Bobcat Attack - Ohio Basketball - the LOVE is back....for one night only.

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Topic: the LOVE is back....for one night only.

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The Situation

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The Situation

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Posted: 12/16/2012 11:55 PM

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The analogy with your employee stands on shaky ground.

Both you and Christian inherited these employees (used loosely). On one hand Christian has had these guys longer (8 months or so?). JC's guys' resumes ranked appropriately higher in relative magnitude. But on the other hand the ball has only been in play for a month or two. I feel like Christian's first 7 months would be comparable to having your employee for 7 months in the training certification phase. Not really much can be proven until any of these employees start squaring up with opponents.

He might honestly just be finding out what his team's problems are right now. I'm not ready to cry malpractice.

I'll say you're close in my book, but Christian has more time to work with these guys than most seem to acknowledge.

As a Cleveland fan I know what it's like to want to jump off the boat with a certain head coach at the wheel. But in this particular case I really don't feel that way yet.

Last Edited: 12/16/2012 11:56:46 PM by The Situation

bobcatsquared

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Posted: 12/17/2012 7:44 AM

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bshot44 wrote:expand_more

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)

Go Cats!

This play was representative of the players on one team wanting it more than the players on the other. Saw it throughout the game. On this particular play, DJ was checking behind him to see if he had a teammate to make an ESPN highlight pass to instead of just getting the points. Isn't that what the game is about? Getting the points? Or is it about the highlight plays?

Last Edited: 12/17/2012 7:44:54 AM by bobcatsquared

Ohio69

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Posted: 12/17/2012 8:51 AM

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Bobcat Love wrote:expand_more

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.

Uh, are you on the right message board?

Doc Bobcat

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Posted: 12/17/2012 9:06 AM

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bshot44 wrote:expand_more

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!

Best post of the bunch....and from I assume a new poster........hmmmmmmm.

From the looks of his first recruiting class JC likes the big guys....and I think his Can't teams did smear us on the boards.....seems to have a tough time coaching this type of team.

Maybe other teams look at us as "their" game.......the eyepatch sweet 16 team that would look good beating on the old resume.

Maybe this was a wake-up call.....so is Kadeem Green OUr knight in shining armor?

bornacatfan

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Posted: 12/17/2012 9:22 AM

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Donuts wrote:expand_more

As RSBobcat said, Miller's hours are bad. Also, I seem to be the only person I travel with who actually likes Big Mammas.

You need a better set of travelling companions.

pulling a Dragon here and not to threadjack but Big Mamas.>Chipotle.

OU_Country

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Posted: 12/17/2012 10:19 AM

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shabamon wrote:expand_more

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.

This is exactly what I was talking about in the concourse afterward. You're telling me we can't find a way to try to set something resembling a high screen with 4 seconds left?

Andrew Ruck

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Posted: 12/17/2012 10:29 AM

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We needed overtime to beat Lamar last year. This stretch isn't much different than our Robert Morris & BG stretch last year. And Groce was our coach then. Saturday was atrocious, but I still have faith this team can be just as special as last year.

giacomo

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Posted: 12/17/2012 10:40 AM

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It's early. Everybody take a deep breath. It all comes down to the MAC Tourney anyway. Did anyone here ever mail it in at work? The pros do it all the time. Don't be surprised when a bunch of 18-22 year olds have a bad night.

Bobcat Love

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Posted: 12/17/2012 10:48 AM

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Andrew Ruck wrote:expand_more

Lamar was an NCAA Tournament team. This was a 345 RPI club.

Ozcat

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Posted: 12/17/2012 11:36 AM

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I was so pissed that I wasted two hours of my life watching on Saturday that I mandated myself a 48 hour cooling down period before posting. My two cents:

GreenFever - the Love brings more thought-provoking insight to this board than arguably any other poster in it's exsistence. That said, he's like the McRib. You either love him or you hate him, but you cannot deny what he brings to the brand that is BobcatAttack. I'll certaily welcome him back, even if it's only for a limited time.
Why anyone would hitup Taco Bell when there is a Taco John's right down the road from the Convo is beyond me.

Alright, on to baksetball.

Love me or hate me, most on this board should know that I'm not one to get to high, or to low, at any point when it comes to OUr teams. I never bought into the football hype, and I was barbecued here when I said our 7-0 team was probably the 4th or 5th best team in the MAC. How'd that end up turning out? I try to stay even-keeled, whether we're performing well or dissapointing. Now none of that is to say that I do not absolutely enjoy the success. OUr run to St. Louis last year was a blast, and something that I'll remember forever. However, I don't buy into OCF's line of thinking that just because we made it to the Sweet Sixteen meant we were one of the best 16 teams in the country. We never were. We were a great TEAM last year, that played extremely well TOGETHER down the stretch, and we had some great MATCHUPS in the Dance. We handled a good, but not great, Michigan squad who we happened to matchup perfectly against. This year, there were more than a few on this board who thought it was inexplicable that UM was ranked in the top 5 to start the season and we weren't even in the top 25. Now that we're a month in, hopefully you can understand why. If we played them this year, I would predict a vastly different outcome. The Wolverines are legit, and the matchup would not be favorable at all. We seem to forget that we only beat Buffalo by 3 in Cleveland, and we were a Brian Walsh jumper away from the NIT.

Where do I think we stand, right now? It's still hard to tell. I thought we played a pretty good game against Bobby Mo, but ran into a guy who was just on fire. Against Memphis, we played ok for 8 minutes, then fell apart, the ultimately quit. This week against Winthrop, I thought we looked completely disinterested.

Why the struggles? Everyone else has touched on the full spectrum.  Sure, we're circled on every team's calendar. But that is how it should be if we are gonna take this thing to the next level. Duke is certainly scheduled on everyone's calendar, yet they still win many, many games. We need to know that we have the bullseye on our back, and should relish it. And yeah, our run LAST YEAR was special, but I don't believe that our talent level is so superior to everyone that all we need to do is show up to win (Winthrop excluded - our talent is superior to them).

Do we have talent? Sure. Coop is a stud, and everyone knows that. Very few teams in the country would be able to completely contain him. When Walt is on, slashing to the rim, and hitting from beyond the arc, he's a top-tier D1 talent. Other than that, let's not pretend we have blue chip, Top 25 talent, up and down the roster. Our bigs aren't really big. It's clear we have problems rebounding.  Keely has played well, but he's limited. Ivo has regressed, and doesn't know wheter he's playing the 2, 3 or 4. Smith is a great defender, but lacks an offensive game. Same thing can be said for Ric.  We know Nick can knock down 3's, but the rest of his game is limited. TJ Hall is pretty versatile, and I'm not sure why he doesn't play more. I'm very high on TJ.

So what does all of that mean? In my opinion, it comes down to one guy, for the most part. Walt. When he is on, we can play with anyone.  When he is off, we can lose to Winthrop.  Coop will get his, and he drives the bus, but Walt is the most important piece to this puzzle.

Ivo having any clue to as what he is doing would help the cause a lot. He's quickly become a guy who makes me nervous everytime he touches the ball, and I'm pretty confident that he thinks he'll contract the swine flu if he so much as bumps a defender.

I said last week that I think we're a team that is safely in the 40-60 range. I'll modify that this week to the 45-80 range. We can be a very good squad, but as we've seen, we can also be pretty bad. So unfortunately, this early in the season, it's all about March in Cleveland, which is a shame. I was hoping we could put together an at-large worth resume, but that door has been slammed shut. But the MAC Regular Season Title is still very much in play, so don't burn down the house just quite yet. We have plenty of time to steer clear of the iceberg.

Go Bobcats.

Jeff McKinney

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Posted: 12/17/2012 4:26 PM

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Good post, Ozcat!!

giacomo

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Posted: 12/17/2012 5:37 PM

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Ozcat, as Elmer Fudd once said, "twue, twue".

FearLeon

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Posted: 12/17/2012 6:13 PM

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BLove is about quality than quantity with his posts. Even in semi-retirement from BAttack, his posts are always a must read.

JSF

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Posted: 12/17/2012 9:50 PM

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bobcatsquared wrote:expand_more

On this particular play, DJ was checking behind him to see if he had a teammate to make an ESPN highlight pass to instead of just getting the points. Isn't that what the game is about? Getting the points? Or is it about the highlight plays?

Players look behind them on breaks all the time and do it for any number of reasons.

RSBobcat

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Posted: 12/18/2012 12:31 AM

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The Situation wrote:expand_more

The analogy with your employee stands on shaky ground.

I think I have figured this out at least. Love's employees do Not sell Pepsi syrup, or Anything to food establishments in Nelsonville (er wait, maybe that IS the problem...........................)

RSBobcat

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Posted: 12/18/2012 12:33 AM

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bobcatsquared wrote:expand_more

bshot44 wrote:expand_more