vcboy2000 Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Breakdown By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer 2/19/2007 View in Print (PDF) Format Looking back ORU's defense took a holiday in Thursday's 85-80 win over Centenary and Saturday's 71-65 BracketBusters loss to Utah State, but the Eagles clinched the regular-season Mid-Continent Conference title with Oakland's losses at Missouri-Kansas City and Southern Utah. The week ahead Thursday: at Indiana-Purdue, 6 p.m. Saturday: at Oakland, 5 p.m. A difficult road trip ends the regular season. Can the Eagles regroup from Saturday's loss? IUPUI is dangerous even without injured star George Hill, and 8-2 at home this season. Oakland has five players averaging 9.7 points or more. The big picture Are the Eagles tough enough to win an NCAA Tournament game? They seem unbeatable against lesser foes, but often have a deer-in-the-headlights look in their eyes when opponents aren't awed by their athleticism. With a huge crowd on their side Saturday and everything to gain, they got outhustled and gave up open shots. With the league race decided, what is to be gained from this week's games? They don't want to go into the conference tournament on a three-game losing streak. Nor do they want to give Oakland or IUPUI confidence by losing either. ORU is likely to face one or both in the tournament. Besides prestige, what does ORU get from winning the regular-season title? There's the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The Eagles will play the bottom seed in the first round and enjoy a day's rest before the semifinals. They're also guaranteed an NIT berth if they don't get into the NCAA. It's one more thing to sell recruits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oru86alum Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 That's a pretty tough article, but hopefully the team reads the paper & it gives them something to prove, so to speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcboy2000 Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 Are the Eagles tough enough to win an NCAA Tournament game? They seem unbeatable against lesser foes, but often have a deer-in-the-headlights look in their eyes when opponents aren't awed by their athleticism. With a huge crowd on their side Saturday and everything to gain, they got outhustled and gave up open shots. Especially the above quote. We were outhustled last night, but I didn't see the deer in the headlights look. It seemed more like the "I want to get there and I'm reaching, but my legs won't carry me". They looked tired too often. It also didn't help that we didn't switch defenses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Minyard Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Just found out today that we could not host a NIT game. The Mabee Center has events already booked on those days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUJason Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 The Reynolds Center seats around 8500, maybe we could host one there if it is impossible to reschedule the other events. The other venues in town would be too small to interest the NIT (conv. center, UMAC, Pavillion each seat around 6000 or less), right? Maybe it seems unconventional, but didn't TU have 1 or 2 home games several years back at the Mabee Center. Also, OSU has played 1 or 2 games over the last several years in the Mabee Center as well. If we could host an NIT game, and wings got all school points for turnout, then I think we could get the students down to 11th & Harvard. Far-fetched, maybe, but worth considering to keep us in the game....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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