ORUTerry Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 ORU sets a tough schedule by MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer 7/31/2007 Scott Sutton says he's finalizing what may be the "most challenging" schedule in his eight years as Oral Roberts University basketball coach. The Golden Eagles will visit Texas A&M in their first Preseason NIT appearance and play Oklahoma State for the first time in 10 years. The nonconference slate also includes games at Texas, Arkansas and Utah State and Tulsa at home. The schedule comes with ORU having to replace Caleb Green and Ken Tutt, who combined to score more than 4,500 points over four seasons. The Dec. 20 game against OSU in the All-College Classic matches Sutton against older brother Sean Sutton, the Cowboys' head coach. ESPN will televise the game from the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. "Personally, I'm not real excited about (playing against a family member), but we don't get a lot of opportunities to play on national TV, and this is something I thought I had to do for our program and university," Sutton said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Notice the article said "visit" Texas A&M for the Preseason NIT. That's because the revamped Preseason NIT now begins with 4 teams playing doubleheaders on two nights on college campuses, with one team advancing from each pod. Rumor is ORU will be joined in College Station by UTEP and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, but that may not be accurate. If it is, that's an INCREDIBLE field - In addition to ORU and the Aggies, TAMCC went to the NCAA tournament last year, also. And it remains to be officially announced who our first game opponent is, but apparently it's Texas A&M. Regardless of who the opponents are, the important thing is we're guaranteed TWO games out of that roadie, which is a beautiful thing. And speaking of Aggies, how many of them are we going to play this year? Texas A&M, Utah State, OSU (they'll always be "Aggies" to me) - any others? If we beat them all, do we qualify for some sort of animal husbandry degree or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted July 31, 2007 Author Share Posted July 31, 2007 Okay, here is a recap of what we know: ORU is playing in the pre-season NIT against Texas A&M. I read somewhere that the format is changing this year to a type of pod system with four teams playing. Each participating team would be guaranteed of two games: the winners of the first games would play each other with the winner moving on to NYC(?) while the losers would play a consolation game. Wonder who the other two teams in the bracket will be? I assume the games would be played in College Station. Texas A&M unknown opponent (?) Texas Oklahoma State Arkansas Utah State Tulsa Louisiana-Lafayette Bracket Buster opponent I assume that we are working on another game or two because we have not released the schedule. That is a very ambitious schedule which will result in a strong RPI (and possible poor record going into conference play). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted July 31, 2007 Author Share Posted July 31, 2007 If you are right about UTEP and Texas A&M-CC, that would give us tremendous exposure in Texas for future recruits - and current players, not to mention the alums we have in the Lone Star state. Wonder if we can get a bus trip down to Austin? The Alumni Office should at least arrange an event. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU Eli Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Wonder if we can get a bus trip down to Austin? The Alumni Office should at least arrange an event. How about picking people up on the way down??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyb Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Okay, here is a recap of what we know: Texas A&M unknown opponent (?) Texas Oklahoma State Arkansas Utah State Tulsa Louisiana-Lafayette Bracket Buster opponent We're at Lamar, too. Right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU-sisko Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Correct. We are playing Lamar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gold* Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 No one cares about Lamar!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU-sisko Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Correct. Nobody cares about Lamar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU Eli Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 I think after the season is over if we can say that we won 4 out of 6 of the following: Lamar TAMCC/UTEP Utah State Tulsa LA-Lafayette Bracket Buster And get a win from 1 out of 4 from the following: TAMU UT OSU Arkansas That puts us at 5-5 in nonconference...not counting the Canada trip, non-D1, and/or whatever else I'm leaving off...that'd probably get you a decent double digit RPI going into conference...a hard feat for a team that is going to need to gel and establish leaders quickly but that would be a fantastic position to be in going into Summit play. What a schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toby Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Anyone else notice the comment left on the Tulsa World article? 1. 7/31/2007 12:03:29 PM, jeff, san antonio The kids ORU signed from Cornerstone Christian Prep in San Antonio are bad to the bone. I watched them play all last year. 3 years from now ORU will be ready to advance deep in the Tourney. They have done a nice job. Those kids they signed pretty much could have played anywhere in Texas. (including UT) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Minyard Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Correct. Nobody cares about Lamar. Billy Tubbs cares... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gold* Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Billy Tubbs cares... Billy Tubbs is a nobody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyO Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Anyone else notice the comment left on the Tulsa World article? I did notice that. Hopefully that's not a family member commenting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted July 31, 2007 Author Share Posted July 31, 2007 I hope it is a family member.... nothing worse than a family member dogging you - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OKC Eagle Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 To have a strong RPI, you do actually have to win a game or two. Are you guys interpretting the comment from Jeff in San Antonio to be anything but good? I think he meant "bad to the bone" in the nicest possible way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted July 31, 2007 Author Share Posted July 31, 2007 You can actually benefit in the RPI by just playing a hard schedule - especially on the road. Obviously, it helps much more to win. Yeah, I took his comments as a compliment of the three Cornerstone kids. I am anxious to see them in action. Have heard that the coaches really like Jonathan Dunn, who is 6'4" and played some point guard in hs and with Cornerstone. I have also heard that Tim Morton (6'8") has also impressed them. Glad that practice starts in 2-1/2 weeks so we can get a better handle on what we can expect this season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyO Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Are you guys interpretting the comment from Jeff in San Antonio to be anything but good? I think he meant "bad to the bone" in the nicest possible way. I interpreted Jeff's comments as very positive. I was just joking that if it were a family member it might not mean as much as if it were from a non-biased bystander. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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