Fact. I was at the Louisville game.

Fact. This is probably going to offend some people, but I don't care. I don't do moral victories like 90% of you. I'm guessing the Team and Staff have similar feelings to some of the stuff you will read below.

Fact. I thought it was disgraceful that we lost the game. There was absolutely no excuse. #7 in the nation be damned, we were BY FAR the better team. It wasn't close.

Fact. I told many people to take the Bobcats on the Money Line well in advance of the game. Ohio +16.5 was one of the rare freebies that Vegas will give you.

Fact. The refs were not a factor. Our skill level led to a lot of whistles. We got caught out of position upteen number of times. Plus you know you aren't going to get 50/50 calls going into the game. Just expect it and don't let the refs affect the outcome. Seeing all the complaining about the Refs on the board, that's not in our constitution.

Fact. The YUM! Center is the least imposing/intimidating arena of any "Blue Blood" NCAA Program I can imagine. Louisville is not a good ballclub with a hurt Siva, Marra, and Blackshear. That's not even a Top 25 ballclub. I'm sorry, it's just not. Pitino knows it and implied as much in the post game. Nothing in the pre-game about Pervis, DaJuan Wheat, Labradford Smith, Junior Bridgeman, Wes Unseld, etc etc. Just Pitino talking garbage. And NO MENTION of Karen Cunagin Syphers, which was unfortunate.

Fact. John Groce got flat out-coached by Rick Pitino. The Zone, then pulling off the zone late, was played perfectly. Meanwhile we have 6 guys coming out of a huddle. (I'm physically scratching my head right now). In fairness, this team is so much better organized then the TOS squads who looked like a Single A baseball team. We actually look like we belong in these games, however, we (and Groce specifically) still have a long way to go.

Fact. DJ Cooper (while I am still his biggest fan) is still taking god awful shots, and getting no flak from the bench. He's not commanding the offense as he has over the past 2 years, and just continues to pull bad shot after bad shot.  I'll take the good with the bad, but someone has got to tell him we don't need him to score 20+ to win. In fact, it's probably 6+ with 8-10 assists and we'll be vicious. Why does nobody see this? The shooting % bears it out. Having Walt and Taylor on the roster should give Groce the freedom to eliminate some of the rope Cooper's had in years past. There were 5 or 6 times I would have yanked Cooper out, sat him a minute, and then re-inserted him. Just to send the damn message that these terrible 3's don't do anybody any good.

Fact. Jon Smith is in my doghouse. He brings VERY little to the table. On offense he is a liability. On defense he is neutrality at best. Look at that god awful stat sheet from the Louisville game. Worse, Groce decides to trade him and TJ for Offense/Defense during the last 2 minutes, and Yep, he gets beat bad for the last dagger 3 to lose it. The Louisville fans around us were breathing sighs of relief each time he checked in. Something has to improve here.

Fact. We have no idea how to hedge a screen. The refs could have called 9 fouls on us for contact during our hedges. Instead they called 2.

Fact. I've never seen a team be so fundamentally unsound about sticking a body on people when a shot goes up. My god we gave up the same number of Offensive Rebounds as we did Defensive.  The kid from Senegal who just learned to play basketball had 16 rebounds. Jimmy Dolan outcoached Groce in the game from my standpoint. Baltic, Smith, and Keely were all guilty at times. Just standing around then trying to get the handle on the loose ball as they recovered.

Fact. Bright spots were Keely, Hall, and Goard. Keely was the only one not intimidated by the environment and who showed some toughness. Hall played great. Smooth and with confidence. Hit some big 3's. I would NEVER play Jon Smith over TJ Hall after that game. I'm not sure I'd play Smith over Kenny Belton, and he doesn't even play. If you watch Goard's first series, it boggles my mind why he never saw more minutes. Watch the tape. It doesn't lie. Goard would be working ahead of Jon Smith in practice YESTERDAY.

Fact. Baltic is a different guy away from the Convo. He looked like a deer in headlights at times. No clue what he would have done if he hadn't picked up the early 2 fouls, but he can't let himself become a non-issue like that.

Fact: I have no problem with the way Offutt and Taylor played. Walt didn't seem overly intimidated, and once Taylor got over a few Freshman hiccups, he was fine. Both are solid. See my point about yanking Cooper at times. Those guys give you that luxury, yet Groce continues to be stubborn about pulling Cooper. Walt and Stevie are both running circles around Nick Kellogg during games. If Nick is going to simply be a spot up shooter without any other, visible identity - we have a problem.

Fact. This is not nearly as harsh as I should be. I've eased up after letting things settle the past 48 hours. I had steam coming out of my ears on 71-N while I headed back to C-bus. This wasn't the 57 point thrashing to Kansas, and in some ways - it was worse. At some point, we have to stake our claim to what's ours, and make no mistake - the Louisville game was ours. Credit to Groce and the Staff, We are a MUCH MUCH MUCH deeper roster this year then in years past. That said, you have to capitalize on the resources at your disposal. We should have won that game. Without question. As a fan, I'm completely deflated.

Fact. You can play like that against Buffalo or NIU and recover. You cannot do it against a real basketball team with a real coach from a real conference.

Opinion. We lose to Marshall on Wed. They're twice the team that Louisville is (in the incarnation in which we saw them Saturday), and I saw nothing that leads me to believe we can get things fixed for a tough road test. However, if we want to toughen up, grab rebounds, get physical, and take high % shots - I'll happily be proved wrong.

So, should I cancel my trip to Huntington Wednesday night?

This game was a lot like last year where we just couldn't finish off a team in the last two minutes.  Crowd at the end had a lot to do with it.  Looked like an NBA game where the home crowd sits on their butts until the final two minutes and the home teams steps ups as the crowd energizes a struggling home team. This team needs to handle those situations better as the games at Kent St, Akron, BGSU, Miami and Buffalo will have crowds making noise at the end. We gotta get those rebounds period. Can't give up 20 offensive rebounds. That killed us last year.  It gotta be a team effort on the boards with our size.  Offutt and Cooper's rebounding from guards spots should help, but the bigs gonna have to dominate the boards.     

I'll agree that maybe it's simply the team hasn't formed the chemstry or experience of doing this together.  At the same time, this is somewhat of a predictable script we saw at Louisville.  You see it in the NBA (if pro ball translates) literally every night where the veteran/championship club fiddles around for 3.5 quarters then pulls it out down the stretch with a 10-0 run.

Then it's really evident during the 1st Round of the NCAA Tournament when CBS/ESPN bounces around from game-to-game where the little guy has the big guy on the ropes.  Then the big guy puts their foot on the throats of the little guy and the little guy melts under the pressure of those last few minute possessions.  I'd say 8 out of 10 times or more the big school comes back and wins after being on the ropes all game long.

All these NBA guys are former high school/college stars and all the little guys in the NCAA Tournament are their own leagues stars who pulled these games out all season long---but if you turn on the TV each week you see the big guys pulling games out the last couple minutes on the big stage every week of the season.  I think you just get used to finishing under the bright lights.

You saw that at Louisville.  Crowd sits on their hands the entire game, then the last couple minutes everyone wakes up and suddenly the pressure cooker really heats up.  Hated to see it, but I don't think it's a script you haven't seen on tv 100x in the past when the "upset alert" note comes on the screen and you quickly turn the channel to see the finish.  Sometimes it happens, usually it doesn't.

I do believe Love has a point here and I thought listening to our broadcasters (who I do like) they were trying to talk up the "good effore"/moral victory/be proud thing.  The object is to WIN these kinds of games.  And, we coulda, shoulda this one.  The object is not to get moral victories and feel good about our effort when we did not close the deal.

There comes a point in the game, during the last several possessions, where you have to make some plays and not turn the ball over. We did the opposite. We played a great game up to that point. We have an experienced point guard in Cooper that should take over the game in that situation. I have to believe he will get it done more times than not in the future.

Fact.  My favorite part of the year is basketball season, when you know Monroe and perimeter will post some sort of slandering reply to Love's (typically) well thought out and accurate portrayal of what he saw.

I checked my phone as soon as I got home from the Schott and saw we had a 6 point lead.  I immediately found the game on espn3 and watched us flounder away the lead.  It's completely my fault, although, my guess is that Groce didn't draw up the Keely dribble off foot play either.  And that blocking call at the end was garbage.  That guy plowed his shoulder right into Offutt.

I've said it before, but it's worth stating again:  Winning against Louisville, and these other teams early in the season, would be nice.  But the only thing that matters is 3-4 games up in Cleveland in early March.

I agree with a large portion of what The Love posts on this board, but I refuse to go "fire and brimstone" about Friday's loss. It was incredibly frustrating to miss an opportunity like that, but ultimately that's what I've got to chalk it up to... a missed opportunity. Hopefully, being up on the road against Louisville, and ultimately not being able to hold on will be a lesson that this team can draw on down the line this season. But I'll admit that's a straw that we have to try to grasp at, when we talk about a sport that's ultimately judged by W's and L's, when we come up with an L. 

What's more frustrating to me than missing the opportunity (IE: beating Louisville) is that we don't have a lot of other major opportunities like that this season. We've got some OK games against some OK mid-majors on the schedule, but no other premier Louisville-type opponents, which makes taking an L in a game that we really could have (and probably should have) won that much more frustrating. I'd imagine that's one of the things that really had smoke coming out of the Love's ears on his drive back up I-71 the other night. Knowing what this team has coming back next year, I've got to hope they schedule accordingly. Schedule the mid-majors that we should be competing with, but let's find a couple of more opportunities for statement games like this because really, we should win a couple of them. 

PS: Gotta agree with The Love that anyone who expects to go into a premier team's gym and get a bunch of 50/50 calls from the refs, isn't being realistic. To win that game we needed to beat Louisville without letting the refs be a factor. 

Bobcat fan? Definitely.
Die-hard Bobcat fan? Based on "one or two" games in Athens this winter? Hhhmmm. 

Fact: Many good facts have been pointed out in this thread.

Fact: I'm on board with Blove. We are way past the moral victory stage. We are less than 2 years removed from  almost making the Sweet 16. Let's not forget this.

Fact: It's a bummer that we don't get another shot a top 25 team in non-con. Please Coach Groce...schedule up next year.

Fact: I rarely get the chance to see OHIO play basketball games. Threads like this one keep me well informed and I feel like I have a good idea of what each player can do without watching them play a single minute.

Fact: Wednesday is going to be a difficult test.

Fact: The MAC is stepping up this year.

FACT: I loves me some LOVE straight talk.

OPINION: I think what LOVE does is 85% truth and 15% showmanship and it works...look at the stats.

FACT: The negative nancies on this board shouldn't affect the LOVE's posting style (I'm looking at you Slavin and Perimeter)...in the words of Larry Hunter, the LOVE needs to keep chopping wood.
 

I agree with a lot of Love's "opinions" (how can you disagree with a "fact")?

After the whole treatise, I think this near the end succinctly sums up what we need to do better moving forward - "...toughen up, grab rebounds, get physical, and take high % shots...". No individual will over the balance of the season become a better shooter, get faster, or bigger, but all can improve to play smarter, and tougher.

Fact--seeing Kent and Akron at the Convo is every bit as fun and exciting as watching O$U battle Michigan and Michigan State at the Shott.  Buffalo gets the blood and elbows pumping too.