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Green, Tutt Ended ORU Drought
Published: 3/16/2007 5:51 PM
Last Modified: 3/16/2007 5:51 PM

What Caleb Green and Ken Tutt did for Oral Roberts and college basketball in our state should not be underestimated.
Green and Tutt resurrected ORU basketball, putting the Golden Eagles back on the national basketball stage in more than 20 years.
Ironically, it came at a time when Tulsa, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma were falling from the national spotlight.
Still, it proved that ORU still had what it takes to be competitive in men's basketball during the modern era.
Now, it will be whether Scott Sutton, or perhaps another coach if Sutton is lured elsewhere, can keep the Eagles on the big stage.
ORU has been in the NCAA Tournament the past two year, riding the broad shoulders of Green and Tutt.
Actually, the Eagles should have been in three straight NCAAs.
It could be argued that ORU's best team of the Green-Tutt era was three years ago when the duo were sophs.
That team had excellent guard play and more scorers than the current team.
Oral Robert was ousted from the NCAAs on Thursday by Washington State in Sacramento.
The Eagles, the 14 seed, led at halftime but gave up four points just before intermission and the Cougars rode the momentum to blow away ORU at the start of the second half.
A year ago, as a No. 16 seed, the Eagles led top-seeded for a portion of the first half before being blow away by Memphis.
If ORU can ride momentum, get a few more players to go with a good core of player, then it will have a chance to make it three straight NCAAs next year.
The Mid-Con Tournament is back in Tulsa which should give ORU hope.
It is good to see ORU back in the Big Dance. Hopefully, OU, OSU and TU will join them next season.




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Klein's Korner

Tulsa World senior sports columnist John Klein is in his fourth decade of covering sports. He started his newspaper career at The Daily Ardmoreite in 1977 and moved to the Tulsa World in 1978. He served 10 years as sports editor for the Tulsa World before being named to his current position in 2005. He also spent five years as the Southwest Conference beat writer for the Houston Post. He has won many writing awards and is a former Oklahoma Sports Writer of the Year.

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