Despite Illinois State shooting 61% tonight, still a pretty disappointing start to the season. We’re likely looking at 1-3 heading into Myrtle.

Others have pointed out, we don’t look like an overwhelming conference favorite.

When we came back and built a 6 point lead early in the 2nd half, good teams hold on and put those types of games away. We’re not that team right now.

Eight? When healthy we need to play 9.
Reef, AJC, Hadaway, Brown and Elmore starting
Pavs off the bench with Searls, Ajay and Elliott. Elijah has shown he is ready.

AJC, NBA prospect or not, needs to produce night-in, night-out, if this team expects to have any success this year.

We're way too thin and tiny. Do we HAVE a weight room?? We're going to get bullied and out-rebounded most nights. That's not good. The fact that we have AJ "I'm afraid of the paint" Clayton, Captain Chaos and a D2 transfer - and yet Evans can't get more than 4 minutes in 3 games when we are DESPERATE for rebounds....is concerning.



I don't see a true PG distributor on the roster (possibly Elliott but he's not getting much run). We desperately miss Jaylin Hunter on offense right now. In our 3 games our ast/fg has been: 11 assists on 30 fg, 14 ast on 25 fg and tonight 8 ast on 26 fg. That's 33 ast on 81 fg (40.7%). This should be 50% minimum, with a goal of 60%+. Too much dribbling. Too much 1-on-1. Too many bad shots.



Then there's our defense.

We've given up: 88 pts, 31-57 fg, 10-20 3pt / 76 pts, 27-63, 11-25 / 85 pts, 30-49, 10-19.

Total of 249 pts (83.0 ppg)
88-169 from the field (52.1%)
31-64 from 3pt (48.4%)

It's not "wow these guys can't miss" when it's happened 3 games in a row. Our defense is the common denominator and it's HORRIBLE.



Tons of talent. Tons of time. Playing like a 500 MAC team so far. Blegh.

Why? So he can tip toe up and down the court, get shoved 8 feet every time somebody puts a body on him for a rebound - or is it when our center is hoisting 3s? (Yes I know that creates a matchup problem when he's making them).

I'm sorry, he gives me more negatives than positives most nights. But this is nothing new.

I get it, but we have no chance if he doesn't play like he's expected to play. Just seems like at JMU and at Illinois State....he can't get into any rhythm. And in both of those games, going up against much bigger guys and I believe extending so much energy on defense which is hurting his offense.

Not happy with that performance and I doubt the team is either. As others have said, the defense was out of control. Biting on everything, committing dumb fouls. Just running around lots of energy but in a very undisciplined way. I appreciate the energy but let's reign it in and prevent so many open looks. All 3 games were not great defensive performances.

Offense with some touch issues around the rim and a few too many early shot clock not amazing look threes. I conquer I would love to see opposing shot block stats, because Elmore just rockets in there thinking no problem I got this...when will he learn?

Jackson had one big 4 point play, otherwise a night to forget. The talent is there but so far he is not looking like a difference maker while Sheldon & Elliott have looked good in the chances they've gotten.

Searls with more shot attempts than Clayton. Searls a bit too fearless of a trigger while Clayton still shy in the paint and mid-range as has been discussed at length for 4 years now.

Hadaway the MVP. Solid game and several heads up plays.

I'm sure Illinois State will end up a finely mediocre team and they played well but in the end this is a black mark on the resume (no I am not saying an at large was at play but record, computer rankings, etc matter in the grand scheme of things). I shudder to think what Memphis' offense will do if our defense doesn't tighten things up.

As painful as it was watching Ill St hit 15 of 16 free throw attempts, we should be thankful we didn't have to sit through 2 hours of watching N. Ill beat Monmouth earlier tonight. The two teams combined for 71 free throws. Fans had to sit through 23 misses from the line, almost 1 out of every 3 attempts.

U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi.

There are times when I just don't get what Boals is thinking. There was a point in the first half where ISU went on a run, Banks punctuated it with a steal and dunk to put them up six. I'm thinking "get a timeout Jeff. We need one bad. We're tired." He doesn't call one and we immediately turn it over, we're scattered and they come back and hit a three to go up nine. Timeout Bobcats.

I think he was waiting for the media timeout, but cmon. The dunk changed momentum and got the crowd, albeit small, into it. You have to take a TO there.

In the end it's a small thing, but this was a whole team effort in the loss.

"Trust in the process" is what I'm hearing from all the peanut gallery. Coach Boals has a plan in "pre-MAC" ball. Blending our tenured players and talented youth HAS to work, which all teams face with transfers & the portal economy. It's certainly a tall task and Ohio is fortunate to have this mix with an experienced / successful coach. March matters and these games are an investment.

If we are unable to stop dribble penetration this is going to be a long season.

I agree with this, but personally thought this year would be different with all the experience and continuity. Less time learning lineups on the fly and a more successful non-conference turnout. A lot of us thought this team would lose 3 games total in non-conference, we'll have 3 by Friday.

This is "Boals Ball", though. It's position-less and lacks size. This can work if you're shooting and running teams out of the gym.

I feel like I have the same thoughts as year ago, we should run more and try to gas teams if this is the personnel we're going to roll out.

With the additions of Evans, Searls, and Kuany, I really thought we'd see bigger lineups this year because there are moments and games when this is entirely necessary. It's fine Kuany is redshirted because of the visa issue, but I wish he wasn't.

Especially, with AJC as our 5. The guy just never has and never will want to play in the paint. He's a stretch 4 and needs a Keely/Jon Smith to his Baltic (AJC's basically a better 3pt version).

Having all these athletic guards/wings are great -- and we have even more incoming next year. But, are we ever going to see rim protectors or wide-bodied bigs again?

I can't blame NIL anymore, since we're facing mid-majors who are finding ways. Chase Walker is a sophomore from Columbus.

Anyway, this is still a very talented roster and I think we'll be fine come MAC play. Hopefully last night was a wakeup call because even on the road, that's a team we should have beaten.