Eaglefan 21 Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 We've been hit hard this year by the transfer portal. However, our team did not live up to their potential so starting over may not be a bad thing. The remaining players who haven't transferred yet are as follows: Sir Issac Herron, Josh Jones, Braedon Moore, Pablo Navarro, and Jalen Miller. The "bigs" struggled last year and so far it seems like we are bringing them back. The good news is that they were all pretty much freshman and Herron and Jones gained a lot of valuable minutes. I expect them to improve. I'm hopeful that one or two who entered the portal will return. Mcbride, of course, and Demari Williams would be great. Demari doesn't have a lot of tape for other coaches to look at and I think he would be our starting 3 man next year, depending on who else we bring in. I read in another post that the coaches are heavily recruiting the class of 2025 so maybe we bring in a couple of 5th year transfers to fill in some holes (there is a lot of them). There have been 20 to 30 separate posts on twitter from some of the recruiting websites that show us contacting players. It seems like we are active so far. The Summit League, with the exception of Denver, UMKC, and South Dakota, have lost impact players. Denver has not lost a single player to the portal yet and UMKC and South Dakota lost mostly role players; however, they had some seniors that were top players who graduated. Depending on how things shake out during the offseason, our team might be right back into contention. I think we have the right coach, now we need to find the right players who fit his system. I don't love this new direction for college sports. However, ORU is unique and I believe we will find a way to make an impact on young people's lives on and off the court. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 Seems like 2/3 of basketball players all over the country are in the Portal.....its ruining CBB and they need to reinstate the one year sit out rule in all cases except for graduate transfers and situations where a coach leaves or is fired.....i think in those cases players should be able to move without penalty.....otherwise it just becomes a fiasco.....NIL is understandable as players should be compensated for NIL....it's only fair based on the money that the universities are raking in....but honestly the entire situation is making the game unenjoyable to watch.....Football not much better.......small schools like ORU can be hit hard.....but TheEagleman has no answers.....it's frustrating.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogus Smith Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 8 hours ago, theeagleman5 said: Seems like 2/3 of basketball players all over the country are in the Portal.....its ruining CBB and they need to reinstate the one year sit out rule in all cases except for graduate transfers and situations where a coach leaves or is fired.....i think in those cases players should be able to move without penalty.....otherwise it just becomes a fiasco.....NIL is understandable as players should be compensated for NIL....it's only fair based on the money that the universities are raking in....but honestly the entire situation is making the game unenjoyable to watch.....Football not much better.......small schools like ORU can be hit hard.....but TheEagleman has no answers.....it's frustrating.... I agree with most of what you say, @theeagleman5, but I take one exception that is bolded above. With the exception of a few P4 schools, athletics is a drain on a university's budget. Athletics is a "cost center" - plain and simple. It is usually not a "profit center" that is throwing off dollars for academics, operations, and endowment. It brings an intangible of school pride for the university community and alumni, but there is nothing that you can buy at the grocery store with "school pride". Student athletes should be able to monetize their name, image, and likeness, just like any other person that is recognized for their skills and talents in all industries; however, to sell these kids a bill of goods that their promotion of goods or services is going to substantially drive an economic gain for a large segment of the population because they are sitting the bench on a P4 school's athletic team or scoring 10 points per game for the Bryant Bears in the northeast is a far cry from how the world works to make a living. Student-athletes should be investing themselves in the classroom and in their field of play rather than on social media (in my humble opinion, of course!). 4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 My expectations for next year are very low. I just think it may take until year three for Coach Springmann to turn this ship around. It feels like he is starting from scratch again with all the guys in the portal. To me, he is still building the foundation for what Coach wants the program to be. We have all heard about the importance of a foundation, maybe from sermons/preachers. It just cannot be rushed. The big surprise so far is that I have heard very little about going after players in the state of Texas. We know Coach has a ton of experience/connections in Dallas, Houston, Austin because he was with Texas for so long and Mills had great success in those areas. Maybe I missed it but has anyone heard of Springmann hitting Texas hard this year in high school, juco, etc. Even when I went to the homecoming and talked to a staff member, they said he had a lot of connections in Texas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogus Smith Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 15 hours ago, Keenan Henderson said: My expectations for next year are very low. I just think it may take until year three for Coach Springmann to turn this ship around. It feels like he is starting from scratch again with all the guys in the portal. To me, he is still building the foundation for what Coach wants the program to be. We have all heard about the importance of a foundation, maybe from sermons/preachers. It just cannot be rushed. The big surprise so far is that I have heard very little about going after players in the state of Texas. We know Coach has a ton of experience/connections in Dallas, Houston, Austin because he was with Texas for so long and Mills had great success in those areas. Maybe I missed it but has anyone heard of Springmann hitting Texas hard this year in high school, juco, etc. Even when I went to the homecoming and talked to a staff member, they said he had a lot of connections in Texas. If we have very low expectations, we will get very low results. We should only be looking for players that will take the floor and think that they should have a chance to win every game; otherwise, they shouldn't have a place to play at ORU. #MakeNoLittlePlansHere 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Losing is for LOSERS....and ORU is not a place where losing is ever acceptable. Those of us who knew OR know how he would respond to losing....we need to recruit only players who have a winner mentality...end of discussion...then coach them up....let's do that.... 2 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2014Grad Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 I think going .500 in conference play next year is an attainable but necessary goal. We have a lot of transfers, but so does the most of the Summit league. If we can’t win HALF of our conference games next year, then we simply are not heading in the right direction. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris93 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 I haven't seen much about this yet, but this looks to be a huge signing for ORU. Check out some of his highlights on his twitter page. Looks to be a tremendous player and a great quality kid. Really pumped to see him at the Mabee next year! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris93 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 Here is a pretty nice Luke Gray highlight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogus Smith Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 We have been talking about Luke at this link, @Boris93. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris93 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 Thanks. Completely missed this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 Right now, ORU is bringing back 3 guys that saw action last year and they averaged 12 points and 8 rebounds. It could change and some of the players could take their name out of the portal but right now the cup is pretty empty. I cannot remember a year when the Eagles returned a total of 12 points from the previous team. Even Mills first team had more talent than that. Coach Springmann will show the fanbase what he is made of this upcoming year because he has his hands full in 24-25. I think the key is to spend the offseason and preseason teaching all these new guys about: toughness, defense, and rebounding. That is how Rick Barnes built his teams and Coach Springmann is of course, from his tree of coaching. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dr. Cornelius Posted April 1 Popular Post Share Posted April 1 5 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said: Right now, ORU is bringing back 3 guys that saw action last year and they averaged 12 points and 8 rebounds. I am shocked that ANY combination of players averaged 8 rebounds per game last season. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 I confess when the portal opened and all the ORU guys left (McBride, Bedford, Williams, etc.) I thought ORU was going back to 10-21 records as a staple. Things have improved since then with McBride returning. Now Coach is building around the all star and has brought in some length and depth. The Summit League is wide open next year and ORU should improve on an 8th place tie. I do not expect a huge jump but at least back to .500. The Eagles could still use some more rebounding with the last two openings in the roster. Who is the best rebounder next year? Not sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 Well....its not likely to be the new 7'4" 210 pound guy....... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenan Henderson Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 Majok from Sudan is built like the Bol family from the NBA, just has a very small frame. Can he put on weight? Even 15-20 pounds. The best rebounder on this year's team is Herron at 3.7 rebounds per game in 23-24. None of the transfers put up much in the rebounding category last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titansforever Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 Question: When Max was first recruited to ORU, did the folks on this board say, "Wow! A superstar in the making!"? Or was he a wait-and-see player? Just wondering. Right now, we aren't super-excited about every recruit, just cautiously optimistic. There's always a chance that one of these guys will step up and become the key to victories. (Hoping and praying here!) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUJason Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 Once we saw Max play in the first preseason game of his first year at ORU, his talent was obvious. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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