MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

This has the makings of another frustrating season for Ohio Bobcat fans. OU had put together a very solid OOC performance this season. Unfortunately they followed it up with a loss in the MAC season opener to a below-average Bowling Green team. A team of Ohio’s caliber should not be dropping games to a team ranked 270 in the RPI. I’m aware that Anderson Arena is a tough venue to play in, but the problems that this Ohio team has displayed executing on the road during the Tim O’Shea tenure have become epidemic.

The Bobcats turned the ball over 20 times. They shot 5-22 (22.7%) from 3-pt range (why they’re launching 3 after 3 when they’re that cold from long distance, I don’t know). They only got to the FT line 9 times as opposed to BG’s 22 free throws. Look at the bottom line, the Bobcats only scored 49 points against Bowling Green, a team that has lost to DI bottom feeders Furman and Northern Colorado already this season. Not good.

What’s more is Tim O’Shea’s continuing inability to get his young players on-court experience. As seasons go on O’Shea usually tightens up his rotation to only go 8-deep. The Bobcats have depth this season. Tommy Freeman and DeVaughn Washington are both good young players, but if they can’t get any on-court time, this is going to be a wasted year in their development.  Freeman and Washington are averaging less than 3 and 1 minutes respectively over the past 7 games, and the only reason that Freeman’s is that high is because he logged 13 minutes in the blowout against Kansas.

You’re telling me that Bubba Walther needs to play 31 minutes against BG while shooting 5-14 and turning the ball over 4 times? Three of those minutes couldn’t have gone to Freeman? Take an additional 2 from Allen Hester, and there’s 5 minutes for Freeman. Is Leon Williams really at his most effective when playing 35 minutes like he did against Bowling Green? I’m not saying that Freeman or Washington need to be key cogs in the rotation, but it really shouldn’t be that difficult to get them 5-8 minutes apiece.

My complaints about the rotation are beside the point for today though. Today all but puts the nail in the coffin of Ohio’s NCAA Tournament at-large hopes. Ohio’s execution needs to get much better, especially on the road, or they’re going to end up with a 9-7 MAC record and a 5-seed in the Tournament. Tim O’Shea definitely has some problems to solve with this team. He now has the rest of the MAC regular season to see if he can do it.

Dan Whitmyer is the head basketball writer at VanDelay Sports. He can be reached at dwhit@vandelay-sports.com

This is a continuing feature where VanDelay Sports will post capsules on each team focusing on what we’ve seen so far, and what to expect through the rest of the season.

Ohio Bobcats

What We’ve Seen So Far
The Bobcats had some solid wins in the OOC season over Cornell, Maryland, and St. Johns. Unfortunately they also showed a frustrating tendency to play down to their competition, keeping almost every team they played in games late. This killed Ohio twice on the road against Holy Cross and Temple, two games that could have been marquee wins that the Bobcats instead lost on buzzer beaters.

Ohio likely has the most talented front-court in the league with Jerome Tillman and certain league POV-candidate Leon Williams. Can Williams and Tillman carry the Bobcats in a historically guard dominated league? That’s going to be the question.

What to Watch
Backcourt and Depth

We covered the Bobcats powerful frontcourt, but their backcourt is a concern. Michael Allen and Bert Whittington IV are the newcomers at the PG position. Both have been able to get the ball inside to Williams and Tillman, and both have shown flashes, but neither have shown a consistent improvement yet. The Bobcats can survive with Allen and Whittington just playing competently, but they’ll need more production out of Justin Orr and Bubba Walther. Both Orr and Walther are talented, and either one could go off for 25 points in a game, but neither wing player has been consistent this season.

The other concern on this Bobcats team is depth. It seems like the Bobcats do have some depth on this team, but Tim O’Shea has a tendency to only go about 8-deep as each season wears on. Lately that means that freshmen Tommy Freeman and DeVaughn Washington are getting very little playing time. Both Freeman and Washington can play, but they need to get off the bench and into games to develop. If O’Shea can’t find 5-10 minutes a game for each of those guys he could see his team’s chances fizzle out again in the MAC Tournament as the minutes add up and his team’s legs wear down.

Outlook
Leon Williams and Jerome Tillman give this team a puncher’s chance to win the conference. But the Bobcats will need a solid effort at the PG position and they’ll need Walther to be more consistent with his shooting, and for Orr to find his mojo creating and scoring. Defense and depth are additional major concerns. Right now Ohio looks like a solid team, but solid in the MAC East this year may not be enough with Akron, Kent State, Miami, Ohio, and the eventual West Division winner all fighting for byes in the first round of the MAC Tournament.

Dan Whitmyer is the head basketball writer at VanDelay Sports. He can be reached at dwhit@vandelay-sports.com

On the strength of a 20-point performance by Jerome Tillman and a 15-point, 15-rebound performance by Leon Williams, the Ohio Bobcats knocked off the Maryland Terps 61-55.

The Bobcats led 48-31 with just over 11 minutes to play, and withstood a strong Maryland comeback that pulled the deficit to just three with only 51 seconds remaining.

This was an impressive road win for the Bobcats. Maryland had not lost a home non-conference game in 5 years. Since he took over the program, Gary Williams was 131-3 in home non-conference games. Coming into the game, Maryland had been 10-0 vs the MAC.

The MAC East is shaping up to be a very tough division this year as Miami, Kent, and Ohio have all looked very impressive against some tough out-of-conference competition. As we get closer to the start of conference play, VanDelay will be taking a closer look at how each team has performed so far this season, and what we expect going forward.