MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[RaidersRGr8t]

Mount Union got hosed out of an NCAA tournament bid (in more ways than one). As Lenny Reich would have reminded us, however, don't lose twice to Wilmington.
I expect next season's starters to be Parker, Laurich, Hudson, Steele and some combination of Collier, Farrington and perhaps a player that we don't know about yet (transfer?). Farrington is a little better defensively than Collier and that's important to Fuline. I expect Graham will be the 6th man and they like Sabin off the bench to handle the ball.
John Carroll has almost every back. Higgins is done for sure, but only O'Toole and Eller are listed as seniors and I'm not sure about their eligibility. Marietta will be really good again, and I think Otterbein, Heidelberg and Capital will be in the top half of the conference.
The previous best 6-year run at Mount Union was 96 wins from 1999-2005. They're 118-22 the last six seasons and that includes 2020-21 when they only played 12 games.
The Purple Raiders will be fine. They will compete for the OAC title. Fuline has elevated the expectations to the point that if they don't make the NCAA Tournament the season is somehow a disappointment. The fact is, in the Division III era (1973-2024) Mount Union had losing records in 25 of 35 seasons before his arrival.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount Union got hosed out of an NCAA tournament bid (in more ways than one). As Lenny Reich would have reminded us, however, don't lose twice to Wilmington.
I expect next season's starters to be Parker, Laurich, Hudson, Steele and some combination of Collier, Farrington and perhaps a player that we don't know about yet (transfer?). Farrington is a little better defensively than Collier and that's important to Fuline. I expect Graham will be the 6th man and they like Sabin off the bench to handle the ball.
John Carroll has almost every back. Higgins is done for sure, but only O'Toole and Eller are listed as seniors and I'm not sure about their eligibility. Marietta will be really good again, and I think Otterbein, Heidelberg and Capital will be in the top half of the conference.
The previous best 6-year run at Mount Union was 96 wins from 1999-2005. They're 118-22 the last six seasons and that includes 2020-21 when they only played 12 games.
The Purple Raiders will be fine. They will compete for the OAC title. Fuline has elevated the expectations to the point that if they don't make the NCAA Tournament the season is somehow a disappointment. The fact is, in the Division III era (1973-2024) Mount Union had losing records in 25 of 35 seasons before his arrival.

You don't have to remind any of us that were on campus during the Lee Hood era.  250-246.  The very definition of average basketball.

And if Steele and Hudson are going to be the starting backcourt they need to be a couple of gym rats in the off season to get their 3 pt % up.  They were both in the 20's this year.  Regardless, JCU will be massive favorites to repeat next year.  They're going to be loaded.

[D3fanboy]

In this era of the transfer portal, I don't think that you can totally rely solely on recruiting and developing guys for four years and compete yearly at the top of the OAC and D3.  If you have one year left of Parker, I think that Fuline really needs to be hitting the transfer market to load up for another Final Four run.  Some reliable outside shooting would be fantastic

[RaidersRGr8t]

Hey man I was in town for the Jim Dafler years when they went 5-45 over two seasons. This is like being a UCLA fan from 1964-75 by comparison.

[Dr. Acula]

In this era of the transfer portal, I don't think that you can totally rely solely on recruiting and developing guys for four years and compete yearly at the top of the OAC and D3.  If you have one year left of Parker, I think that Fuline really needs to be hitting the transfer market to load up for another Final Four run.  Some reliable outside shooting would be fantastic

I agree.  If you were offering me a hypothetical transfer made in a lab I would ask for a 6'2"+ SG/SF that can knock down 3's and score consistently in general.  Easy order to fill, I know.  Fuline brought in Laurich and Steele as transfers this year and both contributed nicely.  That being said, he needs a tier above that this year in the portal.  He'll figure it out.  His track record speaks for itself at this point.

[Dr. Acula]

I'd like to think Fuline is looking over the NDC roster like a steakhouse menu this weekend.

[BillyRayJimBob]

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!

And I believe that the answer is in.  Not my hope or the team's aspirations.

[Dr. Acula]

It's one thing to play well and just get beat.  It's another to just collectively have a catastrophic night shooting the ball at the worst possible time.  Chicone was 8-18 from the floor.  The other 4 starters were 5-36 (14%).  Thankfully JCU only turned it over 6 times so they were able to keep it relatively close thanks to the +12 TO margin because shooting 27% as a team against a team as good as Calvin I would have thought ended in a 20+ point loss.  I'm sure JCU is disappointed, but they have this group back one more time so it's on to next year.

[Onward on, John Carroll]

Devastating end to the season - again - for the Blue Streaks.  Loss to Otterbein, too-close-for-comfort game against Mount and a first weekend exit despite one of the most talented team to wear the Blue and Gold ever. 

I would love to be Pollyannaish about next season with so many key guys coming back but I cannot get myself excited for two reasons.  One, I felt that way last March and the end was very similar.  Two, Mount Union showed us that another year older does not always mean better - especially in D3.  So often, our players peak their sophomore and junior year as the senior year can sometimes be spent with less than stellar focus (I had a coach tell me once, "Sometimes our kids spend their senior year with one hand on their resume and one hand on a beer").  Not always - but sometimes that is the case.

The Calvin game was a bummer due to the shooting performance but I think you have to credit Calvin, especially in the first half, with disrupting what JCU wanted to do.  Jalen Overway did not look intimidating in the Friday night game against Elmhurst, and I in no way expected JCU's bigs or the talented frontcourt to be fearful of him.  However, most of the first half was spent shooting at bad angles, refusing to take it inside, shooting weakly off the back foot or fading way, and that was mostly due to Overway and a desire to avoid him, from my perspective.  They seemed to correct that in the second half but it was too little, too late. 

JCU will no doubnt have an excellent team coming back but will they be hungry?  Will they be focused? Will they be worried about beers and resumes?  . . . and will Coach Moran, looking to 2025-2026 show any ability to recruit successfully from the high school ranks?  I assume that he has only so many D1 nephews who can convince their friends to come to University Heights. 

[Onward on, John Carroll]

Mount Union got hosed out of an NCAA tournament bid (in more ways than one). As Lenny Reich would have reminded us, however, don't lose twice to Wilmington.
I expect next season's starters to be Parker, Laurich, Hudson, Steele and some combination of Collier, Farrington and perhaps a player that we don't know about yet (transfer?). Farrington is a little better defensively than Collier and that's important to Fuline. I expect Graham will be the 6th man and they like Sabin off the bench to handle the ball.
John Carroll has almost every back. Higgins is done for sure, but only O'Toole and Eller are listed as seniors and I'm not sure about their eligibility. Marietta will be really good again, and I think Otterbein, Heidelberg and Capital will be in the top half of the conference.
The previous best 6-year run at Mount Union was 96 wins from 1999-2005. They're 118-22 the last six seasons and that includes 2020-21 when they only played 12 games.
The Purple Raiders will be fine. They will compete for the OAC title. Fuline has elevated the expectations to the point that if they don't make the NCAA Tournament the season is somehow a disappointment. The fact is, in the Division III era (1973-2024) Mount Union had losing records in 25 of 35 seasons before his arrival.

You don't have to remind any of us that were on campus during the Lee Hood era.  250-246.  The very definition of average basketball.

And if Steele and Hudson are going to be the starting backcourt they need to be a couple of gym rats in the off season to get their 3 pt % up.  They were both in the 20's this year.  Regardless, JCU will be massive favorites to repeat next year.  They're going to be loaded.

I loved when Lee Hood came to games and sat behind the bench like he was John Wooden at  a UCLA game in the 80s or 90s . . . His teams were spectacularly mediocre for nearly all of his nearly 20 years, save the very beginning. It made me laugh every time he took his seat. He even came up to Carroll and did that once. 

[Dr. Acula]

LOL like he's John Wooden!  Well played.  Let's be clear about Lee Hood and his tenure...literally one kid kept him from having a losing career record.  Aaron Shipp.  I was going to say two and include Neal Richards (also a beast from that great team), but Shipp alone was worth probably 10+ wins each of his last 2 seasons.  Those two were just grown men and he never came close to duplicating that type of team in the 15ish years that followed.

[Onward on, John Carroll]

LOL like he's John Wooden!  Well played.  Let's be clear about Lee Hood and his tenure...literally one kid kept him from having a losing career record.  Aaron Shipp.  I was going to say two and include Neal Richards (also a beast from that great team), but Shipp alone was worth probably 10+ wins each of his last 2 seasons.  Those two were just grown men and he never came close to duplicating that type of team in the 15ish years that followed.

That's why I was always blown away when he paraded around like Head Coach Emeritus, waiting for the Board of Directors to put his name on the court. I'm with you - never anything to be excited about after Clinton left office.  Many times i wanted to say "YOU KNOW YOU WERE FIRED RIGHT??!!"

[Dr. Acula]

It was a long decade plus of not much fun in Alliance (aside from chuckling at his "line changes" when he'd sub out all 5 guys at once).  It's why when I get frustrated with a Fuline team I try to remind myself where he has the program versus the past.  Even in the rare years they haven't been great they're always pretty fun to watch and play hard.  And those down years have become a rarity.

Speaking of Fuline, I wonder what his son is doing for college?  He's a nice player (good WR in football too).  I'd also love to see Casenhiser from Lake in Alliance.  If you score 25 a game in the Fed for 2 yrs as a 6 foot guard I'm thinking that means you can score.

[D3fanboy]

It was a long decade plus of not much fun in Alliance (aside from chuckling at his "line changes" when he'd sub out all 5 guys at once).  It's why when I get frustrated with a Fuline team I try to remind myself where he has the program versus the past.  Even in the rare years they haven't been great they're always pretty fun to watch and play hard.  And those down years have become a rarity.

Speaking of Fuline, I wonder what his son is doing for college?  He's a nice player (good WR in football too).  I'd also love to see Casenhiser from Lake in Alliance.  If you score 25 a game in the Fed for 2 yrs as a 6 foot guard I'm thinking that means you can score.

that tuition deal at your dad's work might be tough to beat.  A couple of Mr Basketball finalists are only a few miles from Alliance and neither seem to have very many offers out there (Nigro - Louisville and Barrino - Malvern)

[Onward on, John Carroll]

It was a long decade plus of not much fun in Alliance (aside from chuckling at his "line changes" when he'd sub out all 5 guys at once).  It's why when I get frustrated with a Fuline team I try to remind myself where he has the program versus the past.  Even in the rare years they haven't been great they're always pretty fun to watch and play hard.  And those down years have become a rarity.

Speaking of Fuline, I wonder what his son is doing for college?  He's a nice player (good WR in football too).  I'd also love to see Casenhiser from Lake in Alliance.  If you score 25 a game in the Fed for 2 yrs as a 6 foot guard I'm thinking that means you can score.

that tuition deal at your dad's work might be tough to beat.  A couple of Mr Basketball finalists are only a few miles from Alliance and neither seem to have very many offers out there (Nigro - Louisville and Barrino - Malvern)

I have heard he is going to Mount.