College Hoops 2k8: 2009 Edition - Page 7

Radii · 03-13-2009, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Balldog

Ouch, had that happen in my Central Michigan legacy in 2K7, ended up redshirting my guy the next season rather than have him miss most of the season.

Yeah, that was my first thought when I saw the injury, I'll almost certainly end up redshirting him.

Radii · 03-13-2009, 10:04 PM

January 29, 2013

Bowling Green(6-12, 2-4 MAC) at Ohio (10-8, 4-2 MAC)

Bowling Green is rated better than their record indicates, 79 OVR (80 Off/79 Def/81 Sht/83 Reb). They've got 3 returning starters from last year and are led by 3 seniors.

Scouting

PG Donald Fordham – SR 69 OVR – Great speed and quickness (93/85), best defender they have (86), only an average shooter (64 med/70 3). He isn't much off the dribble or in traffic so hopefully we don't have to worry about him scoring much. 6.2 ppg/2.8 apg so far this year.

SG Clinton Moye – SO – 75 OVR – Moye is actually listed as a SF. Average defense (77), average to above average shooter (86 close/75 med/72 3), good off the dribble and outstanding in traffic (76/87). Moye is a great athlete and a great dunker. 8.2 ppg so far this year.

SF Anil Akins – SR – 81 OVR – Akins is a 6'7” senior. An outstanding rebounder(84 o/82 d) and a very good scorer(85 close/83 med/72 3). Great steals guy (80), good defender(80), great in traffic (86)... 15.7 ppg and 8.8 rpg both lead the team by a good bit.

PF Clif Ahvenniemi – SR – 74 OVR – 6'8”, good rebounder (80 off/82 def), great post defense(84) but not so much on the offensive side (66). 86 close range/74 med. Averaging 9.7 ppg after having not averaged more than 5 per game his first 3 seasons.

C Jessan Dilligard – JR – 72 OVR – 6'10”, an average rebounder (78 o/80 d), a great post player (89 offense! 78 defense). 85 close/88 in traffic, guy looks like a serious scoring threat down low, but is only averaging 7 ppg so far.

Despite returning 3 starters, this is a team with some holes. They had the best player in the MAC last year, SG Wallace Mason who was a superstar and an NBA prospect. Their center last year averaged over 15 a game too, so they're missing a lot of their offense. Moye looks like a defensive liability and I'm looking for Cooper to have a big game.

Half	Time	OHIO	BGU	Notes
1	16:10	6	9	Watson picks up foul #2 and I bring in Sessoms. We have 2 3 pointers. They have a 3 pointer and two 3 point plays inside.
1	14:15	13	11	We score 7 of the last 9 to take the lead, get the crowd amped up for us, and force a bowling green timeout.
1	12:40	17	21	They go on a 10-4 run, spurred by a 3 pointer and a 3 point play that gave Lufkin his 2^nd foul. Backups are in.
1	8:45	25	23	They've gone cold and Flowers is lighting it up for us. He's got 6 of our 8 points(Sessoms has the other two) since the backups came in.
1	5:50	27	25	Starters are back in. Watson and Lufkin both have 2 so I'm taking a chance with them. Flowers scored 8 for our backups, great job there.
	HALF	37	34	We had a chance for a much bigger lead. Cooper played well but he had 3 wide freaking open 3's in the final two minutes that he missed. We were up 37-30 and could have blown this one open, instead its a 3 point game. Moye and Akins have 10 each for Bowling Green, about what we expected. They're shooting very poorly, 11-29, but are 9-9 from the line. Cooper leads all scorers with 12, Massey 11, Flowers 8. The speed of our guards and the subpar defense of all Bowling Green's backcourt defenders except for Fordham is the big story here.
2	15:00	46	42	Massey has been in control early in the second half, but Akins has been dominant for Bowling Green to keep up. Massey has 17 now, Akins 16(6 each so far this half)
2	13:25	50	44	A 3 point play by Delic and a free throw from Cooper get us to 50. Backups are in.
2	9:40	58	49	We take a 9 point lead, I believe that is our biggest of the game.
2	8:55	60	52	They hit a 3, we hit a 2, they clal a timeout. Sessoms has 8 now, our only post player having any success on offense. He's had two nice post baskets this sequence.
2	6:30	67	54	The backups break it open a bit now. Sessoms has our last 4 points and the crowd is going nuts after a steal leading to a Sessoms dunk. Bowling Green timeout!
2	5:00	69	54	And it looks like its already just a formality to play out the final 5 mintues by the time the startes get back in there.

Formality indeed.

Ohio 76
Bowling Green 58

Great defensive performance today. Akins tried to keep them in it in the 2^nd half, leading Bowling Green with 19, but all his support fell off the map completely. Moye finished with 10 despite playing most of the 2^nd half(no more points) and no one else made it into double figures. They shot just over 33% from the field for the game (21-61).

Massey: 19 points
Cooper: 21 points
Lufkin: 0 points/1 board ← 0-1, 2 fouls in 26 minutes.
Delic: 7 points/7 boards
Watson: 0 points/9 boards ← 0-0 from the floor.

Sessoms: 14 points/10 boards
Flowers: 11 points

Lufkin is a better defender than House, and I think I'll eventually work him into the offense a little more than this. Sessoms and Flowers were both outstanding in their backup roles today.

Radii · 03-13-2009, 10:14 PM

We destroy Akron in our simmed game, 80-43. That's a road game, they've just fallen so hard. Delic with 26, Lufkin and Watson with 10, Danelius 11 off the bench.

MAC Standings

Halfway point of the conference season

1. Buffalo 7-1
2. Ohio 6-2
3. Kent State 6-2
4. E. Michigan 6-2
5. W. Michigan 5-3
6. Toledo 5-3
7. Ball State 4-4
8. Bowling Green 3-5
9. C. Michigan 3-5
10. N. Illinois 2-6
11. Akron 1-7
12. Miami OH 0-8

Eastern Michigan has an RPI in the 60s and if they dominated the 2nd half could potentially be in the mix for an at large bid. The rest of us need to win the conference to have a chance. The MAC is the 16th ranked conference in the nation this year so far, improved over the #19 ranking we had last year, but still not good, and not the type of mid-major that is getting serious at-large consideration.

Our next 3 games: at Ball State, vs Toledo, vs Kent State.

In fact, we'll sim the Ball State game and play the next two:

damn.

at Ball State 87, Ohio 72

We get 17 from Massey, 15 from Delic and Lufkin, but very little else. Cooper is worthless with 2 points, WTF!

That drops us a little off pace but we can make a big statement in our next two games.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 02:15 AM

February 10, 2013

Toledo (14-7, 6-3 MAC) at Ohio (12-9, 6-3 MAC)

Toledo's roster strength is rated well below the other top competitors in the MAC. 76 OVR (73 Off/79 Def/75 Sht/82 Reb). This is an important game for both of us as right now 5 teams have either 2 or 3 losses in the MAC. They return 4 starters from last year, and their PG, SG, and SF all have a full 6 bars of game experience.

Scouting

PG Mychal Beckwith – SR – 75 OVR – 84 from 3, an outstanding 3 point threat. Only average speed, Good defense(83), below average ball handler for a PG (79) but a very good passer (86). He's great off the dribble(84) and can create his own shot. Leads the team with 14.6 ppg this year, also 5.5 assists.

SG Doron Jacobson – SR – 73 OVR – Very good defender(85), pretty good steals guy(78), pretty good passer for a SG too(73). Outstanding midrange shot (80) but not a 3 point shooter (63). 7.6 ppg.

SF Sammy Urbina – SR – 76 OVR – 6'6”, Solid rebounder (82 drb), only average on defense and not a great ball handler. Good speed for a SF (84 spd/85 quick). Good athlete, good dunker with a great vertical(82). He's not a great shooter, 80 close/72 med/62 3. 14.1 ppg, he's finding a way to get his points this year.

PF Tim Krymski – FR – 71 OVR – 6'6”, a natural SF. Terrible rebounder and post player. He's got a good midrange jumper(76) but not a 3 and not good in close or in traffic. Krymski looks terribly out of place as a PF. If they play man to man I'm going to be getting Delic very involved. 7.0 ppg so far this year.

C BJ Janiszewski – SR – 59 OVR – 6'10, that's about all you can say about him. Actually he's rated 77 in post defense which is as good as many of our guys. But he is awful on the boards and is not a scorer at all. 5.4 ppg.

They have a huge team unity edge, 61 vs 47. We'd be over 50 now if we hadn't had injury issues, but they are very gelled with 4 returning starters. I think our biggest edge could come inside, feeding whoever Krymski is guarding over and over.

Half	Time	OHIO	BGU	Notes
1	13:30	8	15	Ouch. They have hit 3 3's, Beckwith is killing us from behind the arc, in tranisition, and driving against our man defense. Their defense has been solid, and we have struggled a lot to score.
1	11:45	14	17	8-2 run (it was 15-6 at its worst) and we've cut the lead down to 3, Cooper scored 5 straight and Massey hit a 3. Backups are in now.
1	8:00	20	19	Our run is now 14-4 and we've pulled ahead, though our backups are not playing great, Toledo is just shooting poorly.
1	5:35	27	23	Starters are back in. Our offense heated back up there, led by Lamkin who hit a midrange jumper, a 3 and a layup to score all 7 of our points in the last couple minutes.
	HALF	39	36	We hang on to the lead the rest of the half but have been inconsistent. Toledo seems incapable of bursts of scoring, but they do play some good defense and we will roll out to a 7 point lead but then they will just shut us down for 5 or 6 straight possessions. They may only get a 4 or 5 point run out of it though since they aren't stringing together lots of good offensive possessions either. Backwith, Urbina and Krymski all have 7 points. We are led once again by our guards. Cooper 11, Massey 10, Lamkin 11 off the bench. The lack of inside scoring is not for trying this time though. Delic and Watson are a combined 1-9 inside. Sessoms is 0-2 off the bench.
2	17:50	40	44	Terrible start to the 2^nd half. Delic is 0-3 so far even man to man against their SF turned PF Krymski. He also has picked up fouls #2 and 3, the 3^rd one allowing a 3 point play to put Toledo up 4. I sit him for a little while, and use an early time out.
2	15:00	42	51	I guess this is what happens when I comment on how the other team is incapable of quick scoring bursts... Cooper gets a field goal to end our scoring drought but they bury two more threes and a free throw and have opened the 2^nd half on a 15-3 run. I bring my backups in early.
2	11:15	50	58	As our backups don't magically turn the game around and bring us right back into it, I get my starters back in when they are all rested up. Sessoms did score 6 of our 8 points there which helps.
2	9:00	54	64	Running our offense against these guys is surprisingly frustrating. We are just working our asses off for every point.
2	8:15	54	66	Backups are back in for a couple more minutes to spell the starters, who can't do shit anyway.
2	5:30	62	71	Starters are back in for the duration. Basically, Beckwith is destroying us. He has 25 points now, 19 in the 2^nd half and is just unstoppable. We had fallen down 14(68-54) and have rolled off a few good baskets inside to cut the lead back down to 9. This is where we need Cooper, Massey and Delic to step up.
2	2:15	69	73	They score to go up 11, and we finally turn it on. Cooper hits a free throw to make it 10. Our press generates a turnover leading to a dunk from Massey and its 8. The next time we have the ball a Delic offensive board gets the crowd going nuts for us, and Massey could have really brought the house down with an open 3, but missed. But we continued to play defense and have since scored 4 more straight, a layin by Delic and a layin by Lufkin. We trail by 4 now with 2:15 left, their ball. I should point out that they have been resting Beckwith for this entire run.
2	1:45	70	73	Delic with a big blocked shot, generating a fast break situation. Cooper gets to the basket and draws foul #5 on Janiszewski, their big center, who, while not highly rated, had a big impact with blocked shots today. Cooper only makes one and we trail by 3.
2	0:35	72	73	We get another stop, but can't score on our end. Yet another stop, and this time Cooper burns his man for a layup. We're going to have to foul now, down 1 with just 35 seconds left.
2	0:28	72	74	UGH. We foul, they make one/miss oen at the line(we have 7 fouls at this point). Cooper is out ahead of the defense with just their big man down inside. He drives into him, but its outstanding defense by Toledo, forcing a missed shot without fouling. We have to foul them when they snag the ball.
2	0:21	75	76	They make both free throws. We rush down court and Massey goes straight to the hole. He scores and is fouled by Beckwith!! We cut the lead to one and foul again.
2	0:15	77	77	We foul and they make 1 of 2. The second is missed, Delic rebounds, fires to Massey who passes ahead to Cooper who pulls up for a 15 foot jumper immediately, it goes in and we're tied! Now to play some defense.
	0:00	77	77	We slow them down going up court, almost intercept a pass(its tipped but they recover), and force Urbina to take a bad shot with 2 seconds left on the clock. Its not good. OVERTIME!
OT	2:40	84	79	We score the first 7 of overtime, Massey with a 3 and Delic draws 2 fouls down low, going 4-4 at the line. We call a timeout after Beckwith blows by Massey for a layup.
OT	2:00	84	81	Delic gets a good look in deep but cannot convert. Beckwith with the assist to uhh, someone inside, and they cut the lead down to 3.
OT	1:40	87	81	Massey with his 2^nd 3 of the overtime period!! He feeds Delic in the post, they collapse on him, Delic kicks it back out and Massey hits the open look.
OT	1:15	90	81	We force a turnover, hold the ball for a bit, and they're in a 3-2 defense. Cooper and Massey run a couple screens and Massey ends up wide open again at the top of the key. He has just been CLUTCH in the overtime, hitting his 3^rd three.

They miss on their next possesssion and we run out the final minute.

Ohio 90
Toledo 81
OT

Beckwith, with some help from Urbina, just absolutely took over the game for a large part of the 2^nd half. But Beckwith was exhausted after leading the charge and had to sit at the 5 minute mark of the 2^nd half. We were down 9 points at that point, and as soon as he sat, we had control of the game the rest of the way. Beckwith scored 25 points and had 9 assists. Urbina, their SF, scored 18.

Massey and Cooper led the way for us. In the half court set they played very good defense but there were many times where we were to get out and run. They also bounced around between 3-2, 2-3, and man defenses. We eat 3-2 defenses alive.

Massey: 24 points/5 assists
Cooper: 24 points/4 boards/5 assists
Lufkin: 3 points/2 boards
Delic: 10 points/9 boards/3 blocks
Watson: 3 points/14 boards

Lamkin: 7 points
Sessoms: 7 points

Delic and Watson were a combined 4-18 from the floor today. 3-11 from Delic, 1-7 from Watson.

Key win.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 02:27 AM

I posted this awhile back, as part of the conference preview.

Best Overall Player - Colin Wierzba - C - 84 OVR - Kent State
Best Freshman - Brian Crandle - SG - 75 OVR - Miami Ohio
Best Shooter - Terry Bey - PG - 73 OVR - Akron
Best Playmaker - Clifford Cesar - PG - 74 OVR - Kent State
Best Pro Prospect - Colin Wierzba - C - 84 OVR - Kent State
Best Defender - Michael Murphy - SF - 80 OVR - Kent State

I point it out now because our next game is a home game vs Kent State. Top of the MAC Standings going into this game:

1. Kent State 8-2
2. Buffalo 8-3
3. Ohio 7-3
4. Toledo 7-4
5. Ball State 7-4
6. E. Michigan 7-4

A win and we are in a 3 way tie with Buffalo for 1st in the MAC. A loss and we're in 3rd place, tied with 4 other teams, 2 losses behind the conference leader.

We've got 6 more games on the schedule:

vs Kent State (8-2)
vs N. Illinois (3-8)
vs C. Michigan (4-7)
at W. Michigan (5-6)
vs Miami OH (0-11)
at Buffalo (8-3)

After this game, we have 4 very winnable games before a showdown with Buffalo on the last day of the season. With my play 1/sim 1 schedule(which I'm *really* liking, btw, feels like the perfect dynamic), I'll be playing the Kent State game, the Buffalo game, and against one of the Michigan's. Dunno which yet.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 03:50 AM

February 13, 2013

Kent State (15-7, 8-2 MAC) at Ohio (13-9, 7-3 MAC)

Kent State is ranked #20 in the Mid Major poll, the only MAC team to be found there. Toledo and Eastern Michigan have both seen time in this poll throughout the year but for now its just Kent State. They have road losses at Eastern Michigan and Buffalo, and that's it in conference play.

They're rated 83 OVR (83 offense/84 defense/85 sht/84 reb). Very balanced and very strong.

Scouting

PG Clifford Cesar – SR – 75 OVR – 88 speed/80 quicks, great defender(86 def), 85 handling/81 passing. 83 close/66 med/80 3. A serious 3 point threat. 8.0 ppg.

SG Logan Montgomery – FR – 74 OVR – Not a great defender, not great speed. He's a good shooter(84 close/73 med/76 3). Good in traffic, and a good clutch shooter. He's the weakest defender on the team (79 def rating, which is still not bad at all). 5.5 ppg.

SF Michael Murphy – SR – 81 OVR – Murphy is listed as the best defensive player in the league. His DEF rating is only 83, his defensive awareness is 77, block 72, steal 79... all simply outstanding. He has good speed for a SF, and is a good shooter (87 close/75 med/70 3). Great in traffic, great vertical... 10.3 ppg.

PF Duncan Hamilton – SR – 72 OVR – 6'8”, decent on the boards, decent in the post, 86 close/88 in traffic. A threat but not nearly the biggest on the team. 6.5 ppg/4.3 rpg.

C Colin Wierzba – SR – 85 OVR – Wierzba is the first conference opponent I've ever seen given the Star Player designation. He's 6'10”, an outstanding rebounder (86 off/87 def), great in the post (81 off/84 def), a capable shot blocker (84), 92 hustle, 79 strength, 93 close/83 in traffic. 77 offensive awareness/80 defensive awareness. He is leading the conference, by a lot, with 24.1 points per game. 7.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks round out this outstanding player's numbers.

Cesar and Wierzba both have overall awareness ratings in the high 70s, as well as full experience bars. They are very close to having two guys earn Coach on the Floor designation. I haven't seen anyone in this conference with overall awareness over 72 or 73 until now. They have a 66-48 team unity edge.

To make it even worse, they go 9 deep with as much talent as we have.

This is quite simply the best team in the league. They do have two road losses though, so they are beatable.

Half	Time	OHIO	KSU	Notes
1	16:50	2	0	This is not a team we intend to try to run with. We're double teaming Wierzba every time he touches the ball. On their first possession he goes up anyway and misses. They miss a jumper their second possession, and that's all they've had. A foul and an offensive rebound allowed us to hold he ball for a good 1:15 or so. They're running a 2-3 as their primary defense, but they went to man to man this last time, and Cooper burned his man for a layup.
1	16:30	2	0	Massey comes off the floor with an injury. Flowers is in. We'll see how long Massey is out for. With House already done, and a PF as our backup SF, we don't have enough depth to handle another backcourt injury and continue with this nice 10 man rotation.
1	15:45	2	0	We're told Massey has a strained calf and “there's a chance he'll return” which of course means I'm bringing him in. Kent State is 0-5 from the floor now.
1	13:45	7	0	Flowers beats his man and draws a blocking foul on Wierzba, his first. He's 0-3 on the other end. He hasn't kicked it out yet against our doubleteam, he's shot every time he's touched it. Massey is back in. We have a 3 from Lufkin and 2 FT's from Flowers.
1	12:45	7	2	Murphy hits a little bank shot to get Kent State on the board.
1	12:00	7	4	Backups are in.
1	9:40	11	4	Go go defense! One thing I failed to notice when fawning all over Wierzba... his stamina is 77, he sat before anyone else. He is back in now.
1	8:25	13	4	Sessoms has 4 now after Murphy skies to goaltend a putback. Kent State uses their 2^nd timeout already.
1	7:20	13	4	Kent State is apparently frustrated at their shooting. They use another timeout after we miss a shot and they get a rebound... They are 1-12 from the field and 2-2 at the line so far.
1	5:40	13	5	Starters back in. They have added a free throw by Wierzba and have 5 now.
	HALF	20	16	Scoring barrage! We led 17-7 and then 20-11. They scored the last 5, including a 3 pointer by backup SG Ruffin as time expired. We drew foul #2 on Wierzba with about 50 seconds left. He leads them with 5 points and 8 rebounds. Kent State is shooting 5-20, 1-7 from 3. They're 5-6 at the line. We're not doing a lot better. 8-25, 1-11 from 3(Cooper missed so many open looks). Cooper did score 6, all driving to the basket when they broke down out of their zone and played man to man. Sessoms has 4, Lufkin and Delic have 3. Lufkin has our only 3 pointer. Massey is scoreless.
2	19:20	20	20	They score on the opening play of the half. Lufkin turns it over, they go down and draw a shooting foul on Massey in the fast break, Cesar makes both FT's and we're tied.
2	18:00	20	22	They get a break after a missed Lufkin jumper and Murphy gives Kent State the lead.
2	15:30	23	27	We end what had become a 16-0 run going back to the first half. Cooper finally hits an open 3. We're still keeping the game slow but we're not outright stalling right now.
2	13:30	25	33	Two more three's by Kent State and we're struggling like hell on offense. We get our backups in.
2	11:00	30	35	Flowers with 5 points, a 3 and a drive to the basket, to cut the lead down from 10 to 5.
2	8:00	34	45	And things begin to fall apart a bit. They hit two threes in a row and get a bucket on a goaltend to score a quick 7 straight after we'd managed to make it 37-34. Timeout Ohio.
2	6:45	35	51	Yet another 3 and a 3 point play and we are getting killed. Starters are back in.

The second half is what I feared the entire game. We needed Massey, Cooper and someone off the bench to shoot well today. We got none of that.

Kent State 63
Ohio 40

We led 20-11 with about 2 minutes left in the first half. From that point they outscored us 42-20. We successfully limited Wierzba's effectiveness, and tried to force other players to beat us. For a half, that worked. Then in the 2^nd half they all got hot at the same time, or at least it felt that way.

Murphy and backup SG Ruffin led them with 12 each(4-4 from 3 for Ruffin). Wierzba had 11 points and 14 rebounds. After shooting so awfully in the first half, they finished 23-46 for the game. Lets see, they were 5-20 at halftime. That means they were 18-26 in the 2^nd half. Damn.

Massey: 2 points (1-11 shooting)
Cooper: 14 points (1-5 from 3)
Lufkin: 3 points
Delic: 3 points/7 boards (1-5)
Watson: 0 points/4 boards

Flowers: 7 points
Sessoms: 5 points/3 boards

I seriously do not understand how this Kent State team has 2 conference losses. I should point out that I didn't just try this stalling tactic because they rated 83 OVR vs our 80. I did it because they had 2 starters significantly better than anyone on our team, and one of their backups (at SF) was better than any of our starters. Their “bad players” in their lineup were as good as anyone we can put out there. I'm not really sure what makes this roster 'only' 83 if ours is rated 80.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 04:02 AM

I'm going to sim our next two.

We pull a choke job hosting a poor Northern Illinois team. NIU 71, Ohio 55. we get 19 fro Delic and 10 from Lamkin and are terrible everywhere else.

Massey and Cooper combine for 1-16 shooting.

We get the win in our next game:

Ohio 72, Central Michigan 60

12 from Delic leads us, 10 from Massey, 8 from Danelius, 7 from Sessoms and Cooper.

This takes us into our final week of recruiting. Its going to get hairy quick, we only have 2 scholarships to fill, but we're about to lose 1 of the 2 PG's on the roster, and will be losing something like 17 big men over the next two seasons. We need to land two solid players this year to make next year's recruiting less of a bear.

MAC Standings with 3 games left:

1. Kent State 10-3
2. Toledo 9-4
3. Buffalo 9-4
4. Ohio 8-5
5. Ball State 8-5
6. Eastern Michigan 8-5
7. Bowling Green 7-6
8. Western Michigan 6-7
9. Northern Illinois 5-8
10. Central Michigan 4-9
11. Akron 3-10
12. Miami OH 1-12

Our next two are Western Michigan and Miami OH. We really, really need to win both of those to help us earn a bye in the conference tournament.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 05:47 AM

March 2, 2013

Ohio (14-11, 8-5 MAC) at Western Michigan (13-11, 6-7 MAC)

We beat Western Michigan 67-58 in our 2^nd conference game this year. It wasn't really that close. We led by 17 at the half and held a double digit lead nearly the entire 2^nd half.

Scouting

PG FR Filip Nance – FR – 65 OVR – Good speed, poor quickness(88/79). Only an average ball handler, passer, and defender. Average/below average shooter (75 close/70 med/67 3). Just 4.8 ppg this year so far.

SG Hal Butler – SR – 61 OVR – 63 midrange/74 from 3, poor defense and only average speed. He'll make open shots. 5.8 ppg.

SF Raitis Townsend – SR – 73 OVR – Natural PF, 6'9” and slow. Good defense for a PF, not good enough defense to defense House in the open court. Good post player and inside scorer. 14.5 ppg.

PF Kellen Rakiecki – SR – 76 OVR – 6'8”, good rebounder, good post skills, great inside shot(95), good leaper. Averaging 8.2 ppg/4.4 rpg

C Julius Wofford – SR – 71 OVR – 6'10”, average on the boards(76 O/75 D), average in the post, only 82 inside/86 in traffic so he doesn't seem like too big a scoring threat, but with his size he is their leading scorer regardless. 14.9 ppg/7.4 rpg.

There has been virtually no improvement here over the last 2 months for Western Michigan. Here's hoping we can beat them as soundly on the road as we did at home. Everyone has a team unity edge over us at this point. 58-48 edge for WMU.

Half	Time	OHIO	WMU	Notes
1	12:40	13	15	We're really playing pretty poorly. They're in a 3-2 defense, leaving us open looks all over the damn place, and we can't hit them. We got a couple 3's early and a couple fast break buckets but are just dead cold in the half court set since the first 3 or 4 plays. Backups are in.
1	10:40	17	19	Western Michigan with a timeout. We've gotten two good looks inside to stay with these guys so far with the backups.
1	9:15	17	26	They get a 3 point play and two more nice baskets inside while Flowers, Sessoms and Danelius all miss decent looks on offense.
1	7:00	25	28	They score again to go up 11, and we finally get going. Lamkin hits 2 from the line, Sessoms gets an inside look, then Danelius, and finally Flowers with a tranisition bucket. WMU timeout as we've got it back to 3.
1	6:00	25	32	Now its their turn to score 4 straight. I call a timeout to get my starters back in.
1	3:15	27	38	Massey is just so off tonight its ridiculous.
	HALF	37	47	This is just terrible. They are shooting 66%. They had a long stretch in the final 10 minutes where they seemd to just go downcourt, pass to a guy cutting inside and score within 5-6 seconds of crossing half court. We are shooting 33%. Townsend has 14 for them, and Rakiecki has 12. We have 9 from Massey but its on 3-10 shooting, 0-5 from 3. All those 3's were with no one anywhere close at all. Watson has 7, Delic has 4. I'm trying to keep Delic involved down low but he's 2-7 so far. Cooper only has 5 and has not taken many shots yet.
2	17:45	42	51	Watson picks up foul #3. I'll leave him in.
2	14:00	53	62	I don't think Western Michigan's 66% FG shooting is dropping any at all here. But at least we're keeping up now.
2	13:00	53	64	Watson picks up foul #4 right before I bring my backups into the game. Townsend is killng us. I think he's up to 23 points now. Lufkin hasn't been able to touch him.
2	10:25	61	64	And they go cold, allowing us to go out on an 8-0 run to cut the lead down to 3. We've done this before, this time we just need to keep it this way and not give them control again. Flowers hit a big 3 and a 2 inside. Lamkin with a couple buckets as well.
2	9:00	65	66	Another WMU timeout. We had a chance to take the lead last time down but missed.
2	6:10	67	71	UGH. We struggle to find a shot, and a Lamkin 3 is blocked, leading to a shot clock violation. Starters come back in. Townsend is just murdering us. Up to 28 for him now.
2	5:45	67	73	We commit our 7^th foul of the half, they're shooting now.
2	3:20	71	79	Their last 3 possessions in a row they've run the shot clock down inside 10 seconds and then gotten a close range basket. Very frustrating after 30 seconds of good defense!
2	2:25	73	82	We get 2 free throws by Massey, they get a 3 by Butler. Back on our end, Lufkin picks up a charge going hard to the basket...
2	0:54	79	85	Feels way too late but we've got it down to 6 finally.

Yep, way too late. We foul with 50 seconds left, they miss both free throws and get an offensive board... just fantastic.

Western Michigan 88
Ohio 79

Winning on the road is damn difficult. And a couple losses against teams that we have more talent than is going to make the difference between a 2^nd or 3^rd place finish and a 5^th or 6^th place one in this conference.

Raitis Townsend had the game of a lifetime against us today. He was 13-15, including 2-2 from 3, on his way to 30 points. They don't go deep on their bench, with all their starters getting 30+ minutes, and all their starters scored in double figures. They shot nearly 60% for the game from the floor, even with going 4-13 from 3. Subtracting that... they were 33-50 from 2 point range. Geeze.

Massey: 15 points (4-13/0-6 from 3)
Cooper: 15 points
Lufkin: 2 points
Delic: 8 points/8 boards (4-11)
Watson: 13 points/7 boards (4-9/5-6 FT)

Flowers: 9 points
Lamkin: 7 points

Frustrating loss against a team that we really should beat more often than not. I have to wonder how much having a team unity that is 10 or more below every opponent we've played lately matters. Even with team unity effects way down, it still does count for something.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 05:58 AM

March 5th:

Ohio 73, Miami (OH) 47

PF Curtis Watson is out with a strained achilles, 28 days. Done for the season. This will move Sessoms up into the starting lineup. Honestly against many teams this may be a benefit given Sessoms' size.

The problem is that it moves Dahi into the backup Center role. Dahi, by now, has a confidence of about -5% (seriously, its under 10%).

We're 9-6 in conference play going into the last day of the season. With some games having been played already, here's the standings:

1. Kent State 11-5
2. Buffalo 10-5
3. Toledo 10-5
4. Bowling Green 10-6
5. Ohio 9-6
6. Ball State 9-6
7. E. Michigan 9-7
8. W. Michigan 8-7

We can't finish worse than 8th. So technically, if we beat Buffalo and toledo loses we could theoretically finish as the 2 seed going into the conference tourney in a giant 4 or 5 way tie for 2nd. If we lose we could finish as low as 8th.

Our final game is at Buffalo. We played a hotly contested game against them earlier in the season, losing 77-74 at home after one or two key plays in the final two minutes went Buffalo's way.

I'll likely finish this season tonight after conference tournament play is over for the evening.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 08:42 PM

March 10, 2013

Ohio (15-12, 9-6 MAC) at Buffalo (16-12, 10-5 MAC)

We played a very tough game with Buffalo at home, losing by 3 earlier in the season.

Scouting

PG Clark Clement – SO – 69 OVR – 90 speed but 74 quickness. Very good passer, good defender (83). 82 close/67 med/72 3, not great but he'll make shots if open. 5.6 ppg/6.3 apg this year.

SG Terrence Adingono – SR – 70 OVR – Great speed (88), very good shooter from all over (82 close/78 med/77 3). Cooper will stick to him like glue hopefully. Not a great defender(79). Only averaging 6.9 ppg as they go inside more often.

SF Brendon Goodson – SR – 76 OVR - 6'6”, great hustle(93) and strength for a SF (73). He's got a very good midrange shot (77) and is outstanding in traffic(85). Not as good off the dribble(78) so it'll be interesting to see how strong he is at attacking the basket. A 68 3 point rating is something we like to see. Averaging 10.7 ppg

PF Garrett Dearman – SR – 76 OVR – Average on the boards, above average in the post and great inside (92 close/88 in traffic). Very strong(83) and a good leaper for a big man. He's only 6'7”. He leads Buffalo with 18.5 ppg and has been a true offensive force.

C Elton Falls – FR – 74 OVR – Only 6'7” so we should have an edge here. Just average on the boards (78 off/77 def). He's an outstanding post prescence (81 post offense/85 post defense) and that will give us a lot of problems. 88 close range/86 in traffic makes him a big scoring threat too. His height is the main thing we have going for us. 7.5 ppg/6.2 rpg.

Very little development for Buffalo over the last month+. In the first game, their SF, Goodson, came up big in the 2^nd half, pushing them to the win. Cooper had a huge game for us, the man guarding him in man defense, Adingono, is not a great defender. Cooper will look for another big game today.

They lack guard depth so hopefully our pressing defense will wear them down.

Half	Time	OHIO	BUF	Notes
1	12:00	13	14	This game is starting out just like our last meeting. Neither team has led by more than 3 so far, 3 or 4 lead changes already. Cooper leads us with 5 I believe. I've gotten it into Sessoms and Delic multiple times with very little success. They each have buckets on offensive boards but nothing at all posting up their men. Backups are in.
1	10:30	18	16	Lamkin draws foul #2 on Dearman and earns himself a 3 point play. Lamkin against their poor SG defenders seems to be our best offensive option with this backup squad.
1	5:50	26	24	I call a timeout to get my starters back in. Lamkin didn't do much else on offense, but I did get two three pointers from Flowers.
1	3:30	26	33	A 9-0 run. We haven't even taken a shot. Shot clock violation and three turnovers in a row lead to 4 straight Buffalo baskets, a 3 point play coming on this most recent one. Buffalo's crowd is going nuts and I call a timeout to settle my guys.
1	2:05	29	35	After a missed open 3 and a contested drive by Cooper, we finally get a bucket to end this run as Cooper makes an open 3. That was 11-0 for Buffalo, ugh.
1	1:55	29	38	Cooper picks up foul #2 and Buffalo gets a 3 point play
	HALF	33	40	We scored 4 in a row and had it 38-33 with the ball, but turned it over on our final two possessions of the half. We trail 40-33. As long as we get off to an even start to the 2^nd half and this momentum Buffalo has is gone we will be ok. Their star SF, Goodson, has 10 to lead them. Clement(PG) has 8. like the last game, Cooper has been our only offense. He has 10 and is 4-6(2-3 from 3). Massey only has 2, Delic 4, Sessoms 2... Flowers hit two key 3's off the bench to help. Massey or Delic needs to do something for us to win this.
2	16:00	38	52	They are on fire. Adingono has 7 already and they are fast breaking off every missed shot... I call a timeout. Feels like this one is getting away from us.
2	12:10	47	62	They go up by 18, 60-42, when Cooper runs off 5 straight. After another Buffalo bucket I call a timeout to get our backups into the game. They're really just hitting 3's from everywhere with eveyrone. Lots of jumpers going in, our defense needs to step it up, and again, someone other than Cooper has to be able to score. Massey missed a wide open 3 at the top of the key, delic had a shot blocked inside, lufkin missed what I thought would be an easy basket on a drive, just not going well.
2	9:30	54	64	A 3 from Lamkin and 2's from Danelius and Flowers cut the lead back down to 10.
2	5:55	62	74	We are scoring well but we cannot stop them. I believe we've gone 5 straight possessions now where each team has scored(5 each... 10 total). On the last one they missed a 3, missed a follow but on the 3^rd try got a tipin. Very frustrating. I call a timeout to get my starters back in. Its my last timeout.
2	4:00	66	76	We still can't cut it below 10, but not due to them scoring every time down... we force a turnover and Massey misses another wide open 3. Then on the next two plays ina row, Cooper gets to the line, making 1 of 2 each time... So we score 2 where we could have very easily scored 7.
2	2:35	72	79	After allowing a 3, we get 2 a the line from Sessoms, then two straight steals, leading to easy baskets for Cooper and Lufkin. Down by 7.
2	1:15	76	79	We force a miss and after running our offense Cooper is able to get to the basket for his 23^rd point of the night. Next play Sessoms gets a block inside and Massey gets to the FT line, making both. Its a 10-0 run for Ohio!
2	0:39	78	79	After another miss by Buffalo, we find Delic inside for 2 points, just a 1 point game now with 40 left.

I want to foul one of their big men, so I wait 15 seconds or so til its out of their guards hands to call for the foul. I then find out that we've only committed 4 fouls... oops. So we have to foul a few more times to get them into the bonus. They make 1, miss the 2^nd, and we have the ball with about 12 seconds left, down 2. I go where else but to Cooper, he attacks the basket and draws a foul. He's about a 62% free throw shooter. First one is good, 2^nd is no good and they rebound. That puts us down 1, with about 6 seconds left. They miss the front end, Sessoms rebounds, throws an outlet pass which gets tipped. We recover, I get it to Cooper but he has to try a 28 footer or so with someone in his face, and its not good.

I usually have timeouts left at the end of games. One of the rare times I didn't, I desparately needed one.

Buffalo 80
Ohio 79

Adingono is the hero for Buffalo today with 23 points. Goodson scored 12 and was solid too.

Massey: 6 points/3 assists
Cooper: 24 points
Lufkin: 6 points
Delic: 9 points/9 boards
Sessoms: 6 points/5 boards

Flowers: 13 points
Lamkin: 8 points

Massey is really killing me lately. 1-7 today, 0-3 from 3. I have to get more out of him. His confidence is fine, but his shot has just been horribly off for a few games now.

House's injury really looms large with Massey falling off the map. House was a great compliment to Cooper and good for 15 points most games. I expected when he got hurt that Massey would just become a bigger part of the offense, but instead, he's become a non-existant part of the offense.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 08:48 PM

Final MAC Standings

1. Toledo 11-5
2. Buffalo 11-5
3. Kent State 11-5
4. Bowling Green 10-6
5. W. Michigan 9-7
6. E. Michigan 9-7
7. Ball State 9-7
8. Ohio 9-7
9. N. Illinois 7-9
10. C. Michigan 4-12
11. Akron 4-12
12. Miami OH 2-14

Well, I have to say, if we couldn't earn a bye, this is about as favorable as it gets. We beat N. Illinois by 16 at home, though we did choke and blow a game on the road against them. If we can get by them we get Toledo next. Out of the top 3 teams, Toledo is the only one we beat. We also have wins over the 4 and 5 seeds, Bowling Green and Western michigan.

Of course we're not guaranteed to win a game or anything, but if we're going to get stuck in the 8 seed, we could have ended up a lot worse(ie Kent State as the 1 seed).

I'm hoping to finish out the season after the Big East final.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 11:30 PM

March 13, 2013 – MAC First Round

Ohio (15-13, 9-7 MAC) vs Northern Illinois (12-18, 7-9 MAC)

N. Illinois is rated 77 OVR (78 off/77 def/79 sht/84 reb). We split 2 games with them, winning easily at home and losing badly on the road. The home game I played out, it was close for a half and we blew it open in the 2^nd half. Their starting center was out the last time we played them, so that is a change in their lineup this time around.

Scouting

PG FR Simplice Butt – FR – 71 OVR – What the hell kind of name is Simplice Butt. 88 speed/81 quickness. Pretty good ball handler and passer, average defense(79). Outstanding long range shooter (78 close/70 med/80 3). Only 5 ppg but we expect him to score a lot more against us.

SG Jeff Graves – JR – 70 OVR - A JC transfer so this is his first year in division 1. Above average all over... 85 speed/83 quick, 81 defense, just an average shooter though, 83 close/74 med/69 3. Averaging 7.1 ppg this year so far.

SF Tom Hanaven – FR – 69 OVR – A 6'4” SG playing SF. 84 speed/85 quickness. 81 defense, 85 close/71 med/65 3. Not really good off the dribble(74), more of a spotup shooter it appears. Averaging 7.1 ppg.

PF Erick Floyd – FR – 74 OVR – Only 6'6, average post numbers(77 o/74 d), above average on the boards, 80 in close and 84 in traffic, his best traits. Decent speed for a PF and decent Defensive Awareness (72). Averaging 7.1 ppg/6.6 rpg so far this year.

C Christian Watson – JR – 71 OVR – 6'10”, outstanding offensive rebounder (87) and above average defensive (81). Not that great in the post (71 off/74 def). Not much of a scorer (83 close, though he is 88 in traffic). 9.4 ppg/5.4 rpg.

They don't have anyone rated over 81 out on the perimeter for defense, so Cooper and Massey can hopefully get to the basket quite a bit.

Half	Time	OHIO	NIU	Notes
1	13:15	11	12	We are not playing terribly well so far but have gotten a few offensive boards and second chance buckets. Cooper has a 3 as well. Massey has missed two jumpers that are well within his range.
1	11:00	21	14	5 point possession for Ohio. Flowers is fouled shooting a 3, makes the first two, misses the 3^rd but we get the board, and Flowers hits a 3. Flowers has 8 already, 2 3's and the 2 Fts. Timeout NIU.
1	8:15	25	20	We call a timeout to avoid a held ball situation. We'd run the score up to 25-14 but they've come back with 6 straight. 4 missed FT's from Lamkin isn't helping.
1	6:30	27	20	Starters are coming back in.
1	6:00	30	20	Massey makes a 3 pointer. This alone is worth a comment.
1	4:20	36	20	This is worth noting too. We force a bad shot after playing 30 seconds of great defense, and Massey hits a mid-range jumper. Then cooper with a steal, outlet to massey for the layup. Then Sessoms with a block, outlet to Massey for the layup. That's 9 points in a row, slumpbuster maybe? As a team we're on an 11-0 run. Timeout NIU.
	HALF	38	32	Geeze... so bad. We score again(Sessoms) to go up 18, and then they go on a 12-0 run to finish off the half. They hit 2 threes, and our turnovers really triggered the run. Butt leads them with 11. Their SG Graves has 7, no one else with more than 4. They're shooting 15-31 from the field, but only 2-10 from 3. Wow. Most infuriating stat ever. We are 2-9 from the FT line as a team in the first half. Totally inexcusable. Massey leads us with 11, Flowers 8, Lamkin 6.
2	14:30	51	41	We've extended the lead back out to 10. Sessoms has been on fire this half, with 3 buckets in the post and a free throw.
2	13:10	53	41	Backups are coming in.
2	7:25	66	50	We've pushed the lead up to 16 with the backups, Lamkin and Flowers have both done some good things,and Dahi actually got a bucket as well. We're starting to slow the game down a little here.
2	5:30	70	54	Starters are back in to finish it off.

For the last 5 minutes I basically wait until 15 seconds left on the shot clock to run anything at all, and then look for an easy shot for Cooper or a post look. I get a few more points, a couple offensive boards and effectively run out the final 5 minutes.

Ohio 76
Northern Illinois 63

Butt ends up with 18 for them, and their PF Floyd scores 10, but they didn't quite have enough to hang with us today.

Massey: 13 points (1-7 from 3, only 2 2^nd half points)
Cooper: 9 points (4-5/1-1 from 3, just didn't shoot a lot)
Lufkin: 5 points/7 boards
Delic: 3 points/3 boards
Sessoms: 13 points/9 boards

Flowers: 12 points
Lamkin: 11 points

The guards were awesome off the bench today. Sessoms earned player of the game honors with his near double-double.

Radii · 03-14-2009, 11:32 PM

MAC First Round

8. Ohio 78
9. N Illinois 63

5. W. Michigan 84
12. Miami OH 70

6. E. Michigan 69
11. Akron 68

10. C. Michigan 86
7. Ball State 80

MAC Quarterfinals

1. Toledo
8. Ohio

4. Bowling Green
5. W. Michigan

3. Buffalo
6. E. Michigan

2. Kent State
10. C. Michigan

Radii · 03-15-2009, 01:14 AM

March 14, 2013 – MAC Quarterfinals

Ohio (16-13, 9-7 MAC) vs Toledo (19-9, 11-5 MAC)

In our only matchup this season Toledo led by 11 with under 5 minutes to go and we came storming back, forcing overtime, and winning easily in OT. They rate 76 OVR (73 off/79 def/74 sht/82 reb). We had long stretches where we struggled to score against them in the first meeting.

Scouting

PG Mychal Beckwith – SR – 75 OVR – 84 from 3, an outstanding 3 point threat. Only average speed, Good defense(83), below average ball handler for a PG (79) but a very good passer (86). He's great off the dribble(84) and can create his own shot. Leads the team with 14.6 ppg this year, also 5.5 assists.

SG Doron Jacobson – SR – 73 OVR – Very good defender(85), pretty good steals guy(78), pretty good passer for a SG too(73). Outstanding midrange shot (80) but not a 3 point shooter (63). 7.6 ppg.

SF Sammy Urbina – SR – 77 OVR – 6'6”, Solid rebounder (82 drb), only average on defense and not a great ball handler. Good speed for a SF (84 spd/85 quick). Good athlete, good dunker with a great vertical(82). He's not a great shooter, 80 close/72 med/62 3. 14.1 ppg, he's finding a way to get his points this year.

PF Tim Krymski – FR – 71 OVR – 6'6”, a natural SF. Terrible rebounder and post player. He's got a good midrange jumper(76) but not a 3 and not good in close or in traffic. Krymski looks terribly out of place as a PF. If they play man to man I'm going to be getting Delic very involved. 7.0 ppg so far this year.

C BJ Janiszewski – SR – 59 OVR – 6'10, that's about all you can say about him. Actually he's rated 77 in post defense which is as good as many of our guys. But he is awful on the boards and is not a scorer at all. 5.4 ppg.

In the first meeting Beckwith burned us for 25, Urbina for 18. The inside guys were not much of a threat. Massey and Cooper each had 20+ for us. This was back when Massey could score.

Half	Time	OHIO	TOL	Notes
1	14:55	14	8	Good start, Sessoms is doing great with 6 early points, Massey has hit a 3, and Delic has a bucket inside. We do have 3 fouls and they 4 early on.
1	12:40	21	15	Massey with his 2^nd 3, Sessoms has 8 now. Backups come in with a Toledo timeout.
1	7:40	21	21	This is one of those stretches I mentioned pregame where we just cannot buy a bucket. We call a timeout after a blocked shot sends their crowd into a frenzy.
1	6:15	21	23	Starters are coming back in. We now trail by 2. Our backups went 6:30 and didn't score a single point.
1	5:55	23	23	A lufkin 3 point play opportunity ties the game up. Unfortunately, he misses the free throw.
	HALF	36	29	Its close the rest of the half, Cooper gets 5 points in the final 30 seconds to push us out to a 7 point lead. Jacobson leads them with 9, Beckwith has 7. Urbina is scoreless, he picked up 2 fouls 4 minutes in. I had not even noticed. Massey leads us with 11, and he is 3-4 from 3 point range, which is great to see. Sessoms has 10 points/6 boards and is giving us a great game inside. Cooper has 7, Delic 6. Zero points from our bench.
2	19:15	37	32	They score the first 3 of the half, getting the crowd going in their favor with a steal leading to a fast break foul by Massey. We do get a good result on our end as Delic draws the 3^rd foul on Janiszewski.
2	16:55	44	34	A 3 by Cooper, a bucket by Delic and a steal off the press giving Cooper a layup and we've got a 10 point lead.
2	13:15	49	37	A 3 point play for sessoms pushes our lead to 12, our biggest margin yet.
2	12:40	50	37	Backups are in.
2	11:00	52	40	Danelius hits a hook shot on the right block, the first points scored by our backups today.
2	5:40	55	53	They go on a 13-3 run, as once again our backups simply cannot make a basket. They get a 3 point play, a 3, and some other scores to get right back in it. Danelius scores all 5 of our backups points as Lamkin and Flowers are both 100% ineffective. Starters are back in to try to keep us ahead.
2	3:30	57	54	Delic scores to put us back up 4. Cooper misses a wide open 3 that could have put us up 7. They miss a wide open 3 that could have cut the lead down. We just put them on the FT line where they made 1 of 2 to make it a 3 point game. They are shooting 1 and 1's now, we've got 8 fouls
2	3:00	57	57	Massey misses an open 3, they get out on the break and get a 3 point play on a foul from Lufkin. Tie game.
2	2:45	57	57	Sessoms tries to kick it to the corner for Lufkin, but Lufkin steps out while pivoting. Toledo burns a timeout. Their ball.
2	2:25	59	57	Cooper gets a steal as Jacobson tries to drive around him to the basket. Lufkin draws a foul on the offensive end and makes both his free throws to put us up 2. Toledo with another timeout.
2	1:40	59	62	They get a bucket from Urbina to tie it. Massey gets into the middle of their 3-2 zone and takes a wide open 15 foot jumper... brick off the left side of the rim. They push the ball down court and Beckwith makes a 3 pointer. We call a timeout, down 3.
2	1:30	61	62	We find sessoms inside, he draws a foul and hits both free throws.
2	1:07	61	62	Sessoms fouls Janiszewski in deep. He misses the first, and the second! Delic rebounds.
2	0:37	64	62	We work it around the perimeter, Massey has 2 open looks for 3 but I'm just too gunshy with him now, I'm not taking that shot in this clutch situation. I get it into Delic, they doubleteam, he finds Cooper in the corner and the 3 is GOOD!
2	0:25	64	64	NO NO NO NO. Massey with a reach in on Beckwith. God you just cannot foul like that. He makes the first...and the second.
	0:00	64	64	I decide to go inside for the last shot. With about 5 seconds left I get it to Delic in the hole in their zone. He attacks the basket, and his shot is blocked. We go to overtime.
OT	4:00	67	64	After we each fail to score on our first possessions, they go into a 2-3 zone. I go inside out with Sessoms and Cooper, and Cooper drains another 3!
OT	3:30	67	65	They miss a 3 after a good defensive sequence, but they get the board, and Sessoms commits his 4^th foul as Janiszewski goes back up with it. Luckily he's awful at the line, he does make 1-2 this time.
OT	2:15	69	67	We throw the ball away on our end and Krymski ties it up with a good move in deep in the post. I go inside to Delic who draws a foul, but he misses both free throws. Luckily Lufkin finds a way to get the board, and kicks it out to Massey, who attacks the basket before their defense is set. He also draws a foul and makes them both.
OT	1:00	69	67	Each team gets two stops, Cooper just missed a wide open 3 on our end, and they grabbed the board. It's Toledo's ball, down 2, with a minute left.
OT	0:56	69	69	They push it up the floor after the miss and Krymski hits a leaner over Massey in transition. Tie game. We get the ball to half court and call a timeout.
OT	0:30	69	69	I want a quick shot to get a 2 for 1 here, but Sessoms cannot put it in down low. They take a quick shot on their end and its pretty much a mirror of our play, Krymski misses a little shot down low. We can hold for the last shot now.
OT	0:15	71	69	Just like Massey on our end in regulation, they commit a terribly stupid reachin foul with 15 seconds left. They have less fouls than us though and this is just a 1 and 1. Massey makes the first...and the second! We're up 2, 15 seconds left.

Urbina takes a 3 and he just had a very poor day, missing two decent looks in clutch situations. Sessoms grabs the board, he gets fouled, and makes both his free throws to seal the win!!

Ohio 73
Toledo 69
OT

Two games vs Toledo this season, two very hardfought overtime victories.

Jacobson led them with 16, Beckwith had 14, Urbina was just 1-9 and had 3 points. Compared to our previous game where Beckwith had 25 and Urbina 18, most of that in the 2^nd half and OT, we did an outstanding job on defense today.

Sessoms earns player of the game honors for the 2^nd straight game in the tournament.

Massey: 15 points/4 assists (3-5 from 3, hooray!)
Cooper: 19 points
Lufkin: 4 points/4 assists
Delic: 11 points/9 boards/4 assists
Sessoms: 19 points/14 boards/2 blocked shots

Danelius 5 points

That is 100% of our scoring. No one else coming off the bench did anything at all for us

We've upset the 1 seed in the MAC Tournament!

Radii · 03-15-2009, 01:16 AM

MAC Quarterfinals

8. Ohio 73
1. Toledo 69

4. Bowling Green 75
5. W. Michigan 70

6. E. Michigan 75
3. Buffalo 63

2. Kent State 70
10. C. Michigan 67

MAC Semifinals

8. Ohio
4. Bowling Green

6. Eastern Michigan
2. Kent State

Radii · 03-15-2009, 03:31 AM

March 15, 2013 – MAC Semifinals

Ohio (17-13, 9-7 MAC) vs Bowling Green (15-14, 10-6 MAC)

We beat Bowling Green earlier in the year by 18 at our place. Close for a half but we ran away with it in the 2^nd half. They have some extremely talented players, but they only have 7 guys with ratings over 60. If they have to go past that into their bench, we will gain some big advantages. Since they lost to us last, Bowling Green has won 10 of their last 11 games, losing only to Toledo. They beat Kent State at home on the last day of the regular season to keep out of the 9-7 mess Ohio is in.

In the first game Akins was their only legit scorer with 18 points. Moye got in on the act a little but that was it. We held them to 58 and had an outstanding defensive effort.

They're rated very similar to us: 79 OVR (80 off/79 def/81 sht/83 reb). We have a small rebounding edge based on roster ratings.

Scouting

PG Donald Fordham – SR 70 OVR – Great speed and quickness (93/85), best defender they have (86), only an average shooter (65 med/71 3). He isn't much off the dribble or in traffic so hopefully we don't have to worry about him scoring much. 6.2 ppg/2.8 apg so far this year.

SG Clinton Moye – SO – 75 OVR – Moye is actually listed as a SF. Average defense (77), average to above average shooter (86 close/76 med/72 3), good off the dribble and outstanding in traffic (77/88). Moye is a great athlete and a great dunker. 9.0 ppg this season.

SF Anil Akins – SR – 82 OVR – Akins is a 6'7” senior. An outstanding rebounder(85 o/82 d) and a very good scorer(86 close/84 med/72 3). Great steals guy (81), good defender(81), great in traffic (87)... 15.7 ppg and 8.8 rpg both lead the team by a good bit.

PF Clif Ahvenniemi – SR – 74 OVR – 6'8”, good rebounder (81 off/83 def), great post defense(84) but not so much on the offensive side (66). 86 close range/74 med. Averaging 10.5 ppg

C Jessan Dilligard – JR – 72 OVR – 6'10”, an average rebounder (78 o/80 d), a great post player (89 offense! 78 defense). 85 close/88 in traffic, guy looks like a serious scoring threat down low, averaging 8.5 ppg.

Half	Time	OHIO	BGSU	Notes
1	13:00	12	18	Bowling Green starts on a 7-2 run. We charge back and take an 11-7 lead. They score 11 straight to go up 18-11. We make a free throw and get our backups in... game of runs. Akins has 7 for them, Sessoms has 7 for us. Massey has the other 5, only two scorers for Ohio so far.
1	10:15	19	20	Sessoms was still in the game as he missed a free throw when our badkups came in. I debated calling a timeout but he was hot so I kept him in. He scored 4 more and now has 11 points. Lamkin hit a 3 as well, and after an Akins foul Dahi is in for Sessoms.
1	8:00	23	27	I don't think we're going to be holding them to 58 this time. Lamkin has 7, 2-2 from 3. Their big man, dilligard has 9 and is their leading scorer along with Akins.
1	6:30	29	28	Lamkin with a nice acrobatic shot in the lane to give us a 1 point lead. Timeout Bowling Green.
1	5:15	34	32	Danelius with a 3 point play inside to give us the 2 point edge as our starters come back in. Starters, minus Sessoms. His stamina got down into the 60s from playing the first full 10 minutes and he is gassed. Dahi is still in. Lamkin was a stud for the backups this stretch, scoring 11.
1	4:25	35	33	We draw foul #2 on their center, Dilligard.
1	3:35	41	35	Delic with 2 3 point plays in a row! I get Sessoms back in and with their lack of depth I plan on pounding it inside the rest of the half with Dilligard not in the game.
	HALF	45	45	So much for pounding it inside. We turn it over on our next two possessions in a row and lose our small lead. Both teams are shooting very well. They are 19-28 and 5-9 at the line. We are 16-29 and 10-14 at the line. Fordham leads them with 11, then Dilligard has 10. Moye 8, Akins 7. Their backups have the rest, which isn't a lot. We have 3 guys with 11 points. Sessoms, Delic, and Lamkin all have 11 each. Massey is next with 5. Cooper is 0-3 from 3 and that is all he has done. He has 0 points. I never thought Cooper could go scoreless in a half against a team this good and we still have a chance to win.
2	17:45	47	45	Both teams come out cold in the second half. Sessoms has especially cooled off, I haven't tried getting Delic going yet. Cooper just scored his first bucket of the game, and the first points for either team this half.
2	13:50	47	53	I bring the backups in a little earlier than I normally would. We all of a sudden cannot score from anywhere on the court. They're playing a 2-3 zone more often than usual so far this half, Cooper and Massey remain cold, Sessoms and Delic cannot get good looks, and they've slowly worked their way out to a 6 point lead.
2	12:45	48	55	Lamkin draws foul #3 on Fordham, and he and Akins sit. Akins has 2 fouls but is tired I'm sure, having gone on a tear for 6 or 8 of these points from Bowling Green so far. Hopefully with the two of them out I can get back in it.
2	11:15	50	57	Danelius hits a little hook inside and we've hit just our 2^nd field goal of the half so far.
2	10:45	54	57	Four straight from Lamkin get us right back in the game. Bowling Green with a timeout after a nice dunk in traffic from Lamkin for the last 2. They bring Akins back into the game.
2	9:30	57	57	Lamkin misses a 3 to tie, but Dahi gets the board and the putback. Then we force a turnover in our press, and Flowers draws a foul attacking the basket. He only makes 1 of 2, good enough for a tie. Another timeout Bowling Green. They only have 1 left.
2	8:05	57	62	A quick 5 for Bowling Green and I call a timeout. I've still got 5 left, so I might as well burn them when the crowd gets them going.
2	7:10	57	65	Another 3 by Bowling Green and I call another timeout, this one to get my starters back in. They've got their entire starting 5 back out on the court and our backups are way overmatched.
2	3:50	66	72	Cooper scores 7 of our last 9, with 2 in there from Lufkin, and we've cut into the lead a little, but we've allowed them 4 second chance buckets in this stretch or we could be right there. Its our ball, under 4 to go now.
2	2:00	69	77	Two minutes left and they've pushed the lead back out entirely thanks to Akins.
2	0:50	71	77	Wow, I'm stunned. We get a bucket from Sessoms though I'm frustrated that it takes the entire shot clock to find a good look. We force a stop, and hit Lufkin in transition, he gets up over his man but the fingerroll rolls off the rim... down 6 I don't want them to get the clock down under 30 seconds, so its time to foul.
2	0:35	72	77	We dont foul after all, I wanted to foul one of their big men, they are awful FT shooters. Instead moye drove to the basket and missed a shot. We get Lufkin down low, he draws a foul. Misses the first, makes the second. Still down 5.

They make 2 Fts, we miss a quick 3, they board and that's the ball game.

Bowling Green 81
Ohio 72

Their best players really came through big for them in the 2^nd half. Akins with 19, Moye 18, Fordham 15, Dilligard 14. I slowed them down at times but could never quite stop them in the 2^nd half long enough to get back in the lead.

Massey: 5 points
Cooper: 11 points
Lufkin: 4 points
Delic: 11 points/5 boards
Sessoms: 13 points/10 boards

Lamkin: 16 points

Massey gives us one last total crap shooting game, 2-7 today. I don't know if I lost the feel for his shooting stroke or what, he just went completely from reliable scorer to... poor shooter overnight it seemed.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 03:33 AM

MAC Semifinals

4. Bowling Green 81
8. Ohio 72

2. Kent State 71
6. Eastern Michigan 46

MAC Finals

4. Bowling Green 97
2. Kent State 63

Seriously, a 34 point win in the finals over Kent State? I don't understand how those guys lost a single game in this conference, much less a 34 point loss like that.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 03:37 AM

Real quick before we go through the tournament stuff... I'm pleased with this team this year. It wasn't great, and our raw ratings say that we could be better, but last year was pretty much a disaster. We lost a MAC player of the year, brought in 5 new recruits, lost two starters during the season, and still gelled into a better than .500 team by the time it was all done.

Massey is graduating this year so unless something crazy happens, we're going to be starting Flowers at PG with a rookie backing him up. And flowers is a JC guy so he'll only be starting next year. That's going to be four different point guards in four seasons. That's a lot of turnover at the most important position on the floor.

Anyway, yes we're losing Massey, but I do believe we can be better than this next year. Here's hoping we can pull 20 wins next season.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 03:43 AM

Our 17-14 finish is not good enough for the NIT.

2013 NCAA Tournament

1 seeds:

East: North Carolina
South: Texas Tech
Midwest: Texas
West: UCLA

That's kind of funny since throughout the entire season, UNC, Duke and Clemson were in the top 5 of both polls every time I looked. clemson ends up a 3 seed and Duke a 2 seed.

Speaking of Duke, our tournament winner, Bowling Green, earns the 15 seed in the west and will play Duke in the first round of the tournament.

Duke beats Bowling Green 85-62.

Final Four

East: North Carolina (1 seed, defeated 3 seed Clemson in the elite 8)
West: Notre Dame (10 seed, defeated 12 seed UAB in the elite 8, upset city!)
South: Texas Tech (1 seed, beat 2 seed West Virginia)
Midwest: Providence (4 seed, beat 11 seed Arkansas)

North Carolina defeats Notre Dame 99-93
Texas Tech defeats Providence 87-81

Texas Tech defeats North Carolina 83-71 to win the national championship.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 03:50 AM

Graduating Seniors

PG Drake Massey - 6'1" 211 lbs - 73 OVR

Massey started as a freshman, then was relegated to backup duty when transfer PG Wayne Turner came to Ohio. Massey became the starter again as a senior. He played 124 games, starting 68 of them.

Career Stats:

9.7 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 3.6 apg, 2.0 turnovers/game for a 1.8:1 a/t ratio.

For his career, Massey shot 41.2% from the field, 33.1% from 3, and 65.0% from the free throw line.

PF Cliffone Mikalauskas - 6'10" 240 lbs, 70 OVR

Mikalauskas was a JC transfer I brought in who got lost in the depth I developed inside. He played two seasons, appearing in 54 games, never starting.

Career Averages: 3.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg in 13.9 minutes per game.

He was a 51.8% field goal shooter, 71-137. Somehow, he took 20 3's. Somehow,he made 7 of them. He was an awful free throw shooter, career FT % of 52.3%. He was 8-18 as a senior, 44%.

That's all I'm losing this year. Of course, Massey was my starting PG this year, so that's always a big loss.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 04:02 AM

2012/13 Ohio Team Stats

This team put together very balanced scoring, in part due to simming half the games, but also in the games I played it seemed a different guy stepped up each game.

Significant stats are in bold. Lots of the 3 point %'s are stupid from simmed games. The bolded ones are the guys that took a noteworthy number of 3's, or that are intended/allowed to take 3's when open when I'm playing out my games.

These stats are different than any I've produced so far. The numbers, not the table :P I've always had one guy that is my big scorer. Cooper could be that guy his final two years. Delic might be if he grows another inch. Hell at 7 feet and a senior Sessoms could put together some big games next season.

Pos	Name	Class	Points	Reb	Assists	FG %	3P %	FT %
PG	Drake Massey	SR	11.8	1.5	3.0	39.4%	28.4%	68.4%
PF	Daryl Delic	JR	11.7	5.9	1.0	47.9%	39.5%	66.6%
SG	Arzelle Cooper	SO	11.1	2.6	2.3	45.8%	35.0%	61.5%
SF	Wendell House	SO	9.4	2.8	1.0	45.6%	21.0%	66.1%
C	Kenan Sessoms	JR	7.5	5.9	0.4	45.8%	20.0%	73.0%
SG	Chuck Lamkin	FR	6.2	1.2	1.3	45.4%	28.8%	73.4%
PG	Dee Flowers	FR	5.5	0.5	2.1	43.7%	38.8%	62.7%
SF	Kaylen Lufkin	FR	5.0	2.3	1.2	48.0%	48.1%	68.5%
PF	Curtis Watson	FR	4.7	7.3	0.5	43.3%	7.1%	69.0%
PF	Eni Danelius	JR	4.2	3.5	0.4	48.0%	41.1%	65.7%
C	Arnaud Dahi	JR	2.8	2.5	0.2	43.1%	44.4%	70.3%
PF	Cli. Mikalauskas	SR	2.5	1.7	0.1	52.2%	30.7%	44.4%

Radii · 03-15-2009, 04:14 AM

2012/13 Awards

National Awards

Player of the year: Tre Sanders, PF, Providence (86 OVR) - 20.2 ppg/6.7 rpg

Mid-Major POY: Mike Foye, PF, Gonzaga (85 OVR) - 22.7 ppg/5.8 rpg

Coach of the Year: Roy Williams, North Carolina -- don't you retire just yet buddy, you're only 63.

Defensive POY: Nehemiah Bozeman, SF, Texas Tech (88 OVR) - 12.4 ppg/6.6 rpg

Freshman POY: Fab Corrigan, SG, Vanderbilt (80 OVR) - 13.3 ppg

First Team All-Americans:

PG Errick Hayes - Villanova - 89 OVR - 19.8 ppg/3.8 rpg/3.1 apg
SG Deron Frandsen - North Carolina - 90 OVR - 20.4 ppg/5.3 rpg/3.0 apg
SF Ronald Power - Texas Tech - 90 OVR - 15.8 ppg/5.7 rpg/2.3 apg
PF Tre Sanders - Providence - 86 OVR - 20.2 ppg/6.7 rpg
C Jordan Stehly - Oregon - 89 OVR - 20.0 ppg/5.5 rpg

All five are seniors.

MAC Awards

coach of the year: Billy Kennedy - Kent State

Player of the Year: C Colin Wierzba - Kent State - 85 OVR - 22.5 ppg/7.5 rpg

Freshman of the year: PF Elton Falls - Buffalo - 75 OVR - 7.8 ppg/6.2 rpg

MAC First Team:

PG Mychal Beckwith - Toledo - 75 OVR - 15.7 ppg/5.2 apg
SG Cruz Garner - E. Michigan - 74 OVR - 11.2 ppg/4.4 rpg
SF Anil Akins - Bowling Green - 82 OVR - 16.2 ppg/8.4 rpg
PF Garrett Dearman - Buffalo - 76 OVR - 17.0 ppg/5.8 rpg
C Colin Wierzba - Kent State - 85 OVR - 22.5 ppg/7.5 rpg

All 5 are seniors.

Second Team All-MAC

PG Drake Massey - Ohio - 73 OVR - 11.8 ppg/3.0 apg
SG Arzelle Cooper - Ohio - 77 OVR - 11.1 ppg/2.6 rpg/2.3 apg
SF Vern Pettyjohn - Ball State - 83 OVR - 11.9 ppg/8.0 rpg
PF Kyle Caskill - C. Michigan - 74 OVR - 16.2 ppg/5.5 rpg
C Ernesto Desilos - E. Michigan - 76 OVR - 16.6 ppg/7.4 rpg

All but Cooper are seniors. Cooper is a sophomore.

MAC Freshman All-Conference

PG Filip Nance - W. Michigan - 65 OVR - 6.8 ppg/5.0 apg
SG Brian Crandle - Miami OH - 76 OVR - 9.0 ppg/2.6 apg
SF Tim Krymski - Toledo - 71 OVR - 6.8 ppg/5.0 rpg
PF Elton Falls - Buffalo -75 OVR - 7.8 ppg/6.2 rpg
C Rylan Gabler - Miami OH - 69 OVR - 5.8 ppg/5.1 rpg

Not a lot of Ohio Awards with the whole balanced offense thing going on.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 04:16 AM

Transfers

Not too surprising. Arnaud Dahi has left the team. He would have been a senior last year and possibly been a backup... but with Danelius, Delic, Sessoms and Watson... probably not. I'm hoping that losing a big man helps slightly with the big men i'm recruiting.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 06:03 AM

No coaching points for me this season.

Coaching Carousel

DePaul, Nebraska, Washington, Central Florida, and Wyoming are all open in the large and power conferences. I'm not on the initial list for any.

I'm in the top 2 or 3 for all mid-major jobs, MVC, MAAC, WAC, and Sun Belt. I don't intend to leave now though.

Bowling Green's head coach takes off for Washington.

The first job I show up for at all is Bowling Green, about 8 jobs down by the time the other schools that have openings b/c of the guys that took the top jobs get done.

My first actual offer is Manhattan in the MAAC, followed by some of the lower MVC and WAC schools.

Nevada's head coach takes over the Nebraska job, noteworthy because Nevada has been in the top 10 in the mid-major poll consistantly.

I end up keeping both my assistant coaches, I'm tempted to hire a couple guys that would give me some discipline but it would require too big a drop in things i'm already counting on my assistants for (scouting).

Radii · 03-15-2009, 06:06 AM

Transfer Review

Ohio didn't have a spot open for a transfer player this year.

Miami Oh is the only MAC team to receive a transfer, a 70 rated PG from Saint Mary's who will have 2 years of eligibility left.

Arnaud Dahi left us for CSU Bakersfield. Hopefully he succeeds there.

One other noteworthy transfer, Louisville lost an 84 rated PG. He's headed to Alabama State for his final season of eligibility.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 06:28 AM

Offseason Recruiting

We have 3 scholarship offers and haven't filled any yet. We have two needs, both fairly critical. We need a PG, and we need a big man. The big man isn't likely to be a factor next season but will help with the severe depth problems we'll suffer when Sessoms, Danelius and Delic all leave next year.

A decent PG would backup Flowers this year and start for 3 seasons ideally.

So we have two offers out:

PG Michel Murphy - #179 OVR/#55 PG. He's from Michigan and seems to want to go to Detroit, but they haven't made him an offer. We have, and hopefully he'll come here. We have him at 100%

C JR Keller - #424 OVR/#26 center - Keller is from California. We have him at 99% so he won't sign right away. No one else is after him, Nevada and Saint Mary's woudl have a good shot if they jump on him. Hopefully we can pull him in week 2.

A 3rd scholarship opened up with Dahi transferring. I'll have to scout around for that.

We have a backup target at each position... but only one. Things are pretty damn thin here, hopefully we get our two guys, but if we don't this could get really bad.

Opening Signing Day

PG Michel Murphy signs with us! The PG is the most important of the two so I'm very pleased with this. More on Murphy when we summarize recruiting later on.

Our backup PG target, R Parsons(another guy with just a letter for a first name...) signs with MAC rival Kent State.

Our backup C target, Marin O'Sullivan, signs with Central Michigan.

I really only see one suitable target for my 3rd scholarship, a PG from Dallas named David Mendoza, #183 overall/#58 PG. I go ahead and offer him now, he's only at 63% but he doesn't have any other offers.

End of Week 1

Center JR Keller signs with OHIO! Even if we don't fill this 3rd scholarship this gives us our two top targets and fills the positions we needed filling.

I find a JC SF that I might have some interest in as well. With House likely redshirting next season, I would likely end up using a SG to backup Lufkin, and that'll probably be fine. But I'd have a use for a serviceable small forward as well.

End of Week 3

So much for the SF. PG David Mendoza signs with OHIO. That completes our recruiting class for this season. I have some juniors, almost all big men, that i'm working a bit on, and i continue to call them in the final couple weeks.

Recruiting Class Summary

3* PG Michel Murphy - #179 OVR/#55 PG

6'1" 179 lbs out of Rochester Hills, MI

Shooting: A-
Skills: B+
Defense: B+
Athleticism: A-
Rebounding: C+
Intelligence: C+
Potential: B
Size: C+

Murphy did not play in the ABL.

I don't know if there is any reliability at all given my level of scouting to the individual scouted grades. We have him as a good defender and an above average shooter. A poor ball handler, which will be interesting to see if that is true.

3* C JR Keller - #424 OVR / #26 C

6'10" 206 lbs out of Fremont, CA

Shooting: C+
Skills: C+
Defense: B
Athleticism: C+
Rebounding: B+
Intelligence: B-
Potential: B+
Size: A-

I primarily went after Keller because of his ABL stats. 14.4 ppg/11.8 rpg. 47% shooter.

We scout his individual grades out to be an average rebounder, above average post skills, espicially on offense, and an above average close range shooter. Again, we'll see.

PG David Mendoza - #183 OVR / #58 PG

6'2" 171 lbs out of Dallas, TX

Shooting: B+
Skills: A-
Defense: A-
Athleticism: A-
Rebounding: C
Intelligence: B-
Potential: B-
Size: C+

Mendoza averaged 8 points and 4 assists a game in the ABL. He was a godawful shooter, 26% from the field. We show him as an above average defender, a good steals guy with an above average jumper and ball handling skills.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 06:31 AM

2013 Recruiting Class Rankings

1. Duke
2. North Carolina
3. Texas Tech
4. Rhode Island
5. Arizona State
6. UConn
7. Kansas State
8. Villanova
9. Virginia Tech
10. Florida

Ball State pulls in a class ranked in the 40s, they land a 4* player and 2 3* guys.

Ohio is ranked around 57th or so with our 3 3* guys. We have the #2 MAC class this year.

Eastern Michigan looks to have the only other class in the top 100.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 06:34 AM

For the first time ever, I'm basically fine with my schedule as is. I delete a november game, trying to make sure there are no cases where I play 3 games in a week, and add a game in late december to replace it. But I've got a full slate of mid majors and smaller conference schools. We'll play Campbell, Butler, Wichita State, and a bunch of schools like that.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 06:56 AM

Incoming Recruits

Not bad, not bad at all. All three of my recruits come in rated 69 OVR.

PG Michel Murphy isn't the best ball handler in the world, 77 hands/78 passing. He's very fast(90) though not as quick(80). He will be an outstanding defender(84 already) and a decent steals guy(72). He has the potential to be quite a scorer. 72 med/78 3, with a 78 shooting off the dribble rating. With his poor ball handling he may make an ideal SG someday. I'm incredibly happy seeing the good 3 point shot and the great defense rating right out of the gate. Potential: C

PG David Mendoza - More of a pure PG, 84 handling/74 passing, both above average. 88 speed/81 quickness. He's an above average defender (80) and an average to above average shooter (69 med/76 3). He's not as good off the dribble as Murphy, just 73. He has C- potential.

C JR Keller has some solid post skills, 81 post offense/75 post defense, both solid for this level. I'm disappointed by his rebounding numbers, 76 offense/74 defense. He's strong (77) and has good offensive awareness(71). He's rated 85 in close and 82 in traffic. Neither are great but netiher are terrible either. C+ potential hopefully means that I can have him work his ass off on the boards and improve.

There is a legitimate case to be made to start Mendoza or Murphy both at PG over Flowers. I likely will not do that from the outset though. Flowers will start but either guy could take his job.

Offseason Development

The most exciting news is that Daryl Delic has gained 2 overall ratings points and goes into his senior season rated 80 OVR! My first 80 rated player.

Wait, no, my most exciting news is that Wendell House shows up as uninjured. I don't know if I counted some days wrong, or if no injuries are multi-season, or if the injuries don't show on this first day of the season... we'll see, but I might have House completely available.

We have 7 players rated higher than 70 OVR, and all 3 freshman rated 69. Lamkin and Flowers are both in the mid-60s and contributed nicely last year. This looks like a ridiculously strong roster overall... IF one of these guys can turn into a solid PG for me.

Roster overview and starting the season later on...

I glanced through the overall roster strength's of the MAC teams. Our roster strength is listed at 82. We are far and away the strongest team in the conference on paper. Someone was at 79, someone at 78, one or two teams at 77, and a lot of teams 76 and below. Kent State got ravaged by graduation and may be the worst team in the league. With Delic, Cooper, and House, we may well be starting 3 guys that are rated higher than everyone on a couple teams.

Of course, we know ratings aren't everything. *espicially* with an inexperienced PG.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 03:35 PM

2013/14 Ohio Roster

In the end I decide to go against what I said earlier about starting Flowers, the AI recommends Mendoza and he is the best ball handler... but Murphy is the better offensive player, better defender, and better passer than Mendoza. With Murphy and Cooper up front I'll have the best defensive backcourt I've ever had.

Starting Lineup

PG Michel Murphy - FR - 6'2" 179 lbs - 69 OVR

90 speed/80 quickness. only 77 ball handling(that's a D grade) but a C+ Passer(78). He is our best PG defender (84) and shooter (74 close/72 med/78 3). 78 shooting off the dribble isn't bad either. Pretty good hustle (75) and an ok vertical (72).

SG Arzelle Cooper - JR - 6'5" 200 lbs - 78 OVR

90 speed/85 quickness. 82 handling which is better than Murphy, but he's a bad passer(67). He's our best defender(86) and a very good steals guy (78). 78 close/76 med/78 3 makes him our best shooter. He's not great off the dribble but Cooper tends to spot up from 3 or drive all the way to the basket.

SF Wendell House - JR - 6'9" 205 lbs - 75 OVR

84 speed is great for a big SF. He has a great vertical(84), above average hustle, he's a very good dunker (89), pretty good off the dribble and in traffic both (76/83). 87 close/72 med/71 from 3. He is a very good athlete and is best attacking the basket. He's not the best defender(77).

PF Daryl Delic - SR - 6'7" 226 lbs - 80 OVR

Very good rebounder (84 off/80 def), good in the post on offense(81), not as good on d(73). 93 close/72 mid range shot, and a great 91 shooting in traffic rating. He's got good hands for a big man, averaged 11.7 points/game last year.

C Kenan Sessoms - SR - 7'0" 268 lbs - 72 OVR

Size wins. Watson will have to be a backup this year, he'll get two strong years starting after Delic leaves though. Sessoms is only average on the boards (82 off/78 def), he's our best post defender (82) and isn't bad on offense either (79). 83 close/85 in traffic aren't great, but his size gets him by.

Bench Players

PG David Mendoza - FR - 6'3" 174 lbs - 69 OVR

88 speed/81 quickness, 84 handling/74 passing. 80 defense. That isn't spectacular but its still quite good. 76 close/69 med/76 3. He's poor in traffic (73) and not great off the dribble either(also 73).

PG Dee Flowers - SR - 5'9" 161 lbs - 65 OVR

Based on the numbers both of my other two PG's look better than flowers. Flowers is a senior. The reason he's not starting is that he was a JC player and a backup last year... a new starter will be able to pass Flowers in game experience before the end of the year. 84 speed/82 quickness. 79 defense, the worst of our 3 PG's. 82 handling/76 passing. 79 close/72 med/73 3. 77 off the dribble and he showed he can make some big 3's last year.

SG Chuck Lamkin - SO - 6'4" 203 lbs - 67 OVR

82 speed/83 quickness. 77 defense, poor. 83 handling, 83 close/64 med/75 3. He was pretty good at getting to the basket last year and drawing contact. He also got hot from 3 at times.

SG Shawn Garcia - FR(RS) - 6'5" 199 lbs - 66 OVR

Garcia redshirted last year in a close decision by me to go with Lamkin instead. He isn't better than Lamkin in any way. 77 defense, 82 speed/77 quickness, 80 handling/67 passing. 77 close/71 med/74 3. Garcia might be my reserve guy, and he might transfer away on me.

SF Kaylen Lufkin - SO - 6'8" 206 lbs - 74 OVR

84 speed/83 quickness, extremely good for a SF. He is, as I've said before, House lite. 73 defense is a big liability though. 82 close/71 med/71 3. I use him like I use house, just not as often or effectively. I love him off the bench though.

PF Curtis Watson - SO - 6'10" 243 lbs - 74 OVR

Watson will be taking over for Delic after this season. Watson grew an inch, he was 6'9" last year. He's our best overall rebounder (88 off/84 def). He's a poor post offensive player(69) but a very good defender(78). 88 close/90 in traffic indicates he should be better on the offensive end than he was for me last year. He'll get his minutes backing up Delic though.

PF Eni Danelius - SR - 6'8" 221 lbs - 75 OVR

A good overall rebounder (81 off/80 def), just average in the post though (73 off/68 def). 93 close/81 in traffic. He was a decent backup for me last year, another two year guy here as he had transferred in from Utah.

C JR Keller - FR - 6'10" 214 lbs - 69 OVR

Major weakness as a rebounder compared to some of these other guys. 76 off/74 defense, just not good. Pretty good in the post(81 off/75 def), 85 close/82 in traffic, there's some offensive ability there. Watson and Keller will make a nice front court as upperclassmen I hope(well no, I hope I recruit a 7 foot center who comes in rated 75 OVR and Keller is a career backup... but based on what I've got now

).

I've really got 13 guys here who would get playing time on many teams. that's an awesome problem to have.

I think I'm going to set up 3 rotations.

Starters:

PG Murphy
SG Cooper
SF House
PF Delic
C Sessoms

1st half backups:

PG Mendoza
SG Lamkin
SF Lufkin
PF Watson
C Keller

2nd half backups:

PG Flowers
SG Lamkin
SF Lufkin
PF Danelius
C Watson

Basically trying to give minutes to Mendoza and Flowers, Danelius and Keller... if someone earns more minutes or plays far better than someone else I may drop down to just 10 men later in the year.

Garcia is just left in the cold I think. He's the odd man out on what appears to be a very strong 13 man team.

One note, I have pondered redshirting Keller, but I do believe he cared about his playing time, and I cannot afford to risk him transferring away when all these other guys graduate. Danelius is a senior. I don't really want to, but if confidence becomes an issue some of the senior backups might get screwed to keep the future players happy.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 04:03 PM

Recruiting Preview

We're losing 4 seniors:

PF Delic - 80 OVR, starter, key player

C Sessoms - 72 OVR - starter, lots of height

PG Flowers - 65 OVR - backup, other recruits have outpaced him

PF Danelius - 75 OVR - backup

So we're losing a PG that is being relegated to the far end of the bench most likely, and 3 big men, two starters.

We've got 4 scholarships to fill.

2 of our scholarships must go to big men. We've only got 2 PF/C types returning. In a disaster scenario Lufkin and House could both start and play SF/PF since House is 6'9" now but I'd be much happier recruiting 2 natural big men.

We don't have any specific needs anywhere else. Next year House and Cooper will be seniors. As a result, it would probably make the most sense to try to land a center, PF, SF, and SG. But in reality, I think making sure I get two big men, and otherwise, best available player is probably fine.

We have 3 PF's on our target list worth looking at.

PF Lloyd Bright - 4* - #94 OVR - 55% interest. We're 6th on his list. He doesn't have any big schools going after him. Stony Brook and Canisius are his top two schools right now. Since we'd been calling him throughout his junior season I think it makes sense to make a run at him.

PF Nathan Grundy - 3* - #292 OVR - 72% interest. He's 6'11" which immediate attracts our interest. He wants to stay near home, BUT, its not his #1 priority(playing time is). So I think we'll go ahead and make a run at him too. We're competing against Troy and Georgia State here... not UGA or Georgia Tech or anything.

Next I check out Mr Basketball in Ohio. He's a 4* guy, #7 PF(though only 6'6"), and he has nearly maxxed interest in Ohio State, Michigan, Xavier and Louisville. this is not the year to try to get Mr Basketball in Ohio.

There's a 3* Center out of Chicago, 6'10" Francis Holt(#161 ovr/#10 C), who has 78% interest in me starting out. He has higher interest in some schools like Indiana and DePaul, so if they like him we're screwed, but the initial interest is high enough that we can easily get him to 100% before the early signing period, and if no one else offers, maybe we get lucky.

There's not nearly as much interest at the other 3 positions. I scout a few guys to see who looks the best for me.

I end up offering my 4th scholarship to 3* SG Adrian Elias, #240 OVR, Mr Basketball in kentucky. He's a long shot with some major conference schools at the top of his list. But, none of the other guards/forwards look quite as good. So we'll take our long shot and if we can't land him during the early signing period, we'll be prepared to work hard on backup targets.

I don't think I have a prayer at all 3 big men I'm offering. I just hope to land 1 in the early signing period to take some pressure off the rest of the season.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 04:21 PM

MAC Season Preview

Either changing my PG, or changing my 12th/13th man dropped me a rating point overall. But we'll see!

1. Ohio 81 OVR
2. Ball State 79 OVR
3. Northern Illinois 78 OVR
4. Eastern Michigan 77 OVR
5. Bowling Green 77 OVR
6. Buffalo 76 OVR
7. Central Michigan 76 OVR
8. Miami OH 75 OVR
9. Toledo 74 OVR
10. Kent State 74 OVR
11. Western Michigan 73 OVR
12. Akron 73 OVR

Even though I know ratings aren't everything, I feel a lot of pressure to win a MAC title this year and/or next. Losing two starters this year, two starters next year, and Delic and Cooper seem like top quality recruits that aren't easy to get at this level, so i don't exactly have guys that are just as good coming up behind them.

Preseason Accolades

Best Overall Player: PF Daryl Delic - SR - Ohio - 80 OVR
Best Freshman: SF Fab Minoff - FR - Ball State - 73 OVR
Best Shooter: SG Gary Edelin - SO - Ball State - 79 OVR
Best Playmaker: SR Amir Bridges - SR - Miami OH - 71 OVR
Best Pro Prospect: C Rans Lemons - SR - Central Michigan - 79 OVR
Best Defener: PF Daryl Delic - SR - Ohio - 80 OVR

Gary Edelin at Ball State is going to be a tremendous player over the next 3 seasons. He's actually a rookie, was a JC recruit. He does absolutely everything well, speed/quickness/defense/handling/shooting.

we play 5 total games before the early signing period opens up. I'll likely only play two of them in an effort to get to that early signing period ASAP. I'll play my first game later tonight.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 10:52 PM

November 8, 2013

Ohio (0-0) vs Wisconsin-Green Bay(0-0)

We open the season against a fellow mid-major from the Horizon league. They are rated 77 OVR (77 off/77 def/78 sht/81 reb). They are an upperclassmen led team, starting 3 juniors and 2 seniors, all rated between 69 and 73 OVR. They have pretty good depth, going 10 deep with guys rated above 60 OVR, most of them 65+

Scouting

Their best player is SF Delvon Hogan, 83 close/82 med, 88 in traffic. He isn't a great defender and isn't a speedster or ball handler, but he'll be dangerous on offense anyway.

They dont' have anyone rated higher than 70 from 3, and they only have one defender rated over 80(their SG Reginald Tinsley).

Center Gerry Price (70 OVR) is a threat in the post, with a 81 post offense/88 close range shot. I'm not sure how that reconciles with an awful shooting in traffic rating (79), we'll see. He's 6'11” and a good rebounder.

Our team unity starts this year at 44. A lot of their juniors must be new starters, as they only have a 44 unity as well.

Half	Time	OHIO	UWGB	Notes
1	12:40	16	17	As always in our opening few games, we're feeling things out on offense. House has 5 points and 3 assists so far which is nice. Sessoms and Delic each with two post baskets. Murphy's first shot, a drive in transition, was blocked. Backups are in.
1	11:45	18	17	Keller becomes the first of my 3 freshmen to score their first points, going 2-2 at the line after drawing a foul.
1	5:30	28	26	We get a 3 from Mendoza and four from Keller. Lamkin sinks a 3 and Watson gets a bucket in low too, good balanced scoring, but the defense leaves something to be desired. Starters are back.
1	4:40	33	26	House with a bucket inside, Murphy gets on the board for the first time with a 3 pointer, and UW Green Bay calls a timeout.
1	4:30	33	28	Sessoms picks up foul #2. Good excuse to get Keller some more minutes.
	HALF	43	35	Its actually close because we've let them go to the line too much. Its usually the other way around. They're 12-16 from the line. They dont have anyone with more than 6 points, just a lot of balance out there. They're shooting 44% from the floor, only 1-4 from 3, they push it inside a lot. We're 7-10 from the line so not too shabby. We're also 4-7 from 3, and 16-31 from the field, a great start. House is showing no rust at all from his injury, he has 12 points and has been everywhere. He has a 3, a putback, a transition basket and a MONSTER reverse jam coming off a screen down low with Delic. Cooper has 6, mostly from the line from driving to the basket. Keller has 6 as well. I'd be ahead by a lot more but I got excited when Murphy made his first 3 and rushed a couple shots with him, costing us a few possessions.
2	15:20	52	39	House still in control, he's got 4 more for us this half. Cooper has a couple as well. Murphy is looking a little slow and a bit of a liability in transition. He's failed to score on a couple breaks where Flowers picks up an easy 2 nearly every time.
2	12:20	53	41	I bring in my '3^rd rotation', my other backup set that gets Flowers and Danelius some playing time.
2	12:00	56	41	Lamkin drains a 3 and they call a timeout.
2	8:45	64	47	Lufkin with our last 5 points straight to push the lead up to 17.
2	6:10	66	51	Starters come back in to finish out the game.

They never get closer than 11 as we easily finish off the win in our opener. They made it 74-63 with 2 minutes to go, and we got two steals in a row, both leading to absolute monster windmill type dunks from House in transition that ended any hope they had of coming back. The first one got the crowd going in a frenzy, he's even more athletic than I remember him being when he got hurt last year.

Ohio 78
UW-Green Bay 66

We shoot 51% and hold them to 39% from the floor. Our bench put up 27 points, which makes me extremely happy.

Their best player, Hogan, was held to 6 points on 3-12 shooting. Their SG Tinsley ended up making 4 3's and scoring 19 points, their only double figure scorer.

Murphy: 3 points/3 boards/4 assists (1-10 shooting, 1-5 from 3 and he missed a couple midrange jumpers and had 3 different drive to the basket attempts blocked)
Cooper: 13 points
House: 22 points/3 assists
Delic: 7 points/6 boards
Sessoms: 6 points/8 boards

Keller: 6 points
Lamkin: 6 points
Lufkin: 5 points
Watson: 4 points/4 boards
Mendoza: 3 points

The only negative thing I can find to say today is that Murphy was awful driving to the basket. I will have to figure out how to best use him, his defense(which is rated noticibly higher than Flowers or Mendoza) will make me hesitant to make a change.

I'm extremely happy with how the game flows with these guys. We'll find out soon enough whether this was just a good matchup or if we are going to be a legit contender among mid-major schools. I have high hopes.

Radii · 03-15-2009, 11:57 PM

I sim our second game:

at Ohio 77
Butler 57

Mendoza and Lufkin lead us in scoring off the bench with 13 apiece(in 12 and 16 minutes). Delic scores 10, House 8, Cooper 7.

Our next two games are against awful teams rated 65 OVR. I'll sim the first, play the second just to get through my next week of recruiting ASAP.

Nov 20:

at Ohio 81
Binghamton 49

Cooper leads us with 16, House with 15 points/7 boards. Delic with 9. Lufkin with 12 off the bench, Lamkin 9.

... and after my sister calls and wants to meet up for a late dinner(she manages a pizza joint so we try to meet up at 1:30 or 2am once a week to chat, why am I bothering with that detail in my dynasty? Eh whatever!). Anyway, my next 3 opponents are all against teams rated in the 60s that we should beat easily. I'm going to sim them all so I can get through early recruiting now. I'll play out enough games after that to get back to a 50% played ratio before conference play starts(we face some better competition later anyway).

November 26th:

Our first road game and its a challenge despite being against a terrible team

Ohio 71
at Savannah State 69

Delic scores 18, Sessoms 15/9 boards. No one else in double figures. Cooper has 7, House 5(House fouled out in 17 minutes...), Lamkin with 8 off the bench.

and our final game before the recruiting period starts:

Ohio 87
at Illinois-Chicago 53

House scores 19, Delic 16/9 boards, Cooper 11. Lamkin and Sessoms both with 8.

Radii · 03-16-2009, 12:07 AM

On the last day before recruits start to sign, we've got 4 scholarship offers out:

3* PF Nathan Grundy - 6'11" - Atlanta, GA - Grundy looks to be a lock, we've got him at 100% and no one else has any offers out on him.

3* C Francis Holt - 6'10" - Chicago, IL - We have holt at 100%, so does Indiana State. They are listed #1, but I'm not sure if that means we're done for or not. I assume he signs right away with one of us, which will help us figure out what to do elsewhere.

3* SG Adrian Elias - 6'3" - Lexington, KY - We can't land him this week, we've got him at 86%. So we'll end up staying on him and praying. He would rather go to Kentucky, Vanderbilt, or West Virginia. None of them have made him an offer yet. If one does I'm screwed

4* PF Lloyd Bright - 6'7" - Erie, PA - The only top 100/4* guy we're looking at. We've got him up to 79%, which is almost good for 1st on his list. No major schools are in the mix here which makes me assume he's broken in some fashion, but I think I'll take a broken 4* guy if I can get him. Our competition is Stony Brook, Canisius and James MAdison.

Early Signing Period

Francis Holt does indeed sign with Indiana State on the first day. I'm disappointed to lose him.

But there is good news, 3* Center Nathan Grundy signs with OHIO.

Grundy averaged 10 points/8 boards in the ABL and shot 42% from the floor. Our overall scouting ratings on him:

Shooting: B-
Skills: C+
Defense: B-
Athleticism: B-
Rebounding: B+
Intelligence: B-
Potential: A-
Size: A

He looks like an above average inside scorer(B-) who can shoot in traffic(C+). Just average in the post (C/C) and hopefully a defensive rebounding that will come in over 80 (C+). He's an above average shot blocker as well... if you can trust my scout, that is

No one else signed, and isn't likely to by the end of the week, so back to it.

Radii · 03-16-2009, 02:00 AM

A couple other quick recruiting notes:

Nathan Grundy, the guy we signed, is the #292 overall recruit/#46 PF.

The center we lost to Indiana State is ranked #161 OVR/#10 center.

Three other guys we had on our target list signed elsewhere, though none were our first backup choices. A 4* JC PF is going to Miami OH, the #293 recruit, a 3* SG is going to Kent State, and the #401 recruit, a 3* PF is also going to Kent State. So some of our rivals just picked up some pretty fine looking players.

Lastly, I go ahead and offer out my extra scholarship to 3* JC FR SF Dwight Snowden out of Atlanta. We're competing with Jacksonville State for him but it seems very likely that we'll land him. He looks to be an above average defender but probably not so much of a big scorer. Athleticism A-, his hustle and dunk grades are B-/C+, and his steal is B, so i'm hoping he'd grade out to a solid athletic SF.

Radii · 03-16-2009, 02:17 AM

December 4^th, 2013

South Carolina State (1-4) at Ohio (5-0)

A lower rated opponent, but I want to play this one to make sure I can win these games solidly with this team as well... remembering the Longwood disaster from last season. Though SC State is rated a fair bit worse than longwood. 66 OVR (67 off/68 def/68 sht/77 reb).

Scouting

They have a senior center, EJ Chapman, rated 74 OVR. Chapman is a decent scorer(88 close/82 in traffic), 80 post offense rounds out pretty well for him. He's 7 feet tall and averages 13.2 points/game.

All their other starters are freshmen. The highest rated is 63. The lowest is 54. I hope that I don't have to play this one to the end. With our simmed games, our team unity is up to 50. SC State's is 24. That's higher than I expected with 4 freshmen starters.

Half	Time	OHIO	SCST	Notes
1	15:45	15	0	We are 6/7 from the field and 3-3 at the line. They are 0 for everything.

Ok, there is no lapse here vs a worse team. I get to 21-0 and sim the rest.

Ohio 94
South Carolina State 37

Murphy: 6 points/5 boards/7 assists/3 steals
Cooper: 10 points/7 assists
House: 16 points/7 boards
Delic: 18 points
Sessoms: 23 points/7 boards

Mendoza: 9 points
Lufkin: 6 points

Hooray.

Radii · 03-16-2009, 02:24 AM

Our fast start has earned us quite a bit of notice in the mid-major poll.

1. UL-Lafayette (6-0)
2. VCU (7-1)
3. Nevada (9-1)
4. Gonzaga (7-2)
5. Davidson (4-1)
6. Ohio (6-0)
7. Fresno State (6-0)
8. Middle Tennessee (3-1)
9. Arkansas-Little Rock (4-2)
10. Drexel (7-0)

hooray!

Louisiana Lafayette has wins over Villanova and Maryland which has earned them some notice in the bigger polls, they'er a top 25 team right now. Given my schedule strength, even with a few better mid-majors coming up, I assume I'm a good ways off from the top 25.

No other MAC teams are ranked.

Radii · 03-16-2009, 03:45 AM

December 7^th, 2013

Ohio (6-0) at Wichita State (4-2)

A decently rated MVC team – 76 OVR (75 off/77 def/74 sht/81 reb). We barely beat a much, much worse Savannah State team in our first true road game, so I'm taking them seriously.

Scouting

PG Jair Maxiell – SR – 84 OVR – Well then! 6'2” PG - 93 speed/89 quickness/86 vertical. 87 handling/88 passing. 93 defense(!!!!!) 80 steals, 82 close/79 med/75 3. Only averaging 11 points per game so far. I guarentee you he will score more than 11 against us. Also, 93 defense!

SG Willard Archie – SR – 71 OVR – 85 spd/76 quicks, 82 defense which is pretty solid too. 83 close/69 med/63 3, not a great shooter, but 85 off the dribble which might help some. 14.7 ppg so far this year.

SF TR Horton – SR – 59 OVR – 83 close/84 in traffic. That's all he has worth mentioning. Poor defender, poor shooter(54 from 3). Poor physical skills. House could eat him alive.

PF Marion Bird – SO – 67 OVR – 6'8” SF movedu p to PF. Terrible on the boards and in the post. 76 close/69 med/70 3. only 78 in traffic, he shouldn't be scoring a lot. But he does seem to be so far for 10.5 ppg.

C Beckham Timmerman – FR – 68 OVR – Only 6'9”, above average on the boards (78 off/79 def), very good post offense(85), poor post defense(70). 80 close/77 in traffic. A good ball hawk, 78 block/80 steals, so he'll get his hands on the ball on defense. I guess if you get your shot off against him you'll make it, but you'll struggle to get it off. 5.0 ppg.

So its really a question of whether Jair Maxiell can beat us all by himself. Our team unity is up to 50, theirs is 42.

Half	Time	OHIO	WSU	Notes
1	12:20	11	16	They've led most of the way, they just ran off 4 straight to make it a 5 point game. Maxiell has 4 points and 4 assists so far I believe, and he is harassing the hell out of Murphy. Backups are in.
1	4:15	26	27	They took Maxiell out at the 10 minute mark or so. We slowly cut into the lead and have it down to 1 now. The last 2+ minutes the starters have been ready to come back in but I was not about to call a timeout while Maxiell is on the bench. I'd rather play my backups tired than allow him back in the game. They finally take a TO. Starters on the way back.
1	2:25	31	30	House gets by his man for a dunk in the half court set, and Cooper is left unguarded at the top of the key for a wide open 3. Ohio back in the lead for the first time since 4-2 or so.
	HALF	38	36	We took a 38-32 lead but allowed them to score the last 4 of the half. We're shooting 50%, they're at 48%. Fouls are a total non-issue. We've committed 4, they have 3. Maxiell has 8 points, 5 assists and 3 steals. 90+ defense looks like an amazing attribute to have, he got in front of cooper a couple times where Cooper usually glides to the basket for a layup and just said NO, pull up and miss a shot here buddy. Their PF Bird scored 8 aswell. House has 8 for us, and 4 assists. Delic has 7 boards but is 1-6 down low, only 2 points. Cooper has 5. Mendoza was really solid for the backups, scoring 6 points and beating their backup PG a number of times.
2	16:00	46	47	We slowly build up a 6 point edge, playing tough defense and getting good shots by House and Cooper. They come down and make a 3, we turn it over, and they get a 3 point play chance, but they miss the FT and get a board and putback instead. 6 point lead gone. 1 point deficit. Their crowd goes nuts and we call a timeout.
2	15:45	46	47	After the timeout they press. Murphy loses control of the ball, House is there to scoop it up before Maxiell can, they trap House and begin to force a held ball. I call another timeout.
2	13:00	53	54	This half is taking forever. We've committed 4 fouls already after only committing 4 in the first half. We've drawn 7 already and are shooting free throws, after only drawing 3 in the first half. Thanks to all the timeouts and such, starters aren't tired yet, I'm letting them go a bit longer.
2	11:45	56	54	I bring in the backups now. House with a dunk in transition and drawing a foul in the hafl court set our next play, only 1-2 from the line though, putting us up 2.
2	6:10	64	63	Inspired play by our backups. They get a couple blocked shots, a dunk that all give them crowd boosts and Wichita State multiple times threatens to make a run, but we get big stops and claw for baskets and stay with them. Starters are back in.
2	4:00	66	65	Those last two minutes were way more intense than 2 points each... They score to go back ahead, we fail to score on 2 straight possessions, one of them a steal leading to a crowd boost for the Shockers. We hold tight, stall a little on one play and end up getting a run out after a missed 3 pointer leading to a Murphy dunk, putting us back in the lead and forcing a Wichita State timeout. Another small stretch where it feels like we could have given up 4 or 6 points, but didn't.
2	2:30	70	67	Timeout Wichita State as we get two very good baskets in the paint by house and Delic, they scored once on a good look inside too. Their ball.
2	2:25	70	70	Maxiell gets by Murphy and goes straight to the hole... fouled and makes the FT.
2	2:20	70	70	I call a timeout with 3 seconds left to get the ball upcourt... struggling a ton. I've got one TO left.
2	1:45	72	70	They steal a kickout from Sessoms intended for House. We do a great job getting back on D and they miss a quick shot. We get out on the run and House with a layup.

Hah, go go rebounding! We get a stop and get the ball with about a minute left. I'm not trying to kill the clock with just a 2 point lead, so I take my first good shot, an open 3 by Murphy. He misses, but Sessoms grabs the board and kicks it out. Now there's about 45 seconds left. I run the clock most of the way down and Cooper scoots open for a 3 with about 13 seconds left. Its no good but once again Sessoms grabs the board!! He's fouled and comes up big, making both free throws to ice the game.

Ohio 76
Wichita State 72

Maxiell didn't hurt us nearly as bad as I expected. A number of times late in the second half it seemd like he'd make what was clearly a good pass, setting up a shot that, yes, was in traffic, but seemed better than most teams would get from a similar play. And there just isn't enough talent around Maxiell, not enough finishers when he sets them up in great spots.

He did get 16 points/6 assists/5 steals. He annoyed the hell out of me when I was trying to run my offense, but he isn't enough of a scorer to be able to win games for a team like this. Still, on the road against a team with a great player, I'm extremely happy to win.

Murphy: 9 points
Cooper: 10 points
House: 19 points/3 boards/4 assists
Delic: points/11 boards
Sessoms: 9 points/8 boards

Mendoza: 6 points
Lufkin: 5 points

Everyone I've played so far has had a poor defensive SF. I expect to see that a lot in conference play too. I expect House to have a lot of games like this for me. He's not rebounding as much for me as he used to for two reasons I believe. 1) I don't play much 2-3 zone anymore, as my defenders have improved I've switched to almost entirely man to man. So house is out of position for rebounds. 2) I've got some very good rebounders on my team now. Delic, Sessoms, Watson, all outstanding rebounder, they're not letting the SF sneak in there too often and snag one.

Radii · 03-16-2009, 03:55 AM

Bad news at the end of the early signing period. Vanderbilt offers 3* SG Adrian Elias a scholarship and he signs with them.

I go to a backup SG target, 3* SG Erkan Northcutt, the #289 OVR recruit, #88 SG, out of Cleveland, and begin working on him. I wish I could have landed two guys in the early signing period, but I got one that looks pretty decent, and this is a year where I have other options. Last season I had 1 backup for each of my scholarship offers and felt like i might have gotten completely screwed had i missed on anyone. This year i have a deep target list with a number of guys with interest in the 70%+ range that I feel like i can go to if needed and have a real shot.

We've got 5 non-conference games left. One is at a New Orleans team rated around 78 OVR that will be dangerous. One is at home vs a Long Beach State team that similarly rated. The other 3 are against teams rated 70 and below. I'm going to jinx myself COMPLETELY here when I say that it seems completely realistic to go into conference play with a 11-1 record. It doesn't even seem unrealistic to possibly go into conference play 12-0.

Radii · 03-18-2009, 12:57 AM

I simmed our Dec 10th game against Winston-Salem State. They're just terrible. We win 91-50 on 24 and 10 from Delic, 14 from Sessoms, 11 from house.

Then I play out our next game:

December 15, 2013

Ohio (8-0) at New Orleans(2-5)

New Orleans is 2-5 but they have some talented players here. In fact, SG Smackey(yup... Smackey) Davis may be one of the highest rated freshmen in the nation at 80 OVR.

Scouting

PG dreike Sherrod – SR – 67 OVR – 88 speed but only 75 quickness, good defender (83), just an average ball handler. 80 close/69 med/69 3, not scary but will hit the open shot. 83 shooting off the dribble which is very very good and might enhance those shooting numbers a bit. 9.4 ppg.

SG Smackey Davis – FR – 80 OVR – Davis is pretty fast (87 spd/81 quickness), a very very good defender(85) and a heck of a shooter(86 close/85 med/76 3). He's just above average off the dribble (77) and not good in traffic (72) which we are glad to see. One of the higher consistency ratings I've seen (78), and very good physical abilities for a SG (82 vert/72 str/88 hustle/87 sta/86 dur). Those all probably bump his rating up a good deal. Wow, #28 recruit in the nation last year, Mr Basketball in LA. Just 9 ppg so far. I bet he torches us.

SF Treg Jackson – SO – 78 OVR – Another 4 star recruit – 6'8”, great rebounding (84 def), quite a good defender (82) for a SF(that's B quality). 82 close/73 med/65 3. 80 in traffic. Very good awareness, 73 off/75 def. 10.6 ppg/5.7 rpg so far this year.

PF Alton Bone – FR – 68 OVR – 6'9”, just average on the boards (79 o/75 d), poor in the post (69/69), 77 close/81 in traffic, and only 5 points/game. Does not look like a threat at all.

C Elvin Horton – JR – 78 OVR – 7'1”, incredible post offense(88), 88 close/88 in traffic. Those ratings + 7'1 looks like a scoring machine. Good shot blocker and good steals for a big man(73, A- rating). Above average rebounder. Somehow only 12 ppg.

So we have two advantages here:

Their team unity is terrible. Only Horton has more than 2 bars of experience. 54-32 unity edge in our favor.
They only have 6 players rated over 60. If we can get them into any foul trouble at all, or just keep them working all game, we can find an edge.

Still, I'm extremely worried about this game, on the road against 3 very talented players.

Half	Time	OHIO	NO	Notes
1	16:10	6	8	Wow. Their star SG, Davis,goes down with an injury. No word on the duration yet. We've drawn one foul on Bone and one on Horton so far. Would love to get Horton into foul trouble. We've got fouls on Cooper and Sessoms.
1	14:55	9	8	Horton gets caught in no mans land between Sessoms and House after a screen, House drives and draws the blocking foul. Horton sits.
1	13:30	10	12	Backups are in. We struggle to score so far, two at the line, a putback by Sessoms, a 3 by cooper and a 3 by Murphy.
1	12:45	15	12	A quick 5 by Mendoza (backup PG) put us back ahead. We learn that Spanky Davis has strained ligaments and has been cleared to return. New Orleans immediately calls a timeout to get him back in.
1	10:30	17	12	Another timeout by New Orleans. Keller gets a basket after about 4 shots. One thing we're doing real well today is getting on the offensive glass.
1	5:45	22	20	Starters are back in. We've got 4 fouls, they have 6, not a big difference except no one for us has more than one. Both of their starting big men now have 2.
1	2:05	26	27	Close, back and forth game so far. NO burns another timeout. Looks like they have 4 backups in for the final 2 minutes, lets see if we can do anything here.
	HALF	27	35	4 backups my ass haha. We hit a free throw. They hit 2 3's and get a dunk off a steal. Ergh. They're up 8 at the half. Their quality SF, Jackson is hurting us the most with 10 pints on 4-6 shooting. Davis only had 3 points in 14 minutes. Backup PG Bouma is 3-3 from 3. We're struggling to find consistent scoring. Cooper has 5, House 4, Mendoza 5 off the bench. Sessoms has 4 offensive boards but only 2 points. We're 4-9 from the line and 2-12 from 3. Just 10-33 from the field overall.
2	12:30	46	52	Well we're struggling a ton to stop them. We've only drawn one foul so far this half. Its on their starting PF which is his 3^rd and good, but we need the center out of there. Horton has 8 this half so far, their SF has two 3's and their PG has gotten to the hoop a few times. They've stayed mostly in a 2-3 zone which is probably why i'm struggling to draw fouls. It has left me open and Cooper and Murphy have both come through. Cooper has 9 this half, Murphy has 8 for almost all our points(2 3's each I believe) Backups are in.
2	10:10	53	56	They took out 3 starters at the last break and we capitalize immediately. Open 3 from Mendoza and a couple fast break buckets. They just took Horton out after a foul right now at the 10:10 mark.
2	8:50	58	58	Mendoza is on fire from 3,he hits another, and Watson gets a bucket inside. We've managed to tie it up. This forces another new Orleans timeout. They only have one left. I'm going to try to not use any unless I absolutely must, as we should have a major edge at the end of the game as a result, espicially if they can't give their guys a rest.
2	8:10	58	64	Heh oh lord. They get 6 points in 40 seconds, a midrange jumper, a layup and a foul after a steal, and a bucket after the missed FT/offensive board.
2	6:30	61	69	Our starters are back in. We've got 7 fouls now, just a terrible rash of reach in fouls and stupid fouls inside...
2	4:00	6 5	75	Well, we've fouled out their PF. But man we are struggling. I think the only fouls we've drawn this entire half are the 3 on their PF. Cooper and Murphy have each hit a shot but we can't get to the hoop or get our post guys scoring at all.
2	2:55	67	75	Wow,this might have sealed the loss. It sure feels like its leaning that way. We get a fast break layup from Cooper. Then Sessoms blocks horton, the first time we've stopped him all half, but Murphy misses a wide open 3 on the other end. Then, House with a steal,but a feed into sessoms turns into a turnover... a chance for a 6-0 run in less than a minute and instead we come out of it with 2 points and their crowd giving them a boost thanks to the turnover.
2	1:30	69	82	We get another stop and score to cut it to 6. They hit a 3 to make it 9, we turn it over twice in a row and they put it out of reach.

We had to lose sometime . This was a 2-5 team but they have some very talented players. In the end we couldn't neutralize them enough, either through foul trouble or just running them down. The score looks much worse than it is b/c I stall away the last 1:30 and they keep jacking up shots ASAP.

New Orleans 90
Ohio 69

Their SF, Jackson scored 24 and got 7 boards. Horton had 14 and 7 boards in only 20 minutes. Oh, and 5 blocked shots.

Murphy: 13 points (3-8 from 3)
Cooper: 19 points (3-8 from 3)
House: 4 points
Delic: 3 points/5 boards (1-6)
Sessoms: 3 points/7 boards (1-7)

Mendoza: 14 points (4-6 from 3)

House's first poor game, Jackson was a good defender and they had quality and size inside most of the time to make it hard for house to drive to the basket consistently.

Of course, it figures that the second I mention the potential of going undefeated in non-conference play, we lose

Radii · 03-18-2009, 03:11 AM

We fall one spot to 7^th in this week's mid-major poll. Only the top team, UL-Lafayette still,is in the top 25 of the other polls.

December 18, 2013

Long Beach State (4-5) at Ohio (8-1)

Long Beach State is rated 78 OVR (79 off/78 def/81 sht/83 reb). They have a 90 rated coach, quite good (my mediocre skills put me at 78 right now for comparison). They've played a solid schedule and have a win at Washington State, a 2 point loss to BYU, a 1 point OT loss at pepperdine(6-2) and a 5 point loss to gonzaga (9-3/ranked higher than us in the mid-major poll).

Scouting

PG Leonard Songondo – FR – 66 OVR – 86 speed but awful 75 quickness. 81 defense, not bad but not great. He's an outstanding steals guy (86). 75 close/68 med/70 3/78 off the dribble. 5.1 ppg, the other guys out there are way more talented than this.

SG Jim Gross – SO – 75 OVR – 88 speed/85 quickness, 82 defense. 88 from 3. 88!? 9 ppg only. He was the freshman of the year last year in the Big West.

SF Rylan Rothbart – SO – 73 OVR – Poor defense which hopefully means house has another big game. 80 close/73 med/73 from 3, 80 in traffic so he can score inside for sure. 7 points/6 boards a game.

PF Ronnie McDaniel – SR – 78 OVR – 6'7, wow, an incredible rebounder, 90 offensive/87 defensive! 84 post offense/72 post d. 88 close/85 in traffic, not bad from mid-range or off the dribble either(low 70s). Great leaper for a big man, great shot blocker(79). Only 9 points/7 boards so far this year, poor guy is too short or he'd be unbelievable.

C Monty Blizzard – SO – 77 OVR – 6'10” averaging 11 ppg/7 rpg. Another very very good rebounder. 82 off/86 def. 86 post defense, holy crap. 93 close/86 in traffic.

This is another team with a few outstanding players but no bench at all. Their backup SF is rated 72 OVR. No one else over 60. Gross' 3 point rating is stunning. So is McDaniel's rebounding. They do some things unbelievably well. It'll just be a question of whether or not they can put it all together on the road against us.

Half	Time	OHIO	LBSU	Notes
1	12:40	13	14	They ran out to a 10-2 lead before we got our act together. Sessoms, unfortunatley, has 3 fouls. I'll sit him the rest of the half. This is one nice thing about having extra depth, though Danelius is a pretty unhappy camper right now so I don't expect a lot of effectiveness from him when I do use him. Backups are in.
1	5:40	28	29	Still a very even game. Mendoza gives us 8 points on 2 3's and a fast break layup. Lamkin and Lufkin both get poitns attacking the basket. Keller, our backup center, picks up 2 fouls, so we have some worrisome foul trouble at the 5 spot. The starters, Danelius instead of Sessoms, are back.
1	2:50	32	29	We go up by 3, the biggest lead of the game for us, as Long Beach State calls a timeout Our defense has been outstanding, House with a couple great defensive plays, Watson with some big boards, and Delic has his first bucket inside which is nice.
	HALF	36	31	Cooper misses a shot as time expired that could have put us up 8, but we're happy with the 5 point lead. Their big men have been dominand, 8 points/8 boards from Blizzard, 8 points from McDaniel. Gross only has 5, which is a relief. Cooper's improving defense seems to really help against good shooters. Backup PG Mendoza leads us with 8 poitns, 2 3's and a transition bucket. House has 6, Delic and Cooper 4. We're struggling inside but that's no surprise against these guys. Cooper is 0-5 from 3 which is hurting.
2	15:10	45	35	A great start, 9-4 run to get the lead up into double digits. But, we missed a chance to completely blow the game open. We had a 9 point lead and had 4 possessions in a row with good chances to score but couldn't make shots.
2	12:00	46	43	Ugh, they score 8 in a row after the timeout. A free throw by House ends the run but the lead is down to 3. Backups are in.
2	8:20	53	43	We're right back up 10, on our own 8-0 run. Mendoza with another 3 and two buckets inside by Lamkin, transition and by beating his man in the half court set. Timeout Long Beach State.
2	5:25	58	46	Excellent defense by the backup squad. Any additionall offense that we got was great, but the fact that we've only allowed 3 points in the last 6:30 is just awesome. Mendoza with another 3 at the end of this stretch to put us up 12. Starters are back in.
2	2:05	58	53	Gross,their sharpshooting guard,is taking over the game. He's scored their last 7 points in a row, while our starters have gone cold. Or it may be more accurate to say that their starters have come back as well and are playing great defense. Either way, timeout Ohio. We're not giving this game away. I substitute Mendoza in for Murphy at PG. Mendoza is better at getting his own shot if he needs to, and has been shooting very well today.
2	0:50	61	53	I'll pat myself on the back here a little. We fail to score but get a stop. We run down 30 seconds off the shot clock the next time we have the ball, Mendoza pump fakes his man into the air, side steps and drains a 3. We go up 8 with less than a minute to go.

We get a steal on a poor pass into the paint by Long Beach State, make a free throw as they foul us, and that is the last points of the game.

Ohio 62
Long Beach State 53

We held them to 37% shooting overall, 21% from 3. We didn't shoot a ton better, 42% ourselves, but its enough. Our bench outscored theirs 32-8, and we outrebounded them by a wide margin, 40-29.

Gross, their good shooting SG, scored 17, most of it in the 2^nd half. Blizzard, their 6'10” center with the 93 close rating scored 12 and had 14 rebounds.

Murphy: 3 points/2 assists
Cooper: 7 points/4 boards/3 assists (2-12 shooting/1-9 from 3)
House: 9 points/3 boards
Delic: 9 points/10 boards
Sessoms: 2 points/3 boards

Mendoza: 17 points
Lamkin: 6 points

Our backups outscored our starters today by a small margin. Defensive second half, as we outscored them 26-22 in the final 20 minutes. That wasn't by design. I wasn't trying to slow the game down or do anything fancy, I was just trying to run my offense and had a hell of a time doing it. But at the same time, so did they. Lots of 2 minute stretches where one team would score 2 and that was it.

Radii · 03-18-2009, 03:31 AM

That win was the only game of the week for Ohio and we move back up to #6 in the mid-major poll

Our final two non-conference games are ones that we absolutely should win. I'll sim the first one against a horrible Campbell team, and play the second. Exactly how horrible is Campbell?

Ohio 96
Campbell 42

Delic 25/10, House 13/10, Sessoms 13/6, Cooper 12, Lufkin 12, Mendoza 8.

That was our only game for that week as we quickly approach January. No change at the top of the mid-major poll. I see Kent State is gone though.

One final note for the night... David Mendoza has made a strong case on the court for a starting point guard spot the last few games. He's outscoring and outshooting Murphy, despite being slightly behind Murphy in all offensive categories except offensive awareness(65 for mendoza/63 for murphy). Murphy is better off the dribble, better mid range, better from 3, they're the same in traffic. The BIG difference is the shooting motion. Mendoza has an almost instant release. I usually can't even let go of the shot button before the shot is gone if I'm not thinking about it in advance. Murphy has a fairly high elevation on his jump shot. He has a nice, clean release and its easy for me to always get a perfect release, but he has to be a lot more open to get an "open shot" i think.

I really don't' want to upset the apple cart too much, I'm 10-1 and things are going great, so I'm not making a lineup change, which can really mess up players' confidence. Also, I am reminding myself I chose to start Murphy not just b/c he looked a better shooter, but he is a better defender. I might rotate Murphy and Mendoza separately from the rest of the rotation and have each of them play closer to 20 minutes instead of getting Murphy 28-29 and Mendoza 13-14 and see how I feel about things after a few more games.

I've had players go on hot streaks before for what seemed like a number of games in a row and then either go back to normal or just go super cold for a bit. I don't know if that's really tracked game to game by the AI or not, but its at least felt that way. I would not be surprised to see Mendoza have a few 1-7 from 3 type games in the near future and cool back down.

Radii · 03-18-2009, 08:30 PM

December 30, 2013

IUPUI (3-7) at Ohio (10-1)

Should be an easy win to get us into conference play on a good note. They're rated 68 OVR (68 off/70 def/68 sht/78 reb).

Scouting

They have 3 straters rated 60 or below.

Starting PF is Trace Walker, a 6'9” senior, average on the boads, average/below average in the post, 84 close/86 in traffic, so he has some potential to score. Averaging 7.6 ppg/6.6 rpg.

Starting C is Allen hopes, 6'11” senior. Poor rebounder, good post offense, very poor psot defense(66). 86 close/89 In traffic, and 78 block which is pretty solid(B level rating for a PF, Allen's natural position). 15.1 ppg.

Their backcourt is bad. No one available rated over 60, no defenders rated over 80, no 3 point shooters rated over 70, really nothing that scares me at all.

Half	Time	OHIO	IUPUI	Notes
1	14:05	9	9	Our offense is struggling way more than it should, we just got Cooper going a bit though, he has our last 4 points in the last 90 seconds or so. Mendoza in for Murphy.
1	12:55	9	14	Backups are coming in. IUPUI uses a timeout as we've scored 7 in a row(we were down 9-7).
1	8:15	27	18	Backups are scoring quite nicely, we just gave up a lucky 3 at the end of the shot clock but meh. Lamkin has 9 and is doing really well for us.
1	6:15	34	21	Starters are back, and everything is pretty much going to plan now.
	HALF	43	28	We've built up a solid 15 point lead and things are looking good. Lamkin is 5-5, 2-2 from 3 and has 12 points in 7 minutes. Mendoza has 6 off the bench. Delic and Murphy has 6, the most of any starters. Cooper is cold and House not terribly involved. I've been actively trying to get Delic more involved, but he's just 2-5 from the floor so far.
2	16:00	53	34	House with a monster reverse jam, forcing a IUPUI timeout. But its been all about Delic so far this half. He's 3-4 and is up to 12 total points on the game, 6 already in the half. Mendoza is coming in for Murphy.

I take a 60-35 lead with about 13:30 to go and quick sim from there.

Ohio 84
IUPUI 53

11-1 in non-conference play, a great start to the season!

Murphy: 6 points/4 assists
Cooper: 9 points
House: 18 points/7 boards
Delic: 16 points/10 boards
Sessoms: 6 points/10 boards

Mendoza: 6 points
Lamkin: 12 points
Lufkin: 7 points

Delic and House were the leading scorers when I simmed it, solid games for both.

Radii · 03-18-2009, 11:55 PM

January 5, 2014

Ohio (10-1, 0-0 MAC) at Eastern Michigan (4-8, 0-0 MAC)

While Eastern Michigan is only 4-8, they're much higher rated than our second opponent (Kent State) so we're going to play out the road game here. EMU is rated 77 OVR (76 off/76 def/79 sht/79 reb). We should be the clear favorites unless there is some awful matchup out there.

Eastern Michigan started out 4-1. They are on a horrible 0-7 streak, with some legit losses, VCU, Georgetown, Memphis(top 20), and losses to other mid majors around the same level (Delaware and Wright State). Their last loss was to a 3-9 IPFW team out of the Summit league, similar level to IUPUI that we just beat handily.

Scouting

PG WB McCoy – JR - 73 OVR – Looks like their best 3 point shooter(76), and their best defender by far(86, quite good actually). Great speed but not a good ball handler for a PG. 12.0 ppg/4.7 apg.

SG Haris Taft – JR – 72 OVR – Did not start last year. Great speed and quickness (90/88), decent shooter (86 close/77 med/71 3), but he's a poor defender (76), a poor leaper and doesn't hustle... he can shoot off the dribble(82). I'm not quite sure how to factor the speed vs defense vs hustle and such, but I'm hoping that a good handles guy like Cooper can burn him when we have the ball. 7.7 ppg.

SF Freddie Stehly – JR – 74 OVR – average/below average defense(74), not very fast, 86 in close, 75/72 from med and 3 point ranges. Looks like a pretty good leaper and dunker. He scored 10 ppg last year and has elevated his game quite a bit it appears, 15 ppg/5.7 rpg so far.

PF Kentrell Warner – FR – 68 OVR – 6'9”, average on the boards(80/76), average in the paint (73 o/71 d). 81close/81 in traffic. He's got no experience and probably won't be a big threat to us. 4 ppg.

C Dameon Archibong – FR – 67 OVR – Poor rebounder (73 o/76 d), average at best in the post (76 o/73 d), not a shot blocker at all, 82 close/80 in traffic. He's quite average. 5.3 ppg/5.3 rpg so far this year. 6'10”

This is a deep team, 2 bench players rated over 70 and 9 total players rated 67 or greater. All 5 of their starters from last year are back, but only McCoy and Stehly are still starting. They had a SF starting at SG and two poorer big men, so they look quite different.

Half	Time	OHIO	EMU	Notes
1	11:20	19	11	After going up 9-4, they tied it 11-11. We're now on an 8-0 run. Backups are just now coming in as I didn't want to stop the game during this run. EMU just called a time out. Sessoms and Delic have 10 points down low between them. Cooper has 6, and has shown that he just needs half a step to blow by his man for a layup.
1	10:00	24	16	Another timeout by EMU. They get a 3 point play after some poor defense by Watson, we answer with a Mendoza 3 that is just all too easy against a spaced out 3-2 defense(that was the first possession I've seen the 3-2 zone)..
1	6:45	33	20	Another nice run for us as we've pulled out to a 13 point lead. Lamkin has a 3, Keller a hard fought basket inside, we're getting poitns from everyone today.
1	5:00	40	25	Mendoza and Kepper score the rest of our points for the backups, they each have 8 now. Starters are back in and have a 15 point lead to work with.
	HALF	52	39	We allow them to hit 3 3 pointers to close the gap quite a bit. Neither team is playing very good defense at all. We're shooting 62% while they're at 50%. They've gotten 27 points from their starting PG(McCoy 10), SG (Taft 8) and SF (Stehly 9). We need to slow them down a bit next half. House leads us with 9 points. Cooper, Mendoza and Keller all have 8. We're 21-33 from the field and 4-5 from 3.
2	16:50	60	51	Stlil up 9 but we were just up 15, they've made 4 threes this half for all their points. They're kicking the ball around the perimeter a lot and when the ball is on the other side of the court wejust back off too much, and they'er too fast swinging the ball around... so its open 3's every time they want them.
2	14:45	65	51	And 5 points in a row from us forces another EMU timeout. We hopefuly have settled things down.
2	12:25	73	54	We're well in control again by the time our backups come into the game.
2	8:55	81	60	Another timeout for EMU, we're getting points out of everyone again, just got Keller what might have been his first double digit game(can't remember).

It's 90 – 65 a couple minutes later and we sim it out.

Ohio 104
Eastern Michigan 74

30 point road win to open the conference season.

Murphy: 10 points/5 boards/6 assists
Cooper: 15 points
House: 14 points
Delic: 14 points/10 boards
Sessoms: 13 points/5 boards

Mendoza: 15 points
Keller: 11 points/6 boards
Lamkin: 10 points

I love big numbers, I love guys exploding for 30 point games, but its pretty awesome to score 100 and do it without anyone scoring more than 15. Domination at every position.

Radii · 03-19-2009, 12:02 AM

I sim our next game, a home contest against Kent State. They're 8-3 but have a ton less talent, so I'm not sure what to expect, but we pull it out, 78-72.

Delic again dominates in the simmed game, 23 points. Sessoms scores 10, Lamkin 9 and Lufkin 7 off the bench.

This makes us 13-1, 2-0 in the MAC. We're still 6th in the mid major poll, and the top 5 are still the same:

1. UL Lafayette (14-0)
2. Nevada (14-3)
3. VCU (14-2)
4. Gonzaga (13-3)
5. Davidson (11-2)
6. Ohio (13-1)

I'm really hoping we can keep this going and break into the top 25 at some point. Though coming out of a poor conference i don't know if we're capable of getting enough attention for that.

Our next two games are both at home, vs 7-7 Buffalo and 7-7 Akron. Buffalo is rated a little better and is 2-0 in the MAC so far, so we'll play that one out tomorrow.

hoopsguy · 03-19-2009, 06:17 AM

Congrats on the strong start this season. It is especially nice to see you winning non-conference games and early conference games since it has felt like you have usually had to dig out of holes in the 2nd half of the season.

Radii · 03-19-2009, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Congrats on the strong start this season. It is especially nice to see you winning non-conference games and early conference games since it has felt like you have usually had to dig out of holes in the 2nd half of the season.

Thanks

I certainly expected to be better than last year, and expected to compete for a conference championship, but I didn't expect this level of success at all. Of course, I didn't schedule a single team rated any higher than we are, but its been real nice to see consistent wins coming against teams we should be beating.

Radii · 03-19-2009, 06:02 PM

January 15, 2014

Buffalo (7-7, 2-0 MAC) at Ohio (13-1, 2-0 MAC)

Buffalo is rated 76 OVR (77 off/75 def/79 sht/77 reb). Seems like we should have a huge edge, espicially on the boards. Buffalo outplayed their ratings by quite a bit last year, but, they had 3 seniors on that team that are now gone. They are very young now.

Scouting

PG Clark Clement – JR – 71 OVR – 90 speed but 74 quickness. Very good passer, good defender (84). 84 close/68 med/73 3, not great but he'll make shots if open. 9.5 ppg as the only upperclassman on the team.

SG Derwin Sherrod – FR – 68 OVR – Average everywhere. 82 close/71 med/71 3, just 76 off the dribble,don't leave him open but he isn't going to kill me. 80 defense is average, maybe a bit above, but Cooper should do fine anyway. 85 speed/74 quickness, so not a threat b/c of speed. Poor hustle. He is 6'5” but cooper is a nice sized SG too(6'4”) so that shouldn't matter either.

SF Ronnie Burleson – SO – 74 OVR – this is Burleson's first year in the starting lineup. He's decent all the way around, he's good in traffic for a SF, 85(B-), 83 close/76 med/70 3, so not a guy we can just ignore, but not a huge threat either. Average defense(78), decent steals/shot blocking, nothing really stands out though. 8.4 ppg/5.6 rpg.

PF Elton Falls – SO – 76 OVR – 6'8”, started at Center last year but is better at PF. Average on the boards (79 o/77 d), great in the post (83 o/86 d), and a solid scorer. 89 close/86 in traffic, can step out and shoot too, 75 med/70 3. He's a good leaper and is strong for a PF(77 str/B+). 14.7 ppg this year, a solid scoring option.

C JJ Arnold – FR – 71 OVR – badly undersized, 6'6” 228 lbs. Average rebounder (75 o/81 d). Good post offense (82) but horrific post defense(66). 83 close/76 in traffic. He'll be pretty good eventually if he gets moved to PF but he's going to get eaten alive here. 6.5 ppg/5.7 rpg.

3 backups rated 60+ and their backup PG at 59, so they go 9 deep but we have more talent than them pretty much everywhere. We have a massive 56-36 unity edge.

Half	Time	OHIO	BUF	Notes
1	14:45	17	9	Some solid defense and rebounding to open the game, House is out for a quick 4 points, Murphy a 3, Cooper a couple nice buckets, Sessoms with a layin over the 6'6” guy guarding him... all good so far. Timeout Buffalo.
1	12:30	26	9	Well then. Murphy and House each have 8 as I bring the backups in.
1	11:00	30	12	Buffalo hits a 3 to end our long run. I don't remember exactly how long It was, but I know it was tied at 4 at one point, so 26-8 from there.
1	5:10	34	23	We're still up 11 but its a pretty horrid performance by the backups. Buffalo is using a half court trap and playing tighter defense than most teams. It isn't phasing the starters, but the backups seem to be struggling with it a lot. Watson got 4 points and that's it in the last 6 minutes. Starters are back.
	HALF	48	31	They cut it to 9 at 36-27 and we take It back over and push the lead to 17 before the break. Their PG Clement has 8, PF Falls has 8. That is the extent of their production really. We've got 12 from House, 10 from Cooper, 8 from Murphy. Delic and Sessoms combine for 10 points/10 boards.
2	15:25	54	44	They had it down to 8, a Sessoms basket just pushed the lead back to 10. Buffalo is shooting a lot better, which is preventing us from getting out on the break after rebounds, and forcing us to play in the half court against their tight defense a lot more. Right now we're not doing a great job against it.
2	13:00	56	51	After we go up 12 they score 7 straight, their last bucket on a fast break 3 point shot... Murphy misses a 3, they rebound, outlet and Clement pulls up for 3 immediately. I call a timeout and get my backups in to turn things around.
2	10:15	58	58	They tie it up and I call another timeout. Falls and Clement both have 18 now, they're both tearing it up this half. Mendoza has missed open 3's, Lamkin had a drive to the basket stopped with a blocked shot, Keller and offensive board, putback blocked... we've got to turn this around.
2	8:15	66	58	Best timeout ever? We get 4 stops in a row, scoring twice on putbacks, getting a steal in the backcourt with our press, leading to an easy basket, and getting a runout from a long rebound on a missed 3 pointer.. 8-0 run and I feel a bit better now.
2	5:25	72	63	Starters are back in, and we thank the backups for preserving the lead that we worked much of the half to give away.
2	3:00	79	65	The starters continue the run and we should just kill the clock from this point.

And we do effectively close it out the final 3 minutes.

Ohio 85
Buffalo 76

The first 10 minutes of the 2^nd half were pretty terrifying, as we watched them methodically erase our 17 point lead. But they never did take the lead and we got back in control when we needed to.

Buffalo got 25 points from their PG, Clement, and 18 points/11 boards from Falls, their PF. I'll need to remember this game if I play them again... put Cooper on Clement for defensive purposes.

They got 13 steals as we made a number of very poor passes, helping to key their run in the 2^nd half.

Murphy: 11 poitns/6 assists/3 steals
Cooper: 20 points
House: 16 points
Delic: 8 points/8 boards
Sessoms: 6 points/9 boards

Mendoza: 8 points
Watson: 6 points

House didn't really do much at all in the 2^nd half. No one did in the first 10 minutes, and as we pulled away to finish them off, Cooper was getting most of the good looks.

Radii · 03-19-2009, 06:10 PM

I sim our next game against Akron.

Akron 76
at Ohio 74

A surprising loss against a team that has fallen a long way from a couple seasons ago.

Delic had 21 points, House 15, but no one else was effective at all. Cooper only had 3 points.

Our next two are on the road, at Toledo and at bowling Green. They both appear to be of similar quality, so I'll play Bowling Green, a team that has been more of a rival/challenge over the last few seasons.

Ohio 61
at Toledo 42

Strange low scoring contest, we lead 28-13 at the half and score about 30 more to get up to 60.

Sessoms with a big game, 18 points. Cooper scores 10, Delic 7, House 6. We shoot 19-59 from the floor, 4-19 from 3. They turn it over 22 times and only shoot 11-44 from the field, 1-16 from 3.

Despite the loss, we've moved up in the mid-major poll, looks like its due to losses elsewhere.

1. UL-Lafayette (17-0)
2. Nevada (17-3)
3. Gonzaga (14-4)
4. Ohio (15-2)
5. VCU (16-3)

UL-Lafayette and Nevada are both now ranked in the media poll. Our RPI is #37, a lot higher than I expected given that we haven't played a single top 100 team. We are 8-2 vs teams in the 100-200 range and 7-0 against 200+ which counts for something I guess. Bowling Green later!

03-15-2009, 04:21 PM	#332
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	MAC Season Preview Either changing my PG, or changing my 12th/13th man dropped me a rating point overall. But we'll see! 1. Ohio 81 OVR 2. Ball State 79 OVR 3. Northern Illinois 78 OVR 4. Eastern Michigan 77 OVR 5. Bowling Green 77 OVR 6. Buffalo 76 OVR 7. Central Michigan 76 OVR 8. Miami OH 75 OVR 9. Toledo 74 OVR 10. Kent State 74 OVR 11. Western Michigan 73 OVR 12. Akron 73 OVR Even though I know ratings aren't everything, I feel a lot of pressure to win a MAC title this year and/or next. Losing two starters this year, two starters next year, and Delic and Cooper seem like top quality recruits that aren't easy to get at this level, so i don't exactly have guys that are just as good coming up behind them. Preseason Accolades Best Overall Player: PF Daryl Delic - SR - Ohio - 80 OVR Best Freshman: SF Fab Minoff - FR - Ball State - 73 OVR Best Shooter: SG Gary Edelin - SO - Ball State - 79 OVR Best Playmaker: SR Amir Bridges - SR - Miami OH - 71 OVR Best Pro Prospect: C Rans Lemons - SR - Central Michigan - 79 OVR Best Defener: PF Daryl Delic - SR - Ohio - 80 OVR Gary Edelin at Ball State is going to be a tremendous player over the next 3 seasons. He's actually a rookie, was a JC recruit. He does absolutely everything well, speed/quickness/defense/handling/shooting. we play 5 total games before the early signing period opens up. I'll likely only play two of them in an effort to get to that early signing period ASAP. I'll play my first game later tonight. Last edited by Radii : 03-15-2009 at 04:23 PM.

03-13-2009, 10:14 PM	#303
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	We destroy Akron in our simmed game, 80-43. That's a road game, they've just fallen so hard. Delic with 26, Lufkin and Watson with 10, Danelius 11 off the bench. MAC Standings Halfway point of the conference season 1. Buffalo 7-1 2. Ohio 6-2 3. Kent State 6-2 4. E. Michigan 6-2 5. W. Michigan 5-3 6. Toledo 5-3 7. Ball State 4-4 8. Bowling Green 3-5 9. C. Michigan 3-5 10. N. Illinois 2-6 11. Akron 1-7 12. Miami OH 0-8 Eastern Michigan has an RPI in the 60s and if they dominated the 2nd half could potentially be in the mix for an at large bid. The rest of us need to win the conference to have a chance. The MAC is the 16th ranked conference in the nation this year so far, improved over the #19 ranking we had last year, but still not good, and not the type of mid-major that is getting serious at-large consideration. Our next 3 games: at Ball State, vs Toledo, vs Kent State. In fact, we'll sim the Ball State game and play the next two: damn. at Ball State 87, Ohio 72 We get 17 from Massey, 15 from Delic and Lufkin, but very little else. Cooper is worthless with 2 points, WTF! That drops us a little off pace but we can make a big statement in our next two games.

03-14-2009, 02:27 AM	#305
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I posted this awhile back, as part of the conference preview. Best Overall Player - Colin Wierzba - C - 84 OVR - Kent State Best Freshman - Brian Crandle - SG - 75 OVR - Miami Ohio Best Shooter - Terry Bey - PG - 73 OVR - Akron Best Playmaker - Clifford Cesar - PG - 74 OVR - Kent State Best Pro Prospect - Colin Wierzba - C - 84 OVR - Kent State Best Defender - Michael Murphy - SF - 80 OVR - Kent State I point it out now because our next game is a home game vs Kent State. Top of the MAC Standings going into this game: 1. Kent State 8-2 2. Buffalo 8-3 3. Ohio 7-3 4. Toledo 7-4 5. Ball State 7-4 6. E. Michigan 7-4 A win and we are in a 3 way tie with Buffalo for 1st in the MAC. A loss and we're in 3rd place, tied with 4 other teams, 2 losses behind the conference leader. We've got 6 more games on the schedule: vs Kent State (8-2) vs N. Illinois (3-8) vs C. Michigan (4-7) at W. Michigan (5-6) vs Miami OH (0-11) at Buffalo (8-3) After this game, we have 4 very winnable games before a showdown with Buffalo on the last day of the season. With my play 1/sim 1 schedule(which I'm really liking, btw, feels like the perfect dynamic), I'll be playing the Kent State game, the Buffalo game, and against one of the Michigan's. Dunno which yet.

03-14-2009, 04:02 AM	#307
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I'm going to sim our next two. We pull a choke job hosting a poor Northern Illinois team. NIU 71, Ohio 55. we get 19 fro Delic and 10 from Lamkin and are terrible everywhere else. Massey and Cooper combine for 1-16 shooting. We get the win in our next game: Ohio 72, Central Michigan 60 12 from Delic leads us, 10 from Massey, 8 from Danelius, 7 from Sessoms and Cooper. This takes us into our final week of recruiting. Its going to get hairy quick, we only have 2 scholarships to fill, but we're about to lose 1 of the 2 PG's on the roster, and will be losing something like 17 big men over the next two seasons. We need to land two solid players this year to make next year's recruiting less of a bear. MAC Standings with 3 games left: 1. Kent State 10-3 2. Toledo 9-4 3. Buffalo 9-4 4. Ohio 8-5 5. Ball State 8-5 6. Eastern Michigan 8-5 7. Bowling Green 7-6 8. Western Michigan 6-7 9. Northern Illinois 5-8 10. Central Michigan 4-9 11. Akron 3-10 12. Miami OH 1-12 Our next two are Western Michigan and Miami OH. We really, really need to win both of those to help us earn a bye in the conference tournament.

03-14-2009, 05:58 AM	#309
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	March 5th: Ohio 73, Miami (OH) 47 PF Curtis Watson is out with a strained achilles, 28 days. Done for the season. This will move Sessoms up into the starting lineup. Honestly against many teams this may be a benefit given Sessoms' size. The problem is that it moves Dahi into the backup Center role. Dahi, by now, has a confidence of about -5% (seriously, its under 10%). We're 9-6 in conference play going into the last day of the season. With some games having been played already, here's the standings: 1. Kent State 11-5 2. Buffalo 10-5 3. Toledo 10-5 4. Bowling Green 10-6 5. Ohio 9-6 6. Ball State 9-6 7. E. Michigan 9-7 8. W. Michigan 8-7 We can't finish worse than 8th. So technically, if we beat Buffalo and toledo loses we could theoretically finish as the 2 seed going into the conference tourney in a giant 4 or 5 way tie for 2nd. If we lose we could finish as low as 8th. Our final game is at Buffalo. We played a hotly contested game against them earlier in the season, losing 77-74 at home after one or two key plays in the final two minutes went Buffalo's way. I'll likely finish this season tonight after conference tournament play is over for the evening.

03-14-2009, 08:48 PM	#311
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Final MAC Standings 1. Toledo 11-5 2. Buffalo 11-5 3. Kent State 11-5 4. Bowling Green 10-6 5. W. Michigan 9-7 6. E. Michigan 9-7 7. Ball State 9-7 8. Ohio 9-7 9. N. Illinois 7-9 10. C. Michigan 4-12 11. Akron 4-12 12. Miami OH 2-14 Well, I have to say, if we couldn't earn a bye, this is about as favorable as it gets. We beat N. Illinois by 16 at home, though we did choke and blow a game on the road against them. If we can get by them we get Toledo next. Out of the top 3 teams, Toledo is the only one we beat. We also have wins over the 4 and 5 seeds, Bowling Green and Western michigan. Of course we're not guaranteed to win a game or anything, but if we're going to get stuck in the 8 seed, we could have ended up a lot worse(ie Kent State as the 1 seed). I'm hoping to finish out the season after the Big East final.

03-14-2009, 11:32 PM	#313
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	MAC First Round 8. Ohio 78 9. N Illinois 63 5. W. Michigan 84 12. Miami OH 70 6. E. Michigan 69 11. Akron 68 10. C. Michigan 86 7. Ball State 80 MAC Quarterfinals 1. Toledo 8. Ohio 4. Bowling Green 5. W. Michigan 3. Buffalo 6. E. Michigan 2. Kent State 10. C. Michigan

03-15-2009, 01:16 AM	#315
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	MAC Quarterfinals 8. Ohio 73 1. Toledo 69 4. Bowling Green 75 5. W. Michigan 70 6. E. Michigan 75 3. Buffalo 63 2. Kent State 70 10. C. Michigan 67 MAC Semifinals 8. Ohio 4. Bowling Green 6. Eastern Michigan 2. Kent State

03-15-2009, 03:33 AM	#317
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	MAC Semifinals 4. Bowling Green 81 8. Ohio 72 2. Kent State 71 6. Eastern Michigan 46 MAC Finals 4. Bowling Green 97 2. Kent State 63 Seriously, a 34 point win in the finals over Kent State? I don't understand how those guys lost a single game in this conference, much less a 34 point loss like that.

03-15-2009, 03:37 AM	#318
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Real quick before we go through the tournament stuff... I'm pleased with this team this year. It wasn't great, and our raw ratings say that we could be better, but last year was pretty much a disaster. We lost a MAC player of the year, brought in 5 new recruits, lost two starters during the season, and still gelled into a better than .500 team by the time it was all done. Massey is graduating this year so unless something crazy happens, we're going to be starting Flowers at PG with a rookie backing him up. And flowers is a JC guy so he'll only be starting next year. That's going to be four different point guards in four seasons. That's a lot of turnover at the most important position on the floor. Anyway, yes we're losing Massey, but I do believe we can be better than this next year. Here's hoping we can pull 20 wins next season.

03-15-2009, 03:43 AM	#319
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Our 17-14 finish is not good enough for the NIT. 2013 NCAA Tournament 1 seeds: East: North Carolina South: Texas Tech Midwest: Texas West: UCLA That's kind of funny since throughout the entire season, UNC, Duke and Clemson were in the top 5 of both polls every time I looked. clemson ends up a 3 seed and Duke a 2 seed. Speaking of Duke, our tournament winner, Bowling Green, earns the 15 seed in the west and will play Duke in the first round of the tournament. Duke beats Bowling Green 85-62. Final Four East: North Carolina (1 seed, defeated 3 seed Clemson in the elite 8) West: Notre Dame (10 seed, defeated 12 seed UAB in the elite 8, upset city!) South: Texas Tech (1 seed, beat 2 seed West Virginia) Midwest: Providence (4 seed, beat 11 seed Arkansas) North Carolina defeats Notre Dame 99-93 Texas Tech defeats Providence 87-81 Texas Tech defeats North Carolina 83-71 to win the national championship.

03-15-2009, 03:50 AM	#320
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Graduating Seniors PG Drake Massey - 6'1" 211 lbs - 73 OVR Massey started as a freshman, then was relegated to backup duty when transfer PG Wayne Turner came to Ohio. Massey became the starter again as a senior. He played 124 games, starting 68 of them. Career Stats: 9.7 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 3.6 apg, 2.0 turnovers/game for a 1.8:1 a/t ratio. For his career, Massey shot 41.2% from the field, 33.1% from 3, and 65.0% from the free throw line. PF Cliffone Mikalauskas - 6'10" 240 lbs, 70 OVR Mikalauskas was a JC transfer I brought in who got lost in the depth I developed inside. He played two seasons, appearing in 54 games, never starting. Career Averages: 3.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg in 13.9 minutes per game. He was a 51.8% field goal shooter, 71-137. Somehow, he took 20 3's. Somehow,he made 7 of them. He was an awful free throw shooter, career FT % of 52.3%. He was 8-18 as a senior, 44%. That's all I'm losing this year. Of course, Massey was my starting PG this year, so that's always a big loss.

03-15-2009, 04:14 AM	#322
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	2012/13 Awards National Awards Player of the year: Tre Sanders, PF, Providence (86 OVR) - 20.2 ppg/6.7 rpg Mid-Major POY: Mike Foye, PF, Gonzaga (85 OVR) - 22.7 ppg/5.8 rpg Coach of the Year: Roy Williams, North Carolina -- don't you retire just yet buddy, you're only 63. Defensive POY: Nehemiah Bozeman, SF, Texas Tech (88 OVR) - 12.4 ppg/6.6 rpg Freshman POY: Fab Corrigan, SG, Vanderbilt (80 OVR) - 13.3 ppg First Team All-Americans: PG Errick Hayes - Villanova - 89 OVR - 19.8 ppg/3.8 rpg/3.1 apg SG Deron Frandsen - North Carolina - 90 OVR - 20.4 ppg/5.3 rpg/3.0 apg SF Ronald Power - Texas Tech - 90 OVR - 15.8 ppg/5.7 rpg/2.3 apg PF Tre Sanders - Providence - 86 OVR - 20.2 ppg/6.7 rpg C Jordan Stehly - Oregon - 89 OVR - 20.0 ppg/5.5 rpg All five are seniors. MAC Awards coach of the year: Billy Kennedy - Kent State Player of the Year: C Colin Wierzba - Kent State - 85 OVR - 22.5 ppg/7.5 rpg Freshman of the year: PF Elton Falls - Buffalo - 75 OVR - 7.8 ppg/6.2 rpg MAC First Team: PG Mychal Beckwith - Toledo - 75 OVR - 15.7 ppg/5.2 apg SG Cruz Garner - E. Michigan - 74 OVR - 11.2 ppg/4.4 rpg SF Anil Akins - Bowling Green - 82 OVR - 16.2 ppg/8.4 rpg PF Garrett Dearman - Buffalo - 76 OVR - 17.0 ppg/5.8 rpg C Colin Wierzba - Kent State - 85 OVR - 22.5 ppg/7.5 rpg All 5 are seniors. Second Team All-MAC PG Drake Massey - Ohio - 73 OVR - 11.8 ppg/3.0 apg SG Arzelle Cooper - Ohio - 77 OVR - 11.1 ppg/2.6 rpg/2.3 apg SF Vern Pettyjohn - Ball State - 83 OVR - 11.9 ppg/8.0 rpg PF Kyle Caskill - C. Michigan - 74 OVR - 16.2 ppg/5.5 rpg C Ernesto Desilos - E. Michigan - 76 OVR - 16.6 ppg/7.4 rpg All but Cooper are seniors. Cooper is a sophomore. MAC Freshman All-Conference PG Filip Nance - W. Michigan - 65 OVR - 6.8 ppg/5.0 apg SG Brian Crandle - Miami OH - 76 OVR - 9.0 ppg/2.6 apg SF Tim Krymski - Toledo - 71 OVR - 6.8 ppg/5.0 rpg PF Elton Falls - Buffalo -75 OVR - 7.8 ppg/6.2 rpg C Rylan Gabler - Miami OH - 69 OVR - 5.8 ppg/5.1 rpg Not a lot of Ohio Awards with the whole balanced offense thing going on.

03-15-2009, 04:16 AM	#323
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Transfers Not too surprising. Arnaud Dahi has left the team. He would have been a senior last year and possibly been a backup... but with Danelius, Delic, Sessoms and Watson... probably not. I'm hoping that losing a big man helps slightly with the big men i'm recruiting.

03-15-2009, 06:03 AM	#324
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	No coaching points for me this season. Coaching Carousel DePaul, Nebraska, Washington, Central Florida, and Wyoming are all open in the large and power conferences. I'm not on the initial list for any. I'm in the top 2 or 3 for all mid-major jobs, MVC, MAAC, WAC, and Sun Belt. I don't intend to leave now though. Bowling Green's head coach takes off for Washington. The first job I show up for at all is Bowling Green, about 8 jobs down by the time the other schools that have openings b/c of the guys that took the top jobs get done. My first actual offer is Manhattan in the MAAC, followed by some of the lower MVC and WAC schools. Nevada's head coach takes over the Nebraska job, noteworthy because Nevada has been in the top 10 in the mid-major poll consistantly. I end up keeping both my assistant coaches, I'm tempted to hire a couple guys that would give me some discipline but it would require too big a drop in things i'm already counting on my assistants for (scouting).

03-15-2009, 06:06 AM	#325
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Transfer Review Ohio didn't have a spot open for a transfer player this year. Miami Oh is the only MAC team to receive a transfer, a 70 rated PG from Saint Mary's who will have 2 years of eligibility left. Arnaud Dahi left us for CSU Bakersfield. Hopefully he succeeds there. One other noteworthy transfer, Louisville lost an 84 rated PG. He's headed to Alabama State for his final season of eligibility.

03-15-2009, 06:28 AM	#326
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Offseason Recruiting We have 3 scholarship offers and haven't filled any yet. We have two needs, both fairly critical. We need a PG, and we need a big man. The big man isn't likely to be a factor next season but will help with the severe depth problems we'll suffer when Sessoms, Danelius and Delic all leave next year. A decent PG would backup Flowers this year and start for 3 seasons ideally. So we have two offers out: PG Michel Murphy - #179 OVR/#55 PG. He's from Michigan and seems to want to go to Detroit, but they haven't made him an offer. We have, and hopefully he'll come here. We have him at 100% C JR Keller - #424 OVR/#26 center - Keller is from California. We have him at 99% so he won't sign right away. No one else is after him, Nevada and Saint Mary's woudl have a good shot if they jump on him. Hopefully we can pull him in week 2. A 3rd scholarship opened up with Dahi transferring. I'll have to scout around for that. We have a backup target at each position... but only one. Things are pretty damn thin here, hopefully we get our two guys, but if we don't this could get really bad. Opening Signing Day PG Michel Murphy signs with us! The PG is the most important of the two so I'm very pleased with this. More on Murphy when we summarize recruiting later on. Our backup PG target, R Parsons(another guy with just a letter for a first name...) signs with MAC rival Kent State. Our backup C target, Marin O'Sullivan, signs with Central Michigan. I really only see one suitable target for my 3rd scholarship, a PG from Dallas named David Mendoza, #183 overall/#58 PG. I go ahead and offer him now, he's only at 63% but he doesn't have any other offers. End of Week 1 Center JR Keller signs with OHIO! Even if we don't fill this 3rd scholarship this gives us our two top targets and fills the positions we needed filling. I find a JC SF that I might have some interest in as well. With House likely redshirting next season, I would likely end up using a SG to backup Lufkin, and that'll probably be fine. But I'd have a use for a serviceable small forward as well. End of Week 3 So much for the SF. PG David Mendoza signs with OHIO. That completes our recruiting class for this season. I have some juniors, almost all big men, that i'm working a bit on, and i continue to call them in the final couple weeks. Recruiting Class Summary *3 PG Michel Murphy - #179 OVR/#55 PG 6'1" 179 lbs out of Rochester Hills, MI Shooting: A- Skills: B+ Defense: B+ Athleticism: A- Rebounding: C+ Intelligence: C+ Potential: B Size: C+ Murphy did not play in the ABL. I don't know if there is any reliability at all given my level of scouting to the individual scouted grades. We have him as a good defender and an above average shooter. A poor ball handler, which will be interesting to see if that is true. 3* C JR Keller - #424 OVR / #26 C 6'10" 206 lbs out of Fremont, CA Shooting: C+ Skills: C+ Defense: B Athleticism: C+ Rebounding: B+ Intelligence: B- Potential: B+ Size: A- I primarily went after Keller because of his ABL stats. 14.4 ppg/11.8 rpg. 47% shooter. We scout his individual grades out to be an average rebounder, above average post skills, espicially on offense, and an above average close range shooter. Again, we'll see. PG David Mendoza - #183 OVR / #58 PG** 6'2" 171 lbs out of Dallas, TX Shooting: B+ Skills: A- Defense: A- Athleticism: A- Rebounding: C Intelligence: B- Potential: B- Size: C+ Mendoza averaged 8 points and 4 assists a game in the ABL. He was a godawful shooter, 26% from the field. We show him as an above average defender, a good steals guy with an above average jumper and ball handling skills.

03-15-2009, 06:31 AM	#327
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	2013 Recruiting Class Rankings 1. Duke 2. North Carolina 3. Texas Tech 4. Rhode Island 5. Arizona State 6. UConn 7. Kansas State 8. Villanova 9. Virginia Tech 10. Florida Ball State pulls in a class ranked in the 40s, they land a 4* player and 2 3* guys. Ohio is ranked around 57th or so with our 3 3* guys. We have the #2 MAC class this year. Eastern Michigan looks to have the only other class in the top 100.

03-15-2009, 06:34 AM	#328
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	For the first time ever, I'm basically fine with my schedule as is. I delete a november game, trying to make sure there are no cases where I play 3 games in a week, and add a game in late december to replace it. But I've got a full slate of mid majors and smaller conference schools. We'll play Campbell, Butler, Wichita State, and a bunch of schools like that.

03-15-2009, 06:56 AM	#329
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Incoming Recruits Not bad, not bad at all. All three of my recruits come in rated 69 OVR. PG Michel Murphy isn't the best ball handler in the world, 77 hands/78 passing. He's very fast(90) though not as quick(80). He will be an outstanding defender(84 already) and a decent steals guy(72). He has the potential to be quite a scorer. 72 med/78 3, with a 78 shooting off the dribble rating. With his poor ball handling he may make an ideal SG someday. I'm incredibly happy seeing the good 3 point shot and the great defense rating right out of the gate. Potential: C PG David Mendoza - More of a pure PG, 84 handling/74 passing, both above average. 88 speed/81 quickness. He's an above average defender (80) and an average to above average shooter (69 med/76 3). He's not as good off the dribble as Murphy, just 73. He has C- potential. C JR Keller has some solid post skills, 81 post offense/75 post defense, both solid for this level. I'm disappointed by his rebounding numbers, 76 offense/74 defense. He's strong (77) and has good offensive awareness(71). He's rated 85 in close and 82 in traffic. Neither are great but netiher are terrible either. C+ potential hopefully means that I can have him work his ass off on the boards and improve. There is a legitimate case to be made to start Mendoza or Murphy both at PG over Flowers. I likely will not do that from the outset though. Flowers will start but either guy could take his job. Offseason Development The most exciting news is that Daryl Delic has gained 2 overall ratings points and goes into his senior season rated 80 OVR! My first 80 rated player. Wait, no, my most exciting news is that Wendell House shows up as uninjured. I don't know if I counted some days wrong, or if no injuries are multi-season, or if the injuries don't show on this first day of the season... we'll see, but I might have House completely available. We have 7 players rated higher than 70 OVR, and all 3 freshman rated 69. Lamkin and Flowers are both in the mid-60s and contributed nicely last year. This looks like a ridiculously strong roster overall... IF one of these guys can turn into a solid PG for me. Roster overview and starting the season later on... I glanced through the overall roster strength's of the MAC teams. Our roster strength is listed at 82. We are far and away the strongest team in the conference on paper. Someone was at 79, someone at 78, one or two teams at 77, and a lot of teams 76 and below. Kent State got ravaged by graduation and may be the worst team in the league. With Delic, Cooper, and House, we may well be starting 3 guys that are rated higher than everyone on a couple teams. Of course, we know ratings aren't everything. espicially with an inexperienced PG.

03-15-2009, 03:35 PM	#330
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	2013/14 Ohio Roster In the end I decide to go against what I said earlier about starting Flowers, the AI recommends Mendoza and he is the best ball handler... but Murphy is the better offensive player, better defender, and better passer than Mendoza. With Murphy and Cooper up front I'll have the best defensive backcourt I've ever had. Starting Lineup PG Michel Murphy - FR - 6'2" 179 lbs - 69 OVR 90 speed/80 quickness. only 77 ball handling(that's a D grade) but a C+ Passer(78). He is our best PG defender (84) and shooter (74 close/72 med/78 3). 78 shooting off the dribble isn't bad either. Pretty good hustle (75) and an ok vertical (72). SG Arzelle Cooper - JR - 6'5" 200 lbs - 78 OVR 90 speed/85 quickness. 82 handling which is better than Murphy, but he's a bad passer(67). He's our best defender(86) and a very good steals guy (78). 78 close/76 med/78 3 makes him our best shooter. He's not great off the dribble but Cooper tends to spot up from 3 or drive all the way to the basket. SF Wendell House - JR - 6'9" 205 lbs - 75 OVR 84 speed is great for a big SF. He has a great vertical(84), above average hustle, he's a very good dunker (89), pretty good off the dribble and in traffic both (76/83). 87 close/72 med/71 from 3. He is a very good athlete and is best attacking the basket. He's not the best defender(77). PF Daryl Delic - SR - 6'7" 226 lbs - 80 OVR Very good rebounder (84 off/80 def), good in the post on offense(81), not as good on d(73). 93 close/72 mid range shot, and a great 91 shooting in traffic rating. He's got good hands for a big man, averaged 11.7 points/game last year. C Kenan Sessoms - SR - 7'0" 268 lbs - 72 OVR Size wins. Watson will have to be a backup this year, he'll get two strong years starting after Delic leaves though. Sessoms is only average on the boards (82 off/78 def), he's our best post defender (82) and isn't bad on offense either (79). 83 close/85 in traffic aren't great, but his size gets him by. Bench Players PG David Mendoza - FR - 6'3" 174 lbs - 69 OVR 88 speed/81 quickness, 84 handling/74 passing. 80 defense. That isn't spectacular but its still quite good. 76 close/69 med/76 3. He's poor in traffic (73) and not great off the dribble either(also 73). PG Dee Flowers - SR - 5'9" 161 lbs - 65 OVR Based on the numbers both of my other two PG's look better than flowers. Flowers is a senior. The reason he's not starting is that he was a JC player and a backup last year... a new starter will be able to pass Flowers in game experience before the end of the year. 84 speed/82 quickness. 79 defense, the worst of our 3 PG's. 82 handling/76 passing. 79 close/72 med/73 3. 77 off the dribble and he showed he can make some big 3's last year. SG Chuck Lamkin - SO - 6'4" 203 lbs - 67 OVR 82 speed/83 quickness. 77 defense, poor. 83 handling, 83 close/64 med/75 3. He was pretty good at getting to the basket last year and drawing contact. He also got hot from 3 at times. SG Shawn Garcia - FR(RS) - 6'5" 199 lbs - 66 OVR Garcia redshirted last year in a close decision by me to go with Lamkin instead. He isn't better than Lamkin in any way. 77 defense, 82 speed/77 quickness, 80 handling/67 passing. 77 close/71 med/74 3. Garcia might be my reserve guy, and he might transfer away on me. SF Kaylen Lufkin - SO - 6'8" 206 lbs - 74 OVR 84 speed/83 quickness, extremely good for a SF. He is, as I've said before, House lite. 73 defense is a big liability though. 82 close/71 med/71 3. I use him like I use house, just not as often or effectively. I love him off the bench though. PF Curtis Watson - SO - 6'10" 243 lbs - 74 OVR Watson will be taking over for Delic after this season. Watson grew an inch, he was 6'9" last year. He's our best overall rebounder (88 off/84 def). He's a poor post offensive player(69) but a very good defender(78). 88 close/90 in traffic indicates he should be better on the offensive end than he was for me last year. He'll get his minutes backing up Delic though. PF Eni Danelius - SR - 6'8" 221 lbs - 75 OVR A good overall rebounder (81 off/80 def), just average in the post though (73 off/68 def). 93 close/81 in traffic. He was a decent backup for me last year, another two year guy here as he had transferred in from Utah. C JR Keller - FR - 6'10" 214 lbs - 69 OVR Major weakness as a rebounder compared to some of these other guys. 76 off/74 defense, just not good. Pretty good in the post(81 off/75 def), 85 close/82 in traffic, there's some offensive ability there. Watson and Keller will make a nice front court as upperclassmen I hope(well no, I hope I recruit a 7 foot center who comes in rated 75 OVR and Keller is a career backup... but based on what I've got now ). I've really got 13 guys here who would get playing time on many teams. that's an awesome problem to have. I think I'm going to set up 3 rotations. Starters: PG Murphy SG Cooper SF House PF Delic C Sessoms 1st half backups: PG Mendoza SG Lamkin SF Lufkin PF Watson C Keller 2nd half backups: PG Flowers SG Lamkin SF Lufkin PF Danelius C Watson Basically trying to give minutes to Mendoza and Flowers, Danelius and Keller... if someone earns more minutes or plays far better than someone else I may drop down to just 10 men later in the year. Garcia is just left in the cold I think. He's the odd man out on what appears to be a very strong 13 man team. One note, I have pondered redshirting Keller, but I do believe he cared about his playing time, and I cannot afford to risk him transferring away when all these other guys graduate. Danelius is a senior. I don't really want to, but if confidence becomes an issue some of the senior backups might get screwed to keep the future players happy.

03-15-2009, 04:03 PM	#331
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Recruiting Preview We're losing 4 seniors: PF Delic - 80 OVR, starter, key player C Sessoms - 72 OVR - starter, lots of height PG Flowers - 65 OVR - backup, other recruits have outpaced him PF Danelius - 75 OVR - backup So we're losing a PG that is being relegated to the far end of the bench most likely, and 3 big men, two starters. We've got 4 scholarships to fill. 2 of our scholarships must go to big men. We've only got 2 PF/C types returning. In a disaster scenario Lufkin and House could both start and play SF/PF since House is 6'9" now but I'd be much happier recruiting 2 natural big men. We don't have any specific needs anywhere else. Next year House and Cooper will be seniors. As a result, it would probably make the most sense to try to land a center, PF, SF, and SG. But in reality, I think making sure I get two big men, and otherwise, best available player is probably fine. We have 3 PF's on our target list worth looking at. PF Lloyd Bright - 4* - #94 OVR - 55% interest. We're 6th on his list. He doesn't have any big schools going after him. Stony Brook and Canisius are his top two schools right now. Since we'd been calling him throughout his junior season I think it makes sense to make a run at him. PF Nathan Grundy - 3* - #292 OVR - 72% interest. He's 6'11" which immediate attracts our interest. He wants to stay near home, BUT, its not his #1 priority(playing time is). So I think we'll go ahead and make a run at him too. We're competing against Troy and Georgia State here... not UGA or Georgia Tech or anything. Next I check out Mr Basketball in Ohio. He's a 4* guy, #7 PF(though only 6'6"), and he has nearly maxxed interest in Ohio State, Michigan, Xavier and Louisville. this is not the year to try to get Mr Basketball in Ohio. There's a 3* Center out of Chicago, 6'10" Francis Holt(#161 ovr/#10 C), who has 78% interest in me starting out. He has higher interest in some schools like Indiana and DePaul, so if they like him we're screwed, but the initial interest is high enough that we can easily get him to 100% before the early signing period, and if no one else offers, maybe we get lucky. There's not nearly as much interest at the other 3 positions. I scout a few guys to see who looks the best for me. I end up offering my 4th scholarship to 3* SG Adrian Elias, #240 OVR, Mr Basketball in kentucky. He's a long shot with some major conference schools at the top of his list. But, none of the other guards/forwards look quite as good. So we'll take our long shot and if we can't land him during the early signing period, we'll be prepared to work hard on backup targets. I don't think I have a prayer at all 3 big men I'm offering. I just hope to land 1 in the early signing period to take some pressure off the rest of the season.

03-15-2009, 11:57 PM	#334
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I sim our second game: at Ohio 77 Butler 57 Mendoza and Lufkin lead us in scoring off the bench with 13 apiece(in 12 and 16 minutes). Delic scores 10, House 8, Cooper 7. Our next two games are against awful teams rated 65 OVR. I'll sim the first, play the second just to get through my next week of recruiting ASAP. Nov 20: at Ohio 81 Binghamton 49 Cooper leads us with 16, House with 15 points/7 boards. Delic with 9. Lufkin with 12 off the bench, Lamkin 9. ... and after my sister calls and wants to meet up for a late dinner(she manages a pizza joint so we try to meet up at 1:30 or 2am once a week to chat, why am I bothering with that detail in my dynasty? Eh whatever!). Anyway, my next 3 opponents are all against teams rated in the 60s that we should beat easily. I'm going to sim them all so I can get through early recruiting now. I'll play out enough games after that to get back to a 50% played ratio before conference play starts(we face some better competition later anyway). November 26th: Our first road game and its a challenge despite being against a terrible team Ohio 71 at Savannah State 69 Delic scores 18, Sessoms 15/9 boards. No one else in double figures. Cooper has 7, House 5(House fouled out in 17 minutes...), Lamkin with 8 off the bench. and our final game before the recruiting period starts: Ohio 87 at Illinois-Chicago 53 House scores 19, Delic 16/9 boards, Cooper 11. Lamkin and Sessoms both with 8.

03-16-2009, 12:07 AM	#335
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	On the last day before recruits start to sign, we've got 4 scholarship offers out: 3* PF Nathan Grundy - 6'11" - Atlanta, GA - Grundy looks to be a lock, we've got him at 100% and no one else has any offers out on him. 3* C Francis Holt - 6'10" - Chicago, IL - We have holt at 100%, so does Indiana State. They are listed #1, but I'm not sure if that means we're done for or not. I assume he signs right away with one of us, which will help us figure out what to do elsewhere. 3* SG Adrian Elias - 6'3" - Lexington, KY - We can't land him this week, we've got him at 86%. So we'll end up staying on him and praying. He would rather go to Kentucky, Vanderbilt, or West Virginia. None of them have made him an offer yet. If one does I'm screwed 4* PF Lloyd Bright - 6'7" - Erie, PA - The only top 100/4* guy we're looking at. We've got him up to 79%, which is almost good for 1st on his list. No major schools are in the mix here which makes me assume he's broken in some fashion, but I think I'll take a broken 4* guy if I can get him. Our competition is Stony Brook, Canisius and James MAdison. Early Signing Period Francis Holt does indeed sign with Indiana State on the first day. I'm disappointed to lose him. But there is good news, 3* Center Nathan Grundy signs with OHIO. Grundy averaged 10 points/8 boards in the ABL and shot 42% from the floor. Our overall scouting ratings on him: Shooting: B- Skills: C+ Defense: B- Athleticism: B- Rebounding: B+ Intelligence: B- Potential: A- Size: A He looks like an above average inside scorer(B-) who can shoot in traffic(C+). Just average in the post (C/C) and hopefully a defensive rebounding that will come in over 80 (C+). He's an above average shot blocker as well... if you can trust my scout, that is No one else signed, and isn't likely to by the end of the week, so back to it.

03-16-2009, 02:00 AM	#336
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	A couple other quick recruiting notes: Nathan Grundy, the guy we signed, is the #292 overall recruit/#46 PF. The center we lost to Indiana State is ranked #161 OVR/#10 center. Three other guys we had on our target list signed elsewhere, though none were our first backup choices. A 4* JC PF is going to Miami OH, the #293 recruit, a 3* SG is going to Kent State, and the #401 recruit, a 3* PF is also going to Kent State. So some of our rivals just picked up some pretty fine looking players. Lastly, I go ahead and offer out my extra scholarship to 3* JC FR SF Dwight Snowden out of Atlanta. We're competing with Jacksonville State for him but it seems very likely that we'll land him. He looks to be an above average defender but probably not so much of a big scorer. Athleticism A-, his hustle and dunk grades are B-/C+, and his steal is B, so i'm hoping he'd grade out to a solid athletic SF.

03-16-2009, 02:24 AM	#338
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Our fast start has earned us quite a bit of notice in the mid-major poll. 1. UL-Lafayette (6-0) 2. VCU (7-1) 3. Nevada (9-1) 4. Gonzaga (7-2) 5. Davidson (4-1) 6. Ohio (6-0) 7. Fresno State (6-0) 8. Middle Tennessee (3-1) 9. Arkansas-Little Rock (4-2) 10. Drexel (7-0) hooray! Louisiana Lafayette has wins over Villanova and Maryland which has earned them some notice in the bigger polls, they'er a top 25 team right now. Given my schedule strength, even with a few better mid-majors coming up, I assume I'm a good ways off from the top 25. No other MAC teams are ranked.

03-16-2009, 03:55 AM	#340
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Bad news at the end of the early signing period. Vanderbilt offers 3* SG Adrian Elias a scholarship and he signs with them. I go to a backup SG target, 3* SG Erkan Northcutt, the #289 OVR recruit, #88 SG, out of Cleveland, and begin working on him. I wish I could have landed two guys in the early signing period, but I got one that looks pretty decent, and this is a year where I have other options. Last season I had 1 backup for each of my scholarship offers and felt like i might have gotten completely screwed had i missed on anyone. This year i have a deep target list with a number of guys with interest in the 70%+ range that I feel like i can go to if needed and have a real shot. We've got 5 non-conference games left. One is at a New Orleans team rated around 78 OVR that will be dangerous. One is at home vs a Long Beach State team that similarly rated. The other 3 are against teams rated 70 and below. I'm going to jinx myself COMPLETELY here when I say that it seems completely realistic to go into conference play with a 11-1 record. It doesn't even seem unrealistic to possibly go into conference play 12-0.

03-18-2009, 03:31 AM	#343
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	That win was the only game of the week for Ohio and we move back up to #6 in the mid-major poll Our final two non-conference games are ones that we absolutely should win. I'll sim the first one against a horrible Campbell team, and play the second. Exactly how horrible is Campbell? Ohio 96 Campbell 42 Delic 25/10, House 13/10, Sessoms 13/6, Cooper 12, Lufkin 12, Mendoza 8. That was our only game for that week as we quickly approach January. No change at the top of the mid-major poll. I see Kent State is gone though. One final note for the night... David Mendoza has made a strong case on the court for a starting point guard spot the last few games. He's outscoring and outshooting Murphy, despite being slightly behind Murphy in all offensive categories except offensive awareness(65 for mendoza/63 for murphy). Murphy is better off the dribble, better mid range, better from 3, they're the same in traffic. The BIG difference is the shooting motion. Mendoza has an almost instant release. I usually can't even let go of the shot button before the shot is gone if I'm not thinking about it in advance. Murphy has a fairly high elevation on his jump shot. He has a nice, clean release and its easy for me to always get a perfect release, but he has to be a lot more open to get an "open shot" i think. I really don't' want to upset the apple cart too much, I'm 10-1 and things are going great, so I'm not making a lineup change, which can really mess up players' confidence. Also, I am reminding myself I chose to start Murphy not just b/c he looked a better shooter, but he is a better defender. I might rotate Murphy and Mendoza separately from the rest of the rotation and have each of them play closer to 20 minutes instead of getting Murphy 28-29 and Mendoza 13-14 and see how I feel about things after a few more games. I've had players go on hot streaks before for what seemed like a number of games in a row and then either go back to normal or just go super cold for a bit. I don't know if that's really tracked game to game by the AI or not, but its at least felt that way. I would not be surprised to see Mendoza have a few 1-7 from 3 type games in the near future and cool back down.

03-19-2009, 12:02 AM	#346
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I sim our next game, a home contest against Kent State. They're 8-3 but have a ton less talent, so I'm not sure what to expect, but we pull it out, 78-72. Delic again dominates in the simmed game, 23 points. Sessoms scores 10, Lamkin 9 and Lufkin 7 off the bench. This makes us 13-1, 2-0 in the MAC. We're still 6th in the mid major poll, and the top 5 are still the same: 1. UL Lafayette (14-0) 2. Nevada (14-3) 3. VCU (14-2) 4. Gonzaga (13-3) 5. Davidson (11-2) 6. Ohio (13-1) I'm really hoping we can keep this going and break into the top 25 at some point. Though coming out of a poor conference i don't know if we're capable of getting enough attention for that. Our next two games are both at home, vs 7-7 Buffalo and 7-7 Akron. Buffalo is rated a little better and is 2-0 in the MAC so far, so we'll play that one out tomorrow.

03-19-2009, 06:17 AM	#347
hoopsguy General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago	Congrats on the strong start this season. It is especially nice to see you winning non-conference games and early conference games since it has felt like you have usually had to dig out of holes in the 2nd half of the season.

03-19-2009, 06:10 PM	#350
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I sim our next game against Akron. Akron 76 at Ohio 74 A surprising loss against a team that has fallen a long way from a couple seasons ago. Delic had 21 points, House 15, but no one else was effective at all. Cooper only had 3 points. Our next two are on the road, at Toledo and at bowling Green. They both appear to be of similar quality, so I'll play Bowling Green, a team that has been more of a rival/challenge over the last few seasons. Ohio 61 at Toledo 42 Strange low scoring contest, we lead 28-13 at the half and score about 30 more to get up to 60. Sessoms with a big game, 18 points. Cooper scores 10, Delic 7, House 6. We shoot 19-59 from the floor, 4-19 from 3. They turn it over 22 times and only shoot 11-44 from the field, 1-16 from 3. Despite the loss, we've moved up in the mid-major poll, looks like its due to losses elsewhere. 1. UL-Lafayette (17-0) 2. Nevada (17-3) 3. Gonzaga (14-4) 4. Ohio (15-2) 5. VCU (16-3) UL-Lafayette and Nevada are both now ranked in the media poll. Our RPI is #37, a lot higher than I expected given that we haven't played a single top 100 team. We are 8-2 vs teams in the 100-200 range and 7-0 against 200+ which counts for something I guess. Bowling Green later!