Bogus Smith Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Replacing Green, Tutt is next task By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer 4/7/2007 Sutton believes he has the right mix of players to do so. Oral Roberts University ended an historic basketball season by saying farewell to two of the best players in school history. Caleb Green and Ken Tutt finished their careers after becoming the seventh set of Division I teammates to each reach 2,000 career points in the same season. They led the Golden Eagles to pieces of three straight Mid-Continent Conference regular-season titles and the first back-to-back NCAA Tournament trips in school history. Can ORU continue the trend Green and Tutt -- talented but lightly recruited prospects in the fall of 2003 -- started? "It's going to be a great challenge, but I'm looking forward to getting started," said head coach Scott Sutton. The Eagles will have many doubters in 2007-08, Sutton reminded his players in the aftermath of last month's 70-54 loss to Washington State in the NCAA Tournament. "A lot of people are thinking we had a couple of great players that carried us and we're going to have a hard time without them. But I think we can have a very good team again. We have a good nucleus and I love our recruiting class," Sutton said. The Eagles might have been on the brink of losing Sutton earlier this week. He was rumored as a leading candidate to replace Dana Altman as head coach at Creighton University. Sutton has often said it would take a strong offer to lure him away from ORU, where he has won 144 games over eight seasons. But the issue became moot when Altman backed out after a day as the University of Arkansas' coach and returned to Creighton. ORU returns the six men who played most frequently alongside Green and Tutt in 2006-07. Shawn King, Moses Ehambe, Adam Liberty, Marchello Vealy, Yemi Ogunoye and Kelvin Sango combined to score 35.4 points. The 6-foot-10 King led the Mid-Con with 78 blocked shots and was getting better offensively in his first Division I season. He averaged 7.2 points per game and 10 of his 11 double-digit outings came in the final 21 games. "Shawn will have more confidence next year," Sutton said. "He'll assume a larger role offensively. We're going to need him to step up, and I think he will." Green's departure is an opportunity for the 6-foot-7 Vealy to contribute. He won the Mid-Con Sixth Man Award as the league's top reserve. Is he ready to be a leader? "It depends on how bad Marchello wants it," Sutton said. "If he wants to be a leader, he's going to have to prove it. This will be a big offseason for him. We'll see how much he matures and wants to assume a much larger role." Sutton said junior college guard Robert Jarvis "can step in and have a huge impact." The 5-foot-11 Jarvis made 237 3-pointers over two years at Seminole (Okla.) State and led the Trojans to a fifth-place finish at the 2006-07 NJCAA Tournament. Sutton has two Division I transfers, 6-foot-4 Curtis Allen and 6-foot-8 Marcus Lewis, waiting in the wings. The former high school transfers from Long Beach, Calif., sat out the 2006-07 season after transferring from Kansas State and the University of Portland, respectively. Allen was rated among the nation's top players out of high school, No. 81 by Hoop Scoop and No. 134 by RivalsHoops.com. ORU insiders say he is potentially the most talented athlete Sutton has had. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Brown 581-8390 mike.brown@tulsaworld.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2006-07 SCORES Date Opponent Score Nov. 10 at Loy. Marymount L, 68-65 Nov. 15 at Kansas W, 78-71 Nov. 21 vs. La.-Lafayette W, 54-51 Nov. 25 vs. Panhandle St. W, 91-41 Nov. 28 at Tulsa L, 75-57 Dec. 2 vs. Akron L, 61-59 Dec. 4 vs. Lamar W, 88-63 Dec. 9 at Georgetown L, 73-58 Dec. 16 at Chattanooga L, 76-72 Dec. 19 vs. Montana W, 69-58 Dec. 22 at Arkansas L, 68-56 BYU HOLIDAY CLASSIC (3 GAMES) At Provo Dec. 28 vs. Seton Hall W, 76-74 Dec. 29 vs. Brigham Young L, 72-62 Dec. 30 vs. Liberty W, 90-58 Jan. 4 vs. Western Illinois W, 65-46 Jan. 6 vs. Valparaiso W, 75-60 Jan. 11 at Southern Utah W, 69-61 Jan. 13 at UMKC W, 75-68 Jan. 18 vs. Chicago State W, 59-53 Jan. 20 at Centenary W, 89-66 Jan. 25 vs. Oakland W, 73-63 Jan. 27 vs. IUPUI W, 77-66 Feb. 1 at Valparaiso (OT) L, 70-67 Feb. 3 at Western Illinois W, 67-60 Feb. 8 vs. UMKC W, 74-68 Feb. 10 vs. Southern Utah W, 79-57 Feb. 15 vs. Centenary W, 85-80 Feb. 17 vs. Utah State L, 71-65 Feb. 22 at IUPUI W, 83-73 Feb. 24 at Oakland (OT) L, 85-84 MID-CON CHAMPIONSHIP At UMAC, Tulsa March 4 vs. Centenary W, 79-59 March 5 vs. IUPUI W, 75-54 March 6 vs. Oakland W, 71-67 NCAA TOURNAMENT At Sacramento, Calif. March 15 vs. Wash. St. L, 70-54 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 You don't really replace players like Tutt and Green.... that's unfair to the returning/new players. I think you try to replace their output with mixes or combinations of players. Vealy, King and Lewis will have to provide the rebounding for the team, while Allen, Jarvis and Stokes attempt to provide scoring. I actually think we will be a bit better on defense. Green could not be as aggressive on defense as he (or we) would have liked because he could not risk fouling out. Tutt was not the most athletic or quickest guard. As a consequence, we may not need to totally 'replace' the scoring output if we can hold opponents from scoring as much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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