Thoughts starting from tonight at the 8 minute mark:

*They’re draining soooo many three’s, we gotta combat that much, much better.

*Our team needs another guard to match up with the three guard look. Badly. Skip the big manz, it’s a shooter’s/guard’s game, and after Dartis and Simmons, we’re in a guard deficit compared to Zippy (and CMU).

*Saul, in my opinion, plays his starters a bit too much. They’re looking winded. Akron looks fresher. It'll look like we're out hustled, but I say they're tired.

*Akron isn’t gonna make this many three’s forever. They’re beatable in Cleveland.

*Friday at Miami MUST include getting Tony back involved in the offense.

*On defense, something has to change when going up against Zippy. I’d play Taylor a lot more when Johnson is in, and frankly hack the heck out of him. Use all five fouls. Try something different, whatever it is.

*At the beginning of the year, I figured it was Zippy and then a bunch of teams. I'd say that still appears to be the case unless they have a bad shooting day.

BANG !! .. Oh BABY what a BIG TIME post by the faceted feline !!

I said it earlier today- this game will reap big dividends for the team next year. We are a very young team and for them to be in a position to fight for a division championship their 1st year together is impressive. Now they have some much needed experience.

OUC's right-Ohio is painfully thin at the guard position. How Simmons is still functioning after all the minutes he's played this year is beyond me.

Just home from the JAR.

Rebounding? What is that?

Game was lost in the first five minutes of the second half when one of the Zips guards sliced through to several EASY baskets. At the other end the Bobcats forced up three in a row, in close but not good looks.

To vastly improve next season and to replace Setty, the Bobcats need some bigger guy to step up and take his place. Block is nice to replace KK or Dartis perhaps but he doesn't have the height or the weight to keep guys from making it to the glass. They need some rebounding, shot blocking power that can come up with a few stick backs and plays shut down D in the lane.

it was 32-13 with 9:08 left in the 1st half,the Zips had already hit 9 3s and were swagging up and down the court like they were about to beat Duke in the Final 4 and then.... for the next 6:16 Ohio went on an 18-1 run as Akron shot 0-7(0-4) and had 4 straight turnovers. It was suddenly 33-31. I like our toughness, weathering the storm and erasing that big lead in the first said a lot about our team. Our lack of depth showed in the 2nd half but that will get better in time. Overall, I thought we played well and Akron played better than is to be expected. Good for them.

Some key stats in the game were-

2nd chance points:
19 Akron
7 Ohio

Bench points:
27 Akron
3 Ohio

Depth i.e. Lack of, was huge in the second half. Damn-brot was sending in fresh troops like they were hockey lines. Saul will need a few more wins in the recruiting battle to have that luxury.

That said A tip of the lid to the Zips. Quite a 3 ball shooting extravaganza and I don't think they were raining them down with such ease in the pre-game warm-ups much less during game action.

Jaaron is just a flat-out player!! That kid is a beast and fun to watch even in a loss. Just a tad concerned we have to constantly ride him hard and put him away wet.

a look at both rosters by number of minutes played-

OHIO
40 Simmons
39 Campbell
37 Dartis
31 Setty
31 Kaminski
16 Block, 3pts(1-1)
5 Laster, 0pts(0-0)
1 Taylor, 0pts(0-0)

AKRON
33 Robotham
26 Jackson
26 McAdams
25 Kretzer
25 Cheatham
22 Johnson
22 Williams
15 Jackson
6 Ivey


It was basically 5 v 7.

Can't stop the dribble drive consistently when your point guard plays the entire game. That was the key to the wide open looks from deep. The kid is amazing but needs a break. Campbell can't be asked to bang bodies for 39 minutes. I couldn't tell if he was lacking effort or could barely walk in the second half.
No real adjustments. Dambrot was running in body after body watching the fatigue OUr guys showed. No real adjustments that I saw. I'm no Bob Knight but I'm waiting to see the wizardry or Saul Ball.
That being said I feel good about next weekend.

In addition to all the 3's Akron hit it seemed to me that they we quicker to loose balls then we were, hence all their offensive rebounds and therefor second chance points. I think had the rebounding stats been closer the outcome may have been different.
I have yet to see a team who lives by the 3 win consistently. Akron, while they seem to consistently have a 20 win seasons year after year that is all they accomplish. They just can't seem to win in the big dance. This was the same issue that Jim Christan had at Kent during his tenure. I also think that Drambrot has built himself a lock for a long term position as he is that consistent conference winner and going further is not enough of a reason for Akron to replace him, after all this is a mid-major conference.
Now as we look toward Friday night at Miami I am real concerned as Miami has really come on since we beat them on 2/20. In addition they will be at full strength for this game. We have a 1-2 record over these past 3 games.
The #1 question that we need to answer is; "Are we mentally tough enough to win this next game"?



GO BOBCATS

I agree about Big Tone looking spent. He just hasn't had his usual pep the last two games. Call it lack of swag or whatever. And against Kron I saw what may have been Kenny's issue with Izzo (or vice versa). The guy just doesn't play 100 percent every play. If he had Treg's hustle he would be all-league. As it is he's very talented and I'm glad to have him on our side but check out the replay, he was outhustled 95 percent of the time on looseballs, 50/50 rebounds and defense. I wish he'd bang a bit more.

I was there last nite Tom and the Zips high ball screens were punishing and impressive almost to the point as impressive as the 3ball shooting.

Do I think they will duplicate that if we match up again? Probably not to the extent that they did from the shooting but the execution of the ball screens - Yes. We had guys getting knocked around like bowling pins last nite with their screening ability. Their rotations of keeping bodies fresh even without Forsythe gave them and will give them a decided advantage in any future match-up at the Q.

Bingo. On all accounts. They did play with more pop. That seems to be something Ohio has struggled with a lot this year in different games (i.e. BG, at NIU, at CMU)...sometimes Ohio just get flat outworked. Not sure if that's youth/inexperience in college ball/etc?

We were fortunate to beat UB....so that 1-2 is dangerously close to 0-3. Wonder if Ohio is running on fumes at this point....a lot of minutes for a lot of guys that haven't played a lot of CBB in a few years (KK, Simmons, Dartis). Friday night will be a huge one for Miami....a chance for them to salvage a portion of their season....to beat Kent, Akron, Buffalo and rival Ohio down the stretch would be huge for them.

If Ohio isn't razor-sharp, they could see that top four bye go bye-bye

As far as KK...couldn't agree more. He is outworked the majority of the time in games. Early in the game, when Akron was making that 15-2 run there was a play where they got a rebound and were starting to push it up the floor and KK just reached on a guy 75-feet from this basket. Total lazy foul and unnecessary. He also had a play when it was getting out of hand late and he hip-checked a guy under the Akron basket for a silly foul. I understand being frustrated, but he seems to try to get away with cheap shots a lot. Kind of like the wrestler when the ref isn't looking. He could learn a lot from a guy like Treg when it comes to hustle....KK is far more-talented...but Setty has maximized his skill level. He's not the most polished basketball player, but you can't question his hustle or effort level. KK is very skilled and sometimes just appears to not be going 100% (especially when it comes to defense/rebounding)

I have a hard time with the outworked take. I am not so sure a lot of what we have is guys who have bad fundamental technique defensively. It seems easy to say outworked when the problem is actually where are your feet butt and hands and how do you understand angles and defensive principles?. It is one thing to look at KK and say he does not hustle and a whole nother thing to look at a tape and say....wow...he does not sit down, anticipate, close hard with high hands, overplay the angle, take away the tendency and a number of other things...