Kelsi Musick likes to tell her team that Rome was not built in a day. A new style, new staff, new players, it all doesn’t always blend together instantly.
 
“Learning each other takes time,” the first-year Oral Roberts coach said. 
 
With all due respect to patience, the Golden Eagles are charging down the stretch just a few months into Musick’s tenure in charge of the program. ORU (11-13, 8-5) has won five of its last six games, putting it in the mix for its best finish in the League standings – second – in over 10 years. 
 
It’s how the Golden Eagles have gotten to this point that especially catches the eye.
 
Many coaches promise up-tempo, free flowing offense at introductory press conferences. Musick has delivered it. ORU is playing at the second fastest tempo in the country per herhoopstats.com, and is averaging nearly 80 points per game in League play, a big increase over last season.
 
That sort of high-powered offense is what Musick became known for over 13 seasons at Southwestern Oklahoma State University -- a place where her system led the Lady Bulldogs to the 2019 Division II national title game. It’s a dribble drive style that doesn’t rely on set plays that she attributes to veteran coach Vance Walberg, who developed it while coaching the men’s team at Fresno City College in early the 2000’s. 
 
It would ultimately launch Walberg’s coaching career, including stints in charge of the men’s team at Pepperdine and as an assistant for a number of NBA teams. But its creation overlapped with Musick’s own time in California’s Central Valley a decade and a half ago. While she was an assistant at Fresno State, Walberg’s friend – Fresno City College women’s coach Brian Tessler – taught it to Musick and the rest of the staff. 
 
“I just love the up-tempo pace and allowing players to make plays and giving them the freedom to use their God-given ability to make things happen,” she said.
 
The system may have been born in California, but Musick tweaked it and made it her own during her time at SWOSU, with the Lady Bulldogs playing at one of the fastest tempos in Division II season after season. Now, it’s helping power an ORU offense that has all five starters sporting double-digit scoring averages as the Golden Eagles climb the standings. Getting to that point, however, took time.
 
ORU started the season 1-7 against a tough non-conference schedule, which Musick called a rigorous time. 
 
“This offense is not something that’s, ‘A to B to C to D and so and so is going to take that shot every time,’” she said. “There’s a lot of freedom, and I keep telling them that once we embrace the freedom, we’ll take off.”
 
Take off, they have. Before a setback against St. Thomas on Thursday night, the Golden Eagles had won five straight games. That stretch included a blowout win over a good North Dakota State team that they are in direct competition with for second place in the conference, a late comeback against Omaha and three games where they eclipsed the 90-point mark. 
 
For Musick, that surge has been due in part to her team valuing possessions as they understand the offense more and more, but also the sheer diversity of the scoring. 
 
“Having multiple players and starters scoring double digits has really helped us,” she said. “When you spread the scoring out it makes you really hard to guard and that’s really helped us in the last couple of weeks. They’re realizing that and embracing it.” 
 
While points have come from all over the roster, no player has thrived this year like Hannah Cooper. The senior guard came to the program from Western Colorado in the summer of 2021 as a dual threat point guard used to calling her own number and scoring at all three levels. That changed last year, as she played a pass-first, passive shooting role in the Golden Eagle offense.
 
Now, she’s headlining ORU’s attack and is the Summit’s leading scorer (20.5 ppg, 4.3 apg). Aside from Musick’s passion, the style she said she wanted to play particularly resonated with Cooper when the two first met over the offseason. 
 
“When I was at Western Colorado that’s kind of how we played, with the free flowing offense,” she said. “Coming back to it really helped me and I think that’s what I really needed as a player. I think this offense just really suits everybody.” 
 
Those points have come for Cooper in virtually every way possible on the court, but she’s been especially creative in unpicking the lock on defenses in the mid-range and around the basket. 
 
“She’s a tough and gritty player, she’s crafty around the basket,” Musick said of her senior point guard. “She takes a lot of contact every single night but she’s prepared for it and doesn’t make any excuses.” 
 
Cooper did leave the game against the Tommies late with an apparent leg injury, and any missed time would be an obvious blow to ORU.
 
But the Golden Eagles quartet of other double digit scorers includes Tirzah Moore’s monster encore (13.8 ppg, 11.2 rpg) to a great freshman despite the change in system. Ariel Walker is also enjoying a career (12.1 ppg, 2.3 apg) operating in a creative role similar to Cooper’s in the dribble drive offense, and Delaney Nix (11 ppg) has been the team’s primary outside threat. 
 
Oklahoma State transfer Ruthie Odoumoh, however, has been as exciting as any player in the conference in recent weeks. The junior has exploded after two seasons of scant playing time in Stillwater, recording a triple double in a win over North Dakota on Jan. 31. 
 
Musick said the forward, who came into the program a bit timid, has been a difference maker as she’s settled in, with her ability to score, rebound and guard all positions. She’s been an athletic matchup problem, and there may be more to come. 
 
“She’s really come into her own and started to play with more confidence,” Musick said. “I just think she has a really high ceiling still and we probably really haven’t even really begun to tap into it.” 
 
As a team, ORU’s ceiling may well be tied, as with everyone in the conference, to how it contends with South Dakota State in the season’s final month. The two play on the final day of the regular season in the Mabee Center, which could double as a massive game for seeding as the Golden Eagles seek to separate from a group that includes NDSU, UND and South Dakota for that second spot. 
 
ORU did put a scare into the Jackrabbits in their regular season opener, something that both Musick and Cooper said gave the team confidence after a tough non-conference run. However that return game turns out, Musick’s up-tempo system has already given ORU fans plenty to cheer about in her debut season in Tulsa.