boly=bolt

But, Scott grew up watching his father coach at Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State - he's been around. And he knows what it takes to win big games. And remember, those NCAA games ORU lost were all as horrific seeds - if he was at a bigger school, he will never play as a 16-to-14 Seed again. Given the same players as the larger schools to work with, he'll win the big ones.

As for ORU joining the Southland: the Mid-Con (now the Summit League) sucked when ORU joined it 15 years ago. It was Valpo And The Seven Dwarves. And then Valpo left. But ORU inspired many of the league schools to get serious about basketball, or get beaten. The same will happen in the Southland: ORU will do eveything within it's limited power to be competitive. History has proven that WHENEVER ORU has been in a conference (as opposed to an independent), they have been very successful. The last thing the other Southland schools will want is to get routinely beaten by a li'l ol' Bible college in Tulsa - doesn;t sit well with the alumni or the local media. So those schools, too, will do the things necessary (change coaches, increase recruiting budgets, play harder schedules) to compete with ORU. Write it down: within 5 years, the Southland will be a markedly better league, and ORU will have a lot to do with it. So much so, that larger schools in the country will once again come after ORU's coach - no matter who it is.

Old Titan, say what you want about the Summit League, but it is better than the Southland in men's basketball over the last 17 years. Since 1995, the Summit League champ has been a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament four times and played in one play-in game. The SLC champ has been a 16 nine times, playing in three "opening-round" games. The SLC may be better for travel, but it's currently a step down in basketball. Lamar returned to the SLC from the Sun Belt (a better basketball conference) in the late 1990s, fell to the middle of the pack and never recovered.