This team must rely on playing good to great "D" because we are not a good shooting team. We haven't shot well all season and we will continue to lose games if our "D" is not good.
It's as simple as that.
Why can't we play good to great "D" every game that's the real question?







GO BOBCATS

Beat me to it. Kent State didn't have a FG...and only 4 points from FTs....in a 8-10 minute stretch of the 2nd half. We couldn't capitalize on the offensive end.

There was disturbing posession late in the game when we're down 5, get a steal and DJ shoots a three about 4 feet from the line. He does that alot and it may be okay if you're up 10, but not in that situation. I would expect him to make a better decision.

You're asking too much of the defense to equal turnovers in that first half. We had 15 turns. And A LOT of Kent's points came on run outs and fast breaks. Again, not right to lay that on the defense.

Some of you sound like the coach.  He constantly blames the "D" for losses.  Sure, 41 in one half is a lot of points but they followed that up with 27 in the second.  That is 68 points for the game.  That is pretty much the average defense for this team.  The "O" on the other hand scored just 17 the first half and had at least five really bad possessions in a row (3s from 28 feet the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, misses at the rim and turnovers among them) late in the second half.  Bottom line is 61 points like some of the 50s we've had in other losses will NOT win many games.  Most of our losses are squarely on the offense and our lack of ability to get into any kind of offense.  We stand around the perimeter and dont move.  When we hit shots we look great but when we are off, we are horrid.  Last night, offensively we were horrid.

No question the incredibly inept ball handling on offense created the apparent awful defense in the 1st half.  I couldn't believe what I was watching with all those dumb turnovers, it was pretty incredible.  It is amazing we were still in it til the last minute.

Fact remains I still consider us the favorite on a neutral court versus anyone in the conference.

Yeah he had 23 points, but 3-11 from 3-point range? T.J. had the second most attempts with 4 and he made half of those...

Early in the game, it looked like Ohio was trying to double or trap on everything in the half-court which I thought led to some good looks for Kent. But most of their first half points come off Ohio turnovers. In the second half, they held Kent St. without a basket for about 10 minutes. I think that overall the half-court defense did the job. But offense was another matter.

Ohio had 5 empty possessions at 53-43. Despite that, Ohio had a chance at 59-56. But a bad foul by Kellogg and bad three by Cooper did them in.

As Reghi/MIx pointed out and has been said here often, Ohio is at its best when Cooper keeps his shots down. He took 8 shots in the first half and no other Bobcat had more than three. Guys need touches on offense to get their game going. Offutt had very few touches and had just one shot at half. Not to beat the dead horse, but DJ takes too many threes. If you have the ability to drive like he does, you are letting the opponent off the hook when you jack up those threes. Offutt got to the line 10 times on 4 shots while DJ got to the line 3 times off 21 shots. 

I'm also not sure what has happened to Ivo Baltic. He has a great post game. But I haven't seen him make a strong move to the basket in I don't know how many games. He has fallen in love with the fade-away and with baseline jumpers. His defender fell down last night and instead of going to the hole he took a jumper. Maybe he's injured? Keely had an off night with 6 turnovers but he's been consistently good as of late.  

An article recently pointed out that DJ is at his BEST when he is distributing the ball and "running" the team.  He is not as good when he shoots 11 three pointers because he only shoots 28% from long range.  While some of his shots are as the clock winds down (because we run no offensive patterns that are effective) many are in the first 10 secs of the shot clock (I remember at least two that were like that).  He may be open but they are shots we could have at any time during the possession.  The point many on here are making is that three years in, his decision making needs to improve for us to go anywhere.

DJ isn't without blame but when DJ is taking a lot of shots it is generally because others on the court aren't working for theirs.  But the fact that DJ is the focus of anything this morning astounds me.  He and T.J. Hall were the only two players who looked like they were ready to play the game last night.  Everybody's love object Walter Offut was a stump for much of the night.  He woke up in the second half but by then it was too late. 

I love DJ and he's our best player. But when you get down to the wire in a close game, a big game, you shouldn't be jacking up a long three in that situation, on a fast break after a steal. They are struggling, just turned it over, and if we get fouled or score, we're down three. Big difference. I would just expect someone with his experience level and poise to make a better decision.

Did you see the adjustment that Kent did last night...we were trapping the ball screens with our posts, and then they'd hit the post player who set the screen and he'd have the ball 18 feet from the basket - just like we do with our posts - and their posts are not threats out there.

They changed and had a 3pt shooter set the screen, then instead of rolling to the hoop, the screener shaped up and created space by going behind the arc and our rotation couldn't get there fast enough and they hit a few threes that way..

Could we have Kellogg screen for DJ - then if they dbl you have a shooter receiving the outlet pass instead of a post player?

Played hard, fought to come back, just too many turnovers

Only 2 were with less than 19 seconds left.  But some of those early in the shot clock 3s were good shots...I am OK with him toeing the line and firing a three when the defender is not in his face.

I refer back to my bullet point list...We are going to go in circles on this discussion forever.