The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 104 is Oral Roberts basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of Oral Roberts basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 1
- Sweet 16s: 2
- NCAA wins: 4
- Bids: 7
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 16.6
- Bids per season: 0.14
- AP Polls: 15
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 1
- NBA players drafted & played: 7
- Conference Players of the Year: 9
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 8
- Conference tournament titles: 7
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Oral Roberts basketball
One of the best March Madness moments and Cinderella runs of all-time was when Oral Roberts went to the Sweet 16 in 2021 as a 15-seed. Star guard Max Abmas and big man Kevin Obanor were lethal, getting ORU past 2-seed Ohio State nad 7-seed Florida, before losing to 3-seed Arkansas by just two points, nearly making a ridiculous run to the Elite 8.
But luckily for the Golden Eagles, an Elite 8 is in their history. In 1974, head coach Ken Trickey helped them get back to Syracuse and Louisville, falling to Kansas by three, just shy of a Final Four.
Coach Trickey was so good in his three years at ORU that it got him the job at Iowa State. But after his career took a step back, he wound up coaching two more seasons with the Golden Griffins in the 80s, that unfortunatley didn’t go nearly as great as the first time around.
Luckily, ORU didn’t keep Trickey around, because they’d land an all-time great the very next season. Kansas coach and Hall of Fame Bill Self got his first head coaching job with Oral Roberts basketball in 1993. In four seasons, he took them from 6-21 in year one, to 10-17 in year two, to 18-9 in year three, and then 21-7 in year four. Self’s success got him the job at Tulsa, and the rest is history.
But the best head coach in program history is easily Scott Sutton. From 1999 to 2017, he won over 300 games, five regular season conference championships, and three straight NCAA Tournaments from 2006-08. He was a 2x Summit Coach of the Year.
Obviously, the next coach, Paul Mills, did pretty well on the sidelines for the Sweet 16 run and then a 30-win season two years later. But the program has had three losing seasons since then, with pressure to get back to some winning basketball soon.