Oral Roberts’ Cinderella Season Ends in Sweet 16

This was clearly the best Sweet 16 game of the day as Arkansas survived a last three point attempt by Max Abmas at the buzzer to beat Oral Roberts 72-70. It was a great play drawn up by head coach Paul Mills as with only 3.1 seconds he got Max Abmas baseline to baseline… a very makeable three from the right wing which didn’t miss by much.

Coach Mills is from the Scott Drew coaching tree at Baylor and I wonder if Joe C at Oklahoma Coach Mills on his short list of three to interview for the Sooners’ head coaching vacancy. He’s third on my list currently behind 1 Dana Altman, Oregon and Grant McCasland, North Texas, who BTw is another young hot coach from the Scott Drew/Baylor coaching tree in Waco.

This was a great game as Oral Roberts led most of the way and led by as many as 12 points in the second half before the Razorbacks’ offenive rebounding turned the game around in the final eight minutes of play.

A tough end for the Golden Eagles from Tulsa, but at the same time an exhilirating ride for a team which beat Ohio State and Florida on this remarkable journey.

For Arkansas and Coach Musselman it’s the first time since 1994-95 in the glory days of Nolan Richardson that the Razorbacks have advanced to an Elite 8.

Arkansas now has Baylor in front of them and both teams are in essence a mirror of one another. Both are deep and talented, but Baylor is the more experienced team and the Razorbacks next year will be one of the national picks to do big things with an added year of roster maturity.

If I were going to handicap this game…I’d go Baylor as a 4.5 favorite to get to the Final Four.

Houston and Oregon State both advanced on the day as well. Great job by both clubs. As an OU fan, of course I’m very happy for Kelvin and proud of the great job he’s done with the Houston program with his son Kellen who played for Jeff Capel. Plus.. the fact former OU Final Four’ers Hollis Price and Quannas White are on the Cougars’ staff.

Houston from this point moving forward will be my sentimental team to root for in the tournament as they can get to the Final Four with a win over the Cinderella Beavers.

Houston hasn’t been this far in the tournament since 1984-85 when Guy Lewis lost back to back games in the national finals if I remember correctly. I might need to google that just to make sure.

How Houston lost that epic game to Jimmy V’s NC State team is one of the greatest memories in the tournament as in ever as it spawned the screeplay for the best ESPN film of all-time in Win, Survive, and Advance.

And that’s exactly where we are in this tournament heading into this Sunday of the second set of Sweet 16 games. My feature game will be the USC vs. Oregon game. This should be a great game if you haven’t seen both teams this season.

Enjoy the beautiful Oklahoma spring weather today and enjoy a Sweet 16 game as well. Nobody tanks in the Sweet 16. It’s not allowed in real competition. You don’t tank in college, in your livelihood, in your business, or in high school sports. I can’t remmember once when Bob Jackson pulled me aside and told me he was going to tank in a courtroon on his client either. Just saying.

Sam Presti…I’m calling bullshit for the time being on your claims of sustainability. If sustaining in Oklahoma City …then why tank?

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