TULSA, Okla. – Caleb Green was told a couple of weeks ago that his Senior Night was not on February 17, the night Oral Roberts held the formal ceremony. That may sound like something a diehard Oral Roberts fan would say in a state of delusion, knowing that it was a Senior Night many didn’t want to see come. After all, it was the final home game for two seniors who will leave a lasting mark on their program more than that cliché might ever suggest. But Green’s source wasn’t a fan.
“The coach told us it wasn’t our Senior Night – this was going to be our Senior Night, and the guys sent us out the right way,” Green said after he led Oral Roberts to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year by virtue of a 71-67 win over Oakland in the Mid-Continent Conference Championship game.
The game was played a short drive east of the 260-acre campus of Oral Roberts University, a school that has existed for over 43 years and whose founder is currently the school’s chancellor. The school has had Division I athletics since 1972-73, although they departed for two seasons before rejoining for good in the fall of 1991. At that time, they were an independent, which means there is basically no road to the NCAA Tournament and scheduling is not easy. Now, they are a regular contender in the Mid-Continent Conference, which they joined in July of 1997. The move came a year after a rising star in the coaching profession named Bill Self took them to the NIT with a 21-7 mark that included wins over Arkansas and Oklahoma State.
That means the program has had its share of success and didn’t exactly come out of nowhere in making back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament. Earlier this year, it was on the national stage with a win at Kansas in mid-November. But none of that can diminish the significance of Tuesday’s win, or what the two seniors on this team have meant to the program.
“To be able to take a team that hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in (22) years and go back-to-back, people will be talking about these guys 30 years from now,” said head coach Scott Sutton of his seniors.
The seniors are Green and Ken Tutt, and their accomplishments are numerous and had two more on Tuesday. Green, who became the Mid-Continent’s all-time leading rebounder early this season, became the conference’s all-time leading scorer with his game-high 28 points, while Tutt surpassed 2,000 career points with his 20. For good measure, Green not only did his damage inside as he normally does, but he hit a career-high three three-pointers as well, all of them in the first half.
The accomplishments didn’t take long to roll in, as they came in as freshmen and became the first pair of freshmen to be named first-team all-conference in any NCAA Division I conference in 73 years, with Tutt being named the conference’s top newcomer. Three more such selections have followed for Green as he took home the conference Player of the Year award each time, while Tutt missed first-team honors last year only (missing 10 games due to injury didn’t help) and made up for it by being the tournament MVP. Green is one of just 15 Division I players to win three conference Player of the Year honors. During their careers, the team has won three straight regular season titles and is headed to the post-season for the third straight time, as they made the NIT as sophomores.
Green and Tutt have been joined at the hip since they met before their freshman year started. Tutt, who grew up in Texas, remembers being on campus and not knowing anyone when he met Green, a hometown kid. Green had just one other Division I scholarship offer (Texas State, known then as Southwest Texas State) and wanted to stay close to home, and he made Tutt feel at home right away. He not only invited him to his home, but he even cooked dinner for him as Tutt met his parents.
“They made me feel at home, they made me feel special,” said Tutt, who added that Green is a pretty good cook.
That wasn’t the only time the soft-spoken Green, who is constantly smiling and is a character (he had the media in stitches on several occasions at the tournament), was a gracious host along with his family. During Thanksgiving, they often had players who lived far away over for dinner, including Tutt. Green’s personality is infectious, and Tutt has seen the effect it has on teammates plenty of times.
“Some days, you’ll come into practice and not feel like practicing, and he’ll put a smile on your face,” he reflected.
Sutton says the two have always been special young men, and says that’s exactly why they were able to have the success they had as freshmen. The veterans on that team respected them all along because of their character, so there were no chemistry issues as the Golden Eagles went 17-11. That set the stage for the next three seasons and their success resulting in postseason play. After Tuesday night’s win, the team has an 86-41 record over the past four seasons.
There’s no question fans probably never wanted Senior Night for Green and Tutt to ever come. Considering it really came on the night the Golden Eagles made a second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, they’ll probably get over the disappointment quickly.
