Bogus Smith Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 CANCELED ORU Golden Eagles Baseball vs. Wichita State Tuesday, March 18 Support Golden Eagles Baseball vs. Dallas Baptist Thursday, March 20, 7:00 p.m. Friday, March 21, 7:00 p.m. Saturday, March 22, 2:00 p.m GO GOLDEN EAGLES! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhammer Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Hopefully they can find a date to reschedule this game. I sure hate that we lost both the Mo. State game and the WSU game. They valley plays good baseball and that is always a good barometer of our strength. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyb Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 I know Texas wanted to play two when we go to Austin ... that might be where we make this one up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogus Smith Posted March 19, 2008 Author Share Posted March 19, 2008 Gene and Rob seem to have a very good relationship. I'm sure WSU is losing some games to weather, too and may be willing to come back to Tulsa and make this up. I'm sure that Gene will also suggest that the two teams play a doubleheader when ORU goes to Wichita later this season to get a game in as well. Hopefully Gene will play well with us and return the game in Tulsa (Gene has some good recruiting connections here and has a vested interest in having some of his players' families/recruits see him in the Tulsa area). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhammer Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Thats a good point. If we could shut off the talent drain from the tulsa area to arkansas and WSU, we'd be in Omaha every year. This area produces a handfull of very talented baseball players every year. Far more than it does in basketball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogus Smith Posted March 20, 2008 Author Share Posted March 20, 2008 That's an interesting perspective, Hammer. I agree that Oklahoma does produce some very good baseball talent - probably because of the weather (it's good enough to play almost year round) and the legacy/heritage that Oklahoma has in baseball with producing a good number of Hall of Famers. For some reason, Rob and his coaches do a great job of finding talent in the hot weather states: California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. Their relationships with high school and junior college coaches is superb. This is probably due to Rob's days as a pro scout for the Indians prior to becoming a college coach. Of all the coaches that we have had - from Cochell to Rob - Rob seems to have an excellent knack for evaluating baseball talent. If he says that someone can be special, he sees their potential; if he says someone IS special, he has developed their potential. Currently, it seems that we are rarely in on the high-quality high schoolers in Oklahoma and those that we are successful in getting is due to unique situations and not necessarily because we cultivated a relationship with a coach. I'm not close enough to the recruiting situation to know all the ins-and-outs about this, but it's just one person's observation of how our baseball team seems to be put together each successful year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Rob knows how to reach out and touch the northern states as well, Bogus - right now we've got David Genao, Jerry Sullivan, Brett Carroll, and Nikko Wong from New Jersey, and the freshman Russ Carone from New York. Rob's got eyes everywhere. (Of course, most of the team IS made up of players from the states you mentioned, Bogus.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I always like seeing local guys on the roster - that's one reason I've been particularly happy to see Justin Mitchell getting some PT, and even started one game out in Malibu. Good to see local guys succeeding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogus Smith Posted March 20, 2008 Author Share Posted March 20, 2008 Rob knows how to reach out and touch the northern states as well, Bogus - right now we've got David Genao, Jerry Sullivan, Brett Carroll, and Nikko Wong from New Jersey, and the freshman Russ Carone from New York. Rob's got eyes everywhere. (Of course, most of the team IS made up of players from the states you mentioned, Bogus.) Good points, Doc. Rob is from NJ and probably has a lot of old-time contacts that feed him information on a regular basis from the east coast. Flat out, Rob can recruit and ORU has given him a great program to recruit to (with his help, of course). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhammer Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 Doc, Absolutely love the circle of life. You could add scott's picture with his daughter as a third photo as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 Thanks ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanGraham23 Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 Being a Broken Arrow grad, I've had a lot of friends who went on to play college baseball in the state. A lot of the reason the local kids don't go to ORU is simply because its ORU. Despite the fact that ORU has been more consistent on the national stage over the last 5-6 years then both OU and OSU, ORU just doesn't have the same appeal to these guys (because of the focus of the school, rules, etc.) The sad truth is, a lot of the guys that are recruited to ORU aren't told about the rules until they arrive on campus for school (almost every player from out-of-state has told me they almost went into shock when they found out about all of the rules). The local guys are familiar with the rules and are more interested in going to a school that is nationally recognized even if, as far as baseball goes, their situations may not be as favorable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 I find it hard to believe that in recruiting D-1 athletes that the basic rules of the school are not discussed prior to signing....i mean, that is rather basic stuff and if true...i would think that we would become an easy mark by other schools who would use that against ORU in negative recruiting tactics.....does Walton really do that?....i just think that would be very very wrong if he doesn't talk honestly about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I have no first-hand knowledge about this - only what I've heard, which may or may not be accurate, and IanGraham23 may know a lot more about it than I do. But what I've HEARD is this - it's true that many players recruited by Sunny Golloway had no idea that ORU was a Christian school, or about the honor code, dress code or any of the other lifestyle expectations when they arrived on campus (to me it's a little hard to believe a kid would commit to a school and know NOTHING about it, but I guess if they're focused on baseball they're not thinking about the other). My understanding is that Rob Walton is much more up front with recruits about those things than Sunny ever was. From what I know about Rob Walton that is very believable and is in keeping with the type of person he is. I don't think he would try to keep that kind of thing from players. I'm curious, IanGraham23, is the information you have about this based on recruits back in Golloway's tenure or more recently under Walton's watch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanGraham23 Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I am a recent grad so these are definitely Walton guys. I think Walton is just doing what he has to do to keep getting players, don't get me wrong I don't know Walton at all and I'm not saying anything about his character. But I do know that these guys are showing up and discovering all of the rules and being introduced to the honor code and curfew by the school not the athletic department. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 If that's the case, then it's too bad. Recruiters need to be up front with recruits. Do baseball players visit campus like basketball players do before committing? I go back to my comment, though, that you would think someone coming to ORU would seek a LITTLE information about the University before they show up on campus other than the win/loss record of the baseball team . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis 83 Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Time out, Ian. So a newly recruited freshman comes to ORU. Finds out there is an honor code, chapel, dress code etc. He's never heard of this before. He's shocked. He feels he's been deceived. He is totally surprised. This has been going on for years so the upper classman went through the same thing. Then a recruit comes to visit the campus and none of the current players pulls said recruit aside and says "Dude, you won't believe the rules. No one told us but here's the deal..." To quote Dean Bobo Boyd when a buddy of mine was trying to sell him a pile of dung "I find that very hard to believe."" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slider5 Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Coach Walton tells the recruits about the dress code, chapel and curfew, I have heard him on the phone. They may not believe it until they get here. He puts a positive approach to it such as the dress code gets you ready for the working world, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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