Well, Oral Roberts' 60-56 loss in the semifinals of the Summit League Tournament was about what you'd expect from the Golden Eagles.
Signs of promise early dashed by missed opportunities and lack of options late.
Same song, different verse for the Golden Eagles this season. (That's assuming the season is officially done and a CIT tourney berth doesn't land in ORU's lap.)
This will be one of many final thoughts on the Golden Eagles' season, but we'll start with the traditional good/bad/reality stuff first...
The good: Obi Emegano, of course. The dude had no choice but to be good ever since Korey Billbury was suspended. Otherwise, ORU was probably going to score about 36 points per game.
Also, Emegano is probably already licking his chops to get after North Dakota State again next season. The former Edmond Memorial guard averaged 28 points against the Bison in three games this season. Impressive.
Not to get lost in the scuffle should be Emegano's eight rebounds. I guess if no one else in an ORU uniform is going to get the basketball, it might as well be Emegano.
The three assists and two steals in 40 minutes made an impressive stat line by the end of the night.
- Only six turnovers for the Golden Eagles. They had to play a clean game to have a shot at beating NDSU, and they did just that.
- ORU made 14 of 18 free throws and you can't stick your nose up at that. The Golden Eagles made 539 of their 754 foul shots (71.5 percent) this season, and that's a number you'd like to see much higher.
- Brandon Conley's eight points and six rebounds. Where was that all season long?
Conley's problem all year long was foul trouble, and Monday night against the Bison displayed Conley's poor fouling tendencies. (More on that in a second.)
- Lawrence Alexander didn't completely go off and have a monster game against the Golden Eagles, thanks in large part to Emegano and Aaron Young teaming up in the last couple of weeks to become a formidable defensive duo. Aside from Alexander's 31 points in the first meeting between ORU and North Dakota State, the Golden Eagles really did a fine job of bottling up Alexander in the final two showdowns.
The bad: ORU's shooting woes — a constant in this category. Putting the ball in the basket was a season-long problem, and it's one that needs a strict dissection of in the offseason. I know coaches will often say, "well, he makes those shots in practice." OK, cool. But if a player isn't making those shots consistently during games, tell them to stop shooting and drive to the basket.
The Golden Eagles shot 38.5 percent (20 of 52) from the field to wrap up the season. That's just about right for a team that shot 42.6 percent (743 of 1,743) for the season. ORU connected on 183 of 529 3-point attempts (34.6 percent), and take away Bobby Word's 49 treys and no one else made more than 28. Not having several long-range threats allows a defense to pack it in, and the Golden Eagles need some quality members added to the long-range firing squad.
- I figured the suspension of Billbury would force Denell Henderson to become a wrecking ball on the low post. Thought that ORU would transform from a guard-oriented team to a high-low team with an emphasis on getting Henderson involved.
It never happened.
Henderson's final scoring outputs were: 8, 13, 9 and 4 points. His collegiate career ended with a four-point, one-rebound effort against North Dakota State. That's rough.
Henderson could have easily been a guy who averaged 11 points and eight rebounds a game, but he instead finished at 8.8 and 5.2, respectively.
I'm sure the effort was there, but there were plenty of times this season when I noticed Henderson going full-throttle. It just didn't translate into stuffing the stat sheets.
ORU now has to hope that Albert Owens is capable of filling Henderson's void next season.
- Another sour night for ORU's supporting cast around Emegano. Bobby Word had 10 points but needed 12 field goals (and four makes) to get there. Darian Harris, zero points. Adrion Webber, five points. Albert Owens, zero points. Conley's eight points saved an almost non-existent effort from the bench.
Only Henderson and Webber are seniors for ORU, so the Golden Eagles need to figure out a solid bench rotation and who can actually help, because bench production was mostly horrific this season.
Will it be some incoming freshmen? Maybe. Javan White and Chris Crawford can hoop it up. Will it be a JUCO signee? Possibly. Who knows? Playing time should be up for grabs at this point.
- ORU ended up tying the game eventually, but Conley fouling North Dakota State's A.J. Jacobson on a 3-point attempt with 5:28 left was not a wise move. Conley was merely trying to the contest the shot, but his aggressiveness got the best of him, sending Jacobson sprawling on the hardwood. Jacobson made all three and the Bison went up four.
Conley got bailed out a minute later while fouling Carlin Dupree on a shot attempt. NDSU could have gone up six, but Dupree missed both. Conley had to breath a sigh of relief, for sure.
The reality: A season that featured such promise resulted in ORU's second straight season without a postseason game of any kind. (Again, a CIT tourney berth is possible, but I'd give the chances of that happening somewhere in the zero to 3 percent range.)
The Golden Eagles entered the season with two of the better talents in the league (Emegano and Billbury) and a solid supporting cast. Problem was that Emegano had to do too much, Billbury was hot and cold and the supporting cast didn't support consistently.
End result: a lost season for the Golden Eagles, who let plenty of games get away from there. (We'll get more into that as the week plays out.)
Time will tell if there was an unevenness in the locker room, but I get a sense that there was. The chemistry just wasn't there for most games. It'll be interesting to see how the roster looks as the offseason rolls along.
Now, only eight months until the next basketball season is underway.
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