UNM v ORU

[RedPitSea]

Ok guys, your up next and we really dont know much about you guys.

Maybe some of you could help answer some questions. And always, you guys are welcome to join us at TheLoboLair.com.

Who are your top 2 scorers and how do they attack other teams?

I see you have a few hurt players. How serious is it and do you expect them back for UNM on Wed?

Are you guys more of a offensive team or a defensive team? Strengths and weaknesses?

Hows your inside game? Much height?

Bench? Do you guys expect much from your bench night in and night out?

Do you have anyone who can guard a 6' 7" point forward?

Whats your arena like? Do you guys sell it out and is it loud?

Odd question but do you think the passing of Oral Roberts has any effect on your players mentality?

Who have you beat this year and where have you beat them?

Are you guys a man or zone team? Press much?

Thanks!!

[theeagleman5]

It appears that another genius has joined the board.... .....ok, TheEagleman will take a stab at a couple of the questions and leave some of the others for OT and friends to chew on.....yeah, our guys are pretty banged up....we were down to 6 scholarship players at Louisville last Wednesday night...it wasn't pretty...not sure how many will suit up for this game but you'll still see our top guys Morrison (6-6), Ford (6-9), Craion (6-5) and Niles (6-4)....but our bench could be pretty thin if Stokes (6-5) and Nasarre (6-10) are still banged up....Ben-Holter (6-10) will see plenty of minutes inside....he's a raw freshman but has skills.....our top wins were at Stanford and home vs. Missouri.....if you guys don't bring your A game...we can beat you....TheEagleman is very impressed with the 12-0 start....looks like Los Lobos are coming to Mabee for lucky 13....Let's win one for Oral....

[RedPitSea]

It appears that another genius has joined the board.... .....ok,

Hey, thanks for the welcome. Merry Xmas to you too.

[ORUIsbig]

What you need to know about us is that our team is depleted by injuries. What we have left is our best player, Morrison who plays the 3. Kevin Ford plays the down low. You know him. Craion is undersized but is athletic and a great rebounder. Our guards are a backup pg and two young sg's (stokes & Niles) who have yet to reach thier potential. Its a gutsy bunch, but we have little left. They will play you tough, but i am not sure we have enough defence or offence to win.

Sutton = Defence. Man to man; almost exclusively. We have less inside and outside than when we played you last year. Morrison will probably guard your best player.

The mabee center is a great arena. It seats near 10,000 but we are not likely to be near that. Rarely is. It is everything the pit is not (for better or worse depending on your perspective) Its comfy, family friendly, and has well tempered fans. It can get loud on games like this one.

Who did we beat? Stanford at Stanford, Missouri at ORU. We have a few bad losses too (UALR & ISU).

You guys should handle us pretty well, but get overconfident, they might just jump up and steal this one.

[theeagleman5]

It's not like New Mexico never heard of us....they played and beat us at home last year....so I don't think ORU sneaks up on the Lobos...overconfidence?...holiday blues?....maybe.....UNM should beat us by double digits....but for some reason, TheEagleman thinks it will be close....the big prediction will come within the next 48 hrs....

[ORU Eli]

Ok guys, your up next and we really dont know much about you guys.

Maybe some of you could help answer some questions. And always, you guys are welcome to join us at TheLoboLair.com.

Who are your top 2 scorers and how do they attack other teams?

I see you have a few hurt players. How serious is it and do you expect them back for UNM on Wed?

Are you guys more of a offensive team or a defensive team? Strengths and weaknesses?

Hows your inside game? Much height?

Bench? Do you guys expect much from your bench night in and night out?

Do you have anyone who can guard a 6' 7" point forward?

Whats your arena like? Do you guys sell it out and is it loud?

Odd question but do you think the passing of Oral Roberts has any effect on your players mentality?

Who have you beat this year and where have you beat them?

Are you guys a man or zone team? Press much?

Thanks!!

RPS...thanks for visiting the board. Don't mind Eagleman as his sarcasm is as much for everyone else's humor and entertainment as anything else. I'm definitely not an expert on the team but at the risk of being repetitious I'll go over your questions.

Top Scorers are definitely Morrison at the 3 and Ford in the post. Craion has made a fairly smooth transition from Juco and is a threat to go off.

Who knows what potential our team would have if we hadn't experienced the injuries we have this year but are experiencing unprecedented challenges with 3 ACL injuries and a number of other bumps and bruises. We've had challenges even in practice because of the toll injuries have taken as well as one of our sophomore guards leaving the team unexpectedly. What we lack in man power, we make up for in heart. This team has overcome a lot and will continue to have to fight hard all season, but has shown that they have the attitude and heart to sneak up on better teams.

Strenths and weaknesses would really be better broken down by someone else but as stated, everything revolves around our short bench. It's very difficul to run with teams when you only have 6 or 7 scholarship players. Sutton, our coach, as always been defensively minded and we've been known to have bad shooting games but still end up on top with our defensive pressure. We're pretty much strictly a man-to-man team and will press on occasion, but not often - especially with limited fresh legs.

I don't know anything about your 6'7 point forward but I'm guessing Craion who I think is 6'6" and can do a bit of running and slashing will stick on him. Perhaps Morrison. Our current point guard is really more of a combo guard and entered the season as basically the third option to bring the ball up the court. Holdman...he's shown a lot of improvement and has disruptive speed when he gets comfortable in the flow of the game but is still really new to bringing up the ball and making the inside pass the majority of the game.

This was already covered but yes the Mabee is a great venue. It was typically sold out in what many call the glory years of our program in the 70s. With so many seats, and the holidays, and the students being away from school, we have a lot working against us to get a good crowd. I hope whoeve does show up is loud as I'm sure our guys will need the encouragement against a strong opponent. We do however seem to have a knack to play very well and very gutsy at home no matter who we face or how many butts are in the seats.

Oral Roberts passing has had a tremendous impact on the university, the city, and everyone involved with ORU. As for the impact it will bring the guys on Wednesday...who knows? Sutton's a smart guy and I'm sure he'll use it and everything else in his quiver to pump up the squad. Our founder was always a believer and supporter of having a quality D1 athletic program and has said before it his is vision that basketball return to the elite status of 20-30 years ago.

I think between Eagleman, IsBig, and myself that should answer your questions. Thanks again for stopping by. Hoping to surprise you guys and pull out the win on Wednesday but we'll definitely be Lobos fans for the rest of the year and have a lot of respect for the way they've been playing to this point.

[theeagleman5]

Yeah, Pitboy...TheEagleman's bark is worse than his bite....welcome aboard...it's OT you really need to worry about....hope you are around during the game Wednesday night...should be some fun....and I think it will be close...at least for a while....

[ORUTerry]

With all of the injuries we have had, the ORU squad is a bit shorthanded. Our biggest hole is the lack of a true point guard - although Ken Holdman is learning that position on the job. We are not a good perimeter shooting team and will have to rely on our defense to keep us in games. The problem is that with our short bench, it makes it difficult to be too aggressive because we can't afford to have anyone foul out. I think we can give the Lobos a contest but everything needs to go our way.

The New Mexico game would be nice to win, but the conference is where we should place our focus. We need guys to heal (Niles, Stokes & Nasarre) and for the existing players to stay healthy.

[TrueBlue82]

You're absolutely right, Terry. While a win over UNM would look great on the resume (and would capture some national attention for the upset), the games next weekend in the Dakotas are more important to our long-term success. If our players aren't fully "ready to go" on Wednesday night, there's no reason to risk an extended injury.

[OKC Eagle]

I think we should sit Stokes for that very reason. Ankles can nag if you don't let them heal.

[ORUIsbig]

wonder what the holdup on Mangum is. We could sure use him.

[Old Titan]

Yeah, Pitboy...TheEagleman's bark is worse than his bite....welcome aboard...it's OT you really need to worry about....hope you are around during the game Wednesday night...should be some fun....and I think it will be close...at least for a while....

The only people who need worry about me are the ones - friend or foe - who simply don't know what they're talking about.

In the case of our Lobo-rious visitor, I must admit being more than a little puzzled that he doesn't remember us from just 12 months ago, when we had UNM down by double digits in the second half on their own floor...

[theeagleman5]

Bingo....hard to forget almost losing to us at home last year....but then again, I guess there must be a lot of other exciting stuff to do out in New Mexico these days than to research ORU basketball.....we gotta beat these guys tomorrow night...

[ORUIsbig]

a friend i have that is a Lobo fan said they arn't sure what they will get with the golden eagles because as they said, the only person they remember was "Lil Wayne." (RJ)

[wakeflip1]

It appears they have some quality wins over Creighton,Texas A&M, Cal, and San Diego. Yet, the team appears fairly young with only one senior, 4 freshman, and 4 sophmores. I think the key to us winning is taking care of the ball and keeping the TO's under 12. I would love nothing more than UNM to have 8 underclassmen coming in the Mabee center "expecting" a win. If that's the case, I'll be "expecting a miracle."

[ORUIsbig]

They have to lose sometime. Might as well be us. Florida, Oklahoma and Butler all lost to lower teams this week

[LoboDave]

In the case of our Lobo-rious visitor, I must admit being more than a little puzzled that he doesn't remember us from just 12 months ago, when we had UNM down by double digits in the second half on their own floor...

Oh no, we remember. But things can change quickly. For us, this years team hardly resembles last years team. We lost 3 seniors that were a HUGE part of last years success. Daniel Faris is playing ball in Europe while Tony Danridge and Chad Toppert are playing in the NBA-DL. We have a 6-7 transfer from Eastern Utah JC in Darington Hobson. The guy is an absolute STUD. He can play the 1-3 spots and leads our team in points, rebounds, and assists. He hasn't had a triple double yet but we all know it's coming. He had 30 pts, 10 rebs against La Tech and 22-16 against Creighton. Roman Martinez (Sr, 6-6, plays the 4) is shooting over 50% from 3 this season and that's not by luck or from not shooting alot. Over a 5 game stretch, he went 24-34 (71%) including 8-9 at San Diego. The guy can flat out shoot it. I don't think anybody saw Roman playing as well as he has this year. And that goes for a few of our other players, too. AJ Hardeman (So, 6-8, plays the 5) has been playing like a man possessed. We're getting great defense out of him and he is rebounding like crazy. The team combined for 22 offensive rebounds against Creighton. That's insane. Some of it was because we couldn't throw the ball in the ocean that game (29% shooting for the game I think), but mostly it was because AJ and Darington are just beasts on the boards and the team hustles for every ball. We have a freshman, Jamal Fenton (5-9), who is one of the first off the bench who comes in and just plays great pressure defense on the point, gets tons of steals, and makes big time shots.

What you will see from us is lots of dribble penetration and lots of 3s (team is shooting around 40% from 3) and lots of rebounding. Also expect to see Darington running the pick and roll. He's really dangerous running it because he can pass so well. If you double him, at 6-7 he can easily pass the ball out of the double to the open man. If you lay off of him during the switch he can shoot a 3 or take it to the rack. Another things is we don't turn the ball over. We had a total of 5 turnovers against Creighton and 2 of those were (bad) charging calls against Darington. We play alot of man to man, but also look for us to play a 1-2-2 press and some 3-2 zone.

Our weakness is probably our youth. We had big leads against NMSU, Texas A&M, and San Diego that we squandered in the second half but still held on to win.

It should be a great game.

[ORUTerry]

Good insight. As has been discussed in other threads, we have endured more than our share of injuries this year - including three season ending ACL injuries. Two of those were to our only point guards (Rod Pearson and Hunter McClintock). Without a true point guard, this team is still trying to find its way. On top of that, we lost a post player (Tim Morton) and had a guard (Beloved Rogers) leave the team. Two of our guards (Kyron Stokes - high ankle sprain; and Warren Niles - hand injury) are playing(?) with injuries. Another post player has been out with a fractured wrist and may play tonight. Our roster got so depleted that one of our walk-ons (Michael Fletcher) was forced to play significant minutes in several games.

We normally play hard nosed, man-to-man defense - but that is a bit hard to do when you only have 6 or 7 players (total). I am afraid we might be a bit under-manned tonight and suffer a 10+ point defeat. I am just hoping for no one to get injured as we begin (next week( conference play.