ORUTerry Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Breakdown by MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer 2/19/2007 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...
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