Old Titan Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 This is the first weekend any two league teams have been faced with the new "ORU-Southern Utah Roadie", and it will of course be the last year of the pairing, with the Thunderbirds and Golden Eagles flying off to new nesting grounds next season. In past years, SUU was paired with UMKC as travel partner, but league teams benefited from easier flight connections to and from Kansas City and Las Vegas. ORU was stuck with lowly Centenary, who most league teams treated like a scrimmage while preparing for ORU all week preceding. But now, the ORU-SUU pairing makes for a daunting challenge in 72 hours, both on the court and in the air, as making the quadrangle of home-to-Tulsa-to-Cedar-City-and-back-home is no small feat this time of year, especially if there is bad weather along the way. If ANYONE is capable of sweeping the two games, it's the xDSU's visiting this week. But otherwise, this trip will at best be a hard-fought split for anyone in the league, and for many it will be a nightmarish "0-fer". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Great observations, OT. Teams will miss the easy win of the Centenary game, but not the drag on RPI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FargoBison Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Yeah I was really hoping that it would have been NDSU-SUU, that arrangement is a definite advantage for ORU this season. I'm very happy this will be NDSU's last trip to Cedar City, the Big Sky can have that road trip. That said I definitely will miss the ORU games, the Mabee Center was always one of the best places to play in the Summit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 I think we saw a prime example with SDSU on Saturday night of what to expect from teams that play at altitude on Thursday night at Southern Utah, and then have to travel all the way to Tulsa to deal with our athleticism: tired legs, especially in the last few minutes of each half. I bet we average over 80 points a game, with a victory margin of 15-20 points, for our Saturday night conference home games the remainder of the season. And, I wouldn't be surprised if the girls team sees a similar effect for their Monday night conference home games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I think we saw a prime example with SDSU on Saturday night of what to expect from teams that play at altitude on Thursday night at Southern Utah, and then have to travel all the way to Tulsa to deal with our athleticism: tired legs, especially in the last few minutes of each half. I bet we average over 80 points a game, with a victory margin of 15-20 points, for our Saturday night conference home games the remainder of the season. And, I wouldn't be surprised if the girls team sees a similar effect for their Monday night conference home games. I've been thinking about this the last few days - the travel challenges associated with the Cedar City trip, coupled with the athleticism and high level of play of ORU so far this season, makes this road trip EXTREMELY challenging for teams - I really wonder it it isn't the most difficult road trip in recent years in the Summit League. Your thoughts? Can you think of any tougher? In some respects we got a favor handed to us by the conference in pairing us up with the Thunderbirds. With air travel a convenient option, SUU could have been paired with any Summit team, really. In the past we've been paired with UMKC, and that might have been a better option this year from the standpoint of our opponents. A relatively short bus ride down the turnpike and they're settled in in Tulsa awaiting Saturday's game - or visa versa. But the travel to and from Cedar City gives ORU a pretty distinct advantage on Saturday nights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Those comments above are spot on....ORU will be tough to beat on Saturday nights at Mabee Center.....and Thursday nights are no picnic also...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 From the conference standpoint, it came down to finding the most reasonable travel partner for new member South Dakota, and for us (due to Centenary leaving). Guess it just made sense to put UKMC with USD, due to geography, leaving us with Southern Utah. With both ORU and SUU leaving, next year the league can just leave all the existing pairings together, and let Nebraska-Omaha go it alone until a 10th team joins the league. Ideally, if the Summit League could ever get the University of North Dakota, the "U's of xD" would pair off, leaving UMKC and UNO together in a natural grouping, also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 The "Cedar City Effect" in full view at Mabee Center tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 The "Cedar City Effect" in full view at Mabee Center tonight. Interesting phenomenon... The challenges of playing in Cedar City on Thursday and Tulsa on Saturday have been well documented - and should give the Golden Eagles a definite advantage in every Saturday night Summit home game. Ironically, in each of the four weekend series at the Mabee Center this season, ORU will play the more difficult opponent on Saturday (according to current RPI). Listing each series, Thursday/Saturday opponents and current RPI: NDSU-87/SDSU-72 IPFW-229/Oakland-135 SDak-279/UMKC-247 IUPUI-230/WIU-122 And, to make things even more interesting... we play each of these series of teams on the road in reverse order, so we will play a road game at the more difficult opponent on Thursday night, when the Summit tends to have access to better officiating than on Saturday, when nearly every D-1 team is on the court and the Summit receives the bottom of the barrel. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but maybe those Summit schedule makers unwittingly gave us a break after all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Interesting phenomenon... The challenges of playing in Cedar City on Thursday and Tulsa on Saturday have been well documented - and should give the Golden Eagles a definite advantage in every Saturday night Summit home games. Ironically, in each of the four weekend series at the Mabee Center this season, ORU will play the more difficult opponent on Saturday (according to current RPI). Listing each series, Thursday/Saturday opponents and current RPI: NDSU-87/SDSU-72 IPFW-229/Oakland-135 SDak-279/UMKC-247 IUPUI-230/WIU-122 And, to make things even more interesting... we play each of these series of teams on the road in reverse order, so we will play a road game at the more difficult opponent on Thursday night, when the Summit tends to have access to better officiating than on Saturday, when nearly every D-1 team is on the court and the Summit receives the bottom of the barrel. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but maybe those Summit schedule makers unwittingly gave us a break after all! Good stuff, Blue! And of course, this wouldn't be the first time a decision by the league office could be typified as "unwitting". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I agree - great analysis Blue. I think it should give us a bit of an advantage. But we still have to perform. (null) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I should point out that while I posted that comment on the men's board, in relation to this topic, I was actually at the women's game last night when I made it. At the time ORU was in the process of routing NDSU. The Monday night game for the women has the same Cedar City-to-Tulsa benefit that the men have on Saturday night. Geoff asked Coach Fink whether he thought that teams could be coming in fatigued as a result of the travel, and he responded by saying that we've been dealing with the difficulties of travel in this conference ever since we've been in it, and he wasn't going to apologize for it, or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Fink is 100% right...nobody in the Summit has more difficult travel than ORU and SUU....it's about time we reaped some of the benefits!.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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