Totally out-of-sync tonight. This was an ugly a basketball game as I've seen in a long time. I even thought it was disjointed basketball when we were ahead. Here's hoping we play a much better game on Saturday.

Bobcats still have a lot of work to do to become the kind of MAC title contender we are use to seeing on the floor. This team has a lot of promise, but its still a young team with lots of freshmen and transfer playing their first MAC game. Lets where this team is in a month after the freshmen adjust to the physical play of the MAC. We got punched in the mouth tonite. Lets see if the Bobcats can get up and come back and play with more toughness especially on defense.

Lot of good takes in this thread. Offense was totally disjointed. Kaminski has turned into a black hole. 0 assists. Did he ever pass once tonight? Seemed to shoot every time he touched it...and not well. 4-15 with a lot of bad shots.

Might have been worst game by Campbell in quite some time. He was awful. Lazy fouls. Sad too, because they're a much better team with him out there.

Simmons looked reluctant early.

Dartis was non factor

Very disappointing especially for a conference opener.

Effort like that have 6-12 MAC season written all over it. Won't win on road in this league with that kind of play.

Ball State won in surprising blowout. Will be interesting to see how they respond back at home Saturday.

Even when we were in it score wise I never felt we could win it. Really lazy defense on most every trip down the floor. I still say defense is 99% effort and it just wasn't there. Too many blow bys and wide open shots for NIU. Then, you look at our offense...on second thought don't. NIU ran a real nice motion offense with lots of picks and got guys open. When that wasn't there they just gave it to the big guy. On the other hand...our offense? Going on year two and I am still trying to figure out just what the heck we are trying to do. The high pick and roll sucks. The roll guy (if it isn't TC) doesn't get open and seldom do we get the shot down low. The rest of our offense, at least last night was dribble dribble dribble shoot or pass shoot. I just don't get it.

As for TC, someone teach him about spatial awareness or he is gonna foul out a lot this year.

Laster appears to have gone into the witness protection program this year.

The effort was flat and that was probably most troubling.

Flat effort leads to lazy defense...which obviously leads to a lot of fouls (reaching instead of moving your feet)

Just hard to explain.....

The team looked much more enthusiastic/energetic in games vs. UC-Riverside, Pine-Bluff, Jackson State, etc.

Was that because they were at the Convo?

They looked engaged in the road game at St. Bonnie....and in the neutral site games vs. Tulsa, FSU and Norfolk St.

Last night they looked like they didn't care to be there.

That's something I'd expect from a team 2-13 in the league and playing out the string.....not a team opening conference play on the road against an 11-2 team.

Very discouraging.

I agree...Campbell/fouling has been an issue with him for a while. He needs to figure out how to stay in games. He's only playing 23+ minutes per game....and averaging 3+ fouls a game.

Imagine if they could get 28-30 minutes from him....he's already putting up 14.4 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 2.0 bpg.....he's a beast when he can stay on the floor.

Kaminski has to learn to stop just chucking 3s. I know that's what he "specializes" in....but with that size, in this league...if he could do anything in the post or foul-line, he could be a real force. He's attempted 87 3ptrs already...and is hitting less than 35%. His shooting percentage is one of the worst on the team. But he's a helluva FT shooter....why he doesn't try to get to the line more is beyond me. 87% FT.....get to the line man!

And outside of Simmons....we struggle with assisted baskets. Of the 175 assists Ohio has...98 have come from Simmons. That's less than 6 per game from the entire team minus Simmons.

I agree..the offense looked really disjointed last night....but I think a big reason for that was Campbell just not being on the floor. There is almost zero low post threat when he's out. Mompremier is best when he's rebounding...and Kaminski NEVER posts up.

They are a perimeter based team with Campbell....but it's even more perimeter based when he's out.

As far as Laster...not sure what is up with him. Really disappointing to not see him to improve from last year. Thought he'd be able to add something to this team....and with all the foul trouble last night, it's crazy he didn't even get on the floor. Sad to say, but he might not be a factor in the MAC season for Ohio (or at all going forward). It's obvious Saul trusts Block, Gollon, Harley and Dartis a lot more.

I wasn't expecting this team to run thru the MAC at 14-4 and win the league after the 9-3 non-conf season. I know the pre-MAC schedule was soft....but I saw signs where you thought this team would compete for a possible top-four bye. And maybe they still can. Hopefully last night was a blip on the radar....and a wake-up call to what life on the road in the MAC is about. If not, we could be in for another disappointing three months.

I read all the predictions a few days ago in this thread. That's why they play the games. Now you know.

I think I expunged most of my negativity in the chat room, but that game leaves a lot to bitch about. Nonetheless, I expected some games like this out of this team. There's just so much youth and inexperience for it not to be an issue at times.

The concerns about TC staying on the floor are legitimate, and most of his fouls last night were terrible, which makes it a lot more frustrating. The fifth was a bad call, but he put himself in that position with all the prior ones, including at least one off the ball.

I still don't like how poorly we respond to defenses that tighten the screws and I still think we play godawful defense overall. That has to change or we'll definitely have a losing MAC record.

We did a lot poorly last night, but I will give a lot of credit to NIU. Their big man had a soft touch and played good D, their guards pretty much torched ours, and they played very good defense as a team. I don't think they are the NIU of the past, and they were too much to handle on the road with Tony benching himself.

We'll see how - or if - they bounce back Saturday.

Those announcers were horrid

Butchered Simmons, Harley and Gollon's names all night long.

Spent 10-15 minutes talking about Bo Ryan being there and not once realizing that his son is on the staff and that Saul played and coached for him.

Total amateur hour

It drives me nuts when folks that are paid to announce a game demonstrate they haven't done a little homework to pronounce names correctly. A college team has just 10-12 names that you need to learn. Seems to me that calling the opponent's media relations or basketball opps guy would answer the pronunciation question, right? It's something about Russ I appreciate - you can tell he does his homework to try to do it right.

Well, weren't they students? I think ESPN3 is using a lot of student talent for these broadcast. With that in mind, I really cut them some slack. I remember the first time I did color for a live baseball game back in the day. I was nervous and didn't completely know what I was doing. I remember the sinking feeling I had the first time the play-by-play guy came to me for analysis of a play that had just happened. My heart practically was in my throat. He was also a student, but had much more experience with live broadcasts. He was kind and asked his question in a way that almost provided the answer so I could just rephrase it and sound halfway intelligent. As the game went on I got more confidence and start interjecting comments on my own, but the whole experience was a learning one. That's what I think we heard last night. I thought it wasn't bad for two students who probably hadn't done this kind of thing much in the past.

Didn[t see or hear the game. But I'd be a lot more concerned about an upperclassman who can't control his fouling than what the 'nouncers do or don't say.

Campbell's fouling is ridiculous. I admit that I've seen very little of his play since he came to OHIO but how can a guy with any basketball skill at all and plenty of game experience (so an understanding of what refs call) proceed like that?

Fouls away from the ball are always not real smart, all the more so when one is in, or tends toward, foul trouble.