• I've been lurking around this board for a few months now. Let me start by saying the quality of posts (and posters) has significantly deteriorated since the Mid-2000's hayday of the board. Lots of new posters bringing nothing to the table. NOTHING. No. Th. Ing. A bunch of OCF Slavin's in some kind of pseudo apprenticeship to figure out who can get their post count up without ever saying a meaningful word.
• Highlight of the last few months was shill after shill chasing Jacob Corrigan's crack reporting on bowl game possibilities. Guy runs the Warehouse Tire Roll for heaven's sake, and many of the drones on here made him the second coming of Joe Schad/Mark Schlabach. Entertaining? Yep. Downright ridiculous? You got it. When I see that, I have to ask myself: "Is it worth coming back to entertain this group?" - The short answer is no. But I saw enough today at the Convulsion to warrant a post, so enjoy.
• Let's quit ignoring the elephant in the room. The Coaching in our 3 losses has been nothing short of abysmal. The Groce/Hunter/Nee/Bandy/TOS/etc etc game specific comparisons aren't applicable. All we can do is judge based on what we see and the results that follow. The Macro level is the growth (regression) of the team in the 2012-2013 season. The micro level is today's game v. Winthrop. 
• Today was nothing short of god awful. Let's work backwards - The postgame interview where the HC took no responsibility for the loss and put it squarely on the offense and unintelligent decisions. The final play. Down 1 and we settle for a contested 3 falling away in the corner where one guy touches the ball the entire final possession? Who drew that one up? The possession before that where we sent 4 guys out of the timeout and Ivo had no clue he was even supposed to be in the game? The befuddled looks after every single defensive possession? Leaving Ivo in to clank shot after shot while playing marginal defense on the other end? Kellogg, Smith, and Offutt just disappearing for LONG stretches at a time? (Justin Orr approved). I have no problem saying it - the Coaching is terrible. Facts are facts. We were a Sweet 16 Team with the exact same players 9 months ago. Today we can't beat a team with an RPI of 345 in our own gym?
• I see negative body language. I see no Coaching accountability. I see guys trying to freelance way too much. I see guys out of position. I see a general lack of toughness. That's what I see. Does anyone else see it? I think the toughness thing is what bothers me most. I remember so many times when Walt (or whoever) would have a big time hustle play and Groce would do the running fist pump with jacket flying. Um, yeah. Not seeing that this year. Understood though, different styles for different coaches. I'm fine with it, but man we just seem soft like Hawaiian Bread (Kings) this year.
• I have an employee that works for me. He checks in with me on every decision he makes. I inherited him about 4 months ago and the guy can't make a decision on his own. I get 35 phone calls a day asking me whether this is ok, or that's ok. In his own mind, he's empowered to do just about nothing. He's got some talent, too. Could be a really good Salesperson He's my Ivo Baltic. Someone has beaten the poor guy's confidence down to a bloody pulp. He's a shell of what he could be. My guy checks with me to buy pens and notebooks. Ivo fades away from 18 feet. My guy struggles to make sales on a consistent basis. Ivo can't get to the free throw line. My guy's voice cracks when he talks to customers. Ivo has no stomach to take the ball into the paint. You can bet your ass I'm going to work with my guy to make him better or I'm going to cut the line. Jim Christian, what are you going to do?
• I've seen 2 players who have actually improved since last year - Ricardo and Keely. I've seen 5 players who have gotten worse - Kellogg, Smith, Taylor, Baltic, and Walt. Yes, that's a scathing review of the progress to date. Something just isn't right. You can't tell me the Walter Offutt of 12/15 is the same guy who lit up UNC on the National Stage in STL on 3/23. This guy is a shell of himself. Frankly, the regression pattern among those 5 scares me. It scares me a great deal for this year. It scares me for what's going to happen in future years.
• Here's the most head scratching part of this whole thing. We took a culture of NCAA Tournament Appearances AND wins and replaced it with NO NCAA Tournament wins and 56-73 the past 4 years. Further, we paid a hell of a lot for this. I can tell you this, I'm not real happy about the situation. That said, I trust Jim Schaus. His track record with CBB coaches is excellent, and his direction of the Athletic Department has been nothing short of perfect the past few years. It's not easy to see the forest through the trees right now, but I'll have faith and persevere.
• How much more would you have paid to have Dustin working with Ivo and the bigs again this year? Elephants everywhere. Anyone that ever uttered a foul word about Dustin, his size, his coaching, etc should contribute a quarter to the swear jar. Look what we have now.
• Taco Bell - Nelsonville - Get your act together. "Ma'am, I'd like a Diet Pepsi. Preferably with the Pepsi mandated split of Syrup to Carbonated Water. Oh, you can only give me a 99-1 split of water to syrup? Well I guess I have to take it then." - How. Refreshing. Those little coupons on the back of my ticket stubs - useless. I have to buy a large water-cola to get my free menu item. I can't do it in good conscience anymore.
• That little Coach from Winthrop was a good one. Guy yapped like a little cocker spaniel all game long, but by god he had his guys in the right spots all game. They shot 33% and won in our building.  I was impressed. Little guy coached a heck of a game. Got every drop of talent and energy out of his crew today. Credit where it's due.
• Here's the beauty of today - it's over, we can forget about it. Here's the rest of the gem - we've got 21 games left to play. We've got the entire conference schedule. We've got the MAC Tournament. We've got some good non-con tests. We can turn this thing around today and still make it a great season. The conference is terrible. We're still the most talented team on paper. We've got big time experience to lean on, plus we're Senior laden. But this thing has to turn around from the top. The Captain of this ship has to steer it around the iceburg. The next 3 months will tell me a lot about what to expect the next few years. I hope it gives us all reason for optimism.
• I'm out. Going back to lurking. For heaven's sake, someone please try lift your game above the mendoza line and get this site back to its former glory.

Welcome back.  I agree with every single point.  The Nelsonville Taco Bell is one of the worst I've ever been to.  At least you didn't pull a Charlie Brown and buy a pretzel today (again).

JC is going to be a good coach at Ohio.  We are seeing some pretty painful basketball as the team adjusts to his style and they adjust to being the team to beat on everyone's schedule because of the Sweet 16 run last year.  The other problem that JC is dealing with is a psychological one.  This team seems  to think (at least subconsciously) that all they have to do do win is to show up.  They've rarely shown the focus and intensity that was their hallmark last year.  I think that with today's lose JC will finally be able to get their attention.  I look for the best game of the season Wednesday against UMass. 

shocking OP comes back after something bad happens. who woulda guessed that.

D.J. Cooper drew that one up. That wasn't the play that was called.

I agree with a lot of what was said, and disagreed with a lot, but I thought it was important to at least take the blame off of Christian for that.

For the last four years, this is our final play. It's the only one we have. We could have Coach K or Phil Jackson on the bench. DJ is going to throw up an off-balance 3 at the buzzer and that is that.  Hope one goes in one of these times.

FACT: This board is better with The LOVE around.

We do have a play that worked to get us a high percentage shot, baseline to baseline, in less than five seconds:

www.youtube.com/watch

Big sets a screen around midcourt, Coop drives, you have shooters in the corners. If the defense collapses, kick it out. If they stick with their man, try to hit a runner or layup.

Agree with most of the post. Still think it is too early to throw in the towel on Christian though. I also am not completely sold on Offutt being 100% healthy, which could be part of his issue. Taylor I thought would come back more disciplined in 2012-2013, but so far that has definitely not been the case. I do hate that Taco Bell. They are out of Baja Blast completely way too often. Totally understandable with the Monroe and Monroe-like posters issue you have though.

Agree with most of the post, too.  ...and we miss Love - come back soon.  I wasn't even looking for the towel to throw before Saturday.  I've got it and will refrain from considering tossing it until the season is done.  Taco Smell?  seriously?  Just like Bobcat Basketball - you can do better, love.  Might I suggest Sonic for your fast food needs?  They have tots, dude...tots!

I will be the one to say this.....Love, please go back to where ever you were at.  Nothing but a loom and doom person and that gets old real quick.  BTW, Geno said hi, you twit.  

Big Mammas, Millers chicken, what else could you need?

Bottom line....Saturday was a flat-out embarassment.  From coaching to players.  Ohio should beat that team 99.9% of the time....yesterday just happened to be the .01%

What scares me is this.....I'm not sure this team is that good.  I was drinking all the kool-aid after the 6-0 start.  But what I thought was a wake-up call at Robert Morris...a reality-check at Memphis....has turned into a "F**K ME!" after Winthrop.  I can't believe I drove into Athens to watch that steaming pile of garbage. 

There was absolutely ZERO enthusiasm from the players.  They looked like they would rather be anywhere but at the Convo Saturday (except when Walt was inexplicably T'd up)

That falls on the players.  Christian isn't obviously as animated as Groce, but I watched him a lot on Saturday and he was doing his best to incite some life into this team.  They just refused to respond.  There was one play where DJ had a wide open breakaway fast-break layup and it was blocked off the glass from behind because he was lazy in taking it to the hole.  I thought Christian was just going to leave the court at that point (which I couldn't blame him, because I was ready to leave the arena)

This team just isn't responding to coach.....and coach isn't doing a good enough job of trying to engage with them.

This team is uber-talented (i.e. Sweet 16 2012)....but that was under the Groce-system/coaching style.  It's becoming readily apparent that the Christian system/coaching style does NOT fit with this group. 

It's no one's fault...it's just not a good mix. 

Now that doesn't mean that I don't think Christian was the right hire.  I think he was 100% a great hire.  And I think he'll have OHIO as the premier program in the MAC for many, many years in the future.

I just think it's an unfortunate situation where you have a group of very talented players that don't fit with the currenty coaching style. 

It's easy to say we should have hired Dustin/Boals/etc. because they coach similar to Groce.   And yes they might be having far better success this year than Christian has.....but for the long haul, they were BIG question marks.

We know Christian can win in this league....long term.  He did it at a school with far less resources.  So I have no reason to think he won't here.

So....as much as it absolutely pains me to say....i've almost given up on this season.  It kills me to say that...because I had such HUGE hopes for this year.  But after watching the last four games, it just doesn't appear like these guys jive with Christian and vice-versa.  I still think we win 10 games at worst in MAC based on talent alone....but unless someone blinks (coaches giving in to this group of players and changing their approach or players actually 100% buying into Christian's system)....I just don't see any magic this season.

Such a shame.....really, really wish Groce gave one more year.  He had built himself one helluva team....but it's only a helluva team with him running it.  Hope Christian can prove me wrong this year....just have little hope.

But I am positive that the future is bright...and once he surrounds himself with his guys.....sky is the limit.

Go Cats!

Look, I love Miller's chicken - and don't forget the chunks!  Normally, when I come to Athens I like to spend the night and leave in the morning.  All I'm saying is if the Love is going to stop in Nelsonville for Fast Food he should take a closer look at Sonic.  Here...http://www.sonicdrivein.com/Menu

I know the Mountain Dew is temping - but, check out the Limeade.