MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

That's largely why I haven't wanted to vote JCU #1 just yet.  Even going back to last year, they don't really have a signature win.  They lost in the conference tourney.  They dropped the game at Mount Union.  Every chance they've had to really make a statement, didn't come through.  Not that they aren't tremendous, but you want to see the team grab a high pressure game and just handle business.  Hampden-Sydney coming in will definitely be a big opportunity to do that.

[Dr. Acula]

Close shaves today for Mount Union and JCU. Marietta was also down at halftime before pulling away from Wilmington. The cliche about "no easy nights in the OAC" certainly seems to hold true this season.

Berg is probably the most consistent team right now, at least in conference play. Two big wins over Marietta and @Otterbein to their credit.

Still waiting to get a great read at where JCU stands at the moment. Besides a quality PSU-Harrisburg squad, there's not much on that schedule to date. Will be curious if Wilmington can push them next weekend. Quakers have some athletes!

Mount was not pretty in Ada.  Jumped out early to a nice lead, but then ONU just started hammering them on the offensive glass for a stretch and Mount could not score at the other end and ONU took an 11 point lead in the 2nd half.  Gurley hit back to back threes to cut it to 5 and that settled them down.  Then it was just a rock fight down the stretch.  Fuline had Gurley start posting up the smaller ONU guards late and he drew fouls or kicked out to an open Parker for a couple threes.  This was one of the games where Gurley and Parker were the best two players on the floor and they just dragged their team over the goal line for a road win.  Parker and Gurley:  13-19 FG (68%) and 5-9 threes (56%).  Rest of the team:  9-28 FG (32%) and 0-6 threes.

I watched very little of the Musky game since it was out of hand by the time I left work so they may have looked much different that night, but the last two Saturdays they've looked a little disjointed.  Just not consistent execution on either end.  As Ryan mentioned probably still trying to figure out some roles and integrate Laurich, but they're also a veteran team with 3 key starters back and a PG who played a lot of crunch time minutes last year off the bench so I wasn't expecting quite this disjointed.  And yes, I realize I'm complaining and they're 7-1.  Haha.  It's a compliment...I'm treating Fuline and the hoops program like football now!

[RaidersRGr8t]

Just a few, disjointed, thoughts:
- Darrell Newsom, a career 43% shooter from 3, is shooting 32.5% this season. He's still a beast on defense.
- Christian Parker HAS to shoot better than 53% at the foul line or it's going to turn into Hack-A-Shaq.
- Caleb Laurich will hopefully look to score more as he acclimates into the offense. He's shooting 56% from the field but averaging just 5 FGA/game and is shooting below 50% at the line
- Jahlil Graham and Marcus Steele bring a lot of energy off the bench.
- I mentioned before that they are missing the Alpha Male that Jeffrey Mansfield became last year. He wasn't afraid to get in guys' faces and hold them accountable. Graham and Laurich, I believe, have that in them.
- I'm anxious to see how they play in early January. Last year they got smoked at Heidelberg in the OAC opener, then came back from Christmas break and were a couple of plays from going undefeated the rest of the way. They have JCU, 'Berg, 'Etta and Wilmington in an 11-day stretch in mid-January. We will learn a lot in that stretch.

[Dr. Acula]

JCU remained #1 by a single vote this week.  Mount dropped a couple more spots to #13.  Etta and Berg are receiving votes.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount goes to half up 43-33 on Cap and wins 79-68.  They did not shoot well from 3 again.  The only reason they shot over 30% was thanks to Laurich's buzzer heave going in at half.  Gurley and Collier were a combined 1-10 from 3.  At some point in the season we might have to just say "yeah they just don't have any great shooters."  A bunch of guys shooting 30-35% is fine but let's not pretend those are the numbers of legit great shooters.  And it bleeds into game play because they can go for long stretches without a made FG because they don't have great shooters.  They get out and run, they crash the offensive glass, etc. so they make it work but straight up they just aren't a strong half court make jump shots team.  Skeriotis started today and played well.  12 pts on 5-9 shooting including a couple 3's.  They may need more of him.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount coasted to a couple pretty easy wins in FL yesterday and today to move to 10-1.  Looks like SJU was 8-2 coming in so a solid win I'm guessing.  That Wilm loss is aging like ground beef in the sun though.  The Quakers are now 1-3 in OAC play.

JCU did not fair well at home against R-M so their days at #1 are over for the moment.  Poor shooting from deep sunk the Streaks.

[bluestreak66]

Mount coasted to a couple pretty easy wins in FL yesterday and today to move to 10-1.  Looks like SJU was 8-2 coming in so a solid win I'm guessing.  That Wilm loss is aging like ground beef in the sun though.  The Quakers are now 1-3 in OAC play.

JCU did not fair well at home against R-M so their days at #1 are over for the moment.  Poor shooting from deep sunk the Streaks.

That was a brutal game. hitting 2 3-pointers definitely didn't help, nor did going under 50% from the free throw line

[D3fanboy]

it seems like Collen Gurley has disappeared nearly as long as the d3boards.  Hopefully, now that the boards are back Mount's number two can show back up for these OAC tourny games

[D3fanboy]

I'm shocked...SHOCKED...that poor free throw shooting and nearly zero production from your senior stars is killing Mount in the OAC title game

[D3fanboy]

Incredible comeback for the Raiders only to get bit by D3refs.  Wild that this team could either win a title or miss the tournament entirely

[bluestreak66]

Very odd not to see multiple OAC teams in the tournament. Really tough for Mount to lose a game like that and be left on the outside looking in. Maybe a couple less bid thieves and they'd be getting ready for a game Friday.
Can't wait to see how far John Carroll can go! When they're on, I truly believe they can beat anyone in the country. Let's just hope they can really bring it and make a deep run!

[Dr. Acula]

Incredible comeback for the Raiders only to get bit by D3refs.  Wild that this team could either win a title or miss the tournament entirely

Not too terribly long ago I would have been pumped to finish 20-7 and OAC runner-up.  But that's not the standard today and I'd imagine that the team is as disappointed as anyone that they didn't make the NCAA tourney.  Coming into the season I frankly didn't think that was even a realistic threat.

[D3fanboy]

Incredible comeback for the Raiders only to get bit by D3refs.  Wild that this team could either win a title or miss the tournament entirely

Not too terribly long ago I would have been pumped to finish 20-7 and OAC runner-up.  But that's not the standard today and I'd imagine that the team is as disappointed as anyone that they didn't make the NCAA tourney.  Coming into the season I frankly didn't think that was even a realistic threat.

With the talent back for the Raiders, I can't help but think that there were times that they were "just going through the motions" and planning to turn it on when needed. For the life of me, I can't explain the number of single digit point totals from Newsome and Gurley.  Both were great in the last couple of games, but the season numbers don't lie.  Newsome at least gave you pretty good defense each night.  Hopefully its a learning lesson for Fuline and the returning players (Parker?)

[Dr. Acula]

Incredible comeback for the Raiders only to get bit by D3refs.  Wild that this team could either win a title or miss the tournament entirely

Not too terribly long ago I would have been pumped to finish 20-7 and OAC runner-up.  But that's not the standard today and I'd imagine that the team is as disappointed as anyone that they didn't make the NCAA tourney.  Coming into the season I frankly didn't think that was even a realistic threat.

With the talent back for the Raiders, I can't help but think that there were times that they were "just going through the motions" and planning to turn it on when needed. For the life of me, I can't explain the number of single digit point totals from Newsome and Gurley.  Both were great in the last couple of games, but the season numbers don't lie.  Newsome at least gave you pretty good defense each night.  Hopefully its a learning lesson for Fuline and the returning players (Parker?)

Both Wilmington games come to mind for just a lack of urgency.  JCU is excellent.  Etta was down (by their standards).  Berg, Ott and Cap were solid but not spectacular.  Knowing all those things and what Mount had back on paper I would say 15-3/14-4 is where I would have had them.

I can't recall who posted it earlier, but Mansfield was a big loss.  Bigger than I gave credit to him.  Toughness aside, he could get to the rim in crunch time.  I thought Hudson showed good growth from last year to this year including several games where he was a critical second (or first) scorer.  But he's still a soph not a senior who had been through the battles.  There were long stretches where he looked like the only one who could create his own shot if needed.  Graham looked like he had the explosiveness to do it, but he was a freshman and understandably played a little out of control sometimes.  Farrington stepped up nicely down the stretch with some big minutes.  Those two hopefully develop into key contributors next year.

[D3fanboy]

Incredible comeback for the Raiders only to get bit by D3refs.  Wild that this team could either win a title or miss the tournament entirely

Not too terribly long ago I would have been pumped to finish 20-7 and OAC runner-up.  But that's not the standard today and I'd imagine that the team is as disappointed as anyone that they didn't make the NCAA tourney.  Coming into the season I frankly didn't think that was even a realistic threat.

With the talent back for the Raiders, I can't help but think that there were times that they were "just going through the motions" and planning to turn it on when needed. For the life of me, I can't explain the number of single digit point totals from Newsome and Gurley.  Both were great in the last couple of games, but the season numbers don't lie.  Newsome at least gave you pretty good defense each night.  Hopefully its a learning lesson for Fuline and the returning players (Parker?)

Both Wilmington games come to mind for just a lack of urgency.  JCU is excellent.  Etta was down (by their standards).  Berg, Ott and Cap were solid but not spectacular.  Knowing all those things and what Mount had back on paper I would say 15-3/14-4 is where I would have had them.

I can't recall who posted it earlier, but Mansfield was a big loss.  Bigger than I gave credit to him.  Toughness aside, he could get to the rim in crunch time.  I thought Hudson showed good growth from last year to this year including several games where he was a critical second (or first) scorer.  But he's still a soph not a senior who had been through the battles.  There were long stretches where he looked like the only one who could create his own shot if needed.  Graham looked like he had the explosiveness to do it, but he was a freshman and understandably played a little out of control sometimes.  Farrington stepped up nicely down the stretch with some big minutes.  Those two hopefully develop into key contributors next year.

I agree with everything you said.  I hate to sound like a boomer, but "toughness" has been a problem in more than one program in Alliance.  "Toughness" is not allowing yourself and team to take multiple steps back after a national championship run season.  I hate to harp on student-athletes, but I think 6th year seniors are a little different