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Ohio Basketball Topic
Topic: Has There Been a More Disappointing Off-Season?
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OhioStunter
5/9/2017 7:48 PM
This has to be one of the most disappointing off-seasons in many years. There's no post-season appearance for us to over-analyze -- the season just ended. With a dribble out of the clock...

...by a great player who -- out of the "blue" announced he is transferring to Michigan.

Then another projected key member of next year's team, Culver, decides to transfer to a lower tier school.

A beloved (by some) former Ohio coach leaves the Big Ten to return to the MAC to led our biggest basketball rival.

Combine those things with the unceremonious loss of MAC POY and NBA prospect Tony Campbell and that adds up a one of the worst off-seasons for Ohio I can recall.
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Alan Swank
5/9/2017 7:59 PM
OhioStunter wrote:expand_more
This has to be one of the most disappointing off-seasons in many years. There's no post-season appearance for us to over-analyze -- the season just ended. With a dribble out of the clock...

...by a great player who -- out of the "blue" announced he is transferring to Michigan.

Then another projected key member of next year's team, Culver, decides to transfer to a lower tier school.

A beloved (by some) former Ohio coach leaves the Big Ten to return to the MAC to led our biggest basketball rival.

Combine those things with the unceremonious loss of MAC POY and NBA prospect Tony Campbell and that adds up a one of the worst off-seasons for Ohio I can recall.
Transfered - the guy graduated.

Dribbled out the clock - look liked a very well designed defensive plan.

Projected key members play lots of minutes at the end of the previous season.

Most of us when fired would look for a new job even if it was with the competition.

NBA prospect is a bit of a stretch.

On the positive side, on paper the recruits look like they can contribute right away. Now if we get another non-conference schedule like the last several, then yes, this might be a bad off season. :)
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Mark Lembright '85
5/9/2017 8:01 PM
"The sun will come out tomorrow....." 😄

I'm not too worried about it. Coach Saul brought in what seem to be 4 solid recruits plus a grad transfer player who could at least grab some meaningful minutes. Things will work out. Groce in Akron is concerning but Akron has no $, so he won't be there too long.
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RSBobcat
5/9/2017 10:49 PM
No

It's always too long for me before the next season starts........and I have to act like OHIO might not be a "Basketball School" for about 6 months.......
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allen
5/10/2017 12:33 AM
This has been quite a doozy. Saul and the team will have to overcome the perfect storm. We have a decent coach and good players; we will overcome.
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OhioStunter
5/10/2017 12:36 AM
Transfered - the guy graduated. -- He left the team

Dribbled out the clock - look liked a very well designed defensive plan. -- Never got a shot off

Projected key members play lots of minutes at the end of the previous season. -- Yep

Most of us when fired would look for a new job even if it was with the competition. -- Absolutely

NBA prospect is a bit of a stretch. -- NBA scouts routinely checked him out

On the positive side, on paper the recruits look like they can contribute right away. Now if we get another non-conference schedule like the last several, then yes, this might be a bad off season. :) -- The Convo should be resurfaced with paper then, right? 😀
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Ohio69
5/10/2017 8:23 AM
Its been a rough few years for Coach Phillips. Christian's players and a bout of mono ran off Ryan Taylor, who looks like a mid-major stud. He "did the right thing" with Mompremier and Harley but was basically working with 11 scholarships. Campbell gets the biggest injury in the last 25 years of the program. And then his best remaining player, who he did noting but praise and support endlessly, walks away. Ouch....

Turn the page. Trust the system. And hope karma now owes the program....
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Obc2
5/10/2017 9:12 AM
The Groce signing and Jaaron grad transfer moves were gut punches to me personally, but it can certainly be argued that im overly emotionally vested in the program. When the Bobcats play well the midwest winter is much more tolerable for this wanna be snow bird.

So long as Saul is HC life is good and my optimism bucket will be full.
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FearLeon
5/10/2017 10:01 PM
OhioStunter wrote:expand_more
Dribbled out the clock - look liked a very well designed defensive plan. -- Never got a shot off
This^^^^^ Green and white never got a shot off, thus the clock was dribbled out by #2. Can't sugarcoat it or as LeBron says #SugarCodeIt #OhioStunterIsCorrect
Last Edited: 5/10/2017 10:07:36 PM by FearLeon
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SBH
5/11/2017 8:38 AM
Back to the topic of disappointing off-seasons, I can't shake the memory of Billy Hahn's first team losing Dave Jamerson to a catastrophic knee injury during a tour of Europe. That team was stacked, until...
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OUVan
5/11/2017 9:26 AM
The summer of 2012 was more disappointing IMO. We lose John Groce and then lose two great recruits (Caris Levert and Evan Bradds).

But this one was certainly disappointing. Losing Jaaron stinks but I've heard he was the driving force behind the no postseason decision and that to me is a huge black mark particularly in light of recent events. I want players that a) want to be here and b) never want a season to end. I'm excited with the freshmen coming in and I'm excited to see the first team that consists entirely of Saul recruits.
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The Optimist
5/11/2017 9:51 AM
Agree with Obc2. This off-season had a bunch of gut punches but that is what they were... Gut punches for someone who is probably overly emotionally-invested in the program.

Losing a player of Simmons caliber should normally have a bigger impact on my outlook for the team next year, but we're deep enough into Saul's tenure that it isn't going to be a crippling blow.

Akron hiring Groce is the better example. Gut-wrenching and emotionally painful on the personal level, but not really a negative impact for the our team next year or our program in the longer-term. It's not ever going to sit well with me, but I do think what it does for the rivalry could end up being a net positive for the program.
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OUVan
5/11/2017 10:07 AM
The Optimist wrote:expand_more
but I do think what it does for the rivalry could end up being a net positive for the program.
That's where I am. Obviously we want to be the dominant program in the conference but we need other teams to get better as well. I kind of wish he had ended up at Miami because we need them to return to the land of the living.
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Brian Smith (No, not that one)
5/11/2017 10:19 AM
Yeah, agreed that Groce is more emotionally than practically bad for Ohio. Keith Dambrot is a really, really, really good coach. No one they hired was going to be an upgrade. Groce could keep them where they're at and maybe allow them to have more tournament success, but they aren't going to win more MAC games or be better in the conference tournament. There isn't another gear for them to get into. Dambrot was maxing out the potential and the talent there, I believe.
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OU_Country
5/11/2017 4:13 PM
OUVan wrote:expand_more
The summer of 2012 was more disappointing IMO. We lose John Groce and then lose two great recruits (Caris Levert and Evan Bradds).

But this one was certainly disappointing. Losing Jaaron stinks but I've heard he was the driving force behind the no postseason decision and that to me is a huge black mark particularly in light of recent events. I want players that a) want to be here and b) never want a season to end. I'm excited with the freshmen coming in and I'm excited to see the first team that consists entirely of Saul recruits.
I'm with OUVan on all of this.
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OhioStunter
5/11/2017 4:25 PM
OU_Country wrote:expand_more
The summer of 2012 was more disappointing IMO. We lose John Groce and then lose two great recruits (Caris Levert and Evan Bradds).

But this one was certainly disappointing. Losing Jaaron stinks but I've heard he was the driving force behind the no postseason decision and that to me is a huge black mark particularly in light of recent events. I want players that a) want to be here and b) never want a season to end. I'm excited with the freshmen coming in and I'm excited to see the first team that consists entirely of Saul recruits.
I'm with OUVan on all of this.
Yeah, but that off-season we were coming off of a Sweet 16, a FT away from an Elite Eight, and essentially the entire team returning. That was a lot of fun to re-live over the summer of 2012. The summer of 2017? Not so much.
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OUVan
5/11/2017 5:48 PM
OhioStunter wrote:expand_more
The summer of 2012 was more disappointing IMO. We lose John Groce and then lose two great recruits (Caris Levert and Evan Bradds).

But this one was certainly disappointing. Losing Jaaron stinks but I've heard he was the driving force behind the no postseason decision and that to me is a huge black mark particularly in light of recent events. I want players that a) want to be here and b) never want a season to end. I'm excited with the freshmen coming in and I'm excited to see the first team that consists entirely of Saul recruits.
I'm with OUVan on all of this.
Yeah, but that off-season we were coming off of a Sweet 16, a FT away from an Elite Eight, and essentially the entire team returning. That was a lot of fun to re-live over the summer of 2012. The summer of 2017? Not so much.
My response is definitely tinged with hindsight. At this time 5 years ago we were riding a good vibes wave. The loss of Groce wasn't unexpected, we knew Lavert and Bradds were good but since they hadn't played a game in college didn't know for certain how good. I think the happenings of this off-season have left a much hollower feeling than 2012 but I think the overall effects to the program don't being to approach it. And lost in all of this is that we are returning a pretty good team next year with a good group of recruits.
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GoCats105
5/11/2017 7:46 PM
OUVan wrote:expand_more
The summer of 2012 was more disappointing IMO. We lose John Groce and then lose two great recruits (Caris Levert and Evan Bradds).

But this one was certainly disappointing. Losing Jaaron stinks but I've heard he was the driving force behind the no postseason decision and that to me is a huge black mark particularly in light of recent events. I want players that a) want to be here and b) never want a season to end. I'm excited with the freshmen coming in and I'm excited to see the first team that consists entirely of Saul recruits.
I'm with OUVan on all of this.
Yeah, but that off-season we were coming off of a Sweet 16, a FT away from an Elite Eight, and essentially the entire team returning. That was a lot of fun to re-live over the summer of 2012. The summer of 2017? Not so much.
My response is definitely tinged with hindsight. At this time 5 years ago we were riding a good vibes wave. The loss of Groce wasn't unexpected, we knew Lavert and Bradds were good but since they hadn't played a game in college didn't know for certain how good. I think the happenings of this off-season have left a much hollower feeling than 2012 but I think the overall effects to the program don't being to approach it. And lost in all of this is that we are returning a pretty good team next year with a good group of recruits.
I don't know. I think we could have predicted LeVert. He was getting biiiiiiggg looks. That was a huge steal for us at the time.
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