MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[rscl70]

DIII Championships are official canceled: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2021/02/committee-decides-championships-fate

Another great Mount Union team with nowhere to go.

[Dr. Acula]

DIII Championships are official canceled: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2021/02/committee-decides-championships-fate

Another great Mount Union team with nowhere to go.

It's bad news for them.  They had a very legitimate shot to win it all last year and never got to find out.  That team was good enough to get it done and riding a 19 game win streak into the sweet 16.  This year isn't on that level at the moment IMO, but they're very good and would have made another run in the tournament this year.  The thing that really bums me out is that this season is the ramp up for next season when they are going to be absolutely loaded.  Unless Logan Hill graduates and does not return for his last year of eligibility they will return their entire starting 5 plus their first 4 off the bench.  Some additional high pressure games in the tournament this year would have helped them build to hopefully a national title shot next year.  The silver lining is nobody is playing tournament games so they're all on level footing I suppose.

As an aside, they did win their 23rd straight game last night 89-72 at Ott.  Anyone not watching their games should check it out.  They can light up the scoreboard in a hurry.  It's a fun style of basketball to watch.   

[Dr. Acula]

Fingers crossed we get both games of the Berg/Mount match up this weekend.  Both teams are 5-0 and Berg handed Mount their only loss in OAC play last year 68-67 in Tiffin.  I went back and looked and had Mount pulled that one out they would be riding a 31 game win streak currently with their last loss being in November of 2020.  These are the games we have to get excited for since there is no tournament to look forward to.

[Dr. Acula]

One way or another I will take the blame for Berg beating Mount in OT last night.  I either jinxed them with my previous post about the win streak or because it was the first game I didn't watch.  This one is on me.  I'll watch tonight so they should bounce back.  Woods dropped 38 on 15-22 shooting for Berg.  Painter was out again so that didn't help.  I'm guessing he would have spent a fair amount of time defending Woods.  Poole returned and put up his usual ho hum double double (20 and 12).  He's averaging 19, 11 and 3.5 blocks per game so far. 

[Dr. Acula]

Mount survived a less-than-stellar 2nd half in Tiffin that saw Berg take the lead after Mount led 46-28 at half.  Final was 67-61.  Berg came right out of the locker room and went on a run.  Definitely a different level of urgency for the two teams early in the 2nd half.  Credit to Berg for that.  They came out on a mission.  Zero quit.  My take on Berg is Woods is a really nice player.  Very smooth.  They don't look overly offensively talented beyond him, but man do they defend.  They have some good athletes and they are engaged defensively.  It bothered Mount on the perimeter for stretches.  This Berg team reminds me of a good Wilm team historically. 

The top 3 are kind of pulling away:

Mount 6-1
Berg 6-1
Etta 5-1

No one else is even .500 at the moment.

[bluestreak66]

Mount survived a less-than-stellar 2nd half in Tiffin that saw Berg take the lead after Mount led 46-28 at half.  Final was 67-61.  Berg came right out of the locker room and went on a run.  Definitely a different level of urgency for the two teams early in the 2nd half.  Credit to Berg for that.  They came out on a mission.  Zero quit.  My take on Berg is Woods is a really nice player.  Very smooth.  They don't look overly offensively talented beyond him, but man do they defend.  They have some good athletes and they are engaged defensively.  It bothered Mount on the perimeter for stretches.  This Berg team reminds me of a good Wilm team historically. 

The top 3 are kind of pulling away:

Mount 6-1
Berg 6-1
Etta 5-1

No one else is even .500 at the moment.

Who knows? We might be if we could get a game played lol!

[rscl70]

I was impressed by Marietta last night.  Very physical, they look like a football team converted to basketball.

Should be a good one tonight. Let's see if the Raiders can bounce back.

[Dr. Acula]

I was impressed by Marietta last night.  Very physical, they look like a football team converted to basketball.

Should be a good one tonight. Let's see if the Raiders can bounce back.

Just a tough stretch for Mount.  Berg and Etta are both good teams (Etta is clearly the better of the two IMO), but dropping 3 of 4 is certainly not ideal.  The one thing differentiating last year and this year is the consistency.  When you had Bower-Malone, Friga and Gurley you knew at least one of those guys was going to be hot each night.  Mount still scores a ton, but they also can go hot and cold for stretches this year.  Last year that just seemed to rarely happen because someone was seemingly always hot and being fed the ball.  The tournament was the perfect microcosm.  Gurley is unconscious drilling everything then the very next game Bower-Malone sets the single game scoring record because he's on fire. 

On a positive side, Poole has really developed into a good all around player.  He's having a 1st team All-OAC season.  He just does everything well.  If he puts on even more bulk and keeps progressing with his game he's going to be scary next year. 

Also, Gurley is creeping up on 1,000 points at 954.  He's going to hit that milestone in the next few games.  As a junior he is going to almost certainly finish in the top 5 career scoring leaders barring injury.

[Pat Coleman]

Barring injury for sure -- the way his game ended on Saturday didn't look promising.

[Dr. Acula]

First off, congrats to Collen Gurley on 1,000 career points.  I believe they said his is the 34th player to reach that milestone.  And with another year to go he is going to end up near the top of the career scoring list.

As for the game?  Definitely not the ending Mount was looking for.  Dropped their OAC quarters game at home last night to a 4-8 Musky team they beat by 32 on Saturday.  I watched most of it and they just played a really bad game at a bad time.  They looked flat for long stretches.  Even the student announcers were pointing out that Musky was just playing harder than Mount.  Their defense was atrocious giving up way too many easy looks and lay ups.  The Fish shot a hair under 60% from the floor which pretty much sums that up.  And with all due respect to Musky, if that team shoots like that and hangs almost 90 on you that's on you.  Marcus Dempsey isn't out there.  Offensively Mount barely shot 40% and was 15-25 from the line.  They looked disjointed for most of the game and when they got good looks they just weren't making them.  It was a recipe for disaster and they got it.

Wilm upset Berg in another quarter so Etta should pretty much coast to the title.

As for next season Mount returns everyone.  Logan Hill did not participate in Senior Day because he is returning according to the WRMU crew.  Parker and Chaney are going to be factors next season as sophomores based on their play this year.  Another year in the weight room could make Parker scary in the post.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been really impressed with Poole's development into a complete player.  Painter continues to develop too.  And the final guy that came out of nowhere (to me) to be a nice contributor on both ends was Newsom.  He's kind of Swiss Army knife out there able to do a bunch of things to help win.  They'll have a lot of depth and a lot of experience next year.  Should be a fun season.

 

[Dr. Acula]

In somewhat of an oddity in the OAC, Colleen Gurley announced he's transferring up to D1 Youngstown St.  He has 2 yrs of eligibility.  I'm going to miss him, but it's a testament to the quality of players Fuline recruits and how hard Gurley has worked to develop his skills.

[Dr. Acula]

1st team All-District/All-Federal League PG Mike Skeriotis committed to Mount.  Fuline loves those Jackson HS kids.

[Dr. Acula]

Preseason top 25 is out.  The voters think Etta is the heavy favorite in the OAC and I'm sure we'd all agree with that thought.  Etta (#3), Mount (#21) and Berg (ORV) are the OAC schools showing up in the poll off the bat. 

On a Mount note, as I assumed big man Logan Hill is back despite being listed as a senior last year.  Aside from COVID relief, he also red shirted his first year at Toledo so he was a junior athletically anyway.  I hoped he'd be back as his athleticism in the post is important for them.

[Dr. Acula]

OAC preseason coaches poll is out.  It should be noted that if this poll is consistent with other OAC coaches polls a HC cannot vote for his own team so Mount's 1 first place vote came from Vanderwal I presume.  Good to see Berg get some love.  I thought they had a very solid squad the last couple seasons too.

1.  Etta (9)
2.  Mount (1)
3.  Berg
4.  JCU
5.  ONU
6.  BW/Cap
8.  Wilm
9.  Ott/Musky

[BillyRayJimBob]

I have not seen Collen Gurley's name in a YSU box score as of yet.  Is this a transfer decision that may now be regretted, or is there an injury that is not visble to the circumstance?