Posted on 03/22/2021 7:21:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the first upset of the men’s NCAA Tournament, the evangelical Oral Roberts University beat second-seeded Ohio State University in overtime by a final of 75-72 on Friday. ORU’s leading scorer, forward Kevin Obanor, thanked Jesus after the win.
“I’m thankful to Jesus Christ for putting us in this position,” Obanor said, according to Fox 23. “We want it very bad. It’s bigger than us, just to leave a legacy behind for ORU. I’m just very eternally grateful and I just can’t wait to play tomorrow.”
Oral Roberts guard and the NCAA's leading scorer Max Abmas tallied 29 points, while Obanor turned in a 30-point, 11-rebound effort for the Golden Eagles in Friday's win. The Ohio State University’s team, the Buckeyes, shot just 5-23 from three, according to Sports Illustrated.
In ESPN’s Men's Tournament Challenge, more than 95% of the brackets (nearly 14 million) picked the Buckeyes, who were 16-point favorites, the sports channel reported. “It was the biggest upset since UMBC's first-round victory over top-seeded Virginia in 2018 as a plus-20.5 underdog and the eighth biggest since 1985,” it added.
The Golden Eagles, the Oklahoma-based ORU’s team, gathered on the court to pray together, a photo posted on Twitter showed.
On Sunday, Oral Roberts will face seven-seeded Florida in the second round.
ORU is the first No. 15 seed since 2016 to win a tournament game. In 2016, Middle Tennessee beat Michigan State.
ORU says on its website its mission is “to develop Holy Spirit-empowered leaders through whole person education to impact the world.”
ORU was founded by Oral Roberts in 1963. He died in 2009.
Over the course of more than six decades, Roberts conducted more than 300 healing crusades in more than 35 countries, wrote more than 130 books, and founded a number of different organizations, including the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association.
Wouldn’t it be great if they could win the tournament? The stink factor that would create in the politically correct world of college athletics would be delightful.
Wow, that is like jr high level.
ORU beat Florida 81-78 over the weekend to advance to the Sweet 16. As a 15th seed, unlikely they would win the tournament, but would be great if they could make it to the Elite Eight or Final Four — national TV coverage showing black and white players standing respectfully for the National Anthem and kneeling to pray.
Well.... Congratulations to Oral Roberts U! But you also killed me in my pool as I had Ohio State going to the Final Four. Combining this with Illinois’ loss to Loyola of Chicago (never pick against a team that has Sister Jean as spiritual adviser and backer) and I am done. Good luck Cinderellas!
The commentators are already calling them OR... Seems they don’t want to say his name.
THE Oral Roberts University. (Hee hee)
Also: Oral Roberts also defeats Florida... Abilene Christian shocks Texas... Loyola, Chicago routs #1 seed Illinois... oh wait, we’re talking about Christian schools.
Big Ten had 1, 2, and 4 seeds on one side of the bracket... all lost shocking upsets (although Loyola getting an 8 seed was ridiculous).
That cracked me up as the announcers started saying that.
I was going to make a snarky comment about the basketball team, but it turns out ORU has a student body that is 51% non-White. It’s 14% Black which is on par with the population at large. I hope they win at least one more game even though the deck is stacked against them.
Not bad for a nice local college with a few thousand students and providing a lot of excitement. Underdog knocking off the big boys.
Which would you pick between Oral and Morehead?
RE: Which would you pick between Oral and Morehead?
By pick, what do you mean? Root for? Or realistically guess who will win?
I’ll root for ORU over Morehead if that’s what you’re asking.
You forgot about Baylor.
I had OSU in the Elite 8 so my bracket is over as well.
I was covering the crazy upset wins. Baylor is heavy favorite for the Final Four. You’ll notice I also didn’t mention Creighton, Villanova, etc.
Enough with the bush-league puns. (You’ll be happy to know the Trojans and Beavers both advanced.)
Isn’t your comment for Ken H? Not seekandfind.
Amen!
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