And Tom Boeh's hair caught on fire. What a sight that was.

What a strange series of events tonight. For some inexplicable reason, Jason is put under the referee's microscope and fouls out. He wasn't playing any differently than any other game. When he was out in the last 10 minutes of the first half the offense was as listless as a piece of driftwood in the Atlantic. We had a several minute stretch where we had no points and no offensive rebounds.

We crawl back into the game in the second half against all odds and Jaaron dribbles the game out. I never saw this happen when I was coaching high school and it happens to someone of Jaaron's caliber? We had too many weapons and too many games where we did ourselves in with self inflicted wounds.

I don't like to bring up crazy men, but sometimes even crazy men have a point. I posted here sometime ago about the late Rick Majerus getting a couple of T's in game with Ball State, and when asked why he stated that the players needed to know that they were too talented to fool people into thinking they were that bad.

The second crazy man example involves the infamous Bill Musselman. When I was involved in high school coaching we played in a larger arena for a tournament game. When the janitor let us in he stated; "boys you got the Musselman locker room." When we inquired what that meant, he told us that when Bill Musselman coached Ashland College (sometime in the mid 1960s) one night he became so upset at the team's play that he made them sit in the locker room until they could visually remember all of their mistakes. At 2:30 am the janitor had to summon a police officer to physically persuade Coach Musselman to leave the locker room so the janitorial staff could clean up and go home.

I am not suggesting Coach Phillips go full Bill Mussellman but we have way too much talent to have consistently made the same mistakes all season. Sometimes in order to make the needed changes, it must hurt a great deal in order that those changes be made.

Alan, your pulling your straw man routine again. I stated that Bill Musselman was a crazy man, but I used an Ashland example not Minnesota. Bob Huggins is as beloved a players coach as any out there, and he uses more with less talent than just about anyone. He certainly doesn't use the kinder, gentler coaching model either. Is that another wrong analogy too? Most importantly, what is incorrect about my analysis?

A man doesn't change just because he changes schools. He was a nut case at Ashland and a demon at MN. Find a better example.

Kent defended us as well as anyone has in years. You don't win the Mac with only two players producing.

We definitely need more depth, too many scroring droughts at the end of the games this year. Hopefully year 4 will yield better results. Hope the team can go to Europe this summer. Everyone needs to add to their game. Also telling Culver and Block their offense isn't needed is not good. both need to be able to contribute on both ends of the court. Culver averaged 20 plus in high school, why does he have to be a defensive specialist. You can't have two defensive specialist on a team that goes 7 deep. Hopefeully with transformational servant leadership we can get our players to play great next year. Go Cats

For all intents and purposes, our conference title hopes should have died the day Tony Campbell broke his ankle. That we were even in this position is a testament to the rest of the players and the coaching staff. Maybe it sounds like an excuse, but take the best player off any other team in the MAC and do they do any better? And we lost the best player in the *entire conference*.

That said, tonight hurts and it will for a while.

Just such a strange game. 8 total assists for the team. So many solid 3-point shooters, and for about the first 18 minutes of the 2nd half, we had one attempt behind the arc. Jason Carter getting into foul trouble was backbreaking (not to mention the circumstances of several of those calls...). Doug Taylor did about as well as you could hope for, but Jimmy Hall was just a monster and they fed him the ball in the post on virtually every possession. Once the Bobcats started collapsing on him, Kent's perimeter guys just kept making shots. Add in the fact that on so many offensive possessions, it seemed like we had all five guys running back on defense and no one looking to crash the glass. Just four offensive boards for the entire game.

Again, I hate to beat a dead horse, but the way this game was lost, it's impossible for me to wonder what tonight looks like with Big Tone in the post going toe-to-toe with Hall.

I'm with a lot of others on here. I'm not interested in a third-rate postseason tournament this year. Shut it down, regroup and reload over the summer, and let's roll with Jaaron, Jason, Jordy and Co.

Yeah...I didn't really want to even bring that up with regards to Jaaron, but it's at least a possibility. Just have to hope he wants to stick with the program he's flourished with for one more year.

Because one good win (or one bad loss) doesn't make a season? Statistical variance.

I posted after Buffalo - that I started this season with high hopes. Was disappointed with early results, then lost all hope when TC got hurt. Then when Laster and Carter picked up their game from nowhere and we got adapted and strung together some wins, I changed my mind and thought we might actually have a shot - until we couldn't put away mid to top tier teams on our home floor. To me, that was enough evidence to know what we were - and that was a decent but not great MAC team that played with heart and toughness but didn't have enough talent, athletes or depth to go anywhere.


John Groce. After 3 years he had 6 MAC tourney wins, 1 championship, 1 NCAA appearance and an NCAA win. 6-2 in MAC tourney vs. 2-3 with Saul. I'd add that I'm not calling for the guy to be fired though. Even without those stats at the 3 year mark. That's why I said I'd give him 1-2 more years to change it. If we're one and done the next 2 years or have 0 'ships...not good.


For sure Tone would have helped. But even with him, early this year - he seemed to fall in love with shooting the 3 for "the NBA" and played very timid and passive away from the bucket IMO. We still lost to the powerhouse likes of Marshall and Western Kentucky even with him.


We were better on D this year than last. Not sure I'd call us a tough, physical defensive team or a defensive juggernaut though. We averaged < 6 steals and < 3 blocks per game. Consistently we were slow on defensive rotations and allowed dribble penetration (a lot of that is just lack of foot work and foot speed IMO) that allowed open looks or caused fouls. Some of the stats listed above are because we played some teams that weren't that great offensively too. But I'll give Saul credit here. We saw improvement. We need lots more of it. Hopefully that's a point of emphasis this offseason and we get even better. I just don't think it IS with Saul. Hope I'm wrong.


I saw it tonight from Doug Taylor. He was fantastic. Carter needs about 2 inches and 20 more pounds on him (I hope we see him add some weight/definition in due time). He'll never be very athletic, but he can make up for it with heart, hustle and positioning. Outside of that? Not really. Jaaron is a fantastic player but he can't consistently get to the rim and finish in traffic over/through big physical bigs like we'd face in an NCAA game. Block - nope. Laster - nope. Culver - not yet, maybe in time. Darty - I'd love to see him add to his physique and game and be more than a catch and shoot 3 guy too.

We have no Gary Trent. No Brandon Hunter. No Lewis Geter. No Curtis Simmons. Shoot, no Tarren Harbut or DeVaughn Washington. No Ivo Baltic. No Reggie Keely. And we definitely don't have any guards as physical as a Walt Offutt.

I don't see that changing with the next recruiting class, or any time soon either. Just not the style guys Saul recruits for his system unfortunately.

So tell us old wise one since you seem to know everything about everything basketball. All of the fouls on Carter were legit. He just had one of those games where he was truly in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was one game. We've all seen how advanced his foot work is for a kid his age and there is only an upside to his career. His one fault in my opinion is that he tends to whine when he gets called for a foul. Has anyone ever seen a ref reverse a foul call because a player whined about it? To use your old man comparison, maybe we should go back to the old days when a guy had to raise his hand when called for a foul? Just kidding of course but I sure hope as an educator you aren't as condescending toward your students and faculty as you are toward certain targets on this board. Would be a tough place to work.

Kent either played lock down defense or the boys were not trying very hard on offense. There were few easy shots for the Bobcats.

Is Saul Ball one and done? Real sweet when the shots drop, but four guys racing back on defense leads to ZERO second chance points when the lid is tight. IMO Two things in a game that are most exciting to fans are offensive stick backs and blocked shots both make fans feel the domination.

Kent players translate to Mr. October. Guys like #55 hitting his WIDE open threes like he has done it all season--which he hasn't. OHIO, other than Jaron and KK were just shrinking in the lime light.

Unless he saw no opportunities because of the stifling defense, Laster, decided his successful slash and burns to the hoop were better handled by giving the ball back to Jaron. We needed Laster to be the Akron Ivy of the OHIO team.

Strange game, the crowd including me was lame--there never seemed to be much to sustain the cheering. Saul had to act as cheerleader and tell folks to get on their feet and get a defensive stop!

The single play game killer IMO was not getting a rebound, deflecting it OB and giving Kent the second chance which lead to a 3 ptr by #55 late--what was that bench jockey's season high before this game anyway?

It's have not gone to bed, not have went. As for Carter, nowhere in my post did I say one thing about you saying anything negative. From my view, all of the foul calls were legitimate calls (looks like at least one other poster agrees). You felt otherwise. So be it. Your post started with a criticism of me so I responded. If you are going to take shots at people who have said nothing about you in a thread, then you need to be prepared for a return barrage. At the end of the day, this team developed nicely as a team and if three more pieces can be added/developed for next year, we'll have a good chance of spending the second Saturday in March sleeping in Cleveland.