It’s time to salute the ORU Golden Eagles men’s basketball team for 2007-2008. The final numbers show a season record of 25-8 including an incredible 16-2 Summit League championship run.

The Summit title was ORU’s fourth straight league championship putting the school in very select company. Valpariso won or shared five regular-season championships between 1995-1999. Missouri State is the only other school to win more than three straight, capturing four-in-a-row between 1987-1990. This was ORU’s fifth regular season title 1999,2005,2006,2007 and 2008 in 11 seasons in the league (even though the league changed named from Mid-Con to Summit this season).

Scott Sutton finishes his ninth season with his finest coaching performance. When the season began everyone considered it a rebuilding project after the Eagles had said goodbye to its two superstars, Caleb Green and Ken Tutt. But Scott and his staff did a phenomenal job in guiding the team to a fourth straight 20-win season. The 16 wins in conference were the most in league history. They were a perfect 9-0 in league play at the Mabee Center.

Non-conference highlights included the 84-70 blow out of cross-town rival Tulsa for the Mayor’s Cup. Scott then had the bittersweet experience of beating his brother Sean when his team whipped Oklahoma State in the All-College Classic in Oklahoma City, 74-59. ORU lost by just six points at #4 Texas and lost by 11 at SEC tournament runner-up Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Individually newcomer Robert Jarvis, the 5-11 Jr. guard from Humble, Texas by way of Seminole State Junior College, was named first team All-Summit league , Sixth Man of the Year and a member of the league’s All-Newcomer team. Jarvis is ORU’s third Newcomer of the Year joining Ken Tutt (2004) and Reggie Borges (2002). Also named to the All-Newcomer team from ORU was Junior, Marcus Lewis. The 6-8, 245-pound forward from Long Beach, California sat out a year after transferring from Kansas State.

These newcomers will be the nucleus of coach Sutton’s team next season after losing four seniors from this championship team including Yemi Ogunoye, Adam Liberty, Shawn King and the popular team leader, Moses Ehambe.

These seniors were a big part of ORU making its third straight NCAA tournament appearance. They were the players that helped break a 22-year drought when they made it to the tournament in 2006. 

“I’ll always be proud of this 2007-2008 team,” Scott Sutton told me in the post game NCAA press conference following the Golden Eagles 82-63 loss to Big East Champion and #4 seed Pittsburgh. “No one gave our team any chance at the start of the season. We had lost two superstars in Green and Tutt but these guys took that as a challenge. To win 24 games including that record 16-2 run in the Summit League was really amazing. Everyone should be proud of what this team accomplished.”

We are coach and we salute the Golden Eagles 2007-2008 men’s basketball team for adding to the legacy of the Oral Roberts University basketball program.