Yeah, that claim about our #1 seed performance is bogus.

I believe that Ohio has never failed to win the tournament as a #1 seed. Ohio is tied for the most MAC tournament championships and has the most all-time MAC tournament wins but it has only been the #1 seed twice. They were in 1985 and 1994. Seriously, that's it. That's the list.

I don’t think anybody is unhappy with 22-5 with all of the factors you mentioned. The frustration comes from not having a chance to win at least one of our three biggest conference games of the season (Toledo…at Toledo…at Kent). We were out of all three by halftime. And last night, it was clear we were done three minutes in. Does this mean we can’t beat Toledo and Kent in Cleveland? No. But it’s clear the upper echelon teams in this league have figured out a way to neutralize our key players…mainly Sears.

And I know we are all holding out hope that Roderick can find it. But the sample size is now 27 games. I could be wrong, but I don’t know if he has made two 3-pointers in a row in one game all season. His regression from last year to this has been a huge disappointment. And when you think about it with his shooting numbers, it’s truly a miracle we have 22 wins right now.

Last night was stunning. Right now the top 2 teams in the MAC can guard us fairly easily. Will be interesting to see what adjustments, if any, we can make against them. It’s too late for the NCAA to heed Bilas plea to clean up all the manhandling D, which is def a big part of teams guarding of Sears. Gotta figure out the continued slow starts.

GO OHIO !

He's basically top 3 on the team in every advanced stat that matters, and while He has the second highest usage rate on the team, without his aggression on offense I'm not sure what this team looks like.

We lack elite shot creation, so I'm not sure there's a better option. Sears is already using nearly 29% of possessions, so it's not like a huge chunk of Carter's possessions could go to him. Maybe some of that's better used with Vander Plas, but after the three of them there's a big fall off in production. Next highest usage rate amongst rotation guys is Roderick. There's basically no production beyond the top three, so all are inevitably going to have higher than ideal usage rates. Not sure what can be done about it, exactly. And given that his effective field goal percentage is still 50%, despite poor three long shooting, it's not the worst outcome to have him use 25% of possessions. Again, where else are they gonna go?

On another note, there's a bunch of people here so need to take a deep breath.

We had a bad loss in our 8th game in 18 days. That's a brutal schedule. I think some people let themselves believe we'd separated ourselves from the rest of the league, but there's no real reason to have thought that. We are exactly where very good OU basketball teams need to be: capable of beating anybody in the league in any given night, and highly seeded in the conference tournament. That's all we can really ask for.

Didn't mean to imply there was a better option just calling it as I see it. I firmly stand by the no D part of my comment.

What would make OHIO better is if Sears didn't have to do it all. Miles Brown needs to step up his slashing game. Kent had the guard, number 2 yesterday (sorry too lazy to look it up) and he nearly sliced and diced the defense as well as Carry as OUr defense could not drop off Carry to help.

Miles Brown is most potent offensively when he has taken the ball to the hoop. If when he gets the ball and has the opportunity he should be slicing through the defense towards the hoop and dishing off to the open guy. It shouldn't all have to be on Sears. A MAC defense couldn't be collapsing on Brown like they do Sears and still have coverage of the bigs and the lethal Sears.

Wow.

Has anyone else besides me figured out that Martians came down and replaced our team (and coach) with zombies last night?

He's third on the team in defensive win shares, has a positive DRPM, leads the team in blocks, second in defensive rebound rate.

It's not like I think he's an excellent defensive player, but none of those stats support the suggestion he puts in no effort on D. Eye test shows me somebody who puts in effort, but is just generally limited athletically and asked to guards guys who are either wings (which Carter is not) or that he gives up size to.

This team would be in very bad shape on both sides of the floor without Carter's contributions.

I think your complaints about him are a pretty poor analysis.

Agree with all that. Carter is NOT a bad defensive player. The problem is he's stuck playing out of position. An issue which usually helps us on the offensive end - but is something I harped on a bunch last off-season after we heard he was transferring back as a possible issue on defense.

The combination (at the time) of BVP, Carter and DW3 needing 2 on the court at the same time means somebody is guarding out of position and this year it's been Carter.

As I mentioned in another post ... the difference between this year and last is Ohio went into the MAC Tournament healthy and well rested. Then opened vs. a Kent team decimated by suspension and injuries and cruised from there.

This year the bumps and bruises are adding up and due to the schedule definitely not as rested as one would hope.

That was a really bad half of basketball. 2 for 25 shooting...8%!!! Unreal. Just to highlight more agony, Clayton hit 2 cheapies at the end of the game. Before then we were 3 for 26 from 3 and 10 for 50 overall. Holy. Moly.

It's true the sky is falling group is being a bit much and needs to calm down. It's true that our goals are still in front of us.

BUT...it is also true that as a fan, my confidence in what success we will have in the next month took a huge step back on Friday night. There is losing a game and then there is being completely outplayed. It is concerning, no doubt. Sure we beat them in Athens but Kent is a different team than they were then. I believe in our guys and the coaches...but I don't know how you can feel super confident that we find a way to get thru both Kent & Toledo at this point.

I've said all year our biggest weakness is quite simple, we don't shoot that great. I thought this even before Roderick took a dive. Luckily Schmock has come up and filled some of that gap behind the arc, and Sears has developed a solid 3 point shot. But there isn't really a single player on the team with an above average mid-range jumper is there? Carter & BVP can finish at times in the paint but not at a super high success rate. And of course Sears has made our jaws drop in the paint plenty but has been shutdown against stronger opponents.

I believe in our consistent and strong defense. I believe in our ability to draw fouls while not committing fouls. I believe in our ability to win the turnover battle every game. I even believe, somewhat, in our ability to create enough open looks. I just don't believe in our ability to put the ball thru the net. And all that taken together best explains why we take care of business aainst weaker teams and have avoided letdown losses...but haven't been able to beat good teams. You gotta hit your shots against good teams.

Things change quickly as we've seen with Kent, but right now it sure feels like 3 teams are distancing themselves from the pack. To me that makes the 1 seed important. I hope we can keep avoiding the letdown loss all the way to a 1 seed and avoiding Kent/Toledo until the final, at which point we just need our shooting to show up.

Flush the toilet.