In the entirety of the sports world, no individual or organization had a better Saturday night than the Oral Roberts University athletic department.
A Mabee Center crowd of more than 8,000 watched the Summit League regular-season champion Golden Eagles close their home schedule with a 74-66 victory over North Dakota State.
For the first time since 1996-97 — Bill Self’s final season with the Golden Eagles — ORU recorded a perfect home record. With 16, ORU has more home wins than any other team in Division I.
Before the March 3-7 Summit League Championship, two dates remain on the ORU schedule: at South Dakota on Thursday, at South Dakota State on Saturday. Paul Mills’ sixth ORU team is 25-4 and has a 12-game win streak.
Since Thanksgiving weekend, the Golden Eagles are 22-1.
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It was determined after the Saturday game that ORU’s 2022-23 home attendance total amounted to 85,030 — a 40% increase over last season’s 15-game total of 60,714.
This season’s per-game average of 5,314 is the program’s best since 1998-99, when the first Barry Hinson-coached ORU squad had an average of 5,416.
“No doubt about it — there has been a positive impact on our revenue,” ORU athletic director Tim Johnson said.
“If you saw the Saturday game, we were overflowing in our courtside seating. There’s a great demand for those seats. People want us to build more suites. People want those premium seating areas more than ever before. Now, I’m sitting here considering whether I should build four more suites.
"When we won those games (during the 2021 NCAA Tournament), I remember the Tulsa World saying, ‘Let’s hope ORU can take advantage of this momentum.’ After it was announced that we would renovate the Mabee Center and build the Mike Carter Center, the Tulsa World wrote about how we had capitalized on that momentum.
“I’ve used those messages many times when talking with our donors. We’re right on the precipice now of going as high as we want to go. That’s an exciting position to be in.”
It’s not yet official, but it is believed that ORU senior Max Abmas will graduate to professional basketball after this season. In what likely was his final Mabee Center contest, he scored 27 points against North Dakota State.
For nearly an hour after the game, and before he had even gone back to the Golden Eagle locker room, Abmas signed autographs and posed for photos with ORU students, young kids and adult fans.
In this era of the transfer portal and easy player movement, it’s miraculous that ORU got two additional seasons of Abmas after he became a star during the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
“Max’s relationship with our fans — he’s been as good as it gets,” Johnson said.
An All-American type of player whose name still is frequently mispronounced (it’s ACE-muss), Abmas needs 47 more points to supplant Caleb Green at the No. 3 position on ORU’s career scoring list.
Abmas was the 2020-21 national leader in scoring and currently ranks third with an average of 22.8.
After having been brilliant for the Sweet Sixteen Golden Eagles in 2021, Kevin Obanor transferred to Texas Tech. Abmas did consider a jump to pro basketball in 2021 and again last year, but the Dallas-area native ultimately decided to continue his run at Oral Roberts.
“Max could have gone anywhere,” Johnson said. “Literally anywhere. Twice. You name the school, and he could have moved there and played there.
“To see the kind of loyalty that Max has shown to ORU — he’s just made of different stuff.”