How's old "what's-his-name" doing?

[Old Titan]

Be honest:  in 30 seconds, could you name more than five guys from last year's roster still playing college basketball?

Yeah, me neither - we hardly knew ye, fellas.

Here's how they're fairing so far in their new digs:

• Sir Issac Herron  (Louisiana Tech) - avg. 7.0 pts & 4.3 rebs in just four games off the bench (hope he's not injured again).
• Josh Jones (North Dakota) - 3.3 pts & 3.8 rebs in eight games with five starts.  34.6% from the field, 38.1% from the line, and 4.1 fouls per game (I'll bet half his fouls are illegal screens).
• JoJo Moore (Tulane) - since his big payday, goes by "Josiah" now.  In seven games with no starts, 6.0 pts, 1.1 rebs, 1.1 asts.
• Jackson Skipper (Vermont) - 3.8 pts & 1.3 rebs in nine games with 1 start.
• Mathok Majok (New Orleans) - 13 total mop-up minutes in two games.  Just relieved he was not forced to return to South Sudan.
• Darius Robinson Jr. (Southern Illinois-Edwardsville) - In 8 games off the bench, 5.4 pts and 1.1 asts.
• Pablo Navarro (Saint Martin's/D2) - 3.5 pts and 3.0 rebs in six games as a reserve.
• Braeden Moore (Embry-Riddle/D2) - 6.6 pts & 3.3 rebs in 5 games off the bench.

Nary a one contributing as a starter, or even in a signicant role in their respective rotations. 

Gee, hard to fathom why ORU stuggled last season... 

[Bogus Smith]

Thanks for doing the "heavy lifting" on this, OT.  I was wondering about a few of these and hadn't found the time to do the research. 

When you can't play defense, you don't see the floor much. 

[Old Titan]

13 hours ago, Bogus Smith said:

Thanks for doing the "heavy lifting" on this, OT.  I was wondering about a few of these and hadn't found the time to do the research. 

When you can't play defense, you don't see the floor much. 

Yep, that might definitely explain Jojo "Josiah" Moore seeing so little playing time, despite what I'm told is a pretty hefty NIL deal.  Even at his best, he never played much "D" last season...

[ORUJason]

Yes the 2 surprises to me are JoJo Moore not playing more and also Pablo Navarro not starting at the D2 level.  I would think he could really contribute at a D2 school.

[theeagleman5]

All a bunch of bums.....of course our current squad doesn't play much D either...but more fun to watch... 

....and more likeable 

[ORU40]

4 hours ago, Old Titan said:

Be honest:  in 30 seconds, could you name more than five guys from last year's roster still playing college basketball?

Yeah, me neither - we hardly knew ye, fellas.

Here's how they're fairing so far in their new digs:

• Sir Issac Herron  (Louisiana Tech) - avg. 7.0 pts & 4.3 rebs in just four games off the bench (hope he's not injured again).
• Josh Jones (North Dakota) - 3.3 pts & 3.8 rebs in eight games with five starts.  34.6% from the field, 38.1% from the line, and 4.1 fouls per game (I'll bet half his fouls are illegal screens).
• JoJo Moore (Tulane) - since his big payday, goes by "Josiah" now.  In seven games with no starts, 6.0 pts, 1.1 rebs, 1.1 asts.
• Jackson Skipper (Vermont) - 3.8 pts & 1.3 rebs in nine games with 1 start.
• Mathok Majok (New Orleans) - 13 total mop-up minutes in two games.  Just relieved he was not forced to return to South Sudan.
• Darius Robinson Jr. (Southern Illinois-Edwardsville) - In 8 games off the bench, 5.4 pts and 1.1 asts.
• Pablo Navarro (Saint Martin's/D2) - 3.5 pts and 3.0 rebs in six games as a reserve.
• Braeden Moore (Embry-Riddle/D2) - 6.6 pts & 3.3 rebs in 5 games off the bench.

Nary a one contributing as a starter, or even in a signicant role in their respective rotations. 

Gee, hard to fathom why ORU stuggled last season... 

IMHO this is more of an indictment of our program recently than the former players, this is a group of guys that are not good basketball players and played no defense here and seemed to ACCEPT LOSING, yet a couple started and several played a lot of minutes for us.

The really sad part is that several of our former "players" aren't good D2 players and would not have made the roster of our former good teams. 

Through 9 games we have the same record as last year 3-6 with one D1 win. I was very disappointed with the video posted by the program celebrating our win in Ft. Myers and the reason is we should expect to win, not jump up and down over a single OOC win and then follow it up the next day with no effort- unacceptable.  

To me, coach's #1 job needs to be changing the culture of the program and most importantly, the mind set and expectations of the players. 

We can expect a miracle, but our team needs to get back to expecting to win! The ORU basketball program is/should be better than this! 

Let's go Eagles, we're with you coach but it's time to get it going!

[ORU82]

Spot on ORU40.

[eagle88]

11 hours ago, ORU40 said:

IMHO this is more of an indictment of our program recently than the former players, this is a group of guys that are not good basketball players and played no defense here and seemed to ACCEPT LOSING, yet a couple started and several played a lot of minutes for us.

The really sad part is that several of our former "players" aren't good D2 players and would not have made the roster of our former good teams. 

Through 9 games we have the same record as last year 3-6 with one D1 win. I was very disappointed with the video posted by the program celebrating our win in Ft. Myers and the reason is we should expect to win, not jump up and down over a single OOC win and then follow it up the next day with no effort- unacceptable.  

To me, coach's #1 job needs to be changing the culture of the program and most importantly, the mind set and expectations of the players. 

We can expect a miracle, but our team needs to get back to expecting to win! The ORU basketball program is/should be better than this! 

Let's go Eagles, we're with you coach but it's time to get it going!

What we fans don't see is the dawg or dog that takes place behind the scenes. But let's be assured that what we see on game night are the intangibles playing out before our eyes. I am really hoping we will be seeing the Dawg in upcoming games. 

[Old Titan]

16 hours ago, ORU40 said:

I was very disappointed with the video posted by the program celebrating our win in Ft. Myers and the reason is we should expect to win, not jump up and down over a single OOC win and then follow it up the next day with no effort- unacceptable.  

In fairness, pretty sure the celebration was re: Coach Barnett's first career D1 victory, but in terms of posting that video in the first place, I'll be the first to admit this athletic department has a penchant (obsession? mandate?) for ballyhooing even the most trival of milestones and moral victories.

[Sterns78]

Herb Kelleher famously said, "Celebrate everything." That's Chick FilA's mantra, also: Celebrate the Cow. So, I have no problem celebrating everything. #rejoicealways!

[ORU40]

3 hours ago, Sterns78 said:

Herb Kelleher famously said, "Celebrate everything." That's Chick FilA's mantra, also: Celebrate the Cow. So, I have no problem celebrating everything. #rejoicealways!

Believe me, I'm more than happy to celebrate a chicken sandwich and cookies & cream shake from Chick fil a. But in terms of D1 basketball I'm not celebrating a 1-6 record against D1 competition, I would have been the first to celebrate a post from our program showing coach walk into the locker room and say something like "great win guys, but this is not our goal it's just the beginning, we a game tomorrow so let's enjoy this win briefly and focus on what we have to do to play better tomorrow and continue to improve moving forward". The 3 other teams in that tourney came out and played hard on day 3- we did not, that's a lack of focus and mental toughness. Hopefully, our coaching staff and players learn from that, we need to become a team that can play tough for 40 minutes per game on a consistent basis. 

Tonight is a great chance for us to bounce back, and this game puts us 1/3 of the way through our season. Hopefully, we bring it tonight and get our season on the right track-show some toughness Eagles!   

[2014Grad]

On 12/2/2025 at 6:44 PM, ORUJason said:

Yes the 2 surprises to me are JoJo Moore not playing more and also Pablo Navarro not starting at the D2 level.  I would think he could really contribute at a D2 school.

Josiah is sitting behind; a 6'6 junior guard who previously played and contributed at Louisville and Georgetown, a 6"3 senior guard who started 25 games for Tulane last year averaging 11.5 pts, and a 6'4 redshirt Junior guard who started at Georgetown and last year was All-AAC First Team and Newcomer. He'll get his time to show what he has, but it wont be this year as they have some really solid and established guards.

[ORUJason]

I guess Tulane must have a bigger NIL budget than I would have expected if they are that stacked.

[Old Titan]

16 hours ago, ORUJason said:

I guess Tulane must have a bigger NIL budget than I would have expected if they are that stacked.

I'm told by someone who should know that the starting salary for a men's basketball portal transfer in the American Conference this past summer STARTED at $250,000.  Incoming freshmen signees get significantly less.

Safe to venture that ORU NIL for portal transfers (nine players this year) is probably in the neighborhood of that amount in total ?

[eagle88]

1 hour ago, Old Titan said:

I'm told by someone who should know that the starting salary for a men's basketball portal transfer in the American Conference this past summer STARTED at $250,000.  Incoming freshmen signees get significantly less.

Safe to venture that ORU NIL for portal transfers (nine players this year) is probably in the neighborhood of that amount in total ?

I have no idea what other conferences are paying their players but i am fairly certain ORU is very competitive with NIL $ in comparison to other Summit League teams. The challenge at this point is we won't be competitive against Summit League  teams unless a drastic change takes places. If $ was the only determining factor ORU  should be at the top of the Summit League.

[2014Grad]

51 minutes ago, eagle88 said:

I have no idea what other conferences are paying their players but i am fairly certain ORU is very competitive with NIL $ in comparison to other Summit League teams. The challenge at this point is we won't be competitive against Summit League  teams unless a drastic change takes places. If $ was the only determining factor ORU  should be at the top of the Summit League.

I’ve always wondered this! I’ve assumed we’re on the lower end of the Summit League in NIL funds, but maybe those with may more insight than me can share general numbers?

[Bogus Smith]

4 hours ago, 2014Grad said:

I’ve always wondered this! I’ve assumed we’re on the lower end of the Summit League in NIL funds, but maybe those with may more insight than me can share general numbers?

For the Summit League, without football, ORU should be in the upper half of the League when it comes to NIL and revenue sharing dollars for basketball and baseball.

[oruvoice]

Who is in charge of raising NIL funds?