We have a pretty weird team this year in that all our guys fit into a different scheme. You have a little Groce, A lot of JC, and some Saul. It's going take some time to figure it out and we're seeing the going pains.

That said.. we must fix our guard play. I think talent wise Stevie and Bean our the best guards but they can't defend!! When we play Akron Diggs size is going to tear them apart. I would much rather rotate the two and have Laster and Taylor at SG.

Diggs is gone

First, I don't expect our offense to look like Wisconsin's too closely. Some principles, yes, but Saul's history includes some fast-paced teams.

Second, we have guards who can't or won't move the ball that way. The first couple games had A LOT of standing around. It's still happening, but especially against Belmont, we had good stretches of off-ball movement and passing.

I went to the game and sat courtside, a few observations:

-The offense is getting better with both ball movement and player movement, but man do they miss a lot of open spaces on the court. There were about 4-5 times where there was absolutely nobody on the block and the S.B. defense wasn't reacting quickly. Make that cut for a layup and turn some heads.

-With as long as Mo and Tony are, I don't understand why they don't front defenders with backside help. That #35 was catching it way too easily on the low block and I think had like 8 pts and 12 boards? Even the shots he missed were cleaned up and putback...

-...which leads me to checking out. I guess you could throw a little bit of inexperience with the young players to this, or the guys who haven't played much, but Ohio is not very good at checking out in key situations. It's like they are waiting for the ball to come to them. Go get that thing! S.B. did a great job of crashing the glass when either Wadley, Mo or Tony were sitting, because that usually left only one big guy in there to get a board.

-I was actually mildly impressed with Khari. I'm gonna give him a ton of leeway because we truly haven't seen him play until now. He shows flashes of a brilliant offensive game. He just needs to get stronger and grow into this body. He will be a good player.

-Ryan Taylor is easily, or should be, our go-to guy in tight situations. I love Mo and what he brings to the table, but RT has the handle and quickness to get a good shot off when need be. If he works on his 3pt shooting, he can be a dangerous player in this league. Not many people can regularly hit 15 footers like him. It's a lost art.

-Stevie is in a funk. He had a bad game on Saturday and got into early foul trouble. A couple of them were really ticky tack, but he can't let that affect his game. It's almost like he's trying too hard to help this team win and it's hard to watch.

-Tony is reminding me more and more of Terren Harbut. He may not be the best player on the floor or as strong as Terren was, but man is he consistent. You know what you're getting from him every time he's on the floor. Maybe he'll surprise with a huge game every now and then, but he looks like he could get at least 10pts/8rebs every night. That's huge for a team trying to find their way.

-Refs were OK. Ohio got some calls and the S.B. coach got T'd up, but the fouls on 3-pt shooters by Ohio were abysmal. You could blame that on our guys, but on one, the shooter clearly stuck his leg out to draw contact and wasn't even trying to make the shot. On another, the whistle wasn't blown until after the shooter landed back on the floor and the ball hit the rim. I'm sorry, but that's not a shooting foul, that's on the floor.

-Need to find another 3pt shooter, which is where I guess Kaminski was supposed to come in. The defense was almost letting Ohio get open 3pt looks unless it was Bean, because they knew Ohio wasn't that great at shooting them. RT is ok and Stevie is hot when he's hot, but freezing when cold.

-Bad weather for the game and a lot of football on TV may have kept most of the crowd away. I heard a lot of students behind me talking about studying for finals, so I'm not surprised with their lower than normal turnout.

-Overall I'm not too surprised or upset with the loss. It's still early and the team is still learning to gel. Heck, some of these guys are still figuring out how to play at a high level aka they're young and inexperienced.

Excellent research Ted. Would be an interesting question to pose on the radio show. Got to spend this afternoon looking at personnel and see why he may have changed.....or we can just ask the question on the radio

Like I said, you can blame the Ohio defenders if you want to, but a couple were questionable. Especially the one where the shooter kicked his leg out. That shouldnt be a foul on the defense when the offense initiates the contact while fading away.

How many times did Bubba draw a foul doing that?

Maybe as a supporting actor. DJ has the leading role claimed hands down.

Alan, I think the 7200 must have been tickets sold. I was there and that lower bowl was half empty. There were some folks in the lighter green seats.

By the way, I did a sample size of about 200 seats in and around Section 223 (I think that was the section I was in, right next to the student section). There were about 6 seats out of the 200 that needed some repair.