Agreed. I ain't mad at the effort at all.

Hard to say we should be recruiting much better than we have. Realize that we have Jason Carter, who many of us thought was a possible MAC POY candidate heading into the season. He was recruited by Saul. His injury has nothing to do with the recruiting. Then, this year, we have:

AJ Gareri, who was a 3 star recruit with an offer from Kent State.

Teyvion Kirk, who had offers from at least 19 other DI schools, including Duquesne, Drake, Southern Illinois, Kent State, and Miami.

Zach Butler, who had offers from at least 5 other DI schools, including UNC Charlotte.

Bennett Vander Plas, who had offers from at least 10 other DI schools, including Memphis, Milwaukee, Bucknell, Penn.

Now, two of these guys are down right now, so we don't know what we have. But there's definitely potential with this class.

Chicken...re your comments about post players...you know we had Carter out, and two freshmen OUT who are considered serviceable post players even at this point in their careers. So I'm not seeing a recruiting shortfall there.

Re PG, as it has turned out, it would have been better to have had our future PG lined up a year earlier, but the Simmons departure was unexpected . The Kirk signing is a very good one, so we have a PG in the making. And Zach Butler will be OK eventually.

I've got no problem if people disagree with my "green kool-aid" outlook for this season but this roster is not nearly as "shorthanded" as some imagine.

Many of the issues mentioned about the roster makeup could have been (and often were) echoed about rosters in years past prior to Saul.

*Rodney Culvar transferred after playing some as a freshman but not quite getting the minutes he wanted. The same happened with Ryan Taylor, TyQuane Goard and Jay Kinney before him.

*Plenty of guys who were called "dead weight" and "wasted space" on our bench in the past: Ethan Jacobs, Kadeem Green, Chandler Thomas, Wadly and many more. Khari Harley was a Christian recruit. Even guys who had pretty nice Senior years for us like KVK and Asown Sayles took heat. That doesn't even began to scratch into some of the guys on those TOS teams.
2011-2012 We had 9 players average 10+ minutes per game
2016-2017 We had 9 players average 10+ minutes per game

*Campbell graduates and we have a sophomore post player returning who was Freshman All-MAC last year.

*If DJ Cooper "blindsides" Ohio after our Sweet 16 run his Junior season and transfers to Baylor (as it was rumored) we all would've been crushed. The only other Point Guard returning the next season was Stevie Taylor who had averaged only 10 minutes the year prior.

...

The main difference compared to past years is our style of play under Saul. Christian, Groce, O'Shea and Hunter teams each had a unique look and feel but each of those coaches definitely placed more of a priority on raw athleticism than Saul does. There's a big difference between not prioritizing athleticism and your statement "we're not athletic."

Saul has been (remarkably) consistent in recruiting guys who fit into his system. Our roster has a lot of guys who don't rely on their athleticism to score because our roster has a lot of guys who are shooters first. I've seen some knock Gavin Block's athleticism yet Gavin Block is a 6-7 guy with the quickness to operate primarily as a shooter playing on the perimeter while maintaining the strength to contribute for us in the post. How many 6-7+ players who have worn the OHIO jersey have had Block's shooting ability and versatility?

Elijah Thomas for Clemson is a freak athlete (6-8 w/7-1 wingspan) and he killed us (17 and 15) but does anyone really think Jason Carter doesn't have ability to go out and compete with him for rebounds while aiding in defending him? I've seen Carter throw down plenty of athletic dunks himself and similar to our two freshman bigs (6-8 and 6-7) they all have some level on ability to step outside and hit 3's. A lot of big guys in the NCAA do not have the quickness to step out and defend guys like this.

I haven't seen anything since Saul has arrived to suggest this style of play doesn't work. We've won a fair share of games despite the worst stretch of luck with injuries that I recall Ohio hoops having. If we can get healthy, I don't see what pieces this team is missing.
-The ball movement tonight was the most encouraging thing for me. Almost all the 3's we took were open looks despite starting a freshman at PG. Look at the 3 guys who played over 30 minutes: Laster, Block, Dartis. All have been contributing since they were freshman and it's paying off now with their understanding of the offense and chemistry.
-Kirk really made some big plays down the stretch. Showed some good athleticism driving to basket and made some nice passes. Also had a couple huge rebounds. He made some questionable decisions but not anything you wouldn't expect from a freshman. Feeling good he is answer at PG. Tons of potential.

I was worried about this team in a nationally-televised game without JC but man did the guys come through! We got tons of compliments from the commentators and the people we need to be leaders were leaders (although Doug really stumped me with his performance). Kirk played like a freshman but also had some moments that made me think that when he gets into MAC play after all these tough non-league games he can be a beast. Just wish he had an outside shot. Mickle impresses me as well and Laster is slowly becoming one of my favorite Bobcats ever. Most players would have transferred if they were limited as a sophomore like he was after starting as a freshman but he weathered it and has blossomed.

I like this team. They are going to lay some eggs too but I think the effort is awesome.

Taylor needs to rebound and block shots with Carter sitting out. His stat line was pretty awful. Taylor has talent, I think he just needs to play with confidence.

Yes, excellent post Optimist--let me correct myself, I'll delete the comment about interest in our recruits as that's distracted from the main point and agree with enough to reconstruct my point. To your point, I guess I don't often care for this style of ball (poor man's Belien-ball & Wisconsin ball). When it's working, as with the Pittsnogle WVU teams, it's a thing of art and I'm sure I'll love it. When it's not, you feel like you have recruits that are a step slow, can't create their own shots and can't defend one-on-one even though that's all you play. You feel like you have guys that look like they're more suited to play at Marietta College than they are say Maryland. I guess they use the terms High IQ players who stretch the floor and can all shoot. Who the pure shooters are on this squad outside of Dartis and Block for one game last night, I'm not sure--but that's the philosophy I guess. And while injuries have a been a big part, haven't we had a short bench since day one with SP? Heck, he doesn't trust half the guys either as he wears the tread off a small group of guys. Sorry and I hope I'm wrong, I just feel we're more than Jason Carter away from being relevant. And you're point about the 2 other bigs who are hurt? You're banking on two guys who haven't played 1 minute of college ball and you have no idea what they do/do not bring to the table. But we're that thin and desperate that we're using them as an excuse as to why we're thin. Good news is that we look better than I anticipated last night and "IF" JC comes back and "IF" the 2 bigs we've never seen play come back and can contribute and "IF" the freshman PG continues to develop and "IF" Dartis/Block can be red hot--we'll be pretty good.
In conclusion, your post was excellent and when the pass & pop is working on all cyclinders and we're not counting on multiple freshman to save the day, I will be the first to be excited with you.

If this team can get past having long droughts, they can be very good. Last night we scored just seven points in the first 11:58 of the second half; 31 pts in the last 8:02. I think we had a six or seven-minute stretch after opening a big lead vs AA&M where we scored just three points. Both times it was due in large part to not getting threes to go.