+1 100%Cat

Holy cow greencat. After 40 minutes of basketball last night, this is your main takeaway? Comparing a guy who was brought in to be a backup big (Searls) and play 10-15 minutes per night versus an All-MAC selection (the Lithuanian)?? You couldn't make more of an idiotic statement. Where were you when "The Upgrade" kept Ohio in the game at home against Kent when he scored 9 points and had 7 rebounds? I'll hang up and listen.

By the way....you do understand that the "upgrade" is in reference to comparing Searls to the Whiz right? Both players were brought into the program to play the same backup big role off the bench. If you truly believe that after 26 games that Searls isn't an upgrade over the Whiz then you are blind or truly know nothing about basketball. I'm assuming you have decent eyesight, so I'll just go with you lack basketball IQ.

YES...recruiting matters. And Boals needs to get a starting big like the Lithuanian....no excuses on this recruiting topic moving forward. But for you to compare the Lithuanian to Vic is disingenuous. Apples to oranges. If you want to compare the Lithuanian to the Whiz or Searls to the Whiz....I'm all ears. That's an argument you won't win. Anyone with a brain on this board knows that Searls has outperformed the Whiz in the same exact role they were recruited for. Searls numbers are better and his basketball common sense on the court is way better than the Whiz.

Do we need more size and athletes like we've seen everywhere, but in Athens the last few years with bigs....of course. If Boals goes three years like this next season with no starting big that can go 25-30 minutes per game, many people here are going to lose complete faith in what our coach is doing.

Burris is a walking bucket, so I'm still hoping he gets healthy and gets into the rotation. It helps he's also a guard in the 6'5" range. In this line-up that makes him a 4 man, but his size in the backcourt we will need when constantly playing small ball.

It's a lot of hypotheticals at the moment, but Ayden with a full year in the offense could still take a big step forward and have all those minutes to himself with Hadaway.

We need to turn over some rocks. Whoever scouted CMU's big man shoutout to that guy, because he wasn't good last year for a bad team in that California branch league. This year one of the best big men in the MAC. Someone found some good tape or saw him in a brief moment and had a lightbulb moment.

I'm not going to pretend like I've spent an ample amount of time looking at Burris' tape. I've watched Kelly and Fisher who are comparable in size (with Kelly being slightly bigger) and both seem to be quite athletic.

That's where I think it could get tough for Burris. However, if he can shoot the way you're describing, he'll find minutes.

I think Boals basically has to hope that there's portal turnover at the guard/wing position, or force a few guys out. Otherwise, it's hard to make sense of next year's roster. You've got:

PG:
Pavs
Elliott

SG:
AJB
Elmore
Sheldon
Kelly
Burris

SF:
Nicol
Fisher
Mosley

PF:
Kuany

C:
Evans

Not a single big on the roster that we've seen actual evidence is ready to contribute. And not a lot of scholarship/roster slots to change that. Not to mention that basically every recruit we sign shows up on campus 2-3 inches shorter than their listed height during recruiting, so it wouldn't shock me if some of next year's 3s end up 2s.

Added in Hadaway for ya

What about NIU, Ball State, and EMU? - because I think that may be happening also.

i think it might be time for a change. perhaps a different coach could be a good idea to at least think about. it's certainly time to get ou out of the mac. the big east ,aac, and conference usa would be good conferences for us to join. then we won't have to win our conference tourney to get in the ncaa tournament. plus we could land better recruits easier. the convo is certainly a big enough gym and we have some sort of rep as being a good team. the main problem is that boals is doing what keith dambrot did at akron. he's under recruiting and scheduling too weak of a non conference slate. he's also using lame reasons for doing that. larry hunter and groce never did any of that stuff. this year would've been a great year to have scheduled to play kansas as they are a bit of a down team this year. and we gotta all our players into a year round intensive weight training program to build strength. that would surely help with the rebound issues.we are starting to see a role reversal here. we once had a football team that had a hard time winning games and a basketball time that was one of the best in the midwest. now our football time is among the best in the mac and then some. but this basketball team has a hard time consistently winning to say the least.

I was thinking this exact same thing, because looking at who is leaving and who is coming in, the roster is set for 2025-26. Obviously there could/will be transfers, but in the event that there isn't, they'd have exactly three "bigs" on the roster (Evans, Hadaway and Mosley) and two of those are probably more suited to be 3s.

And I also go back to the point BLSS made in a game thread a while back: what is the offensive strategy? If it's to get out and run, then the future recruiting strategy is fine - quick guards and athletic wings. But when the offense isn't running at full speed and has to play slow, they struggle. In those cases you need a big who can clog the paint and draw defenders to leave opportunities for open kick outs on the perimeter. Right now there is hardly any of that and I don't see that changing next year with the roster currently in place.

Point still stands, two or three of the four bigs are probably not actual bigs.

Good for the Chips in finding a diamond in the rough but Central isn't OUr stick to measure by--its Groce and the Zips.

What BIG has John Groce recruited? (Freeman was a walk-on).

The Akron fan page is full of comments over the years about how is it that Akron cannot get a big to back-up Freeman and take over after he graduates.

EVERY Mid WANTS A BIG. In football other than OHIO what school has grabbed an all-MAC QB--it is very similar and even many more basketball teams competing. OUr QB is smallish can get it done meaning QB's come in different packages. Bigs got to be BIG so not easy to uncover that diamond in the rough and if a known commodity almost impossible to compete with others.

Ludicrous talk about needing a change in staff. Has Akron, Miami or Toledo had a season ending injury to a starter? The best MAC teams did not have much depth but starters stayed healthy--we are minus one and another that seems to not be 100% and well that cannot be blamed on the staff.

I like chiming in every once in a while. I can't follow all the posts, in regards to miniscule details. As a life-timer fan, I do question whether we can get back atop the MAC. IMO, I think Coach kept his job because of the injuries lately. I bleed Green. Is Ohio considered under achievers this year because of the returning players? Or do we blame it on coaching? I will give it another year , with this recruiting class before I comment more on the topic. I am skeptical.

If you say Chet Feldman's name 3 times in a row into a mirror....