Well, that was an eventful 30 hours for the Oral Roberts basketball team.
First Korey Billbury gets suspended at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Then supposedly the Golden Eagles have their best practice of the year on Wednesday, per Obi Emegano. Then ORU dump-trucks North Dakota State, 74-58, at the Mabee Center on Thursday night. Once the dust settled from that, the Golden Eagles were somehow in third place by themselves in the Summit League.
Now, take a minute and catch your breath. That was a whirlwind.
No one could have seen that coming. Sure, ORU bound together and played a great game, but to basically chase North Dakota — the league's co-leader before getting drilled — out of the arena is something no one could have predicted.
And you could tell it was bothering NDSU. After all, a harmless cameraman was doing his job in the second half when a NDSU assistant coach and a manager tried to run the cameraman off. It ended with the manager putting notecards over the camera lens.
If you want to see it, here you go:
Fast forward to the 1:17.51 mark and enjoy. Washington Nationals play-by-play voice and Tulsa native Bob Carpenter even zinged the Bison for being so silly.
"They're about to do something we've never seen before in college basketball," Carpenter proclaimed.
So true. North Dakota State deployed a full-court press after that. Diabolical stuff.
Look, I get it. You don't want people knowing what you're running. But the cameraman wasn't even zooming in on the huddle; he was basically getting a wide-angled shot of the huddle. No harm, no foul.
But clearly North Dakota State was frazzled and just made a poor judgment call in a haste. Happens to the best of us.
OK, now to the game itself...
The good: Emegano nearly burst into flames he was so hot in the first half against the Bison. He had 10 points by the 12:39 mark of the first half — all of that after not scoring his first points until the game was 4 minutes and 50 seconds old. He got hot and he got hot quick.
Emegano finished with a career high 34 points on 12 of 17 shooting. He was 3 of 4 from deep and 7 of 11 at the free throw line. Oh, and he grabbed eight rebounds. All in 38 minutes — and against the soon-to-be Player of the Year in the league, NDSU's Lawrence Alexander.
"He deserves it," ORU coach Scott Sutton said about Alexander likely getting MVP honors in the Summit League. "I think Obi showed tonight that he may be the best player in the league."
Strong words from Sutton. But true at times this season.
- Aaron Young's defense was stellar against Alexander. Just brilliant, really.
Sutton credited the team's defense, but I'm going to give about 83 percent of the praise to Young. He was glued to Alexander all night long. Alexander finished with 11 points — nine in the second half and mostly during garbage time late.
Just masterful work by Young.
- Bobby Word stepped up and took over Billbury's spot to the tune of 20 points and seven rebounds in 37 minutes. Someone had to answer the ball and he did.
- It was imperative that ORU get off to a good start. The Golden Eagles did that, leading 19-4 before the 10-minute mark of the first half.
The game was never much of a contest beyond that point.
- Some dude made a halfcourt putt — into a tiny hole underneath the basket — for $1,000 in the first half. I'd classify that as really, really good.
The bad: Darian Harris, Jabbar Singleton, Brandon Conley, Adrion Webber and Dederick Lee combined for four points. Sure, Emegano and Word couldn't miss, but those five guys have to contribute, especially with Billbury gone.
Same song, different verse.
- Outside of Emegano's 11 foul shots, ORU didn't get to the free throw line much. Golden Eagles finished 10 of 16 at the stripe.
Denell Henderson, Albert Owens and Young have to attack the rim and draw some fouls for some easy points.
The reality: ORU got a tremendous amount of help from Denver and Omaha this week. Denver blew out South Dakota, and Omaha somehow knocked off IPFW, leaving third place there for ORU to snatch when the regular season ends Saturday.
That would include a likely quarterfinal matchup against IUPUI or Denver at the league tournament, followed by a semifinal showdown with North Dakota State. ORU has played NDSU tough twice this season, so that can't be a great feeling for the Bison.
Another plus, it keeps ORU away from South Dakota State — who has rail-roaded ORU twice this year.
Here's where things stand before the regular season wraps up tomorrow...
South Dakota State - 12-3
N. Dakota State - 12-4
ORU - 9-6
IPFW - 8-7
South Dakota - 8-7
Denver - 6-9
IUPUI - 6-9
Omaha - 4-11
Western Illinois - 3-12
Saturday schedule
Omaha at IUPUI, noon
South Dakota State at South Dakota, 4 p.m.
Western Illinois at IPFW, 6 p.m.
Denver at ORU, 7 p.m.
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