I believe the last time Ohio was an 11 seed was the 2003 tournament. The Bobcats went to #6 Akron and won on a Brandon Hunter tip in at the buzzer. The cats went on to make the semis that year. So it's not over...
(Begin Green Koolaid) What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! (end Green Koolaid)
Note: We were the 11 seed that year at 8-10. Akron was the 6 at 9-9.
Considering the talent on that '03 team, it's amazing we were an 11 seed. Hunter, Esterkamp, Sonny Johnson, Delvar Barrett, Jaivon Harris... I think we had some injuries during the year, but "MAC semifinalist" seemed like a much better representation of what that club was than "11th place in the regular season."
That was one of the most underachieving teams to ever wear the green and white IMHO. Going into the season I know a lot of my fellow O-Zoners (it was our second year) believed that we would get to watch a special team. Short of a win at home over an average Virginia team it was pretty lackluster-especially coming off of a year where we tanked at home against CMU in the first round of the MAC tourney. The next year was even worse. I think those three years spurred a lot of talk as to wheter or not we were really better off with O'Shea. Of course in the 04-05 season we ran through the MAC tournament but those were disappointing years leading up to it.
Oh, I'm well aware of the plight of the 03-04 team, having covered them for The Messenger. Between that and the football team that year (2-10, with one of the wins coming over I-AA SE Missouri St.), it was dark days.
Wish I still would have been on campus the following year when the basketball team turned it around. Derek Scott's call of Leon's tip-in vs. Buffalo is an all-timer, and although it ended up being a loss, the NCAA game vs Florida was wildly entertaining.