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You Tube Gold: Oral Roberts vs. St. Thomas

A look at Duke’s opening opponent in this year’s NCAA tournament

Oral Roberts v New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO - JANUARY 09: Max Abmas #3 of the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles dribbles against the New Mexico Lobos during the first half of their game at The Pit on January 09, 2023 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images

For today’s You Tube Gold we present the Oral Roberts-St. Thomas game from the Summit League Tournament semi-finals.

Obviously Max Abmas is still the star for the Golden Eagles, but Isaac McBride is a pretty solid guard too.

You’ll also note 7-5 Connor Vanover pretty quickly. He looms over everyone.

We’re not big-time scouts or anything, but a few things are pretty obvious.

First, he’s pretty thin. Second, not suprisingly, he doesn’t really run the floor all that well. Third, he likes to hang out on the perimeter when ORU has the ball. And fourth, he has pretty good reflexes. He’s a decent shotblocker.

McBride is the guy who surprised us the most. He’s small but fairly thick.

You can judge for yourself, but Oral Roberts won this one, 70-65.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Duke deals with Vanover. He’s not wildly talented - he wouldn’t get much attention if he was 6-5 instead of 7-5 - but that said, he is 7-5 and he can impose himself to an extent.

But if he hangs on the perimeter against Duke, the bigger Blue Devils will have a lot of opportunities inside.

And don’t overlook this either - if he hangs on the perimeter on offense, he won't get many offensive rebounds.

Abmas and McBride may prove to be more difficult guys to defend.