This team will be tied for last at night's end. When's the last time the team was in the basement halfway through the conference season? (And yes, they'll still be there after losing to Buffalo this weekend.)

I imagine even in Saul's first year... even in the 2009-10 season that started 0-4... they weren't last midway through the league season.

Maybe 1997-98?

I guess we are now officially a football school!  

Arkley had a stat that in the second half, we had five possessions in which we could have taken the lead. We got a total of one shot, which missed. The rest were turnovers.

Dilly dilly...

Comparison with #SnyderBall

Call crucial TOs at just the right time. Design an incredibly well-thought out play on the fly or call a pre-determined and practiced last 20-second play, and then have his players execute it flawless. More times than not, pull out the close victory. The best example that I can remember was at O$U in St. John's Arena in the late 1960s, when with about 20 seconds left, he calls a TO in a game tied 80-80. After the TO, OHIO works some kind of a weave around the top of the key, then on cue, four guys pull out toward their sideline, pulling their men with them, thus leaving a gigantic hole right up the center. The man with the ball rolls around his defender and goes uncontested to the basket for the winning layup. It was kind of like the parting of the Red Sea. One of the most incredible wining basketball plays I've ever seen.

To be fair, Saul did have his great win against Buffalo with the Tony to N'dour full court pass. Here's hoping for a big upset of Buffalo this Friday. Go OHIO!

Yeah, because Groce was stellar in regular season league play. Almost unbeatable.

Well, to be fair let's look at what the data actually says.

John Groce - 4 years: 2008-2012

Overall Record: 85-56 (.603)
MAC Regular Season: 34-30 (.531)
MAC Tournament: 9-2 (.889)
MAC Total (Reg+Tournament): 43-32 (.573)
OOC Total: 38-21 (.644)
Post-Season: 4-3 (.571) - 2 NCAA, 1 CIT

Saul Phillips - 3.5+ years: 2014-2018

Overall Record: 62-53 (.539)
MAC Regular Season: 29-32 (.475)
MAC Tournament: 2-3 (.400)
MAC Total (Reg+Tournament): 31-35 (.470)
OOC Total: 29-17 (.630)
Post-Season: 2-1 (.667) - 1 CBI

-----

So to summarize, Groce was better overall, he was slightly better in OOC and MAC regular season - but takes SP to the woodshed in the post-season (results to be expected).

How MUCH better was he? Well, if we extrapolate their respective MAC winning percentages over an 18 game MAC schedule (I'll use total for this example - meaning regular season + tournament) then Groce would win (18*.573 = 10.31 games) while Phillips would win (18*.470 = 8.46 games). So in MAC play Groce won, on average, 1.85 more games per 18 - or basically an extra win every 9 games played.

*Edit to add: Interesting that Groce won OOC at a 64% clip and then won in the MAC at 57%. Saul, on the other hand wins 63% of OOC but then falls to 47% in the MAC. Dude can't win MAC games which makes it hard to get to the NCAA's.

This !

Disclaimer:The following comments are based only on games I've seen.

I've had a chance to see several "Saul Ball" games at the Convo,including two season openers.
I also watch their games on T.V. whenever they're on.

Based on the games I've seen,"uninspired" kind of sums it up.

I would think the team would be psyched/excited for their home opener.
But the two season openers I saw it wasn't there.
In fact,they seemed kind of "flat",no "fire in the belly".

They lack toughness,especially when the other team makes a run.

I don't think that you necessarily need a "fiery" guy,coach "K" comes to mind.
But you do need a coach that pushes his players,physically and mentally.
I don't think that's happening right now.

We never even had a lead in the game. Not once. Against Akron.

I don't get the "against Akron" comment. In the last 11 years, they have played in the MAC championship game 9 times. We've played 3.

Why is it safe to say this is the weakest they will be? Roughly 40% of the players he recruited to Ohio did not finish their careers here. How do you know that he will have a better retention rate at Akron?

I admire Akron for its previous success, but this year they return one starter, were picked to finish behind Ohio in the MAC, have a new coach, and were at the bottom of the conference with Ohio. In year 4 of our coach and the system, with most of our players back, I'd expect to be able to take a lead at some point in the game vs. that team.

Stayed (Baltic, Cooper, Keely, Ric, TJ, Nick, Stevie Taylor) 7
Left (Kinney, Horne, Coleman, Jacobs, Goard) 5

I could be wrong, but those came from my memory of who stayed and who left. If Coleman was a TOS recruit, I am sorry and it goes to 36.363636363636% (which is still roughly 40% in my mind.)

But what does Ryan Talyor have to do with John Groce?