Thanks! Welcome to the board and good luck tomorrow.

Ohio excels at upsets. Apparently, we do not do well with being called Ohio U.

Thanks sargent, good stuff. So just reading, you guys go about 7 deep on rotation?

UNC does not guard the 3 well most of the time, so if you all are hitting, should be interesting.

On the other side of the ball UNC normally does not shoot from the perimeter all that well. Like you said, I expect the Heels the pound the ball inside at-will. I also expect to see lots of doubles down low from Ohio to try and force UNC to make some shots. If they start hitting, should make things somewhat difficult.

Do you all like to push tempo or keep it a half court game normally?

At least seven guys will get double-digit minutes, two more may get up there. During the season, we went 10 deep nightly, but a freshman power forward left the program prior to the MAC tournament. We will definitely try to get as many transition buckets as we can. We have forced a ton of turnovers all year, and if Cooper gets a steal in the halfcourt, everyone, even our bigs know to break in the other direction.

Thanks guys.

Normally UNC will push the tempo at a breakneck pace. Marshall is the king of "hit aheads" off missed and made baskets. That being said, we are so depleted from injuries, especially recently, that I have no idea what to expect. I imagine a PG averaging around 3mins a game is going to get the nod. I'm guessing we will have to slow down some due to that.

Rebounding is key for UNC, they rebound like beasts. If Ohio is as good as def. eff. stats say, rebounding is going to be a major key in this game.

If you guys play focused and up to your ability, even without Marshall, we need our best game of the year by far to stand a chance. It's sad to admit as a fan, but let's be serious. You have tall, athletic NBA prospects everywhere. Henson's arms are almost as long as our point guards are tall.

As you are probably well aware of, this UNC doesn't "bring it" all the time though. All of the doubters coming out this week scares me. I feel like they could be fired up more than normal for a team they probably think they can beat rather easily. I actually felt better about an upset with Marshall, simply because I could see them being too confident.

We haven't been blown out all season, but we also haven't faced a team like the Tar Heels. I think our team will keep it close though. We certainly won't back down.

We prefer man to man, but will occasionally adjust to zone, depending on the way the game is playing out. I would expect to see more zone from us than normal tomorrow.

As for rivalries, we have a few. The traditional rival is Miami (OH). It's not a hated rivalry, I think a lot of us respect Miami's academic profile, the kind of players they have, and we love their head coach (Charlie Coles, the most endearing coach in the country) and we are sad that he has retired. They look at us as dope-smoking hippies and we look at them as collar-popping preppies. Like I said, we don't hate them, but we really enjoy beating them. We swept them this season, and the game in Athens was a highly-attended affair that saw us retire Gary Trent's jersey. These videos capture that game nicely:

www.youtube.com/watch
www.youtube.com/watch
www.youtube.com/watch

Akron is the hated rival. There's no love lost when Akron and Ohio play. Both teams do plenty of trash talking during the game. I don't know if our players mix it up with Akron fans at their gym, but Akron players will acknowledge Ohio fans in our arena. A lot of our fans think the University of Akron is a joke of a school. Every time we play, it seems there is something on the line. This year we beat them at home, lost at their place, and beat them in the MAC final. Each of the last four years, either Ohio or Akron won the MAC tournament.

www.youtube.com/watch
www.youtube.com/watch

Great stuff shaba!

Looking at the Gary Trent day video, Reggie Keely is a baller! Kid must of had 4-5 and-1's that game vs Miami OH. Impressive.

Just reading what you say about your rivals is somewhat similar to UNC. I'd say our Miami is dook. They are a weird sort, located in Durham, NC. Gothic campus surrounded by somewhat of a ghetto community outside of the actual grounds. 90% of students there are from NJ it seems. Something not similar to your rivalry with Miami is we do not like Coach K, at all. Overall though there is a measure of respect between the two programs.

Our Akron is definitely NC State. They really, really do not like us, to the point it's almost ridiculous a lot of the times. UNCs last 25 games with them come out to a 25-2 record or something around there but they are now on the rise. Here is a good and recent example of an NC State fan: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/uncnow/entertaining-reader-...

Make of that what you will, but that is the majority of the WolfPack fan base in a nutshell. To be honest, I'm shocked they aren't over here on your board already. As expected, there is zero respect between our two fan bases.

My biggest fear is we turn it over and/or don't get back on D off misses fast enough and Carolina speeds it up big time and just runs right by us and blows us out.  Shouldn't happen.  But...that's my biggest fear.  

We are one of those how-did-they-just-win-that-game teams.  Mainly because we play great defense and hit timely shots.  Its not beautiful basketball for most observers.

I think all the pressure is on Carolina.  But Carolina should be used to that.

One of the best things about Ohio is our fans.  We are a jolly group.  We'll cheer like hell and then have a beer with you afterwards regardless of the outcome (unless you are from Akron).

I call Charlotte home (obviously) And you are right, it is 24/7 wristwatch.  My annoyance is that most Carolina fans here are taking us very lightly ("well we don't need Marshall Friday, but come Sunday..."). We force turnovers - 25% of opponents possessions.  Marshall could be key to this.  And we are here for a reason.  Tough defense, timely shooting and a team and coach that are relentless.

The Akron guys response is hilarious in that first link you posted Bobcat110. I remember Lefty Driesell doing something similar at the end of a MD/UNC game back in the late 80s.

Cooper definitely is a baller. Terrell Stoglin at Maryland reminds me a lot of him. Heels game plan vs him all season was let him get his points, shut down everything else..I imagine something similar tomorrow will be in play.

Yes, some UNC fans are taking you all lightly, it's going to happen everytime. I just happen to not be one of them, like I stated earlier, at this stage of the game - you cannot do that. I highly doubt the team will either, been a lot of folks saying we're going home this weekend and the team is most def aware of that banter.

Nice to chat with you folks, it's almost impossible for a UNC fan to have casual, decent back and forth with other ACC fans. So this is refreshing. Once again, good luck to you all, class fanbase and team it seems.

I'm grew up a big Maryland fan and have seen nearly all their games this year (as well as all of Ohio's games). There are similarities (both are left handed, small and dynamic) between the two but Stoglin has a scorer's mentality while Cooper is a distributor first.  Stoglin hits some amazing shots but Cooper is a better all around player.  For the Bobcat fans that have not seen Stoglin, if you think Cooper takes an occasional ridiculous shot you haven't seen anything. 

I have a question, worthy. What happened in your game with UNC-Asheville? You guys have a big size advantage against us and we had a big size advantage against them. They kept it close against you guys and we ran them out of the gym (albeit, without one of their top players). What were they able to do so well in that game?