ORUJason Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I heard an interview yesterday by Al Jerkens on the sports animal interviewing Steve Bontrager. They covered a wide range of area college basketball issues and he spoke very highly of ORU, Scott Sutton, Larry Owens, and Dominique Morrison. He said: 1. College basketball attendance is brutal but it is affecting every area school and is truly a nationwide issue. He mentioned several examples such as Iowa where they used to have 34,000 season tickets sold for a 17,000 seat arena. Each package covered half of the games. Now they don't sell out their arena and I think he said it may be only half full. 2. Dominique Morrison is a definite pro and could eventually make the NBA. If Roundtree keeps developing he could also follow a path like Larry Owens and possibly be an NBA type player. 3. He compared Larry Owens career to Mario Elie who toiled for years in obscurity but then developed an outside shot and played for 10 years including winning a championship with Houston. He also compared Larry to Bruce Bowen and said that if he can be a defensive specialist who can shoot the 3 and therefore make the defense respect him, then he can make it in the league. 4. They talked about Scott turning down other jobs and how staying in one place has been a good experience for his family and is now paying off. 5. They also discussed free throw shooting and I think he also complimented ORU's free throw shooting this year. 6. He also complimented the ability of ORU's staff to continue to recruit effectively. He said Scott has done a nice job of developing freshman and sophomores into better players who by the time they are juniors and seniors have become big time contributors. 7. Al asked him if TU's record should be better than it is right now and he said yes. But he said he feels sorry for Doug Wojcik's situation because he has consistently won 20 games a year, graduated his players and ran a clean program, but since he hasn't made the NCAA tournament he will be on precarious ground unless they turn this season around quickly. He likened the situation to Barry Hinson at Missouri State where the program was successful but the first time that his program took a little of a dip he was shown the door. Apparently Steve does radio analysis for RSU now. He knows his stuff and I wonder why he hasn't had higher profile color analysis opportunities beyond ORU and RSU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUalum Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Thanks for posting this summary ORUJason. Maybe he and Sutton have patched things up. Would love to hear him callling ORU games again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EaglesFan Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Hey, thanks for going to the trouble of documenting this interview with Bontrager! He has such a good "basketball mind" and I use to love to watch/listen to his color commentary on the delayed TV broadcasts. He called it like he saw it ... and hs insight was great, too. I learned a lot just listening to him. I have heard him on a couple of RSU broadcasts, and he is equally entertaining. And, in my opinion, Mickey Michalec is getting better and better in his role as a commentator. He's not as rough around the edges as he was in his first season of regular color commentary work... Anyway ... ORUJason ... that was a great summary ... Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I'll add my kudos, Jason - GREAT job recapping the interview. Glad to hear Steve still had good things to say about ORU. I think I mentioned this before, but I saw him at church over the Christmas holiday. I made a point to say hi after the service, and he couldn't have been nicer. I'd love to see him involved at ORU again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 What's the story between Sutton and Bontrager?.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUalum Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 What's the story between Sutton and Bontrager?.... (this was during the Tutt/Green years) Steve was not happy that Sutton did not offer his son a scholarship. He made it racial when during a radio interview he said it was because his son was white and that Sutton did not recruit white players. John Phillips at TU placed him in a JUCO, but got canned shortly thereafter and I'm not sure young Bontrager ever made it to a D1 school. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was the issue between them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 (this was during the Tutt/Green years) Steve was not happy that Sutton did not offer his son a scholarship. He made it racial when during a radio interview he said it was because his son was white and that Sutton did not recruit white players. John Phillips at TU placed him in a JUCO, but got canned shortly thereafter and I'm not sure young Bontrager ever made it to a D1 school. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was the issue between them. I believe you are correct about the issue, and I believe you're also correct about the fact that Mike Bontrager never played beyond Juco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Sounds very petty if you ask TheEagleman.....how good could the kid have been if he never played anywhere at D-1?.....and then to make it a color issue?....please.......that's bush league for an Ex-ORU starter like Bontrager.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sterns78 Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Hey, we owe a lot to Steve Bontrager. He was one of smartest guys on the court and had the most solid fundamental game. He rarely made mistakes and he ran the team like a coach on the floor. Trigger's the man. I don't know about the past story brought up here, but it doesn't matter. The past is past. I tip my hat to Steve for bringing his game to ORU back in the day and elevating everyone else's around him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOLO_Gold Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Hey, we owe a lot to Steve Bontrager. He was one of smartest guys on the court and had the most solid fundamental game. He rarely made mistakes and he ran the team like a coach on the floor. Trigger's the man. I don't know about the past story brought up here, but it doesn't matter. The past is past. I tip my hat to Steve for bringing his game to ORU back in the day and elevating everyone else's around him. Completely agree. It appears Steve has moved on and so should we. I'd love to see Bontrager get back involved with ORU basketball! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Hey, we owe a lot to Steve Bontrager. He was one of smartest guys on the court and had the most solid fundamental game. He rarely made mistakes and he ran the team like a coach on the floor. Trigger's the man. I don't know about the past story brought up here, but it doesn't matter. The past is past. I tip my hat to Steve for bringing his game to ORU back in the day and elevating everyone else's around him. I think it was brought up here because he's no longer a part of the ORU fold, Sterns78 - but we want him to be! Just like you said, he's such an important part of ORU basketball lore, lives right here in town, and used to be at every game. Now he hasn't been around in years. We want him back. Richard Fuqua is at every game - and we wish that Steve was, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 TheEagleman agrees that Bontrager should be back in the fold and leave the past in the past.....it's all good.....especially ORU basketball right now....the more on the bandwagon the merrier!.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg1984 Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 very insightful guy i also hope he gets more involves big m looked good the other day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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