Win tonight and win Wednesday you could at least say you were on the bubble. OK, so they lost. It all turns to Cleveland.

But how can you not be mad about the lack of effort tonight? This game on national tv (somewhere we don't appear regularly) was an 8-minute effort.

I am in fact drunker and I still can't forget the last 2 and 1/2 hours. I am always behind this team but, as with any team, if you're going to fawn all over them for dominating what amounts to a JUCO team in Eastern Michigan, you should also be able to criticize key things: effort, shot selection, coaching, substitution patterns, effort, teamwork, shot selection and defense...wait, I repeated some things...BECAUSE THEY'RE PRETTY FREAKIN IMPORTANT! 

100% agree

Yeah, right.  And the football team's victory on the road at Penn State on ESPN "had no bearing" because all that matters was winning the MAC games.  Who the hell are you kidding?  We have nothing even close to a quality win this season, and have been beaten handily against quality competition.  I'd hate to go camping with you.

I certainly hope we put on a better showing against Akron and still make a run in the tournament, because these seniors certainly deserve it.  A hard-fought win on the road would have done a lot for some of players confidence going into the Akron game (Ivo and Kellogg especially).  

I think the players and coaching staff must have had the same thought after watching that game. 
We were there. Sat behind the bench. Watched the interaction, or lack there of, between coach and players and between players and players. 
Center stage on national TV and what do you do? You are outplayed. 
We have been to two games this year in person. Belmont and Memphis. To say I left wondering where are the kids who played in Nashville, taking it to Michigan, is an understatement. 
Where is the coaching staff? Are they there to solely pull out those seats for TOs? JC would turn from the court with his hands held out as if he were saying "well, I just don't know what to do" nearly every time something went poorly for OU last night. He is about as inspiring as a wet paper bag. I don't know if it is the team attitude or the coach's attitude that has been the problem this year. JC was given a great team to work with and they've failed to step up on the national stage this year. I don't know if he can recruit or not, but on the national level, he didn't help that last night. 
I saw the same lackluster attitude when we were at the Memphis game. I mean we didn't have the view of the bench there that we did last night, but compared to the Memphis coach, JC was a corpse. 
I understand a coaching change made it a challenge this year, BUT the same players returned that ended that great season last year. A few changes, I get, but it's a Jekyll and Hyde group. 
Last night... Reggie wouldn't take and drive. Why are all 5 players turning up court after they put it up as if they expect EVERY shot to fall into the basket. I was surprised at the numbers on rebounding... that we had that many. 

On the brighter side, we won the dunk contest. 

In JSF's defense, that is a highly flawed statement because of the nature of football and basketball.  If you win the MAC in Cleveland, you have as much of a shot at a national title as Duke or Indiana.  If you lose 1 game in football, your shot at a title can be completely gone.  (Granted, a MAC school won't make a national title game in football with the BCS, but the point still remains the same.)

In football, every game has the same magnitude and bearing on a postseason.  In basketball, it does not.

I'm ok with us losing to to Belmont, they're a really good team.

I'm ok with Fat Vince Gill in granny glasses mocking our back up point guard.

I'm ok with DJ getting fed up with his team mates and chucking up 3s out of frustration.

But I'm not ok with HOW we lost. We haven't lost a single game this year where we played tough and looked well coached. We can talk about offensive woes but its our defense that has done us in. In our 20 wins our opponents have not scored more than 68 points but 6/ 7 losses were to teams that scored 74 or more, 5/7 were 81+.

Belmont fans are saying that the Ohio game was the best they've seen their team play all year. I remember hearing Robert Morris, Memphis, UMass, and Akron fans say the same thing. Lucky us.

Several posters have talked about "lack of effort."  I didn't see lack of effort last night.  What I saw was a team that worked for open shots that wouldn't fall.  If we had shot at a better percentage (especially on three point attemps) the game would have been close.  But, we shot horribily and usually it was one shot and a defensive rebound by Belmont.  I also saw frustration on the faces of the Ohio team when things started to go sour.  I'm not sure if they were frustrated with themselves or with the coaching directives that they were getting.  Whatever its source, I must admit at this point I share their frustration! GO OHIO!

Yeah.

I would agree with this.   Belmont had a very good plan against us and it worked to perfection.  We actually got plenty of good shots early on but just didn't knock them down and then our confidence seemed shot.   Belmont said we are not going to let D.J. Cooper penetrate no matter the cost and we couldn't make them pay for it.