The thing is the MAC is well represented in comparison to other conferences.  We have three TV games.  Only the MVC has more and they deserve more.  We (Ohio) are bummed about how it played out for us but I'm sure Buffalo fans are giddy and the rest of the league's fans are satisfied.

Thanks TRMD.

We look to be fairly successful. Moreso that our recent conference totals. Would be really cool to chart against those top programs who really felt they benefitted from the BB experience and our experience. Stat geeks and accountants are really informative.

SBH....I will ponder on what I can put on here and what I can not ....it is a slippery slope. Perhaps a beer is in order.

Ceiling means diddly, especially when we come nowhere near it. How long can you be satisfied with "We have a higher ceiling?"  Pretty tough argument to make when programs with crappy facilities consistently outperform you.

I am about to get in the car and ponder a response whilst driving back to Muncie. I somehow think anything I say is going to get shredded.  You know whoI am and I come on here trying to be a storng supporter and realistic fan of Ohio and it's basketball program. I am not hiding behind a screen name throwing darts. I am also not a green colored glasses guy but I am also very positive that baby steps are in order to turn a programinto a contender at this level.

I have been up close and watched the Butler program from Collier on..... and hav eknown most of the players moreso than I have known the coaches through the years. If I told you some of the same changes and attutudes I see in the Convo are the same ones I saw at Hinkle fromthe mid 90's on and the SBH counterparts on the Buttdogs boards were present back then (and are still prevalent crying gloom and doom everytime they lose to a Horizon program those folk do not accept losing to.) clamoring for something better immediately were also there you would not believe me with out tangible proof.

I listened to Groce and Holtmann carefully as they plied Tommy for answers regarding the program and personnel as we drove to Canada. They are very smart men and have Ohio and the building of a program at heart. The direction is correct and building this place is their goal....not an immediate winner wher e you bring in Jucos and criminals irregardless of their past in order to have immediate success and then move on leaving the institution facing sanctions and holding the bag. The locker room project, the schedule philosophy, the approach to recruiting families and support systems vs plucking kids off the streets with no mentors and trying to solve their problems, the recruiting of guys from winning programs....I can go on and on how things are different but you are gonna stand behind anonimity and shoot arrows in the intangibles because they are not producing wins quickly and not understand that Gonzaga, Butler and similar high performing entities difer say from SIU who went through Weber, Painter and now have Lawry and no long term program to stand on its own once Groce leaves. 

Do I think we could be farther along? YES! Do I have an opinion on that ?  YES! DOes my opinion matter? HELL NOO! But do I keep supporting the process and do what I can to talk up Ohio and the program, go watch kids and throw their names at the Coaching staff , try to get alumni on BA and back into the convo and supporting their alma mater financially? Hell YES! Bottom line is I love this place and I told Coach after 2010...we were here before you and will be here long after you are gone.
 
If you think I am gonna let you be the same stinker who was running down Butler basketball in the 90's through the millenium and continues to yell the sky is falling everytime they do not measure up to some starngely imagined production curve and not say something on the message baord then you got another think coming. Building it takes time and I bet you would love to be Butler right now but that was a process and I am sure when they beat Ohio on the Bracket Buster so many years ago there were folks lamenting the loss somewhere in Athens to a Midwest Cities Conference upstart..... YOu are engaging in a curmudgeonly war of words without peeking under the hood to make sure the engine is still running and all the levels are topped up. There amy a be a reason that car is underperforming or not meeting your expectations but that is not a reason to sell it and get something else or ask it to run faster.......It is a process and takes a bit of tinkering...... Hope you don't mind a little wait. I am sure we boht want the same things for Ohio in the end.

I understand the guy had a bad day but he is supposed to be a media relations professional. A simple lesson to him is that when you're in a hole...stop digging. A short tweet from him after the pairings were announced to the effect that "I understand Ohio fans are bummed, we're with you. When I saw the pairings, I assumed Ohio was a TV game." That would have ended everything. Instead, he starts to engage in arguments and then looks for sympathy in retweets. It was borderline childish. 

Part of it is just a general frustration with the MAC staff. Like Love, I'm not sure what Jeremy Guy is supposed to be. I don't know how his job performance is measured. I've followed his tweets the last couple of years and sometimes he comes off as a buffoon. It's just the general concept of accountability. Who at Miami goes to bed and wakes up thinking about how to get basketball attendance to average 3,000? Who at EMU gets fired if average football attendance isn't 10,000? What are the MAC's incentives to get its member schools to grow their fan bases? I just don't know that anyone is being held accountable for this.

As a conference, you need to get two things right. Football and basketball. For basketball, your sole mission should be to make the league a multi-bid conference. Does Commissioner Steinbrecher, Basketball Operations Director Ricky Stokes or Jeremy Guy go to bed and wake up thinking about ways to get multiple bids? Do they have training sessions on how to schedule for maximum RPI, etc.?

I guess that's why Jeremy Guy's tweet struck a nerve. The MAC has two potential at-large teams from an RPI perspective this year, Ohio and Akron. I know a lot has to happen for both to get in the Top 40/50 RPI range. So even if Jeremy Guy or the Commissioner thought Ohio was a TV game they should have been pi$$ed they were getting a 127 RPI team as that game could have been an opportunity to slingshot Ohio into at-large RPI range. So clearly that's not where their heads are.  

If the answer is they "have no say" and things are just "going to happen", then we shouldn't pay the Commissioner too much, have a Director of Basketball Operations or need Jeremy Guy's tweets.

+1 million to Ted 

SBH

Contrary to what yousay not everyone knows who you are. Several people have aske me in the past 2 weeks who you were, so I am not alone, and yo udid not seem to be forthcoming. .

I listed 32 bullet points where I have seen this program growing and going in the right direction ranging from Strength, conditioning and competitiveness to recruiting alllisted with in depth explanations but you totally ignored the ones I listed above. I will keep my opinions to myself given you and Alan's offense to my giving opinions.. .

I am not going to do this.  I dont have time to waste here.

That it offends you that I have sat in the Black seats is petty. That you would share your disdain publicly is laughable. I asked a friend who owns those seats if I could sit there for a couple of games (not EVERY game as you alluded to), RMU , Miami and BSU, as he was not going to make the trip and I had very specific reasons for wanting to be down there. I am amazed that you find that offensive. I have several friends that have given their seats to siblings or friends who took their seats when they were not going to be there. Should they not be able to do that? OTOH do you know how many games I have payed for this year?  

Does it offend you when kids I have coached, taken care of their injuries or had on teams from Butler, Wright , UW-M or smimlar schools put me on the list at their schools?  Am I supposed to apologize because I have lots of friends around the basketball world?  I love the game, I love the people and I love being in a gym be it for 5th grade AAU or the Final Four. People respect that and are happy to share. OTOH I take care of many athletes in those gyms and am frequently approached by coaches, trainers and parents for opinions and to do exams, tape an ankle, adjust an orthotic or evaluate  injuries and  render an onsite opinion as to what I suggest they do next . I am happy to help those folks no matter where I am. To date for 26 years that has all been out of the love of the game and my profession. I dont get paid nor would I expect to. I just like seeing the kids get good care and back to the game. Those free tix you alluded to are  SOmetimes  just a reward for doing a good job with no expectations.

If you do not understand why a parent can not say certain things then you are not really thinking things through. I was asked to step away from the board for a year. I did that. No problem. Those guys down there have to know that when something is said down there it is not going to get repeated by me. I have not breached their trust or hung them out since I have been here.

I am not saying what you are saying is not right  regarding performance.
 
I am saying that  any or many comments coming from Joe Mac, Clark, myself ,Ms Cooper or any parent would be a complete breach of trust, taken out of context, blown out of proportion and not very cool.


Enjoy your year. I'm out.

Character is how you conduct yourself when you think no one is watching.

Borna:  For the life of me, I don't see the "32 bullet points" you claim to have listed.  In fact, in an earlier post you said you were "taking a pass" on offering the requested input because I would just criticize it. I responded with a very humble request that you tell me what I am missing about the increased competitive stature of this program vis a vis the Akrons and Kents of the mid-major world. You do know we outspend both of those programs by a large margin, have much better facilities, a better school (I think we can all agree), and yet we're nowhere near them in terms of year-in-year-out performance?  You responded by comparing me with the "stinkers" at Butler who dared to criticize that program many years ago. (I assume you played a key role in their rise.) I asked how many years this would take - it's been five...is that enough to take the next step?  Will it be seven or eight? Many big-time coaches say there is a window of opportunity for this type of competitive improvement, and some say it slams shut after year 7 of a given regime. You didn't respond. Dambrot took a program from 12 wins to 19 in year 1, 23 in year 2 and 26 in year 3. Five straight MAC title games?  He graduates his kids, believe it or not.  We've hardly been clean as the driven snow, as you seem to claim, with regard to transfers and questionable characters during the Groce years. Yet we're not supposed to look around and assess where we stand?  We're not allowed to question the process when we don't seem to have made any progress in attacking a zone?  I have been told on multiple occasions by others that you are primarily interested in protecting your "insider's privilege," and I guess I have somehow called you on it by asking for some honest feedback on the state of the program. You are the first to come on here after games and criticize others for somehow looking at the wrong things or misunderstanding the game.  But when you are asked to back up a statement that we are "on the verge," you respond by calling me a hater.  Enjoy your seats wherever they might be; I really couldn't care less, though you have on a couple of occasions bragged online about getting into games for free at gyms all across the Midwest.  Good for you.  I'm sure you don't want to have to start forking over $14 to support those programs. I prefer to offer my support in a more honest way.

You know, I loved watching your son play.  He clearly had been well coached his whole life and he had guts.  A really nice player for us.  But his position in the program doesn't mean some of us aren't allowed to question some of your claims about where this program is going.  And as for those who have suddenly asked you who I am, please send me their screen names and I will happily send them my name and contact information.  Ask Alan, Jeff McKinney, Bobcat Squared...they might tell you that I've been attending games (usually as a season ticket holder, since 1983, when I graduated.)  I have a lot of time, energy, emotion and, yes, money invested in the program and I reserve the right to voice my opinions...and to be called on them.  

But is the constant whining and cheap shots at him by Bobcat fans this entire week following the BB announcement any less childish?  It STILL has not let up, and this one minor incident has made many Ohio fans pretty much hate and disrespect the guy for life.  That is a huge over-reaction in my mind and makes us out to look like giant pretentious A-holes to the other 11 fan bases of our conference..

I am with you on the need for anyone in the MAC offices to get pumped up and passionate about improving the MAC.  Any worker should take their work seriously and strive for growth and success with passion.  He could do better at his job just as you and I can.  I think our conference could get tougher with its members, but 90% or more of the burden for any struggles we may have falls on the struggling programs.  Jeremy Guy could not have helped NIU reach 800 in attendance last night.

We're already the most-disliked fanbase in the conference, so we're not really doing much damage.

I guess that is a seperate discussion.  I don't pretend to know enough about what goes into operating a NCAA conference, and I doubt you do either.  I'm just saying our response as a fan base to his comment about the BB is a gigantic over-reaction.

Amen to that. 

I don't mind any gigantic reaction for the Ohio fan base, positive or negative. Hopefully, folks are civil. But the reaction can be a reminder to the MAC what they have in Ohio. Which will lead to favorable treatment in the future (either as a reward or avoidance of the backlash they've received on this).