
5) Mackey showed what he could do against a premier player. 

Lamont Reid, now there is a name I haven't heard in a while. 
i thought the same thing about DJ's three. He definitely likes the big shot. 
 

Hey, Sterns78, I believe you may someone that I spent a week with this summer. Rick Weyuker. He and I were roommates in 77-78. I heard him mention your name a few times. 

[theeagleman5]

Anybody have a clip of Springmann getting T'd up?....would love to see that.....

[eagle88]

13 minutes ago, theeagleman5 said:

Anybody have a clip of Springmann getting T'd up?....would love to see that.....

I was center court and 4 rows away from Springmann when he got the T. I wish I had taken a picture. I love the intensity and passion that Springmann is showing and how many good coaches know when to get a T to motivate their team?! I think the T sent a message to the players  to up their game which indeed they did. As the leader goes so goes the team!

[ORUTerry]

 

[Old Titan]

2 hours ago, theeagleman5 said:

Anybody have a clip of Springmann getting T'd up?....would love to see that.....

Speaking of T's:  will Bedford be forced to sit any of the St. Thomas game Thursday (by league rule) for his part in the physical altercation double-technical late in Saturday's game?

[dave]

1 hour ago, ORUTerry said:

 

THAT is a really good highlight reel. 

[ORUTerry]

1 hour ago, Old Titan said:

Speaking of T's:  will Bedford be forced to sit any of the St. Thomas game Thursday (by league rule) for his part in the physical altercation double-technical late in Saturday's game?

From what I can tell, we only had one technical fouls assessed - which was against Coach Springman. Bedford was assessed a common foul ( his 5th) and consequently fouled out. I guess that precluded him from shooting free throws. That was a new one for me. 

[Keenan Henderson]

That was a weird call at the end of the Denver game: Bedford was fouled on the rebound, then he shoved one of the Pioneer's and the guy acted like Mike Tyson hit him.  It was very strange because then all of a sudden Trey is shooting free throws in Bedford's place.  

I thought that they called double T's on both Bedford and the Denver player, which nullifed one and the other.  Also a foul was called on the DU player, which meant Trey had to shoot for Bedford but who knows?  It was a very odd call.

[Old Titan]

Bedford was fouled after grabbing the rebound and was headed to the line to shoot free throws; next thing you know he’s out of the game and Trey is shooting the FT’s instead.

He must have been called for a deadball technical foul if he somehow fouled out of the game at the same time; what else could he have been called for?

The replay showed the Pioneer player wasn’t faking a flop, at least initially:  Bedford shoved him in the chest with both hands, hard.