Shooting under 20% from the three; make just 5 of the misses and still shooting less than 38% but it would be a different ball game. Gotta be frustrating on the floor and on the bench.

It really is this simple. It was the preseason prognosis, with hope that Dartis or Gollon would come to save us. They didn't. And here we sit. We just can't shoot well enough to be a contender.

So yeah, about this.....

For me the bottom line is this simple as the difference at the end of that game:

NIU has better guards and wings. Thorpe, German, and Bradley are all much better than anyone Ohio puts out there to match up against them. OUr healthy guards as a whole, simple are not good enough. They all have big holes in their games. German, Thorpe, and Bradley have few holes in their games.

And without Dartis and Gollon all year, this has been the unfortunate trend.

This whole injury fall back is really bewildering to me. Dayton went to the Sweet 16 a few years ago with a couple of walk ons who actually got playing time, after a series of injuries. Ball State went 14-14 in Coach Rick Majerus first year and went 29-3 the next year with basically the same players! The next year Majerus went to Utah and Coach Dick Hunskaer took them to the Elite 8 only losing to UNLV after the Cardinal had them on the ropes, losing by one bucket. UNLV blew out Duke in the championship game (the Blue Devils lost by 30.) Ball State gave them the closest game of the whole tournament. Also, when Coach Majerus got to Muncie the talent level of that squad made our starting lineup look like Buffalo on steroids. The same squad that eventually ended up 29-3 and came within a bucket of making it to the Final Four.

It can be done, someone on the team has to step up and be a leader and the coaching staff has to motivate and know their x's and o's. It can be done and certainly has been done in our conference. Coach Majerus isn't the only who did it. The squad Coach Nee inherited when he came here, many of those same players who ended up beating the vaunted DePaul. Later that same year they won in the first round of the NCAA tournament. That squad's talent level were hardly world beaters, but players stepped up to lead and coaches came up with a coherent game plan.

I agree. Block=regression. Doug=better body, good D, never developed offense. TK=no control and shot looks worse. BVP=a year off yet only a spot up shooter. Where is the player development? Kaminski never changed. These are too many instances where we have seen Saul fail in player development. Injuries suck but it can be saved by players improving. The only guy I have truly seen develop under Saul was Laster and Saul wanted him at the end of the bench until injuries hit.

I actually pay for cable, and don't support the whole debundled/a la carte thing, so the last two games are the first two games I have seen in a while due to being on the "3", and I think I have nailed the Saul ball description after watching last night's game. It parallels a common topic on a popular Boston sports talk show in afternoon drive time: horses v ponies.

Some programs/teams can win with one or two horses and a team full of ponies. (think the Cavs title with LeBron and Kyrie plus a stable of ponies) I'd compare the Groce with DJ or the Tony Campbell (not Saul's recruit) Cats, or for that matter any of the above average Bobcat teams, as employing that strategy. I'm not old enough to recall if OHIO ever had a stable full of "horses", which I would qualify Buffalo as having today, but perhaps we may have had that. A string of "stable full of horses" recruiting classes in the mid major sector is pretty rarefied air unless you have exhibited a continued string of successes in the tourney, and we know who those teams are (Gonzaga/Wichita/etc) Typically, success in the MAC comes via this strategy: one or two killers, and a descent stable of supporting cast members.

Now let's consider the case of Saul Phillips. Not that I deep dove his success at NDSU, but my recollection is that Saul has a nice run winning with a stable full of really strong ponies, and never had a horse or two on which to build his successes. By extension, I don't know that he ever showed the ability to recruit/attract those high level mid major guys. SOOOO, to win at a high level, he has to have a very deep stable of ponies...and five guys on the floor at any one time that are REALLY GOOD in all facets of the game, but not high level at any one skill set. Think about Loyola last year: coach "coaches up" a stable full of good ponies, and you can go on a run. This doesn't happen often, but it can happen. Likely not sustainable over time, but you can catch lightning in a bottle.

I think we are now seeing, five years in, that Saul hasn't been able to deliver either a horse or two (Carter is the closest, although I think he is proving himself more as a strong pony than a horse), nor has he been able to deliver a really deep stable of ponies with whom we can win by a "death by a thousand cuts" strategy that allows us to beat any team by having an extremely strong, cohesive team attack that Saul can then be the X factor, coaching his ponies up and over our competition. Dude had one nice run, we took a chance on it being long term repeatable/sustainable/successful, but Saul has proven that he isn't capable to recruiting MAC level competition to show his strategy can win and be sustainable at OHIO.

The analogy works for me, sorry if it was a waste of anyone's time.

That was well put D.A... you put it very well. Ponies/Horse reference makes it easy for most to comprehend. in many mid-major programs with strong ponies and a coach that knows how to coach a TEAM, has shown to work well. very well. One of my favorite parts of the game itself and of course March ball.

It demonstrates you've thought it through rather than just spouting from emotion, so yeah. And forgive me, but if it's in print, I'm interpreting it in a literal sense.