SUMMIT LEAGUE FINAL: 1 UNIT PLAY

SUMMIT CONFERENCE TOURNEY FINALS

Tue Mar 8, 2011 | 9:07 PM, EDT | ESPN-2
Sioux Falls Arena | Sioux Falls, South Dakota

1 ORAL ROBERTS GOLDEN EAGLES 19-14 | 13-5 Conf (17-16 ATS)
2 OAKLAND GOLDEN GRIZZLIES 24-9 | 17-1 Conf (22-10 ATS)

Sizzling Hot Teams meet in Sioux Falls for Summit Conference NCAA Tourney Birth.  Once again we have a team (Oakland) attempting to go 3-0 vs Conference Rival.

Oakland has been the class of Summit Conference once again, finishing 17-1 in Conference Play.  The Golden Grizzlies crazy-good, guady scoring numbers & play racehorse basketball. 

Oakland is the 7th highest-paced D-1 team, & flew past each of their opening pair of Tourney Games, beating Southern Utah by 16, & Co-Host South Dakota State by 20.  Including the Summit Conference Tournament, Oakland was favored in all 20 Summit Conference Games, & has covered 75% of these (15-5 ATS) 

Oral Roberts has utilized streamlined rotation along with an apparent abandonment of Zone Defense, & intensive MTM-only commitment.  ORU survived a 5-12 (0-3 Conf) start to close regular season w/8-0 | 12-2 (6-2 ATS) roll.  

• ORU HAS WON 10 GAMES IN A ROW (8-2 ATS)
• OAK HAS WON 7 GAMES IN A ROW (5-0 ATS)

Both Oakland & Oral Roberts are prolific scoring teams....but Oakland is truly going nuts:

• OAKLAND has TOPPED 100 Pts 3 of Last 5
• Grizzlies hit the 110 mark yesterday

PRIMARY REASONS I'M ON OAKLAND HERE:

Oakland has so much more size & experience up & down the lineup

Oakland specifically has great counter to ORU's Big Post Man:
   ORU 6-10 247 Soph BELL-HOLTER

Oakland's Big Senior
   OAK 6-9 | 240 Sr WILL HUDSON

Hudson DOMINATED Bell-Holter multiple times; combined totals produced by Hudson this year:

OAK HUDSON vs ORU: 18-21 FG | AVG 21 PTS

Bell-Holter otherwise been having a very productive, proficient Sophomore Season w/57.4% FG

Yet, ORU BELL-HOLTER vs OAK: 10-28 | AVG 14 PPG

Moreover, Griz Post Depth is a KILLER, w/a intimidating, Seven-Foot ddefensive stopper coming off the Oakland bench:
   OAK 7-0 | 257 Jr Ilija Milutinovic

Milutinovic provides key, solid spot MTM Big-Man minutes for Oakland

Overall, this spread number simply looks 6 to 9 Pts low, presumably caught up in Oral Roberts 'streak-steam'

Oakland is a well-oiled unit.
Grizzlies Rank #1 in 11 of 16 Summit Conf Primary Offensive & Defensive Efficiency Categories

In fact,
OAKLAND CONFERENCE-ONLY eFG% IS #1 in NCAA
OAKLAND's CONFERENCE eFG%: SENSATIONAL 60%

EXPERIENCE?

OAKLAND's (3) SENIORS, (HUDSON | WRIGHT | BENSON)

• Grizzlies in Top Quarter of all D-1 Teams
• Oakland's Starters all Avg Double Figures
• Oakland's Starters all shoot above 50% eFG

Oral Roberts numbers aren't bad, they just don't come close to Oakland
Moreover, Eagles Top-Two Stars (Morrison & Niles)
AVG 39 & 40 Minutes in their Summit Conference Tournament Games

One Oakland player avg's over 30 Min in Grizzlies' two Tourney Games:
(Sr Benson 30.67 Min)

REALLY like Oakland here

1 UNIT
ORAL ROBERTS
OAKLAND -5