...You seem really committed to that cause.

I'd say a lot of guys played their hearts out today and they deserve some appreciation for that. We had a tough night inside and got in some foul trouble, but lighten up, man.

You can keep the faith and be critical at the same time. None of us on here are rooting for Ohio to lose during a game. But as fans I think it's acceptable when Ohio is getting killed on the boards and our bigs are taking one dribble 15 footers with 25 seconds still on the shot clock. At this point in the season its time to stop with the "well im just glad our guys played hard out there" crap. Its conference season and its the longest rivalry in the conference. If our guys aren't playing hard then there would be even more to be concerned about. It's time for Ohio to step up and close out games at home, plain and simple.

Ah yes --- He did a very good job of stepping into the passing lanes to steal the ball on at least 2-3 occasions against Mavunga so he deserves credit there.  Perhaps because he knew it would be bad news for him to have to guard Him one on one so he figured he had to go for broke with the steal plus Mavunga has no clue what the phrase "come meet the pass" means but that's not Baltic's problem.

Is it me or does our coach only like to recruit guards and small ones at that? If we were to rate his recruits where would they rate; Superior, Very Good, Good, Average, Below Average? I know some would say it's not fair at this point in the season. Well I think it's OK to evaluate talent all during the year. Other than Cooper is there any other player coach has recruited that you would rate average or above? Are there any other players from the TOS years you would rate above average? Freeman? he has been 1 dimensional since day 1. Washington? he seems to have regressed.
Did I miss anyone? Overall I give Groce's recruits an average for these past 2 years. This is only due to Cooper & Bassett bringing up the overall rating. Based on only his current group I give him a below average
He will get no help from the 2 walk-ons or should I say practice only players. Jacobs is an obvious bust. There are others that just don't seem to fit in, like Johnson. Sayles came back when Bassett left and coach must have done some major gravelling and promised major PT. Prior to this year Sayles was a bench warmer and his talent has not improved. So if Sayles is getting all this PT and he hasn't improved than the new talent lacks talent.

My predicted regular season W-L record......13-17. We have already shown we struggle at home. The road  has always been a more difficult place to play. These 2 factors lead us to a 13-17 record. This will give Groce 2 loosing seasons out of his 1st 3. Not good. And we gave him a $50K raise after last year? Seriously, who thought he would get a better opportunity after 2 years at Ohio and one of those was a loosing season. Give him a raise to keep him? Huh? Instead make it an incentive not a raise.
So I ask all has Croce elevated our program?




GO BOBCATS

I think there is a lot of truth in what 71 says, Dragon. One thing that has not been mentioned is the lack of momentum from last year. Granted, we replaced several major players from last year's run, but it does appear that we have regressed in many areas. It seems like we have not built upon last years success. We still could make a move later in the season, as we did last year, but IMO we should be seeing improvement over last year.

Then it appears you aren't looking at the roster for this year and next.  It has 5 guys on it that Groce and staff recruited who are > 6'6"

There are 6 guys <= 6'6"

By the general nature of things, you are going to have more < 6'6" on the team, at least in the MAC.


And while I'm posting, I'll add my .02 about DJ's three point shot selection early in the shot clock.  For those who say we have no other scoring options, and that a long 3 pointer with 25 seconds on the shot clock is a good shot, why does DJ only make up 25% of our scoring on the season so far?  We did have 3 other guys in double figures on Sunday.  

Why is everybody so hung up on who can "create their own shot."   Is that what our offense has become?  How about we run the offense and let the players, same ones who make up 75% of our score, get their points via the offense instead of creating something for themselves?  

And for the record, I do think Hall, Kellogg, Baltic, and Washington can create a shot.  Hell, even Keely has a decent drop step and an nice baby hook in the lane...they just need to get the shots to start falling.  Washington missed 3 layups on Sunday.  Get the guy some confidence so he can finish those.

While Tommy may not be able to take anybody off the dribble, he CAN shoot coming off an off-the-ball screen.  I think his 2nd three on Sunday was him catching a shooting off a screen without having his feet set.

Just because it's snowing, it doesn't mean the sky is falling.  Geesh!

Ryan...point taken, I guess.  I said 6'6" and under.  So, I believe there are actually 5 OVER 6'6".  Of those, I think one is a TOS recruit (Washington) and one is not playing THIS year (Smith).  So, I see three players ON THE ROSTER OVER 6'6" who are JG recruits (Baltic, Keely and Jacobs).  I don't consider them in the same mold as previous power forwards/small centers at OHIO (Tillman and Williams types) either now or in the future.  As for next year 2 of the 3 recruits are PG and SG.  One is over 6'6".

My point is that we really need some inside presence on both offense and defense and I don't think you can say we have one right now.  I was just using 6'6" as a point of reference.

Is anyone taking into account that we lost 3 players (2 of which we really thought we were going to have) the other being basset. Coach did not expect this to happen. So now we have to play the freshmen more...simple as that. you lose 3 good players S*** is going to get rough. All we can hope for is they figure it out and win some games.