I don't think Roderick is a stand/shoot guy. He didn't look good against BG, but I don't think that's his game. Agree there isn't anyone that brings a consistent enough spark off the bench. I'm hopeful Murrell, Brown, and Roderick can be those guys.

The biggest problem I saw in this one is that Ohio couldn't stop Frye and Turner in the second half. Defense was the problem more than anything in my opinion.

I have to correct you, and I don't do this a lot.

*They couldn't stop Turner the entire game.*

A lot of good topics to respond to in this thread ...

• To the student section standing ... keep it up! The student section has been an embarrassment for a while now. I'd love to see it return to apex of the Ozone days so they can get rid of that ridiculous scorer's table that sits there. I know it runs ads on it ... but I'd rather have the students right up against the court, especially if they are rowdy and into the game.

• The comments on Preston's lull these last four games is spot on. He has been a shell of what he looked like early in the season. Not sure if it's illness or what? My theory coincides with my next point ...

• I think this team is already hitting a wall in terms of how much gas they have in the tank. Boals had such a short bench to work with early, that guys were pulling in big minutes. I think they're wearing down. I think that is why you see these games that are relatively close down the stretch only to turn into 8-10 point losses. I think they're running out of gas down the stretch. Preston just looks tired. Maybe it's illness? Or maybe playing 35+ hard minutes a night is catching up to him. A lot of these young and/or inexperienced guys have never had to play this many minutes ... not to mention a lot of them are still getting their legs back after long injuries (Murrell, Brown, Roderick) so they're not quite in playing shape. This was one of my biggest concerns going into the MAC season and the reason I wasn't sold they could go more than 6-12 or 7-11 in the league.

Still a lot of hoops left ... and UB is another challenge as they head into a stretch of at EMU, Toledo, Akron, at NIU, at Ball. That could easily turn into an 0-6 stretch. Would not stun me in the least.

bshot44: Boals mentioned on his postgame show that Preston was not feeling good, and had basically toughed it out. He didn't give any details. Maybe he's been battling a low-grade flu or something. So, your comments seem spot on.

BG has been stumbling along much of the preseason. It just seemed like the timing was perfect for them to light it up and that's exactly what they did in the second half. There was a combination of us losing track of one man on D and them were chucking up 3s with hands in face in half 2 and seemed to hit them all after missing a bunch in half 1. We have our own problems. We're not going to win the MAC regular season and we may well be headed for last in the East (just as the experts predicted) but we have no choice but to get healthy and get better and see what happens in March.

Unbelievable, what kind of morons would expect everyone to sit in a section where no one has set for decades?

Very happy to hear your determination, Bobcat2019. Hopefully you have some friends that are willing to be pulled in. All it takes is a small tribe of 4-5 passionate fans to move the others to action.