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Foul play gave ORU best odds of winning
Published: 3/4/2012 3:03 PM
Last Modified: 3/4/2012 3:03 PM

Expect a miracle is the slogan at Oral Roberts University. But, just in case you coach there, it’s advisable to play the odds instead of sitting around waiting for a miracle to strike.

Scott Sutton played the odds in ORU’s first-round Summit League Tournament game against IPFW. The Golden Eagles owned a three-point lead in the final seconds. Rather than let an IPFW player fire up a possible game-tying 3-pointer, Sutton wanted his team to commit a non-shooting foul and send the Mastodons to the line for two free throws.

The strategy almost backfired.

IPFW’s Justin Jordan made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. Frank Gaines grabbed an offensive rebound and hoisted a game-tying shot that was rejected by Michael Craion.

Color Craion fortunate. If the officiating crew had been trigger-happy, the slam-bang play might have resulted in a foul and two free throws for IPFW. Instead, none of the refs blew a whistle and the Golden Eagles lived to play another day.

Watching a live broadcast of the game, my guess was Craion had fouled Gaines. After viewing replays from two angles, I altered my opinion and decided once and for all that I would never want to be a ref.

The moral of this story? Even if Sutton’s gamble had failed, it was still the right decision.

Here’s why: If you sit back and play defense, IPFW must have only one thing go right -- make a 3-pointer -- to send the game into overtime.

But if you foul and send IPFW to the line, the Mastodons must have three things go right to force overtime -- (1) make a free throw, (2) rebound a missed free throw and (3) make a desperation shot.

I’m not the only one who will say Sutton played the right card. So will former Missouri coach Norm Stewart. With his team leading OSU by three points in the final seconds of a 1993 game, Stewart instructed his players to foul. They didn’t take his advice and Bryant “Big Country” Reeves hit a halfcourt shot that forced overtime. Gallagher-Iba Arena went bonkers and the Cowboys prevailed in overtime.

Stewart isn’t the only coach who has been burned in that situation. In 2006, OSU went to Texas Tech and the late-game strategy was the same. Eddie Sutton told the Cowboys to foul. Half-hearted attempts at a foul weren’t enough to merit a whistle. Jarrius Jackson hit a tying 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left and the Red Raiders won in overtime. It was the maddest I have ever seen Eddie Sutton following a game. He instructed his players to get dressed and immediately board an airport-bound bus.

Eddie Sutton sent his son, Sean, to do the talking at a postgame press conference that day. Now Sean is an assistant at ORU. Maybe what happened Saturday at the Summit League Tournament was what-comes-around-goes-around paybacks for what happened in Lubbock in 2006.



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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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