A. I am absolutely furious, embarrassed, depressed, hurt, and shocked as I type this. Mrs. LOVE has been telling me to calm down, but it is definitely not working. What a complete and utter disaster that took place tonight in Vegas. There's an entire program of Coaches, Players, and Administrators that better take a hard look in the mirror tonight and ask themselves if they are cut out for Division I athletics....if they even care, which at this point I doubt.

Based on everything I saw in Kent and Vegas today - this is a mid-level NAIA Athletic Department...AT BEST. People can take this however they want, but losing to Kansas on a neutral floor by 57 and handing Miami a MAC East Title, is as low rent as it gets.

Even the illustrious Tim O'Shea kept it within 37...in KANSAS CITY...agsinst the eventual National Champs...with a KU roster full of NBA players....with John Rhodes's kid running around the court prior to the game. John Groce managed to better that performance by an even 20 points!!!

I'm dead serious, someone better be asking John Groce, Jim Schaus, and Frank Solich for some accountability after today's series of debacles...because this whole little production was nothing short of a disgrace. And they all managed to concoct their little Black Friday on a National Stage no less!

B. Ricardo Johnson should be suspended for at least 1 game for his flagrant foul on Elijah Johnson. Low-rent at best. Secondarily, John Groce should sit himself down for 1 game for embarassing himself by even arguing with the Refs on the play. Good god when Bill Self has to come over and be the voice of reason because you are acting like a jackass...you've got problems. Worse, the refs go to the monitor, look at the replay, and make the easy/correct decision to toss Johnson from the game while Groce is openly wondering why. Sadly, that was one of Ohio's better tackles all day, albeit in the wrong sport. *Ding - Here all week* - Let's call a spade a spade, Groce = Semeka Randall. Self = Pat Summitt. Just not even a comparison. Groce proves it to me tonight, he's miles away from the big time. I think we can safely assume he's not leaving for a while, unless Bryant comes calling.

C. Kansas had walk-ons in the game with 13 minutes left. Read that again.

D. I was trying to respond this morning to all your criticisms of the "elitist" Bobcat Dragon by coming to his defense. Dragon was spot on with all his comments while G-man and others couldn't even construct a fluent sentence to support their arguments. Now look at the proof in the pudding. Poor effort. Poor fundamentals. Poor Coaching. You all flamed him out, and he was 100% correct. We deserved to lose to Valpo and we got pounded by 57 tonight. The guy is watching the same bush league program that I am watching right now, and it's flat out embarrassing.

E. At the micro level, yes, it's too early to jump off the Groce bandwagon b/c of the 2009-2010 post-season run. However, at the Macro level, this program is reminiscent of the Titanic. Player suspensions, defections, dismissals, transfers...a below average non-postseason the past couple years...awful in-game coaching at times...oh, and a 57 point apathetic blowout to Kansas. That's all fun for me, what about you?

F. You guys know that Travis Relaford is going to be a career backup at Kansas? Yet, somehow we made him look like the second coming of Jacque Vaughn and Adonis Jordan tonight. Good times.

G. If the football team didn't show up to Kent...then the Ohio Basketball team is still in the CMH airport.

H. Shot selection - Terrible. Boxing out - Do we know how? Airballs - How many? Passing - Awful? Court Awareness - None. Turnovers - 22. Player rotation - lacking. If it feels like leather, shoot it - Signed, Bubba.

I. I want to know how people like G-man the Cat Fan (the non-elitist of the bunch) is going to defend a 57 point loss to Kansas by lapping up the John Groce kool-aid some more. 57 points!!! Come on. I'm waiting....let's hear you sob and whine about me being too bent out of shape about this.

Here's the choices for the excuses from the board:

1. We'll never have the athletes to play with a team like Kansas.
2. We shouldn't even schedule Kansas, because it does no good for the program.
3. Just move on to Santa Clara and forget about this one.
4. John Groce is a genius and we should pile more money onto another extension for him.
5. We're a young team, and we're just going to get better and better.
6. Don't be negative, recruits read this board (my new favorite).

God, I can already here the lemmings. 57 point loss. Zero Threes made. It was like a JV High School team out there. Kansas probably can't wait to schedule us again. Wait until Miami keeps it within 15 in a couple weeks...at Allen Fieldhouse no less.

J. Dead serious, I told anyone who would listen that I thought we could keep it within 15 this game. Not necessarily win the game, but at least keep it close. Hell, my last post after the A&M CC game said as much. But to go out and lose by 57 freakin points with absolutely no effort or pride. Man, it's time to re-evaluate what I'm even doing here.

K. I was born and raised in Kansas, and 80% of my HS friends went to school at Kansas. This is now the 2nd time I've watched our Bobcats go out and get absolutely man-handled by the Jayhawks on the hard wood. Forgive me if I take these losses harder than you do, but I do have some modicum of pride....and when our Coaches, Players, and Administrators fail to maintain that same amount of pride - you're all going to hear about it.

I don't want to be part of the problem, I'd love to be part of the solution - but this was flat out the most embarrassed I've been to EVER be an Ohio Bobcat....and I just don't want to hear the same old tired excuses about us being inferior to Kansas on all the different levels you will list. This was really bad tonight. Really really bad.

The worst thing this team can do is have the same mind set as this, "the sky is falling." Clearly we didn't come to play today, who knows why, only the players and coaches know. Hopefully this is a wake up call. But they cannot dwell on this. They have to get passed it. This type of loss can kill a team or it can have zero effect. We will find what the team is really made of after this game. Hopefully Groce tells the players and his staff to re-evaluate their roles on the team, what they do to prepare and how they execute.

If they show up tomorrow with no emotion or fight, this season could get ugly real fast. If they come out with a good win, we can all move on, I hope.

They should only have one mindset:  bust their asses, get a tourney spot and hope to face Kansas again as a 16 seed.  They will most likely lose, but they should use this as motivation to show us Jayhawks that's not what we think they are.  They are much better than this. 

Also, I think with Selby coming mid December, that you have just faced one of the truly elite teams this year.  I think Kansas could have a special team this year reminiscent of 2008.  Tobias said it best though.  Your team can't stop believing in themselves.  Call me cocky but we have demoralized a lot of teams over the years.  Good teams too.  We walked into Top 20 Temple last year and won by 32. We just beat another preseason conf fav N Texas by 41 not a week ago.  The good teams will use it as motivation to prevent it from happening again.  The bad teams will fold.  You will learn a lot about your coach, players and program in the next couple of weeks.

This is a MAC conference team. The MAC is a Mid-Major conference. Kansas is a top 5 program. Resources. Expectations. Common Sense.

Is it so wrong for Ohio fans to aspire to have a strong enough team to earn an at-large bid if in fact Ohio does not win the MAC tourney? I read this argument - only MAC games matter - every winter but I disagree. So what if we win an ever-weaker MAC? I want a team that can compete on a larger stage.

I am not endorsing or disagreeing with Love's rant. I am disagreeing with the annual argument that non-league games do not matter.

Maybe this post will fuel the fire in the players who read this board and get more upset about what fans post on a message board than what happens on a court. I for one will be on pins and needles all day to hear what G Man has to say to defend this loss. It'll be some semblance of not enough Freeman, too much DJ, unfair refs.

I didn't get to watch the game last night, so it doesn't hurt me that much.  I saw the score, winced, and moved on.  Because I didn't see it, I can't say anything, and I don't want to overreact to this one game.

I think a win tonight goes a long way to removing the sting of this game.  Let's hope the team reacts the right way.

It was a bad loss,considering Miami "only" lost to a just as highly ranked OSU by 21. However, it is the MAC that will define us and we haven't yet played a single MAC game. Someone earlier said we will find out about this team in the next few games. We will. It is a lesson for all those who started out the season with dreams of rankings and national spotlight.

Dragon, the replay is available on Espn3 if you so choose.

All pieces of evidence point to last night's performance being an outlier, a perfect storm of bad circumstances that really made everyone miserable.  We hadn't missed all our three-point chances in 13 years, couldn't hit anything anywhere... it all just snowballed.  Call it the karmic balancing of Georgetown, in which all good circumstances snowballed.

Love have a hard time disagreeing, this HAS to rank up there with one of the most embarassing loses in our basketball History. As to your Bullet point E, I've been concerned with the Defections for some time and the one's this year were troubling to say the least. I NEVER expected AB to be back this year, I always expected Coleman and Kellogg to be. Why they essentially go thru all the off-season stuff and get right up to the opening jump-ball and essentially then bail is clearly WTF is going on!! 

Oh.  I'm so surprised.  The love fires off an emotional rant after a big loss to a top-ranked team.

First, who is first and foremost in wanting us to aspire high, to play the best competition?

Then, who's first to jump ship and yell disaster?

Hey, anyone guess who's going to put up a happy thread after we come back the next night, winning despite Tommy not playing?!

I was in the first row right row (a handful of seats up the baseline) for OHIO vs. Kansas, OHIO vs. Santa Clara and 'zona vs. Kansas this weekend.

Yeah, we got worked by a pretty good Kansas team.  But, stupid (that would be you, love) did you notice that Tommy Freeman got knocked out of the game and played only 7 minutes.  So, there went our most distinct outside scoring threat and a guy who could open the floor for us as he'd really have to be tightly guarded from the outside.  And, he's a fine defender for us so our team defense took a big hit.  Then, even with the ejection, our three  true freshmen played 59 minutes.  (They played 77 minutes vs. 'Clara.)  That's one and a half players worhth of complete game spots (40 minutes) played by true freshmen.  Perspective:  MAC level true freshmen playing against upperclassmen from one of the top six teams in the nation.

So, here's your true analysis of the Kansas game.  Disregard the score.  Be glad that our freshmen--and the rest of the team--got some experience of what real top level basketball is all about.  We need more of that.  A lot more of that.

You want gripes, try these:  DVW--you were terrific down the stretch last year.  Who cares? You have talent, things you can do against anyone in the country.  You need to find what makes you dynamic (hint:  start with rebounding and defense).  Our freshmen need to learn the offense and study and think about/study defense.  Getting beaten by superior talent is okay.  Being out of position on defense is not.

And here's the big one.  Can we still redshirt Ethan?  Isn't playing him for a second the same as playing him for extended minutes in terms of a redshirt season--or is there a 'minutes' limit to how much a guy can play and keep his redshirt?  'cause if there's no minute limit, how does Ethan not play 20 minutes in this game given that it was a blow out?  What--maybe if he'd've played more than 2 minutes we might have gotten killed?

My favorite player:  Tunji.  That guy competes.

Anyone want to talk about Marshall?

http://www.bobcatattack.com/messageboard/topic.asp?FromPa...