Other than throwing temper tantrums what is your solution? Is howling at the moon enough? Your recourse is to not buy the product (as well as pout and stomp your feet). Personally, I'm going to continue to buy the product because it was put together with good intentions and it promises to get better. We are on the right track but ran into the perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances.

OUVan, I can't add anything more to your reply except this: a lyric from "Round About Midnight" written by Jon Hendricks.

"every day's going to bring some glad times, every day's going to bring some sad times. But take what you can from the glad times! Don't measure your pleasure in nickels and dimes."

Sure, dinner and a beer(s) in the Athens establishment of the winner's choosing at the first home game the following year. So for you to collect it will be the first home game of the 2025-26 season. For me it will be the first game of the following year after Saul succeeds Bo Ryan. If Saul gets fired the bet is null and void but I'm in agreement that I don't think there is any real danger of that happening.

I give everyone who chose to do so credit for making the drive from Cbus. Let's not assume that not making the 90 mile drive right after work to watch a bad basketball team makes one less of a fan though. Winning & and fun to watch sells tickets and gets butts in the seats. Right now, this group is neither unfortunately. I (and others like me) could have made it by the under 16 in the first half, and frankly, I'm glad I listened from home instead. It made a frustrating day less frustrating to not have to drive back home 85-90 miles afterward. And as a bonus, I got to watch very good basketball (Wisconsin & Maryland) for an hour of my evening before the workday fatigue set in.



Even on the worst night, such as last night, the "Best Fans in The MAC" show up better than every other school in this conference. Buffalo, in a much bigger city, with a lot better team, and more on the line, drew a whopping 3500 last night versus Akron. An improving and surging Red Chicken drew 950, EMU 750. To their credit Ball State fans came out to the tune of 2700+. So in the end, Ohio drew 5000+ paid to the rest of the conference's 7900ish. (I know Toledo didn't play, which makes a difference) But, my point remains, OUr fans still show up or buy tickets better than other teams in the MAC.

You are on. I'll mention this to my wife, since I'll be 80 at the beginning of the 2025-26 season, it would be prudent to let her know so that my estate can collect if I should pass on to my reward before the payoff date.

I'll bring the Depends for both of us. ;)

+1 simply for the fact that you quoted Weird Al in your rebuttle.

Count me in on the "really interested to see Simmons" crowd, for two reasons: 1) I think he's probably better than #22 and #3 for Saul's plans.
2) If he isn't, I'm a bit scared of what next winter will look like.


I'll kind of disagree on Mo, at least offensively, and not because I dislike him. For some reason, I don't think Mo seems to fit into the way Saul does things. I feel like Saul is looking for shooters at every position, and I'm not sure what kind of shooter Mo is. On the other hand, I think Kaminski and Tony fit very well because they're better shooters. Maybe I'm grasping at straws here hoping for a better next year. Time will tell.


Sometime over the summer I said something along the lines of "getting quality minutes from two of Taylor/Laster/Harley will be key". The same applies next year, just throw Dartis/Block/Gollon into the mix. Half of those six will really have to perform for this team to be at a high level.

I really am surprised at how often "sweet 16" is thrown around on here by people. It makes me think that these people don't really follow college basketball, don't understand college basketball (especially the NCAA tournament), and don't appreciate how just how magical was OUr run to get there. The idea that you can just throw some talented MAC players together and "voila - sweet 16!" Is just plain ignorant IMHO. I mean, really?

Maybe I've missed it, but I don't see a lot of posts in this string arguing that Ohio should be a Sweet-16 participant every year. I DO see people saying the Bobcat players are not competing hard game in, game out. You don't have to be a national power in order to bring the effort each night.

Good suggestion about watching just Mo. It'll make a game more interesting to watch the rest of the year.





I think the point made is that sometimes people think it's easy to get to the Sweet 16? Maybe I'm off there.

For some schools, much wealthier basketball schools than any in the MAC, it's seen as a terrible disappointment in the eyes of a fan base not to get there every year. The reality is that it's terribly difficult to do on a consistent basis.

When I see one BG player and 3 Ohio players (with better position on top of being a 3:1 ratio) in position for a rebound, and the BG player ends up with the ball and the basket, I have to believe there is some lack of effort/mindset/priority on part of the Bobcats.

Perhaps I'm lacking in that much-talked-about (and much self-proclaimed) BBIQ, but I believe two teams don't always bring the same effort and there's been many examples this year of our players not matching the opponent's effort.

Now, combine that with lack of experience and/or talent and you end up with a bottom-of-the-MAC team.