So the Cancun challenge ends today with BG playing the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts University, which is in Tulsa. Oral Roberts beat Georgia Southern by 2 to make the finals of the Mayan Division. ORU had a nice lead in the game, but then Ga So rallied and more or less just ran out of time.
ORU was picked the finish 2nd in the Southland Conference...in the media poll, the SID poll and also by espn.com. The Southland was the 26th ranked conference out of 33 last year, but that's higher than the Great West and BG lost to North Dakota last year, This year, they are last because they add four new teams that are all verrrry lowly ranked, including a school called Incarnate Word.
Word.
In the Sagarin rankings, the G-Eagles are 89th in the nation so far, which means next to nothing. Their RPI is 181, which also does not mean too much.
ORU was 20-15 last year and they are 3-3 this year. Their wins are over Tulsa, Texas State and Georgia Southern...and their losses are to Kansas State (by 8), St. Louis (by 17) and Wisconsin (by 9). Those latter two games are certainly better than BG did in similar matchups.
They are young. Only one senior gets minutes and 3 of the 4 leading scorers are sophomores. They are the 55th least experienced team in D1, based on minutes played in the statsheet.com system.
That senior is their scoring leader, 6'7" Shawn Glover, who is scoring 20 points a game. He shoots 49% and adds 5 rebounds a game. Obi Emegano (So, 6'3") is scoring 19 PPG...I don't know how many teams in D1 are getting that many points out of 1 guy, much less 2. And we're talking averages....no current Falcon has ever scored 20 points in a single game.
Korey Billbray scored 11 points a game or so, and adds a team-high 7 rebounds despite being 6'3". He is SO too.
DJ Jackson (SO) leads the team in assists.
In terms of stats, the teams are pretty evenly matched, as you can see below. The teams have 2 common opponents out of a relatively small sample of games, though BG has played Earlham and Presbyterian...anyhoo, you can see what you see. This is certainly the high end of where BG might shoot.
The teams are very similar in that they don't shoot the 3 much, and play a similar pace.
Of course, it is hard to tell at this point, but I think this might be a really good opportunity to see BG in their first decent matchup of the season.
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