Reminder: Blue-White men's basketball scrimmage TONIGHT

[Old Titan]

7:00 at the Mabee Center - curious to see how the teams are split up, but earlier this week in a scrimmage here's who guarded who (first player listed was on one team, second player listed was on the other):

Pearson - Holdman

Niles - Lliteras

Morrison - Glover

Craion - Tyrone Nance, walk-on from LA (and not your typical non-scholly player)

Bell-Holter - Roundtree

Manghum & Obaseki DNP (minor leg ailments, I think)

And, for what it's worth: the second team listed won that day, on a last-second play by Ken Holdman after overcoming a sizable deficit.

[OKC Eagle]

This would have been a great practice run for GEB (and nice for us out of towners). I suppose it would help our opponents too, though.

[ORUalum]

Live Stats

[OKC Eagle]

Craion has 11 rebounds at the half? Could that really be right? With 12 points he has a double double at the half! It is going to be awesome having him back.

Nice balanced scoring by everyone.

[ORUJason]

Glover will be a nice addition next year. He is pretty smooth right around the basket and will be a nice replacement for Craion.

Niles, DoMo, and Roundtree looked good and DBH did not play except for about 30 seconds. I think he was nursing a slight injury.

Rod Pearson hit several 3s and looked more confident on the offensive end. Manghum looked like he can hold his own and should provide quality backup minutes.

[theeagleman5]

Sounds like a great coming out party for Glover.....too bad we have to wait until next season to see more of him....hope DBH isn't hurt too seriously.....need him to have a shot in early season games at WVA and OSU......

[Old Titan]

Ten Things I Learned About Our Team Tonight

1. We are really small.

2. We are pretty quick at most spots where that matters.

3. We are playing better defense - but not drastically better.

4. We REALLY hit the defensive glass tonight.

5. Michael Craion is the best player on our active roster, BUT...

6. ....redshirt transfer Shawn Glover was the best player on the floor tonight.

7. Dominique Morrison is the exact same player he was as a freshman. Which is not all bad. But, still...

8. Steven Roundtree could score 20 points a game if we needed/asked him to.

9. Rod Pearson is a better shooter than you think.

10. All Warren Niles does is quietly score (20 tonight).

[ORUalum]

post scrimmage remarks from Coach Sutton...LINK. as other have said, i'm loving all the video content that orugoldeneagles.com is providing this year.

[ORU GRAD]

I was really impressed with the shooting tonight. Pearson was really ready to play and seemed very confident taking the three. Man, it is a shame we will not have Glover. This guy was inside/outside and played a great game. He is a gamer. Tree is better and all Niles does is shoot the rock. Overall , I was really impressed with our offensive skills. Defense was so/so and will get better. Craion is bigger and looked terrific in the first half. Morrison will get his points but we have the firepower and double team will not work. Here is my first five:

Point - Pearson

Two- Niles

Power Forward- Craion

Wing- Domo

Center- Tree

You will not be able to keep Tree off the floor as a starter. However, you could start Domo at the point and play a healthy DBH in the Center. Manghum and Literas will see some playing time .That is my story and I'm sticking to it.

[theeagleman5]

ORU is pretty small....but in the Summit.....Does size really matter?....

[SOLO_Gold]

QUESTIONS FOR ANYONE WHO ATTENDED

• Was Obaseki hurt as well?
  
• Any impressions of how Lliteras has developed over the past year?
  
• I read somewhere that Niles put on 17 lbs of muscle over the summer... was it noticeable?
  
• Anything surprising from the walk-ons?
  

COMMENTS

• Good to see Rod seem determined to have a fast start.
  
• It's a HUGE relief to hear that Craion played well.
  

[oruvoice]

I don't think we are all that small. DBH (6-9), Tree (6-7), Craion (6-6), Domo (6-6).

Compared to a Big 12 or Big East school, yeah. But, for a mid-major program, I think we have pretty decent size.

Glover was a VERY PLEASANT surprise. Rod looks REALLY good. So does Ken. This team has a TON of offensive weapons. We have 6 guys that could go for 25 on any given night.

Sean Sutton seemed to really be coaching hard. Adding him to an already strong staff is a very good thing. Was very excited about this year before tonight. After tonight...even MORE excited. It's going to be a fun year!!

[bballmangc]

So does anyone know the story behind the two freshman that won't be able to play? What did they not complete that made them ineligible? Weren't they both on campus all summer?

[ORUTerry]

I saw Glover at practice last week - he is special. I also thought that Obesaki looked good although he is skinny.

I think the freshmen both took Internet courses to complete requirements - and the NCAA did not allow them. Seems silly given that they completed a summer school course at ORU this summer and are currently attending classes. This is the same thing that happened to two Kansas recruits - except they can practice next semester.

[Old Titan]

Answers:

Obaseki is a little dinged up - nothing major.

Lliteras is a freshman, and will struggle for playing time. But he has some skills.

If DBH is 6'-9", then I'm 6'-5" - and I'm not. Craion is about 6'-4"; he just PLAYS big. We're not as big as Oakland was last year or (I think) this year, and not as big as SDSU or NDSU along the front line this season.

Niles looks the same to me. The extra 17 pounds may be the ink from all his new tattoos. It cracks me up how no one talks much about Warren - all he does is score points. He's going to end up with over 1500 points for his career - maybe 2000 - and hardly anyone will notice. Why?

The reason Roundtree may not start is to keep him out of foul trouble, which was a problem last year. He can come in at the 16:00 media timeout each half for either Michael or Damen, and then play until his second foul of the first half, and his fifth foul in the second half. If we can keep him on the floor for more than 28 minutes a game, it will be huge.

[darrenj]

I think Craion is the key for the season as he allows them to play so many different combinations as he is able to cover all 3 frontcourt positions. Give him another month to get his legs under him and will be something special. Nice to have a player like Glover redshirting and will take those type of transfers all day!

They are smaller than years past but Morton and the other 2 bigs that left were not going to play many minutes and the guys they got in their spots are much better players.

[tmh8286]

Jake nailed a couple long-range treys last night. He could become a nice utility player for us.

[bballmangc]

I saw Glover at practice last week - he is special. I also thought that Obesaki looked good although he is skinny.

I think the freshmen both took Internet courses to complete requirements - and the NCAA did not allow them. Seems silly given that they completed a summer school course at ORU this summer and are currently attending classes. This is the same thing that happened to two Kansas recruits - except they can practice next semester.

Interesting, saw that with Kansas players as well so it is common. Seems like if they were here all summer we should have gotten word about their eligibility before so they could have taken some high school summer school instead of college courses.