Game! Of! The! Night! 1/17/2008: IUPUI at Oral Roberts
IUPUI at Oral Roberts (Summit League) Call it the Mid-Continent, the Summit League, late for dinner or the Badlands Conference (like we do), this randy group of Central Standard Time-based basketball warriors (and Southern Utah) hasn't seen a regular-season clash like this in some time. There's a throwdown-showdown-hoedown in Oklahoma, and our invisible G!O!T!N! camera crew will be there to capture all the hot action. In one corner, pure God (a founder with a direct line) and in the other, pure convenience (the ability to choose between two degrees). You can't spell "it's on" without "Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis" and "Oral Roberts." ORU and IUPUI enter this matchup of league-undefeateds with identical 5-0 records, and there's no question that these are the two best teams in the conference. The Jaguars and Golden Eagles have been simply overwhelming to their BC opponents -- in their five victories, IUPUI have won by an average margin of 16.2, and Oral Roberts has dumped its competition by an average of 13.6 points. Ooe-Pooey (13-3, 5-0), in particular, has been lethal on offense, leading the conference in nearly every meaningful category having to do with shooting, starting with field goal percentage (49.2 percent, 15th best nationally). A lot of that has to do with four double-figure scorers, led by 6-2 redshirt junior guard George Hill, who's connecting on a full 57 percent of his shots. Oral Roberts (10-5, 5-0) has had a stranglehold on this series in years past -- despite a fairly even 11-10 split since the two schools started playing regularly a decade ago, the G'Eagles have won seven of the last eight and have eliminated IUPUI from the league tourney twice during that stretch (2005 and 2007). No more Ken Tutt or Caleb Green, the oft-mentioned wonder twin powers that led the team to two straight NCAA appearances... but no matter, since the next generation is now fully entrenched. ORU has four double-figure scorers too, and keep an eye on 6-8 junior transfer Marcus Lewis (10.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg), who's startign to show he can put up Green-like numbers of his own. |
|
