2023 SLT Men's Basketball

[jakejc795]

we play those schools for FB but not hoops. i guess we have no current jacks BB players from the chicago area but the men have had a lot of players from there over the years.

i pretty much agree with all your reasons for annoyance with ORU, but i dont think augie is a quality replacement for them. augie may have lost their biggest source of funding and without that i am not sure they are the model of stability either. they just wanna make a grab for the SLT attention and money. but if we lose ORU, UST, and WIU and gain augie i gotta say that is a huge net loss for the league. i am sick of Mills whining but i think they are a better fit for the summit than denver is actually. if you look at I29 and I35 as kind of the spine of the conference, Tulsa fits fairly in that group. (that is NOT me saying denver does not fit or that everyone needs to be close to 29 or 35!!! just saying that tulsa / oru fits- minus the whining)

You don't think Augie fans would attend Summit Tourney, thereby helping the league's bottom line?

You're definitely right, if the Summit lost all three within a year or two, but that's unlikely to happen. Plus, maybe Northern Colorado's baseball-only affliation is the precursor to additional ties with Summit

Don't the teams typically fly to Denver anyway?

[bigticket1]

cannot speak for everyone, but i am sick of them strictly because of Mills. will not cheer for him
obviously WE KNOW from experience a lot of the tournament is the draw and the draw is a fair amount of luck

ORU was blessed with a perfect draw the last time around. they had a team with one real rebounder on the roster and they were able to play 3 ncaa games without EVER facing a team that was dominant in the post

so if they happen to get a duke team that many think is underseeded that is just the breaks. being rated 21 in reality duke is slightly over seeded. they should be a 6. and Mills has been telling everyone that listens that they are a top 30 team so maybe duke fans are the ones who should be upset??

The ESPN basketball analysts have been Duke apologists forever, but all 4 or 5 of them picked Duke to get to at least the Elite 8.

[LetsGoRabbits]

Oru got hosed. Personally I think Duke is the wrong seed. Oru will matchup better with Duke than people are giving them credit for. Not sure where all this hate for Oru is coming from but I'm guessing because they are way good and win too much.

cannot speak for everyone, but i am sick of them strictly because of Mills. will not cheer for him
obviously WE KNOW from experience a lot of the tournament is the draw and the draw is a fair amount of luck

ORU was blessed with a perfect draw the last time around. they had a team with one real rebounder on the roster and they were able to play 3 ncaa games without EVER facing a team that was dominant in the post

so if they happen to get a duke team that many think is underseeded that is just the breaks. being rated 21 in reality duke is slightly over seeded. they should be a 6. and Mills has been telling everyone that listens that they are a top 30 team so maybe duke fans are the ones who should be upset??

[LetsGoRabbits]

Guess I'm looking at it more from the conference stability/sustainability angle. As you mentioned, it would reduce travel to an outlying school, and there'd still be SIU, and both ISUs. I could be mistaken, but WIU is consistently mentioned as a candidate for relegation (with some even mentioning it dropping to DIII).

To clarify, I don't "dislike" WIU like I do ORU. It's due to the aforementioned fiscal questions.

we play those schools for FB but not hoops. i guess we have no current jacks BB players from the chicago area but the men have had a lot of players from there over the years.

i pretty much agree with all your reasons for annoyance with ORU, but i dont think augie is a quality replacement for them. augie may have lost their biggest source of funding and without that i am not sure they are the model of stability either. they just wanna make a grab for the SLT attention and money. but if we lose ORU, UST, and WIU and gain augie i gotta say that is a huge net loss for the league. i am sick of Mills whining but i think they are a better fit for the summit than denver is actually. if you look at I29 and I35 as kind of the spine of the conference, Tulsa fits fairly comfortably in that group. (that is NOT me saying denver does not fit or that everyone needs to be close to 29 or 35!!! just saying that tulsa / oru fits- minus the whining)

[jakejc795]

Oru got hosed. Personally I think Duke is the wrong seed. Oru will matchup better with Duke than people are giving them credit for. Not sure where all this hate for Oru is coming from but I'm guessing because they are way good and win too much.

If it nets the league some coin, bully for the Summit. Otherwise, ORU can hold their wings over their rears and whistle Dixie

[jakejc795]

yes i guess i agree with you that they do seem to have a huge advantage in use of the transfer option. they have had very impactful transfers for MBB and the WBB have several quality transfers also. I know that coach Nagy was never a fan of transfers and much preferred 4 year players. AJ has shown much the same preference. Hendo has had obvious success with juco transfers and Charley, but i dont have a good reason why we seem to not get too many impactful transfers. you would think players who prioritize winning would have us very high on their list

regarding Augie, you are saying there would be no issue with 3 D1 schools in SD? i am not saying it would have a significant negative impact on our recruiting but as far as recruiting in SD, there are limited D1 kids here and losing any good ones does not help in any way. or you were saying you like their fans better than oru?

i know travel to WIU is a pain. why else would you want to lose them? i know travel cost is a thing, but we have always recruited Illinois in both FB and basketball, at the very least, when we play at WIU their families can watch them play without traveling quite as far. i actually like WIU and would like to see their programs get stronger

Guess I'm looking at it more from the conference stability/sustainability angle. As you mentioned, it would reduce travel to an outlying school, and there'd still be SIU, and both ISUs. I could be mistaken, but WIU is consistently mentioned as a candidate for relegation (with some even mentioning it dropping to DIII).

To clarify, I don't "dislike" WIU like I do ORU. It's due to the aforementioned fiscal questions.

[Justwin]

Oru got hosed. Personally I think Duke is the wrong seed. Oru will matchup better with Duke than people are giving them credit for. Not sure where all this hate for Oru is coming from but I'm guessing because they are way good and win too much.

[bigticket1]

ORU gets a 12 and draws Duke. May be the first time in my life that I root for the Dukies.

[LetsGoRabbits]

Let's just say that their use of transfers, Mills' statements about the Summit Tourney, and their mercenarial conference affiliations have me viewing them as more an agent of chaos than one of stability.

I'd have to disagree with your assessment of Augie's sports (with the exception of football). I'd trade WIU for Augie in a heartbeat (hoping they'd move to Pioneer for FB), and the only aspect of ORU leaving again that I'd mourn would be that I'd lose a regime, my despisal of which ranks up there with NDSU.

yes i guess i agree with you that they do seem to have a huge advantage in use of the transfer option. they have had very impactful transfers for MBB and the WBB have several quality transfers also. I know that coach Nagy was never a fan of transfers and much preferred 4 year players. AJ has shown much the same preference. Hendo has had obvious success with juco transfers and Charley, but i dont have a good reason why we seem to not get too many impactful transfers. you would think players who prioritize winning would have us very high on their list

regarding Augie, you are saying there would be no issue with 3 D1 schools in SD? i am not saying it would have a significant negative impact on our recruiting but as far as recruiting in SD, there are limited D1 kids here and losing any good ones does not help in any way. or you were saying you like their fans better than oru?

i know travel to WIU is a pain. why else would you want to lose them? i know travel cost is a thing, but we have always recruited Illinois in both FB and basketball, at the very least, when we play at WIU their families can watch them play without traveling quite as far. i actually like WIU and would like to see their programs get stronger

[jakejc795]

is there something else about ORU that you do not care for? other than MBB head whiner Mills? i will have difficulty wanting them to have success in ncaa because of him, but generally, i feel like, i appreciate the way their players carry themselves

beyond that, i do not know if it is actually KNOWN?? but lots of people seem to think UST will not have a long stay in the summit if we lose them and ORU we are back to 8. i think 8 works fine. in some ways it is really good, but if you have 8 and you lose anybody, you are in trouble

as much as Mills bothers me, i would choose ORU every day over augustana!! we absolutely DO NOT need 3 D1 schools in one of the least populated states in the country and if we think Mills is annoying, he is a delight compared to augie fans

i dont know who other reasonable replacements would be? Northwest Missouri is obviously a D2 power. would they ever consider D1? i have no idea. i do know that there is no, what i would call, a good way to get to Maryville. that would feel like another Macomb

Let's just say that their use of transfers, Mills' statements about the Summit Tourney, and their mercenarial conference affiliations have me viewing them as more an agent of chaos than one of stability.

I'd have to disagree with your assessment of Augie's sports (with the exception of football). I'd trade WIU for Augie in a heartbeat (hoping they'd move to Pioneer for FB), and the only aspect of ORU leaving again that I'd mourn would be that I'd lose a regime, my despisal of which ranks up there with NDSU.

[LetsGoRabbits]

Their reduced travel expenses and regional rivalries reportedly weren't realized once Southland expanded. I hope they go back.

is there something else about ORU that you do not care for? other than MBB head whiner Mills? i will have difficulty wanting them to have success in ncaa because of him, but generally, i feel like, i appreciate the way their players carry themselves

beyond that, i do not know if it is actually KNOWN?? but lots of people seem to think UST will not have a long stay in the summit if we lose them and ORU we are back to 8. i think 8 works fine. in some ways it is really good, but if you have 8 and you lose anybody, you are in trouble

as much as Mills bothers me, i would choose ORU every day over augustana!! we absolutely DO NOT need 3 D1 schools in one of the least populated states in the country and if we think Mills is annoying, he is a delight compared to augie fans

i dont know who other reasonable replacements would be? Northwest Missouri is obviously a D2 power. would they ever consider D1? i have no idea. i do know that there is no, what i would call, a good way to get to Maryville. that would feel like another Macomb

[jakejc795]

Sorry I didn't see this during the discussion of Mills. Does anyone remember why ORU left the Southland and came back to the Summit? I attended a game in Tulsa shortly after their Summit return and was depressed by the experience for years, although things are probably better now than the 300 (reported as 3000) actual souls rattling around in that depressing 1970's arena. At the risk of ticking off those that dread the threat of reconstituting the NCC, it seems things would be better if Augie and another Minnesota school (or my favorite, Central Missouri) would be in, and ORU back in the Southland (or whatever it's going to be rebranded as) and WIU (although it's my shortest drive) in the OVC. (do not try to diagram that last, runon sentence).

Their reduced travel expenses and regional rivalries reportedly weren't realized once Southland expanded. I hope they go back.

[Grizzled_Jack]

Sorry I didn't see this during the discussion of Mills. Does anyone remember why ORU left the Southland and came back to the Summit? I attended a game in Tulsa shortly after their Summit return and was depressed by the experience for years, although things are probably better now than the 300 (reported as 3000) actual souls rattling around in that depressing 1970's arena. At the risk of ticking off those that dread the threat of reconstituting the NCC, it seems things would be better if Augie and another Minnesota school (or my favorite, Central Missouri) would be in, and ORU back in the Southland (or whatever it's going to be rebranded as) and WIU (although it's my shortest drive) in the OVC. (do not try to diagram that last, runon sentence).

[bigticket1]

Good luck to the ORU Golden Eagles in the NCAA Tournament. This is an experienced and talented team. They should be a team capable of success at the tournament. I will be waiting for Mills to complain about his destination for their first game.

All depends on the draw. Latest guess I saw had them as a 12 seed playing Iowa State. Which could be a good draw since the Cyclones can struggle offensively.

[OldHare]

How many players does oru graduate? Do they all get their extra covid year next year? Or who is gone for sure?

According to the ORU website.
Oral Roberts would honored Abmas, Carlos Jurgens, Thompson, Connor Vanover and DeShang Weaver postgame, the team's five seniors.