Our local college basketball teams may not be dancing, but some changes are being made with the future in mind.

The Oral Roberts University men’s basketball team won their quarterfinal game at the Summit League Tournament, in Sioux Falls, S.D., on March 6. The No. 3-seed Golden Eagles defeated No. 6 Western Illinois, 80-68, to advance to the semifinals against North Dakota State. ORU lost to No. 2 NDSU on March 7, 92-72, ending the Golden Eagles’ season.

ORU finishes the season with a 19-12 record, 12-6 in the Summit League.

The ORU women, won their quarterfinal matchup by defeating North Dakota, 61-54, on Sunday, and lost to South Dakota State, 72-53 in the semifinals on Monday. The Golden Eagles finish the season 16-15 overall, 10-8 in the Summit League.

The University of Tulsa men’s basketball team competed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament at Dickies Arena, in Fort Worth, Texas.  The No. 10 Golden Hurricane won their first-round game by defeating No. 7 Wichita State, 73-67. Tulsa’s season came to an end on Friday evening in the quarterfinals, as SMU pulled away in the second half to win 83-58 at

Tulsa finishes its season with an 11-20 overall record, 4-14 in the AAC.

The No. 8-seed Tulsa women’s team won their first-round game by beating No. 9 Wichita State, 88-86 in overtime. Then the Golden Hurricane were defeated by No. 1 UCF in the quarterfinals, 69-54.

The TU women accepted an at-large bit to the NIT. The Tulsa women finish the season 16-10 overall, 5-8 AAC.

Temira Poindexter was named The American Freshman of the Year, and along with classmate Delanie Crawford, were tabbed to The American all-Freshmen team, while Wyvette Mayberry picked up all-conference second team honors.

TU’s Frank Haith resigns

The day after the TU men’s team was knocked out of the AAC Tournament by SMU, the Golden Hurricane’s head coach, Frank Haith, announced his resignation. Haith had been the head coach at TU for eight seasons.

“I have enjoyed my time at the University of Tulsa and coaching the many young men who have made us proud as student-athletes and as they have gone on to live their lives after college,” said Haith in a statement released by the university. “My family and I will cherish the memories we have made here at the university and in the community. I have loved coaching these young men over the last eight years and the chance to build long-lasting relationships with them.

“The friendships that Pam and I have with so many in the community will always remain special to us. We thank the community for being supportive of our program and my family. The last two years have been extremely challenging in moving the program forward with the onslaught of COVID.”

Haith compiled an overall 139-108 record in his eight years with the Golden Hurricane to place second on the school’s all-time coaching wins list. He has a career 343-237 on-court mark in 18 seasons as a collegiate head coach with previous stops at Miami (Fla.) and Missouri.

At Tulsa, Haith led his first two teams to postseason competition, playing in the NIT in 2014-15 and the First Four of the NCAA Championship in the 2015-16 season.

In 2019-20, Haith was named the American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year after leading his team to an overall 21-10 record and a share of the AAC’s regular season title with a 13-5 league record. Any possible postseason competition that season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are grateful for Frank’s dedication to our student-athletes and our campus community,” said university President Brad R. Carson.

“The past two years have been challenging for everyone and have sparked many changes within college athletics. I am committed to ensuring our on-court performance is the best in the league and providing an exciting game-day experience for TU fans.”

The last sentence of Carson’s quote leads me to believe a change was coming, and maybe this isn’t all Haith’s idea.