Old Titan Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Yet another preseason prognostication came out today on the Summit League, this one from "Rush The Court", a website which many of you may remember I took issue with last year on their preseason picks - and that came from one of our own ORU students! Any way, I guess the misconceptions and outright inaccuracies of some of the preceding online forecasts this year had driven to me to the breaking point by the time I read the RTC entry this morning from "correspondent" (definition: guy sitting in his underwear in his mom's basement, with "Cheeto" dander all over his Acer netbook) Charlie Parks, which must be an alias, because an internet search of "Charlie Parks" and the word "basketball", rather than bringing up a newspaper, or a TV station, or even a blog, instead only listed public parks in St. Charles, MO with basketball courts. It wasn't so much that Charlie-boy picked Nate Wolters of SDSU as his POY (hey, that dude can ball - got no problem with acknowledging his skills). I didn't even get that riled up when he referred to Greg Kampe as "the premier coach in the conference" (Really? Isn't it more likely that Keith Benson made Kampe a lot "smarter" the past two seasons, and his absence may well make Kampe "dumber" this year?). And, while I don't agree with his casual pick of Oakland to repeat as conference champs (for apparently no more reason than they will find a way), I suppose a case can be made that "the champ is still the champ until you knock him off", so, again: no big problem. No, where he lost me was when he said ORU had been "erratic" in past seasons, had suffered several "defections" this summer, and was now left without much experience on the bench. OK, genius: "NOW, IT'S ON!!" 1. How does a team that has finished in the top 3 spots in the conference standings for the past, oh, I don't know - DECADE - deserve to be called "erratic"? ORU under Scott Sutton has been a PILLAR of consistency. They may not win the whole thing, but they are a factor every single season. How many conference schools can say that over such a stretch of time? 2. We "lost" 2 or 3 players who weren't that good this past off-season, and signed better players in their place. Those aren't called "defections", they're called "busts". Let me know if any of those guys who are gone land anywhere near a D-1 school. If they do, I'll buy you a steak, Chuck. 3. Not much experience?? OUR RETURNEES PLAYED OVER 97% OF OUR MINUTES LAST YEAR!! link WE HAVE SEVEN GUYS WHO HAVE BEEN FULL-TIME STARTERS AT SOME POINT IN THEIR CAREER. Look, we may end up being a lot of different things this year, and not all of them may be good, but one thing we will NEVER be this year is inexperienced. But the real nail in the coffin was the poll at the end of the article: "Choose The Best Tandem In The League". It gives you several choices, including Craion and Morrison for ORU. But, my personal favorite has to be the same one the author recommends, based on "either player's ability to go for 20+ points a night": IUPUI's Alex Young and Leroy Nobles. Except for one little problem: Leroy Nobles was a senior last season. He's GONE. I think he's going to have a hard time teaming up with Alex Young on anything beyond a pepperoni pizza. I wish I could post a link to the article, but as of tonight, it's been taken down. You don't suppose the e-mail I sent the poor guy pointing out the Leroy Nobles faux pas had anything to do with it, do you? Nahhh, couldn't be... "Rush The Court" Summit League Preview (at least, where it was Thursday morning...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUalum11 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 http://twitter.com/#!/CharlieParksRTC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUalum11 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 "that wasn't my article. There was a mix up on the editors side. My article is going up a little later. Hopefully." lolololololol http://twitter.com/#!/CharlieParksRTC/status/124676301788418048 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 Whatever... "The dog ate my homework" "I never inhaled" "Or had sex with that woman" "He must have misremembered" ...blah, blah, blah. Only thing worse than being dead wrong is not owning up to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUalum Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 who knows, maybe they did post the wrong article. based on the twitter link above the actual article will be up soon. like OT i did not have a problem w/the Oakland pick or POY pick, but scratched my head on the ORU analysis when i read it earlier today. (still cracking up at the image of a guy pounding away at a laptop covered w/"Cheeto dander." well done OT ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 "The editors posted the wrong article" = "Geez, I screwed up; I better rewrite this thing!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FargoBison Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I might be wrong, but the article I read while it was up seemed very similar to this article he wrote this summer so maybe it was a screw up... http://rushthecourt.net/2011/07/12/rtc-summer-update-summit-league/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 Whether it was written in July or October, it's still painfully wrong. I get the distinct sense that Mr. Parks is scrambling to come up with something better in its place - I look forward to reading it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moose Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Wow, I guess I wasn't that bad after all. Maybe I should ask RTC if they want me to start writing about the Summit again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 They should ask US to pick the winner each year. The message board consensus last year was Oakland #1, ORU #2, which is exactly how it played out. This year, ORU is the overwhelming pick - and that ain't just homerism. It's the logical choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FargoBison Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Whether it was written in July or October, it's still painfully wrong. I get the distinct sense that Mr. Parks is scrambling to come up with something better in its place - I look forward to reading it. I definitely agree, it was terrible no matter when it was written. This guy has to be from Oakland based on how much he gushed about them. It was like losing what was perhaps the best mid-major front court in Will Hudson and Keith Benson was no big deal. That said maybe it could also be an SDSU fan, not sure how a team can prove it is a legit conference contender when they don't play defense and rarely beat any of the league's best teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cornelius Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 The only thing that scares me is losing the freshman as scouting options/practice players. NDSU and Oakland will be tough this season... not buying SDSU getting over the hump despite Wolters though. Saul Philips seems to do more with less talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 I definitely agree, it was terrible no matter when it was written. This guy has to be from Oakland based on how much he gushed about them. It was like losing what was perhaps the best mid-major front court in Will Hudson and Keith Benson was no big deal. That said maybe it could also be an SDSU fan, not sure how a team can prove it is a legit conference contender when they don't play defense and rarely beat any of the league's best teams. Oh, he's definitely an Oakland guy - his Tweets to me tonight make that obvious, which is fine. Just wish he would admit it - I wear my heart right on the sleeve of my Golden Eagle polo shirt. This guy's "What; Me Worry?" attitude reminds me of LakesBison famously predicting that NDSU would simply "reload" the year after losing four senior starters from their championship team. They haven't finished among the top four teams in the league since... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moose Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 In his defense, we usually had to write the first post about two weeks before the Summit had their poll. last year I had no idea who was going to be #1.... preseason is a crap shoot. And its hard not to be confident in your team... if this guy is an Oakland guy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 My point is this: anyone who spent even just a few minutes online this summer could have seen what ORU had coming back this year. That might not be convincing enough to pick ORU to win the whole thing, but it might have prevented the silly "beyond (Dominique) Morrison, there's a bench full of question marks" comment that, for me at least, ruined his credibility in the rest of the article. How are there any question marks about what Damen Bell-Holter brings to the table? Or what to expect at minimum from Steven Roundtree? Or Warren Niles? How about Ken Holdman? Or even Rod Pearson? Craion is definitely a question mark, but why not just say THAT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I can't wait for the season to start so we can see how this team will perform. It can take time for teams to get used to each other and for team chemistry to mature. Seasons are more like a marathon than a sprint and coaches try to pace their teams along. The key is to be able to peak in February and March - and to not have any major injuries. We will get a decent idea of the strength of the league after the first month or so of the season. Most of the teams have new players (freshmen and/or transfers) and we frankly don't know how good (or bad) these players are - and won't until they play some games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUalum Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 i agree ORUTerry, it's time to get the season going and settle it on the court. ORU has no excuse for a slow start this year. of the top 8 players, 6 are coming into year 3 together in the program. here is the updated RTC summit preview it's better than his previous write-up. however, this line did not make much sense..."But unless the Southland pays the Summit League’s $250,000 buyout for Oral Roberts, this move couldn’t happen until 2014." why would the Southland pay the buyout??? does he think ORU would not be allowed to pay the buyout??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oruvoice Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I'm still trying to understand why seemingly intelligent folks would get all worked up about a pre-season prognostication from anyone, much less some college/high school kid in Detroit, Siuox Falls, or Tulsa??? Insert emoticon for I don't give a crap... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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