Great defense on Jackson all game and he must have been frustrated and hacked his way to a quick exit.

Boys didn't get that Tyler Cheese was the real ace who beat OHIO in Athens and then did so again tonight.

Up 11 and BVP chucks up a three with nearly a full clock and he is not currently high proficiency with his 3's--let someone else chuck em up. He had several drives in the 2nd half where he never made it close to the rim which were also ill advised.

Ogbanda's hands were everywhere and caused numerous OHIO possessions. He nailed most of his free throws too.

Coach should always bring Springs in when there is a scoring drought and close to a time out. Let him fire one up from long range and sit him when he misses.

That KenPom pretty accurate eh? Only dissed Ohio loss by 4 pts.....

I know he's been battling injuries, but wasn't Connor Murrell supposed to be a sharp shooter coming out of JC ranks????

He's currently 9-36 from field (25%) and 0-12 from 3 point range. I mean...you can say it's a small sample size, but this is brutal. And I swear half of his misses from 3 this year either missed the rim entirely or broke backboards. The lazy pass at mid-court in second half that led to a Zips layup was a killer as well. If he's not producing offensively, he's got to be solid in other areas. His inconsistency from game-to-game is the only thing that seems to be consistent about him.

Wow what a rollercoaster of emotions, that first half was unbelievable. Our sophomore duo completely dominated their senior-laden team and I was ready to run thru a wall. First 6 minutes of 2nd half was much the same, had a 61-47 lead with 14 to go. Then came one of the worst stretches of basketball I can remember. 6 points in 14 minutes...Something like 2 for 18 from the field (the 2 being Preston's dunk and layup) and as someone else pointed out, 0 for 3 on our 1 and 1 attempts was absolutely crushing. So so many balls in and out of Sylvester's hands.

They clearly suddenly chose to seal off Preston and frequently double teamed him with the ball and we didn't have an answer. That's where Dartis or a full strength BVP would have helped. Also the off balance ridiculous worst shot ever as the shot clock expired for Akron that went in was crushing after a great defensive possession.

We were almost all freshmen & sophomore last night and they were almost all junior & senior...and just like in Athens, we made them sweat big time and could have easily won. Last night was a good experience for these guys, hopefully a lesson or 2 learned. We can beat anyone in this conference.

In the first half, my mind was thinking the same thing. In the second half, my mind is thinking - no way they get to Cleveland.

I've got Friday off next week. I'll be there if they get there. I'm hoping they do. I've missed being up there as part of the March routine.

Four turns, three missed FT's. Make all three, and commit 2-3 fewer turns, and win the game. It's all about the basic fundamentals, and they didn't do that in final 10 or so minutes.

At this point, beat Miami, lock down that home game, win that home game, get to Cleveland. (fingers crossed)

Teams are catching on to that, especially with Preston. BG dogged him all night a couple weeks ago and Akron did it last night after Jackson got into foul trouble. He hasn't been getting as many teardrop shots as he had been getting and the ones he does get haven't been falling as much. Last night Akron stepped up the pressure in the second half, which led to 13 TOs in the 2nd half compared to two in the first. I didn't see them take that many poor shots until the last couple minutes, but almost every shot in the 2nd half was contested.

That's the problem ... Ohio can play and possibly beat anyone in this league this year .... BUT they've also proven they can lose to just about any of them too.

The meltdown was tough to watch. No one calmed them down and took charge. They all equally panicked. If Preston gets a few of those drives to go, it probably goes OUr way. Instead they don't ... team continues to panic and just loses all composure.

Maybe that comes with experience. But three years in, I'd like to see Preston or BVP be that calming influence. Dartis might've helped with that last night. Unfortunate he was out.

You can see how close they are to breaking thru. But still a lot to learn and polish.

7-10 in MAC exceeds my expectations ... and that could easily be 9-8 or better and challenging for a top 4 seed.

Miami is starting to play better. They better be careful Friday or they could see this season end on a three game losing streak. Not the confidence boost they'd like heading into offseason.

Technically Preston and BVP are only two years in...playing experience wise from BVP. But I agree with you. Someone needed to grab hold of the reins and reel them back in.

I thought the timeouts by Boals to stop momentum were going to help, but they didn't. And he took one way before it got out of hand which I thought was very smart on his part because you could feel the tide turning. Boals continues to impress me with his in-game adjustments and time out usage. Something that the last regime couldn't quite figure out.

I hate chalking up last night's loss to another youth growing period, but it kind of was. It felt like a microcosm of the whole season: injuries, flashes or halves of brilliant play and then weird droughts of not scoring and faltering while fighting. Season's not over and they can still make noise.

I disagree. Keep in mind Ohio is his 3rd college. He only has 1 year left and my hunch says he sticks it out. He seems to get along well with everyone on and around the team.

From my sources on campus: Murrell and his girlfriend, a member of the 110, are graduating this spring. That combination could end up with Murrell leaving campus . . . according to my sources.

Perhaps he's not invited back. Not saying I want that; I saw a lot to like in his game last year. Just wondering what happened to it.