This game is enormous for both.  Western has been rolling (winning 7 or their last 8) but they have only played two road games in the MAC against teams with winning records and they were destroyed in both, losing by 19 at EMU and by 21 at Buffalo.  Let's hope Stevie and TJ's maladies are behind them on Wednesday.

Two short weeks ago Wednesday, the Bobcats played in Kalamazoo and turned a first half 11-point lead into a one-point game at halftime, then oversaw a second period debacle that saw an opponent struggling to get 70 points a game score 53 in the half.

Nothing has changed from the Bronco perspective. Shayne Whittington has been an absolute force in each game since scoring 18 against OU in the first outing. David Brown is making a case for player of the year, and if Steve Hawkins doesn't get coach of the year votes, something is wrong with the system.

For the Green and White, whatever went wrong, there was plenty of time on the long trip home to think about how not to let it happen again, and it hasn't had a lot of time to fade from memory.

Normally, I'm against holding a grudge. In life, so much happiness is sacrificed by waiting for that golden opportunity to exact revenge. I learned this the hard way. When I was a student we had a student named George in the room next door who liked to play practical jokes, and he got me good one day with the old Ben Gay in the underwear trick. I spent a couple days walking funny and stewing over how I was going to get George back. I knew George spent a lot of evenings in Bryan Hall and would often have to sneak out the basement entrance after visiting hours had expired. I decided that I would stand above that exit with a bucket of the best leftover soup Jefferson Hall had to offer and wait for George to come out that door. It was brilliant, and I quickly procured a fair amount of New England clam chowder.

All I had to do was wait for George to leave for Bryan Hall. But he didn't go there for nine days. I spent those days and evenings seated at my desk, failing to study, waiting to hear my neighbor leave the room. Finally on a snowy Thursday he did. I sprinted to the window at the end of the hall and saw his footsteps in the light dusting we'd received heading up the steps to the building. This was my chance. I raced back to my bed and got out the bucket of soup and took off for my perch.

Ninety minutes later, it was lights out in the ladies' dorm and I knew my prey would emerge soon. I prepared for my move and removed the lid from the soup. It never occurred to me that nine days in a heated dorm room was not an appropriate place to store leftover clam chowder, and taking that lid off released the hounds of rotten fish hell. I recoiled and lost my footing in the slush. The bucket slipped and landed on the railing. As I sprawled and icy wetness saturated my torso, I looked up and saw the bucket. It spent an eternity on that rail. Time stopped as the bucket decided where its center was and whether it would tip onto me, or spare me the terrifying embarrassment and fall harmlessly to the steps below.

My God was a gracious one that night, or so I thought, as gravity pulled it over the rail I heard the unmistakable sound of chunky liquid splattering below.

Then. A voice. "What the... HURGHLERGHPHULMPH!"

It was Harry Crewson on an evening stroll around his campus.

I never worked in Athens County again.

What's going to make the final push so much fun is the number of times were going to reference a matchup as a "HUGE GAME!"  

This is a huge deal, because if the week goes the right way, we are looking at a possible 5 way tie for first place, which means a tiebreaker winner gets a double bye, and a tiebreaker loser gets a banner but has to win 5 games.

Last year's seeding for 6-8 went on group record, then if a tie remained would look at head to head among the remaining teams.

IIRC, the next consideration is record vs. top seed, then down the line. If that is identical, it goes to a coin flip. I don't know if the tie would be broken by a 2-0 record over a 1-0 record, but it would make sense.

Can't fool around.  Need a W on Wednesday.

So when's the last time there was a game this big against WMU in the Convo? I'm throwing 2005 out there against the Ben Reed-led Broncos.

Stevie and TJ availability?

shut down David Kool and we'll be good

Ohio lost to WMU because of fouls. Ohio committed 28 fouls compared to 13 for WMU. Ohio was 7/11 at the line vs 26/35 for WMU. The Broncos had 6 and-1 opportunities and converted 4 of them. Ohio must play better defense and stay out of foul trouble on Wednesday.

Ugh...well....if we fall in love with getting down 18 points and think we can climb ourselves out of these types of holes with the season on the line.  Or, if Maurice takes 7 shots in big games and we choose to not feed the post consistently.  And now I guess, if TJ decides class is a drag.

We open as 5.5pt favorites.