You were expecting something different?

This is why it's gonna be a process to undo #SaulBall. Without effective bigs being recruited in that era, we're seeing the end results of that process and unfortunately, it's pretty painful.

That said, still sticking to young and stupid syndrome and the fact that Toledo is one of the most athletic teams in the league and we hung with em given our lack of post depth, not a bad place to be. I know, I hate moral victories on the football thread, but this is Year 1 of Boals and the guards we have are going to be big parts moving forward.

Based on how he closed last season I was expecting good things from Murrell. What exactly is his injury?

I believe he has a "sports hernia".

Of course they are. Aside from Ogbanda, all of Jeff's recruits are true freshmen. This is no big revelation.

Jason Preston and BVP have raised their abilities from last year. I give credit to Saul for getting them to say yes to Ohio, but credit for where they are this year belongs to Jeff Boals.

When I say last night was a Saul hangover, I mean we played in a way that was far too common under Saul. I'm referring to mostly shooting with little confidence at all spots on the floor and a complete inability to put resistance on an opponent's lead guard.

I'm still grading on a curve with this group due to its youth and the injuries disjointing practicing 5 on 5, but IMO, out of 19 games played, we have only played four well (Bonaventure, Iona, MTSU, Tennessee Tech). Rio and Heidelberg don't matter to me. We were underwhelming in the two against EMU, Morehead, and Detroit. We showed some good things at UB, but blundered to get a good shot off a baseline inbounds to win.

Not panicking yet. The team needs to keep its head up after last night.

We got 26 points off the bench last night, but they all sure feel without impact. How bizarre.

Time to consider starting Ben and bringing McDay off the bench?

I know nobody wants to hear this, but for a second I thought of bringing Jordy off the bench first. Which is insane...but????

+1

While I'm all on board with Jeff and think he's gonna be a great Bobcat coach, I'm getting a little tired of all this Saul bashing. Saul lost his job here due to some untimely injuries more than anything else.

OCF's last sentence speaks to this. Untimely injuries severely impacted not only our starting talent but also our depth under Saul.

We haven't even mentioned Dartis, another clear "DI talent" who was a Saul recruit and has missed the previous two seasons with injuries.

I'm fully supportive of Boals and I'm particularly excited to see the progression of Preston and BVP since he's arrived... But I also believe blaming Saul at this point for our loses is just silly.

Except the fact that Saul’s “guys” you are the best players on a substandard team. Which is very much why Saul is not still at OHIO.

What about McMurray's performance last night inspired the "not D-1 caliber" stuff? He's never going to be BVP or Jason Carter, but he's 6'7"ish, plays pretty damn hard, and managed 7 points and a couple boards in 17 minutes last night. He wasn't terrible, and he wasn't the reason they lost.

I'm going to expand upon this in my own opinion. It has less to do with D1 talent than it has to do with mature talent. Toledo's starting 5 are all juniors and seniors. The top 4 scorers, and top 4 guys in minutes played, are as well. That matters. Conversely, we have Dartis, Vander Plas, Ogbonda who have been on a D1 roster more than one season. We know who is giving us what out of those three guys right now.

To me, this year, Ohio needs to find a way to get Dartis back on a roll. If he's hobbled a little, get him a rest, just get him ready for the last couple weeks and Cleveland. And they've gotta get a couple of the freshmen to elevate their games a little. If that means playing them more and dealing with growing pains, so be it.

For next year, as you mention, if I'm Boals, I'm using both of the currently available scholarships and aggressively pursuing transfers that are older, and more physically mature. Whether its a grad transfer, JUCO, or other transfer, Ohio is young, and needs to get a couple older, more physical players. One of them would be a PG if it were me. Lastly, I think it's probable he'll have three, not two, scholarships available by April 1st. Call it a gut feeling.