I was reading the news links and in the article below, the last quote from Stevie was interesting to read.

http://thepost.ohiou.edu/content/‘cats-look-ahead-s...



Sounds like this will be more like the Jim Christian teams we've seen in the past. 

Completely normal for there to be some divides, but that's just what happens when you have the same coach 3 years during the most successful stretch of basketball in your school's history and a new coach comes in. Remember, Christian is the best winner in the history of the MAC. We'll have better chemistry moving forward

DId they make it to the Elite 8 like the 1964 team? 

While I would say it was without a doubt one of the most successful stretches in Ohio basketball history, I'm not yet ready to concede it was the best.  I think the best is yet to come.   I see another Elite 8 in Ohio's future and then a Final Four.  We've just begun! 

Cooper dropped his shots per game from 12.6 to a career low 10.4 while increasing his shooting % from 34.8% to a career high 42.4% and did the same with 3pt% going from 30.7% to 36.4%. His Assists increased from 5.7 to 7.1. Keeley had career highs in nearly every statistical category including an increase in shooting % from 51.3% to 60.0% and pts/gm from 9.0 to 12.1. Is that an example of seniors playing for a pro career or seniors listening to their coach and improving their game? Was the team #1 in the country in Assists in spite of players being selfish?

I have no idea what went on behind closed doors last year but I think its an oversimplification of the situation to say that a team that won the MAC for the first time in nearly 20 years was plagued with me-first seniors that wouldn't buy into the coaching staff. O

Offensively, overall I thought we were pretty good as a team but we weren't nearly as efficient on defense.  In 2012 we were much better than the sum of our parts on defense.  We still put up some pretty good numbers on defense but anectodally we just didn't get as many big stops when we needed it.  The difference between the two years essentially comes down to about four or five games.   In 2013 when we played the big boys we blinked.  And in-conference it comes down to Akron and the second half of all three games.

Perimeter - You make good points...but you made the language a lot stronger than anyone else was.  I wouldn't say they were playing with a me-first attitude and ignoring the coaches, I just think there was a bit of a divide that hurt chemistry.  I always got the feeling DJ & Reggie were somewhat of a 2 man clique...Which is NOT to say they hated everybody else and were totally disruptive...It just probably hurt team chemistry a little which can affect everyone on the team, not just those players' stats.

The others felt pressure from DJ to not miss shots so that his assist totals climbed.  His discontent with missed shots wasn't received well.  it wasn't like they were trying to miss.  Also, as good as he was offensively, his commitment on the defensive end was lacking.  This year there is more of a total commitment on D.  You won't see so many easy buckets, especially off the ball screens.

All things seem to be pointing in the same direction in regards to the attitude of this team vs. last year.

There is an on demand interview here with Russ and Bean - http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ohio.portal

"The energy that will be in this gym will be completely different!"

All of the points being made here are why I've been saying it is possible that this year's edition of The Bobcats could be just as good as last year's (or maybe better, but I'll leave that alone).  The fact that this will be much more JC's team than last year's, along with the size to give OUr guys the ability to play with multiple looks could give us a really good squad this year.   I'm anxious to see what happens early in the season and how we play.