College Hoops 2k8: 2009 Edition - Page 11

Radii · 04-05-2009, 01:13 AM

2016 Awards

North Carolina is the national champion, wow, roster strength of 98. Two starters rated 90 OVR, their worst starter was rated 87. Their entire roster is rated above 80 OVR. Their top backups at each position were rated 85+. Powerhouse. They went 39-3.

Villanova's Erwin Hardaway wins the player of the year award. He's a center, 25.1 ppg/5.7 rpg.

Pepperdine's Naim Paul is the mid-major player of the year. A SG averaging 24.0 ppg/6.0 rpg/3.4 apg.

Roy Williams is the coach of the year. Keep on going roy. He's 66 years old.

1st Team All Americans

PG Nik Mombollet - SR - Kentucky - 89 OVR - 16.6 ppg/5.2 apg
SG Naim Paul - SR - Pepperdine - 85 OVR - 24.0 ppg/6.0 rpg
SF Josip Loucks - SR - Kentucky - 88 OVR - 17.3 ppg/6.1 rpg
PF Iman Wilcox - SR - Boston College- 85 OVR - 20 ppg/5.6 rpg
C Erwin Hardaway - SR - Villanova - 88 OVR - 25.1 ppg/5.7 rpg

Two Wildcats, wow. D'Jamal Adkins of Texas Tech is on the 2nd team.

MAC Awards

I am the coach of the year in the MAC for the 2nd straight year! I'm 41 years old now, 164-111 career record.

PF Errick Floyd of Northern Illinois is the player of the year. Rated 82 OVR, Floyd scored 19.1 ppg/8.4 rpg this year. I simmed my game(s) against NIU this year, but I remember Floyd from years past, a very good post player.

C Jair Watkins from Bowling Green is freshman of the year, rated 74 OVR, Watkins had 6.2 ppg/6.1 rpg per game. Santiago got jobbed.

1st Team All-MAC

PG Toby Warner - JR - Akron - 78 OVR - 11.6 ppg/5.0 apg
SG Gary Edelin - SR - Ball State - 85 OVR - 14.3 ppg
SF Tim Krymski - SR - Toledo - 79 OVR - 12.2 ppg/6.9 rpg
PF Errick Floyd - SR - N. Illinois - 82 OVR - 19.1 ppg/8.4 rpg
C Roburt Maye - JR - Kent State -71 OVR - 13.6 ppg/6.5 rpg

Second Team All-MAC

PG Zam Surov - SR - Bowling Green - 74 OVR - 10.1 ppg/5.8 apg
SG Jean Goss - JR - Bowling Green - 79 OVR - 15.2 ppg/5.2 rpg
SF Kaylen Lufkin - SR - Ohio - 80 OVR - 13.3 ppg/3.4 rpg
PF Elton Falls - SR - Buffalo - 81 OVR - 16.7 ppg/4.3 rpg
C Dameon Archibong - JR - E. Michigan - 71 OVR - 12.8 ppg/4.9 rpg

Freshman All-MAC team

PG Femi Janiszewski - Ball State - 69 OVr - 7.5 ppg/3.6 apg
SG Erkan Northcutt - Ohio - 70 OVR - 1.6 ppg
SF Rodney Santiago - Ohio - 77 OVR - 9.6 ppg/1.7 rpg
PF Mading Deren - Akron - 65 OVR - 6.3 ppg/5.4 rpg
C Jair Watkins - Bowling Green - 74 OVR - 6.2 ppg/6.1 rpg

Northcutt?? Was he the only freshman SG in the league this year?

Not a huge awards season for Ohio, but coach of the year and the #2 freshman in theleague is nice.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 01:22 AM

I am awarded a 5 year contract extension at Ohio this season.

I have a coaching skill point but I cannot for the life of me remember what I did to earn it?

I decide to work on becomign a defensive guru and put it into defense:

Offense: C
Defense: A-
Teaching: A-
Scouting: C-
Charisma: A+
Discipline: C

Radii · 04-05-2009, 01:23 AM

Coaching Carousel

3 major conference jobs are open. I am not yet qualified for any of them. The big news is that one of them is Duke, as Coach K has decided to retire. The other two are Minnesota and St. John's.

No large conference jobs are open. Some WCC and WAC jobs are available but nothing real special. However, I think that might change.

Duke hires Nevada's head coach, opening up one of the top mid-major jobs in the nation. At this point though, I've built Ohio up to the point that it is within striking distance of Nevada and Gonzaga and Pepperdine, etc.

Minnesota hires Albany's head coach. St John's hires Old Dominion's head coach.

I'm actually only 3rd on the list for the Nevada job anyway. But I would have turned it down.

After that I could have any mid-major job of my choosing if I wanted it. San Francisco, Fresno State, Boise State, Old Dominion...

Radii · 04-05-2009, 01:29 AM

Assistant Hiring

I'm starting to see better assistant's available to me. I seem to qualify for "B-" level assistants instead of just C+ ones. However, none of them imrpove the skills that i need in a way that would make sense to fire one of my current guys.

Transfers

A 77 rated SG transfers out of Iowa and to Northwestern State. A 77 rated PG transfers from VCU to NJIT. Wow, VCU is good enough that they dump a 77 rated PG on the bench to the point that he gets pissed and leaves??

A 71 rated SF transfers from Nebraska to Central Michigan. This is the only transfer in our out involving anyone in the MAC

Radii · 04-05-2009, 01:49 AM

Offseason Recruiting

We've already landed our big man as 3* 7 foot C Darryl Withers will be coming to play for Ohio next year.

We have two other scholarships out there:

4* PG Jon McCully - #60 OVR. Right now only two teams are listed on his interest list. We're at 85%. Charlotte is below us. We're the only offer. The fact that i've been working on him all year and only have him at 85% probably means he's a lost cause but until someone else steals him i'm not going away.

3* SG Sidney Whitted - #192 OVR from the Bronx. His overall grades are all solidly in the B range, but none really stand out as awesome. He looks most likely to be a speedy defensive guy with an average shot. We have him at 100% and are his only offer. It seems a near certainty that we will land him.

We have a 3* SF, a JC SO(only would be with us 2 years) that is at 100% interest in us, and Georgetown. Neither have offered. I've had no success scouting him at all, I don't know much about him. No one else has offered and he's a possible target but the lack of scouting is frustrating. I don't know if its a bug or what but I requested game tape on him 3 or 4 times last year and that option was always there the next week but I never got any scouting info. I have him at 100% though.

I hae a couple other targets in the 80-90% range that I could consider if I lose McCully.

Initial Signing Day

Our 3* SG, Whitted, does indeed sign with Ohio as expected. More on him later.

McCully has not yet received an offer from anyone else.

Week 2

#1 Target John McCully has signed with OHIO!!! I should be a lot more excited about this than I am. He's a 4* PG, a top 100 recruit(#60 OVR). He looks really strong, speedy, possibly a solid shooter, solid defender, decent athlete, good PG skills with the ball... but the fact that no one else ever came calling makes me wonder if he's flawed in some terrible way.

Recruiting Class Review

4* PG John McCully - 6'2" 173 lbs - #60 OVR/#29 PG

McCully scored 12.4 points and had 5.1 assists in the ABL games. 42% from the field, 77% atthe line and 34% from 3.

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

Speed and Quickness both scout out at B ratings, I expect a very fast guy to come in. B- defense should also be solid. B- Close/A Med/C 3 pointer. He can shoot off the dribble(B+) and a little in traffic(C+). I'd be perfectly fine with a guy that can drive hard to the basket but can't necessarily shoot the 3. C+ hands and passing. C+ vert/str and C hustle.

3* C Darryl Withers - 7'0" 223 lbs - #397 OVR/#33 C

Just average but with size. C orb/drb. B- post offense/C- post defense. C- shot blocking. A- str/B+ hustle. Doesn't look like a scorer at all. C- close/C- in traffic.

3* SG Sidney Whitted - 6'4" 183 lbs - #192 OVR/#50 SG

top 200 is kinda exciting. 13.4 ppg in the ABL, 41% from the field, 38% from 3. 57% at the line is scary.

Shooting: B
Skills: B
Defense: B+
Athleticism: B+
Rebounding: B-
Intelligence: B+
Potential: B

Speed C+/Quickness C, Defense and Steals both C+. Shooting is just average, C+ close/C med/C 3. C+ Defensive Awareness is potentially solid too.

We'll of course see how all these guys come in, but after landing the 4* PG I've got visions of McCully and Santiago being a very strong backcourt combination for 3 years.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 01:51 AM

Recruiting Class Rankings

1. Florida
2. Kansas
3. UNLV
4. Arizona
5. Boston College

Ohio has the 51st rated recruiting class, far behind some other mid majors (Pepperdine and VCU are pulling in top 20 classes here) but well ahead of anyone else in the MAC. toledo is in the 90-100 range.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 02:00 AM

2016/17 Scheduling

The CPU tries to give me 9 November games, including games on the 4th, 5th and 6th. WTF. I make a lot of modifications to the schedule, getting more of my games in December so I can spend more time recruiting in November, i think I had 3 sunday games scheduled, if you have a sunday game you can't do any visits, so I moved all of those, etc.

I think we'll have our toughest schedule yet as well. We won't be a 5 or 6 loss team this year probably, we'll see how we do though and if I am unable to be an at large team b/c I scheduled 1 too many highly unlikely victory, I'll learn from it.

I've got Syracuse, Boston college and Nevada on the schedule, all teams sure to be rated higher than me.

Our non-conference tourney this year is pretty early, we'll play San diego in the opener and most likely North texas if we win, a Sun Belt team rated pretty well too.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 02:10 AM

Incoming Recruits

PG John McCully - 6'2" 173 lbs - 76 OVR

Awesome!! C+ Potential which is really exciting. He's as fast as we're likely to see at Ohio, 90 speed/91 quickness. He can defend, handle the ball, and has a great midrange shot (89/A!). He'll be an average 3 point shooter with work. I haven't looked at everything else yet but the CPU has him starting.

SG Sidney Whitted - 6'5" 187 lbs - 71 OVR

I'm not sure what to make of Whitted. Speedy, above average defense, 70 steals rating is above average. But he's really not a shooter. There's a good chance that Northcutt will be our backup SG for a year and Whitted will get redshirt. C potential.

C Darryl Withers - 7'1" 232 lbs - 68 OVR

About what I expected. Big, but raw. his raw numbers are not good. 72 orb/76 drb, 82 post offense(that actually is quite good)/71 post deefnse. 80 close/78 in traffic. The CPU wants to redshirt him too. I could do that and put Garcia(6'7") as my backup PF for a bit of size. He gets pushed around a lot though. I've got the guard depth to use Garcia that way if I want. Withers has C+ potential,giving me the hope that he could develop reasonably well. If I can get his rebounding ratings up closer to 80 I'd be a lot more interested in what i'm seeing.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 02:21 AM

MAC Preview

Last year we were rated 83 OVR at the season's outset, tops in the league, with Miami OH, Kent State, and Ball Freaking State all hovering around 80(81/79/79 for the 3).

The +/- in parenthesis represents the change in overall roster strenght, not in position/ranking.

1. Ohio 84 (+1)
2. Kent State 80 (+1)
3. Akron 79 (+2)
4. Miami OH 77 (-3)
5. Bowling Green 77 (0)
6. Eastern Michigan 77 (0)
7. Ball State 76 (-3)
8. Western Michigan 76 (+1)
9. Toledo 74 (-2)
10. Buffalo 73 (-3)
11. Central Michigan 70 (-4)
12. N. Illinois 69 (-6)

Northern Illinois got decimated, wow. Ball State graduated Edelin and their big men. They still have Minoff, their very talented SF, but not enough around him to make a lot of noise this year. I don't care who else I'm playing in the cycles when I face Ball Stae, the other game gets simmed. I'll play ball state and if I can get up by 50 points I will, no simming to the end. They need to suffer a little for the last couple seasons.

MAC Preseason Recognition

Best Overall Player: SF Logan Montgomery - SR Kent State - 82 OVR
Best Freshman: PG John McCully - Ohio - 76 OVR
Best Shooter: SG Stan Victor - SR - Miami OH - 82 OVR
Best Playmaker: PG Toby Warner - SR - Akron - 79 OVR
Best Pro Prospect: SF Logan Montgomery - SR Kent State - 82 OVR
Best Defender: SF Fab Minoff - SR - Ball State - 81 OVR

This is the second year in a row I've had the best freshman in the league. This is a very good thing.

I think I like what the CPU has done as far as suggesting a starting lineup, but this year there are more decisions to make than I would usually face. Lineups next.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 03:20 AM

2016/17 Ohio Roster

Starting Lineup

PG John McCully - FR - 6'2" 173 lbs - 76 OVR

90 speed/91 quickness. 84 defense, only 67 steals which is a C rating, won't produce a ton of turnovers. 85 hands/78 passing (C+/C+). 79 close/89 med/71 3/81 off the dribble/77 in traffic. 78 vert/64 str/67 hustle. C hustle, I'm not sure how that impacts too much though, but its only a C rating and a bit low. I haven't seen McCully in action yet but I'm hopeful he is a big time slasher and scorer inside with that speed and handling.

SG Michel Murphy - SR - 6'2" 196 lbs - 76 OVR (+3)

92 speed/85 quickness. 87 defense/74 steals. 80 hands/81 passing. 76 close/78 med/81 3/81 off the dribble. 74 vert/59 str/77 hustle. Averaged 8.1 ppg last year. Murphy isn't the type that has a good blowby move. There is an argument to play Murphy at PG and McCully at SG. I think the deciding factor there will be transition play. Murphy's weak blowby move might make him a better PG(who usually comes back to get the ball after a rebound) if McCully can score a lot in transition. On hte other hand, I might like the 81 3 point rating at SG so that McCully can set him up.

SF Rodeny Santiago - SO - 6'4" 214 lbs - 79 OVR (+3)

Doing some quick math, if Santiago can gain 3 ratings points each year, he goes into his senior season rated 85 OVR. Just sayin.

79 speed/82 quickness, good for a SF. 81 defense/68 steals, both good for a SF. 86 close/72 med/81 3/77 in traffic/77 off the dribble. 74 o awareness/73 d awareness are both pretty good. 86 vert/79 str/72 hustle, he's a solid athlete too. He showed towards the end of last year a strong potential to become a big time go to scorer. I hope to expand on that this year. Scored 9.6 ppg as a freshman, I'm hoping to get that over 15 ppg this year.

PF Lloyd Bright - JR - 6'8" 231 lbs - 80 OVR (+2)

I don't think I've ever had a junior rated 80 before. He grew an inch last year which for a PF around this size is big. 81 orb/95 drb, averaged 7.6 rebounds/game last year as a 6'7 PF with lower ratings, I think its reasonable to expect Bright to lead the league in rebounds this year. 82 post offense/79 post defense. 70 blocks/69 steals(B-/B). 88 close/86 in traffic. I've had a hell of a time scoring with Bright in the post. 77 vert/73 str/78 hustle... 85 speed/78 quickness, those are SG/SF speed numbers, not power forward. Bright is a great athlete.

C JR Keller - SR - 6'10" 231 lbs - 76 OVR (+3)

80 orb/77 drb. 83 post offense/79 post defense. 73 blocks. 89 close/84 in traffic. This will be Kellers first and only year starting at center. I'm starting him because I think Grundy can be more effective as a backup where i have less scoring options. On the backup squad i can always just give the ball to Grundy and tell him to attack with his size. As a starter he'd not really be a scoring threat though.

Backups

So there is a minor decision with McCully and Murphy as to who to play at what position... the backups though there are some real challenges.

Mendoza or Barker at PG (Barker is the guy i redshirted last year). Garcia at SF or PF(Pf would mean I'm redshirting Withers)? Redshirt Whitted and give Northcutt some minutes? And this is going to look weird, and its subject to change.

PG Tim Barker - FR - 6'2 185 lbs - 70 OVR (+1)

85 speed/80 quickness. 84 defense/75 steals. 81 close/71 med/72 3/81 off the dribble. 86 hands/76 passing. He's got good enough PG skills and he is a solid defensive player who can force some turnovers. So he's got a spot on the team.

SG Erkan Northcutt - SO - 6'2" 198 lbs - 72 OVR(+3)

86 speed/84 quickness. 80 defense/68 steals. 86 close/75 med/72 3/77 off the dribble. His shooting stats are a bit low, he isn't intended to be a big threat. He's an... acceptable defender and he developed quite a bit last year despite C- potential. So he's got a spot too.

SF David Mendoza - SR - 6'4" 174 lbs - 74 OVR (+2)

He's a PG... kinda ridiculous to play him at SF. But out of the guards I have he's technically the tallest and best rebounder. So here he goes. 91 speed/82 quikness. 85 defefnse/82 steals. 87 hands. 77 close/70 med/77 3/74 off the dribble/76 in traffic. He isn't great at creating his own shot, though he does ok getting to the basket, and against bigger SF's he might be able to drive here better. With his defense and 3 point rating, he needs to be on the floor. I think he'll do ok here.

PF Shawn Garcia - SR - 6'7" 205 lbs - 71 OVR (+1)

natural SG. I learned last year that Garcia has a decent place on the backup squad. He has a decent blowby move and can attack the basket fairly well. Plyaing him out of position here might make him an interesting weapon if he can pull out opposing PF's and go by them. 84 speed/78 quickness. 78 defense/77 steals. He'll get killed in the post (52/58 post off/def ratings). 79 close/73 med/76 3/77 off the dribble.

C Nathan Grundy - JR - 7'1" 266 lbs - 73 OVR (+3)

74 orb/82 drb. 76 post off/71 post def. 66 blocks 9C+). 92 close/87 in traffic. Grundy does pretty well at times going strong at the basket. He's still fairly raw but coming around.

Reserves

SF Dwight Snowden - JR - 6'8" 230 lbs - 68 OVR (+1)

It might make a lot more sense for Snowden to play PF, keep Northcutt on the bench and go with Barker/Mendoza/Garcia. If Garcia gets killed too badly inside I might do that. But Snowden is just simply unskilled. He offers nothing but a few inches in height and a slightly better fit at PF.

SG Sidney Whitted - FR - 6'5" 187 lbs - 71 OVR - REDSHIRT

Whitted is decent, but there's no reason to use him right now, 85 speed/83 quickness. 81 defense/70 steals. 80 close/71 med/68 3/76 off the dribble. Mendoza and Garcia will be the main scoring options from the bench, whether I use Whitted or not. Might as well redshirt him, next year unless I recruit better there is more likely to be a space for him.

C Darryl Withers - FR - 7'1" 232 lbs - 68 OVR - REDSHIRT

I could remove the redshirt and just have a massive line with Grundy and Withers. And I have been known to overthink things at times, I might be doing that here. But Withers with his current ratings is nothing more than a warm body. I knew this might well be the case when i recruited him. But I kinda want to experiment and this seems a good time to do it.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 03:27 AM

Season Goals

i'm not doing anything different in an effort to reach these goals, just looking at my coaching sheet and listing out the things I think are within the realm of possibility as far as ways to earn skill improvements. I really need to earn a couple more i think to move up to a larger conference.

Assemble a top 20 recruiting class - extrodinarily unlikely, but this is a year where we have 4 scholarships and I have pulled a top 40 class before. If there are two 4* guys out there then who knows.

Coach a team into the top 25 - With the tougher schedule this year this may prove unrealistic. Or, I could pull off an upset and do it easily. But either way, this is an accomplishment I need to make at Ohio to improve to the point that I can move up.

Coach a team to the sweet 16 - Another goal I really need to reach at Ohio. Without a couple more skill points I don't know if I have a shot at a A-10 job, much less a power conference job.

Not this year, but I get another point when I reach 200 wins. I have 164 now, so I need to average 18 wins this year and next. I need to make sure I hit this milestone next season. I'll go as far as to say that if I only win 15 or 16 this year because of some screwup, I'll schedule an easy non-conference schedule just to guarentee that this happens.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 03:53 AM

2016/17 Recruiting Preview

We have 4 scholarships. We're losing:

C JR Keller - 76 OVR - Starter

PG Michel Murphy - 76 OVR - Starter

PG David Mendoza - 74 OVR - Backup

SG Shawn Garcia - 71 OVR - Backup

Looking ahead to next season, we graduate Bright and Grundy.

Needs/Goals

I can go ahead and pencil in 4 of the 5 slots in next years starting lineup:

PG McCully, SG ??, SF Santiago, PF Bright, C Grundy

Bright and Grundy will be seniors and I don't know who my SG will be. That pretty much dictates my needs for me. With 4 scholarships, I need 2 big men, 1 SG, and 1 other guy. SF would make the most sense but I don't have to have a SF. 2 SG's or even SG/PG would be fine if I see a PG with a good set of shooting and defensive skills.

I spend the first week sending out a bunch of feelers. Usually by now I've decided who I want based on rating alone but I think as I have a bit more success I have a little more freedom here. Two targets are immediately clear. A 4* PF from Cleveland in the top 100 rates me right up there with any of the big schools (at least for now), and a 4* SG in the top 100 from Tampa does the same.

Initial Offers

I offer 3 scholarships.

4* SG Quincy Jimenez - Tampa, FL - #92 OVR/#32 SG - I'm unsure on the likelyhood of landing Jimenez. But I *think* we'll learn before the early signing period where we stand pretty well. If Florida State or Auburn wants him, they win. But we've got him to 82% with 4 weeks to go still til signing starts, and my schedule is pretty light. He's coming in for a campus visit this week.

4* PF Bobby Bragg - 6'10" 234 lbs - Columbus, OH - #97 OVR/#15 PF

Bragg has us at 84% already and is coming in for a campus visit this week too. We've used two home visits on him already, just one for Jimenez. Bragg being local though I think helps me out, staying near home is his #2 priority(playing time is #1). Pitt and Virginia Tech would be the teams most likely to steal him away.

3* C Stefan Fitch - 6'10" 227 lbs - #143 OVR/#11 C - Anaheim, CA

we're going out west here and hoping to woo Fitch away from UNLV and USC. And again we have a fair shot, we have him at 85% early, and he's coming in for a campus visit this week.

I haven't offered my 4th scholarship yet and I don't have a strong feel for who it ought to go to. I have a couple local JC players would I could sign easily, but they don't really excite me much.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 05:11 AM

November 4, 2016

Ohio (0-0) vs San Diego (0-0)

We're set up with a nice challenge early on. San Diego is rated 80 OVR (79 off/81 def/82 sht/81 reb/80 coach). We are 84 OVR (84 off/82 def/87 sht/88 reb/80 coach).

This is the first of two games in our preseason tournament.

Scouting

PG Ross Callier – JR – 70 OVR - 88 speed/81 quickness. 78 defense(terrible). 84 hands/75 passing. 84 close/76 med/68 3. 82 off the dribble. Averaged 5.7 ppg/4.6 apg last year. Seems like he can score if he attacks the basket but not a big threat from outside.

SG WB Appleby – JR – 74 OVR - 87 speed/86 quickness. 81 defense, just C+ for a PG. 86 close/75 med/79 3/74 off the dribble/80 in traffic. 81 hustle, the whole team hustles apparently. Scored 7 ppg last year. Seems like a slasher but not a guy who will shoot a lot of jumpers.

SF D'Marr Minnieweather – SR – 75 OVR – 6'6”, maxxed experience, he's been starting for awhile. 84 speed/72 quickness. 81 defense. 84 close/73 med/66 3/73 off the dribble/73 in traffic. C/C+ physical skills excpet 81 hustle(B). He doesn't look like a guy that can create his own shot. He did score 11 ppg last year though.

PF Bradley Mullins – SR – 75 OVR – 6'8”, 79 orb/81 drb, C+ for both. 84 post offense/62 post defense. 89 close/87 in traffic. 81 blocked shot rating, so he'll be hard to go up against. 70 str (B) and 88 hustle(B+) are solid. Started 8 games last year and averaged about 8 ppg.

C Kordel Lewis – SO – 73 OVR – 6'11”, 80 orb/81 drb. 67 post offense/84 post defense. 78 blocked shot,quite good. 85 close/84 in traffic. 81 strength, very strong. 6.6 ppg as a freshman last year.

They have 8 guys rated 70-75 and a few more in the 65-70 range. They seem like a deep, balanced team. In theory it seems we matchup well with them, Minnieweather is their best returning scorer but Appleby and Callier don't seem the types that usually torch us.

Our team unity starts a bit low this year, 40. Theirs is 44.

Half	Time	OHIO	SD	Notes
1	14:20	11	9	Despite the fact that I changed my rotation around when I did my roster review, the game still starts Murphy at PG and McCully at SG. I'd like to thank the game for ignoring my changes for once(usually this bugs the shit out of me). McCully is fast as hell and has a great blowby move. I need him out in transition. He and Santiago are going to be 1^st team all MAC this year, write it down now.
1	11:55	14	13	Ok now I'm annoyed. The game also didn't save my bench lineup, which I totally changed from how the CPU wants it, so this game I have to pause and do all my subs from the pause menu, the quick in game menu will be worthless. Anyway, bacups are in. McCully has 6, Santiago 5.
1	9:00	18	22	Heh I dont' know how this is going to work, but for now at least we're not scoring well. San Diego has earned 3 6^th man boosts so far this game. I call a timeout after a Grundy miss and a San Diego rebound earns them the 3^rd one, and they hit a 3 to go up 4.
1	6:20	23	24	Grundy has 2 fouls after a reach in and we have 6 for the half. We got going a little at least with these guys. Grundy 4/Northcutt 5 as the starters come back in.
1	4:25	32	29	God our backcourt is going to be incredible. McCully is borderline unstoppable on the break. Timeout San Diego.
	HALF	40	40	We struggle a bit down the stretch. Both teams are shooting 50%. They are 4-10 from 3 and 8-11 at the line. We are 5-8 from 3 and 11-15 at the line. Our attacking the basket is generating a lot of fouls. Their SG, Appleby has 11. Their center, Lewis has 10, and SF Minnieweather has 8. For us, Santiago has 10, Murphy 9, McCully 8.
2	14:00	56	46	We score the first 12 points of the half and are up 10 now as San Diego calls a timeout. We've gotten a few buckets inside now, I think Bright has 5 or 6.
2	11:45	60	52	Backups are in, we should be up more than this but I screwed up a couple trips with Murphy.
2	8:10	69	55	Well its still not really smooth but our odd backup rotation is doing a lot better this half. Garcia is hidden at PF and worthless though. I'm not sure what to do there. Timeout San Diego.
2	6:15	74	57	Backups take us on a 14-5 run to put the game well out of reach. Starters are back in.
2	5:55	75	57	Snowden comes in for McCully after McCully is fouled driving to the basket. No idea how bad he's hurt yet. I immediately switch Garcia in for Snowden.
2	2:00	84	63	McCully is fine.

This team is going to be very, very good.

Ohio 91
San Diego 69

Their SG, Appleby had 22, Minnieweather 15. We shoot nearly 60%, 9-18 from 3.

Murphy: 13 points/3 steals
McCully: 14 points/5 steals
Santiago: 26 points
Bright: 7 points/15 boards
Keller: 6 points/6 boards

Northcutt: 7 points
Grundy: 6 points/4 boards

Now San Diego didn't have the best defenders out there that we'll face, but the speed that McCully has, the blowby moves that McCully and Santiago have, and Santiago and Murphy's 3 point shooting abilities... I expect to see a lot of lines like this this season.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 05:24 AM

Huh, the team we expected to face if we won is not there. We have 3 games between now and the early signing period. none of them are against teams rated above 70. I'll sim them so I can get to the signing period ASAP. OH! I'm in the preseason NIT. I had no idea this was how it was structured. 4 groups, winner of each group goes to new york city. I get it now :P

Nov 4, 2016

Ohio 84
Alabama A&M 73

Keller scores 17 and grabs 12 boards. Grundy has 13, McCully 10, Santiago 7.

Also, I didn't realize how this tournament worked. Winning our little group feeds us into another group the next week. We're going to be playing 80 OVR rated SMU. After that, we'll be playing either Kent State out of our own conference, or Vanderbilt out of the SEC. Vandy is rated 81 OVR/Kent State 80.

I'm definitely playing out those two games, will be a great early challenge for us.

In a recruiting update, this might turn into a disaster... the 3* Center out west, UNLV has made an offer to. We still seem like we can get him to 100% before the signing period so we'll take our shot but expect to lose out. The local 4* PF has gotten an offer from pittsburgh. He does not list a big school in any of his top 3 priorities. He wants playing time, close to home, and feeling wanted. Geographically, Pittsburgh looks closer than Athens to Cleveland, so I dunno if that is distance based or state based. But anyway, we can gethim to 100% too most likely so we're going to try.

The 4* SG we'veoffered it seems unlikely we'll get him to 100% but no one else has offered.

I also offer a scholarship to a JC SF, Brendon okosa. He's from Cincinnati and Marshall is coming after him. He seems someone who is decent and could give us some better depth than Snowden offers at the position for a couple years. And with 4 scholarships it would feel good to land someone early, even if not a top target.

If we lose out on all 3 of our top targets things will get real interesting... just getting 1 of the 3 would be worth the effort.

I want to play out the preseason NIT so no more recruiting news until later when those games are done.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 04:59 PM

November 10, 2016

Ohio (2-0) vs SMU (2-0)

In the semifinals of the preseason NIT in MSG, we get a similarly rated SMU team. They're 80 OVR (81 offense/79 def/82 sht/83 reb/85 coach). In their first two games to get to New York, they scored 80 vs Tennessee State and 110 vs Vermont.

Scouting

PG Don Allison – SO – 66 OVR – 85 speed/81 quickness, neither is very good. 77 defense/63 steals, both very average. 86 handling/75 passing, both average. 77 close/74 med/70 3/82 off the dribble. He can score but isn't a big threat to do so unless left unguarded. 5 ppg/2 apg so far this year. Only played 8 minutes/game as a freshman, not very experienced.

SG Shema Sanders – SR – 80 OVR – a natural SF, but rated so highly he has to get out on the floor. 84 speed/81 quickness. 81 defense. 88 close/76 med/69 3/89 in traffic. Also good athlete skills (80 vert/72 str/82 hustle). He'll be a big scoring threat but putting a SF at SG might allow McCully to run wild. 12 ppg last year and 14.5 so far this year.

SF Steveroy Adams – JR – 83 OVR – 80 speed/78 quickness, about average for a SF (he's 6'7”). 83 defense which is very good for a SF. 71 steals too. 91 close/81 med/70 3, 84 in traffic/78 off the dribble, he looks like a slasher that can attack the basket hard. 80 vert/70 str/72 hustle. 11.8 ppg last year, 12.5 so far in 2 games this year.

PF Harry Maxwell – SO – 77 OVR – Their 3^rd natural SF in the lineup – 72 orb/70 drb, not good. 67 post offense/76 post defense. 84 close/87 in traffic. He has a decent midrange shot. Only 6'5” he is more of a SF. He is not a 3 point threat though so we don't have to worry about him dragigng Bright out behind the arc. 16.5 ppg so far this year. Only averaged 5 as a freshman.

C Zach Echols – JR – 67 OVR – 6'10” and not a SF, a nice change for this roster. 80 org/76 drb. 78 post offense/70 post defense. 86 close/77 in traffic. He doesn't look like a big threat, and we ought to destroy these guys on the boards. 15 ppg so far this year. He's a JC transfer so this is his first season.

They have 8 guys rated 70-75 and a few more in the 65-70 range. They seem like a deep, balanced team. In theory it seems we matchup well with them, Minnieweather is their best returning scorer but Appleby and Callier don't seem the types that usually torch us.

They only have 5 guys rated over 70 and a few more in the mid-60s. But, we've lost to teams like this before where we seem to have a talent edge but they have one or two very good players. Echols isn't much of a defender but he has good post offense ratings, so I do expect to win but worry that Sanders/Adams/Echols could provide a lot of offense for SMU.

Half	Time	OHIO	SMU	Notes
1	11:50	16	14	I call a timeout to get my backups in, the clock hasn't stopped for awhile. We have never trailed, and led 14-7 at one point. As often happens it seems, an unknown off the bench comes out with a big day, backup SF Taylor, rated 77 OVR with a pretty nice 3 point shot, has 8. Santiago has 8 for us.
1	5:05	28	26	We trailed once, 20-19, but otherwise have led by 2-4 for the entire time the backups have been in. Starters are back in.
	HALF	39	31	11-5 run to end the half for the starters and we go into the locker room up 8. Their man Taylor has 15, almost half their points. He's 4-6 from 3... Overall we're playing good defense though, they're 11-28 from the floor and 4-14 from 3. We're shooting 50% from the floor and are 7-15 from 3. Santiago has 14 and is 4-8 from behind the arc. Murphy and Mendoza have 5 and a lots of others have one or two baskets. Keller and bright both have 2 fouls.
2	16:00	48	37	Santiago is a bit slow to get going in the 2^nd half, but Murphy hits 2 open 3's and we lead by 11. Bright has picked up foul #3 though.
2	13:30	48	43	They score 6 straight, they're in a 2-3 zone and we've gone cold from the outside. I call a timeout. Starters still in.
2	10:55	52	45	We get a couple buckets after the timeout but are still struggling for the most part against this 2-3 zone this half. Backups are in.
2	8:30	55	51	We give up 6 straight before Mendoza hits a 3. Timeout SMU.
2	7:30	55	56	A 2 and a 3 and they take a 1 point lead and earn a 6^th man boost. I call a timeout. Ive got 2 left.
2	6:30	57	57	Grundy hits a shot on our end to give us the lead back, but commits afoul on the other end. They make 1 of 2 and its tied. Starters are back in.
2	6:15	59	57	They play man to man defense this trip, Santiago takes about 5 seconds to get by his man and get a layup once we get set and run a play. 6^th man bonus for us.
2	4:15	64	62	5 in a row gives us a 62-57 lead before they score. We go up 64-59 and they get a 3 point play... 2 point game.
2	3:40	64	64	A steal gives them a 6^th an boost. Murphy fouls on the drive and they tie it up at the line. That was our 7^th foul as well.
2	3:15	67	64	A 3 by Murphy gives us a 3 point lead and a 6^th man boost, the fans are into this one on both sides.
2	2:00	67	64	A couple empty trips on both sides and they have the ball down 3, 2 minutes left.
2	1:35	70	64	Bright with a steal as the SF he's guarding loses control of the ball trying to drive. Santiago is left as open as anyone will ever be open from 3 and drains it! SMU timeout.
2	0:40	73	64	They miss a short one on the other end, Keller with the board. We run the clock and Murphy goes off a screen and drains a 3 at the end of the shot clock, that should do it.

They miss again and concede the game, we run the final 30 off the clock after scoring the final 9 points of the game.

Ohio 73
SMU 64

Their backup SF Taylor finishes with 17, just 5 in the second half. Adams with 11 and Sanders 8, their two talented players got some points but not as many as I expected.

Murphy: 17 points/4 assists (5-12 from 3)
McCully: 9 points/4 boards
Santiago: 23 points/4 boards (5-12 from 3 also)
Bright: 2 points/12 boards
Keller: 5 points/3 boards

Mendoza: 8 points

We shoot 13-32 from 3, 25-53 from the field for hte game. McCully was good in transition when we could run, but he was near useless against their 2-3 zone since I'd rather launch 3's with Murphy and Santiago or go to a post player.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 05:03 PM

I forgot ot mention, I upped my injury sliders at the start of the season to the same level that EF27 did recently. I had increased mine but nearly as much, and had not seen any difference at all(albeit over a small sample size).

Radii · 04-05-2009, 07:01 PM

November 11, 2016

Ohio (3-0) vs Kent State (4-0)

We get a conference opponent in the finals of the preseason NIT. This is my fault, not the game's, as I inserted myself into this tournament in scheduling, I wasn't automatically picked for it. I guess its the game's fault for letting me. Kent State has early wins over St John's and Vanderbilt and appears likely to be our top competition in the MAC this season.

They return 4 starters including Logan Montgomery, best player in the league according to the conference preview stuff. All four returning starters are seniors. They are a very experienced bunch.

We played them last year at the end of the season and even with Montgomery injured they spent the game in a 2-3 zone and we couldn't shoot over it and lost by 18. We did beat them 2 out of 3 times though and hope to have an edge here today.

Scouting

PG R. Parsons – SR – 73 OVR – 87 speed/81 quickness. Outstanding defender(88), not a steals guy so that's good. 79 close/76 med/73 3, not great but can't leave him open. 83 off the dribble. 14 ppg. Parsons has become a very good ball handler(89, B rating for a PG, but we don't see that often in the MAC).

SG Theodore Holland – SR – 75 OVR – A 3 point shooting specialist, rated 87 from behind the arc. He doesn't look to do much else. 82 defense. 7.8 ppg.

SF Logan Montgomery – SR – 82 OVR – 83 speed/83 quickness, good for a SF. 84 vertical/81 hustle, both exceptional. 79 defensive awareness, almost unheard of for this level. Good defense for a SF(84), 87 close/75 med/81 3, 80 off the dribble, 90 in traffic. 14 ppg so far this season.

PF Dominick Bowden – JR – 71 OVR – 6'8”. 83 orb/80 drb, not bad at all. 73 post off/78 post defense. Maye and Bowden combine to form a very formidable defensive front line. 81 close/86 in traffic. 9 ppg/7.5 rpg so far.

C Roburt Maye – SR – 72 OVR – 7'1”, a good defensive rebounder(86) but terrible on the offensive glass(72). 71 post offense/78 post d. 87 close/86 in traffic. 11.5 ppg/5.3 rpg.

They go 9 deep with players rated over 65 OVR. They have two 6'10 bench players, nota ton of talent but good size inside. Their primary scoring threat off the bench is SG Ellis Laws, he's burned us for 3's many times in the past. They do have a giant unity edge, 65-47.

Half	Time	OHIO	KSU	Notes
1	18:45	5	4	McCully has our first 5 points, he hits his first 3 of the year(in a game I played at least). he elevates to maximum height almost immediately with a release i've never seen before. A rebound leading to a fast break dunk gets the 6^th man going for us just 1:15 into the game.
1	15:30	17	11	We might both score 100 here today... McCully 11, Santiago 6. They have a couple 3's and Montgomery is scoring pretty well early on. Timeout #2 for Kent State
1	13:35	19	13	Timeout #3 Kent State.
1	9:00	29	22	Backups in finally. 3 6^th man boosts and 3 kent state timeouts let our starters go forever. They could have stayed out another minute or two really, but a 5-0 Kent State run after we went up 12 spurred me to go ahead and sub out my guys. Santiago and McCully have either 25 or 27 of our 29 points.
1	7:00	34	26	Play is stopped as Grundy goes out with an injury.
1	4:45	37	31	Well it takes 3 played games with the new injury sliders before we see our first serious injury. Grundy is going to miss a month or more.
1	3:25	40	35	Starters are coming back in as we've let them back within 5.
1	1:00	42	43	Keller gets his 3^rd foul and they get a 3 point play that gives them the lead for the first time today.
	HALF	42	48	A 3 and a turnover/layup near the end of the half and they're all of a sudden beating us by 6 at the half. We got out on the run early and Santiago was hot from 3. But we cool off and cannot beat their 2-3 zone consistently. Montgomery leads them with 12, Laws with 10. They're shooting 55%, 19-34, 3-8 from 3 and 7-9 at the line. They have a 18-13 rebounding edge as well. We're 15-32, 7-18 from 3. Santiago has 18 and McCully 11, huge starts for both but almost all of that was in the first 7 10 minutes. Mendoza has 6 off the bench.
2	18:10	45	55	We get a 3 point play from Keller but also have two turnovers and have allowed them to go up 10... timeout Ohio.
2	12:20	58	64	We work like crazy to get it back down to 6... Montgomery has 19 and is hitting key shots for them whenever they need one. We had a chance to cut the lead down to 2, McCully with a rare turnover in transition leads to a bucket for them. I call a timeout to get my backups in. I have Snowden at center in place of Grundy... wonderful.
2	9:30	61	69	We hit a 3 to cut it to 3, get a turnover but their center blocks our attempt at a fast break basket(from behind, I thought my guy was clear). They score 5 straight after that, in large part thanks to the fact that they get every rebound on either end for 2 minutes straight.
2	8:00	67	69	Hah! We score on our next trip, their PG drives and takes a tough shot, misses, gets the board, kicks it out for a 3, they miss, their PF gets the board, and we steal it, going in for a layup. Next possession they throw it away and we get a dunk. So we still get no rebounds but go on a 6-0 run nonetheless, earning a 6^th man boost in the process.
2	7:20	69	69	Maye misses a post move inside and this time we do get the rebound(Snowden, playing center...), we catch them in man to man defense and get an easy bucket attacking the basket off the dribble. Tie game, timeout Kent State.
2	6:55	69	71	They score on their next trip and our starters are ready to come back in. I call a timeout to get them back immediately. I have 2 timeouts left.
2	6:30	72	71	McCully with the 3 after a kickout from Keller. I'm for now reasonably comfortable taking wide open 3's with McCully. He has 2 this game which helps a lot. Our lead!
2	6:20	72	74	Fucking Montgomery. Seriously. He has 22 now, answers with a 3 immediately.
2	4:20	77	76	They score again and go up 4(Montgomery again). I get a 3 from Murphy, his first of the game I think, he's been cold but was so open. A block inside gets the 6^th man going for us, and Bright gets a bucket on an offensive board to put us back on top. Timeout Kent State. We each have 2 left now I think.
2	4:10	77	76	Foul McCully, its our 7^th, they're shooting, but miss the front end of the 1 and 1, our ball.
2	3:45	79	79	Fucking Montgomery. McCully with a layup in transition on the other end. Montgomery with a 3 pointer to tie it right back up. I call a timeout b/c the 3 triggers their 6^th man.
2	2:15	81	81	Both teams are in the middle of a 6^th man boost now... they get a held ball and the arrow is pointing their way. They score, I get an offensive board and bucket from Bright on my end. Tied up, their ball.
2	1:40	84	81	They miss a shot, Bright with his 15^th rebound on the day. Santiago hits a 3 on our end to give us the 3 point lead. He's been ice cold, that was a huge shot though.
2	1:25	84	84	Parsons beats the press by himself and just walks right up to the top of the key and strokes a 3 over Murphy... not a single pass, no play being run, he wasn't wide open, impressive. Tie game again. I call my last timeout as that of course triggers another 6^th man boost.
2	0:32	87	84	I run the clock down until their 6^th man goes back to green(ie goes away completely). I get a shot from McCully but its not an ideal one and it misses. We get the offensive board(Bright or Keller, they have the same body type and I can't tell the difference usually). I kick it out and try to get to the hoop, but their defense is strong. In the end a drive by McCully forces them out of position, not so much that he can get a layup, but enough that it leaves Murphy wide open at the top of the key, he passes, Murphy shoots and drains it!
2	0:14	89	84	Parsons goes for the 3 and misses, bright with the rebound! They only have 4 team fouls so it takes a bit to get us to the line. McCully goes to the line for a 1 and 1... first one good, second one good!

They miss one more shot, we make 2 more free throws and seal the game. This is the second game in a row where we made huge plays in the final two minutes of a tie game to earn the win, I'm very very pleased with this.

Ohio 91
Kent State 84

We win the preseason NIT, beating 3 teams rated 80 or better in the process!! Montgomery had an outstanding game for them, 27 points on 10-18 shooting. If he's like this most nights he's a shoe in to win the MAC player of the year award. I wonder if we have to play these guys on the road this year.

Parsons hit a couple big shots down the stretch, and Maye was solid in the post, scoring 13/12 boards on 6-9 shooting.

Murphy: 6 points/7 assists (2-6 from 3, both in the final minutes and both hugely clutch).
McCully: 24 points
Santiago: 24 points (5-12 from 3)
Bright: 10 points/18 boards
Keller: 5 points/1 board

Mendoza: 8 points
Northcutt: 7 points

The loss of Grundy hurts us bad. After Keller's performance in the last couple games I would be benching him for Grundy at this point, Keller has been awful in the starting lineup.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 07:49 PM

Out of necessity now(and maybe for the best anyway in the end), I remove the redshirt on freshman big man Darryl Withers. Grundy is out for 42 days with his broken ankle.

I update my lineups and depth charts to put Withers in Grundy's old spot, no other changes. When Grundy is back he may start at center and Keller will come off the bench, or I may just put both my 7 footers out there with the backups, it mostly depends on how Keller does over this next month.

I sim my next two games to get us to the early signing period:

Nov 14

at Ohio 88
E. Tennessee State 48

Murphy 21, Keller 19, Santiago 16, Mendoza 10 as we blow out a bad team.

Next up is another terrible team.

Nov 19, 2016

at Ohio 68
Binghamton 40

Santiago 16, Keller 12, Bright 10, Murphy 11.

We're 6-0 with no games in the final week leading up to the signing period.

There are no mid majors in either top 25 poll. Here's the first mid-major poll I've bothered to look at:

1. Nevada (7-0)
2. Ohio (6-0)
3. Arkansas State (4-1)
4. Pepperdine (5-1)
5. Kent State (6-1)

Ball State is 15th, Eastern Michigan is 25th.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 08:10 PM

Early Signing Period

I think we're leaning more towards disaster than big rewards here, but we'll see. On the last day before this starts:

3* C Stefan Fitch - This is the only guy we have at 100%. However, UNLV has him at 100% too and we've both offered him. He'll likely sign right away, and given that he's from California UNLV seems more likely.

4* PF Bobby Bragg - Pitt offered him a scholarship and they appear to have him at 100%. We have him at 98%. I expect to lose him to Pitt.

3* JC SF Brendon Okosa - Marshall has offered him as well. We havehim at 97% and he's coming in for a campus visit tomorrow. If the campus visit is processed before signing's we will have him at 100% and have a real shot. We'll see.

4* PG Quincy Jimenez - We have him at 94%. I don't think there's anything we can do to get him to 100% before the end of next week. FSU is right up there but hasn't made him an offer.

There's a real chance we lose all four of these guys this week. I'm pretty worried.... and, lets sim to the next day and cross our fingers.

4* PF Bobby Bragg signs with Pittsburgh.

3* C Stefan Fitch signs with UNLV. That was our most likely signing, that's rough.

3* SF Brendon Okosa signs with Marshall.

Strikeout.

wooboy. That's going to make the rest of this recruiting season interesting. And to be clear, I mean trainwreck interesting, not exciting interesting.

Some good news, 4* SG Quincy Jimenez drops FSU down a bit, I assume they signed someone else at SG which would cause him to take a hit. That doesn't mean they won't offer him also and screw us. We've got him at 94%. He'll get to 100% by the end of the season, but not by the end of the week.

So lets talk backup targets:

6'10" C, a JC FR, Bernell Roberts has a scholarship offer from UNC Asheville, but he is from Columbus, OH and wants to stay close to home. We're on the same level as UNC-A without a single visit or a scholarship offer. Looks like its our turn to steal someone away. roberts isn't a stud but he is an above average rebounder. I haven't scouted him enough to see if he is a scoring threat or not, but the rebounding alone is enough to pursue. The scholarship offer jumps him from 84% to 94%, a call to 95% and we're visiting him. Seems promising.

3* PG Brad Buggs - Buggs is from Texas, he doesn't care a lot about staying close to home, but our competition here is Texas and Texas Tech. I guess the thing we most have going for us is that Buggs is the #32 PG in the nation and there's a reasonable chance that those schools will ignore him and go after higher rated targets.

3* PF Zachary Hogan - 6'11" and the #285 recruit in the nation, #45 PF. He looks pretty damn exciting actually, B- ORB/B DRB, C+ Close range shot, B Shot blocking. He has no offers yet and we would appear to be right in the mix with Evansville, Middle Tennesee State, Western Kentucky and Georgia State. He is from Nashville

4* SG Jeremie Nava - #88 OVR/#30 SG. A long shot, but only Oklahoma State has shown any interest and they haven't made him an offer yet. I offer my scholarship to him but am not going to make him a priority for visits(which is going to be an issue with 3 new targets to try to woo...), but rather I'm going to work on him slowly, visit when I have time/have used up visits on the other guys, and be there at the end if Oklahoma State never comes calling.

I don't really have a great feel for my odds with these guys. First lets get through this week and see if anything else happens at the end of the signing period.

November 28, 2016

at Ohio 86
Montana State 61

Another bad team, Bright with 16, Keller with 10, Murphy with 14, Mendoza 12.

I can't quite finish the week right away, because the day before the week ends is our best shot ever to try to punch a ticket into the media and coaches top 25.

We're 7-0 and travelling to #18 Syracuse. It'll be a tough game we expect to lose, but if we can find a way to win, we're sure to earn a ranking finally.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 08:15 PM

As I sim to Saturday, we visit JC Center Bernell Roberts. That jumps him up to 100% interest in us. We've fully scouted him out now and he's not the most impressive recruit in the world. C- close range shot, C- post offense, but C post defense, C+ defensive rebounding, B- str and B hustle. Seems like he's a likely candidate to sign with Ohio this week. I'd really, really like that, it would make going after our other 2 new scholarship offers and trying to maintain some kind of backup targets for them more feasible.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 09:39 PM

December 3, 2016

Ohio (7-0) at #18 Syracuse (7-1)

We've only played a few ranked teams before, and we've never beaten one. Syracuse's roster strength is superior in every way to ours. 89 OVR (90 off/89 def/93 sht/88 reb/90 coach). Boeheim retired awhile back so this is a new guy. Their only loss is to NC State(a final four team last year). They won a road game at Kansas State for what looks like their biggest win.

Scouting

PG Jabahri Nengsu – SR – 85 OVR – 91 speed/92 quickness. 81 defense/88 steals(B+, very very high). 89 hands/92 passing, a very high quality PG. 81 close/82 med/79 3, 82 off the dribble. 10.4 ppg so far this year.

SG Johnnie Videnov – JR – 88 OVR – Freshman all american 2 years ago, first team all big east last year. Averaging 19.1 ppg so far this year, we'll consider ourselves lucky if that's all he gets today. 93 speed/84 quickness. 84 defense. 98 close/83 med/81 3. 86 off the dribble/84 in traffic, a great dunker and leaper as well. 74 steals/82 defensive awareness, he'll be tough to play against. He has super high driving and 3 point tendencies so he's going to be shooting a lot. 98 close range is amazing, A+, and he could foul out all our big men if he decides to attack consistently.

SF Hilton Keeler – SO – 82 OVR – a natural SG, this is a guard heavy team. 87 speed/78 quicknes. 86 defense is very high, 91 steals is scary. 89 close/81 med/86 3/87 off the dribble, a sharpshooter, he hasn't developed into a major threat like Videnov yet but he'll kill us any time he's open. Just 8 ppg so far.

PF Grant Greenleaf – SO – 82 OVR – a 7 foot tall talent, scary also. 83 orb/80 drb. 85 post offense/81 post defense. 91 shot blocking(A). 89 close/87 in traffic, a good dunker. 12.1 ppg/5.8 rpg.

C Jose Diggs – FR – 71 OVR - Just 6'8”, 77 orb/81 drb. 84 post offense/79 post defense. 84 close/84 in traffic. He'll be good but he's raw now. 5.0 ppg/3.8 rpg so far this year.

Syracuse has about 6 guards on their bench who would start over anyone i've got. They're not deep inside, but they are incredibly deep at PG/SG/SF.

Seems like our best strategy here is the same we used against Duke and Texas Tech. Try to slow the game down, drive and attack when we can, and pray that we're hitting our 3's.

Really, all we have to do is beat the #18 team in the country, a team starting 4 players better than anyone on our roster, in front of 33,000 fans of their team. No problem.

Half	Time	OHIO	SYR	Notes
1	20:00	0	0	We win the tip and I am blinded by orange. Holy shit I don't think ive seen a syracuse home game in awhile... or maybe this court isn't authentic. If it is, it is the ugliest court I've ever seen. No offense to the hordes of Syracuse fans at FOFC of course. I know you all hate the Dean Dome, despite its close resemblance to heaven.
1	16:30	3	7	Their Freshman Center picks up two quick fouls and sits. Our last possession, trailing 4-3,we made them eat up 32 seconds off the shot clock and forced a contested 3 by Greenleaf, their 7 foot tall PF. Great defense, too bad the shot went in.
1	13:00	7	15	They go to a 4 guard lineup and the new guy, Stehly, is rated 82 OVR, all his shooting ratings are over 80, and he's on fire. He has 7 points. I call a timeout after his most recent 3 and get the backups in.
1	9:30	7	19	Withers gets stuck with the ball in the paint and I call a timeout to avoid a held ball and turnover. I'm not sure our backups can score against these guys.
1	7:20	12	24	We score 5 straight and play great defense on our next defensive trip, but they drain a 3 with under 5 left on the shot clock. So demoralizing. We commit a foul after an empty trip and the starters are back in.
	HALF	21	34	We're playing solid defense, they are only shooting 35% from the field. They have drawn a good number of fouls and are 9-12 at the line. Their superstar, Videnov has a quiet 10. Greenleaf has 7 points/6 boards. On our end, Murphy is absolutely killing us. He's 0-7 from 3, and all 3 are wide open looks with no one anywhere close over their 2-3 defense. If he makes 2 or 3, we're right in the game. Santiago isn't any better, he has 10 points but its on 1-5 shooting from the arc. We are 6-25 from the field, 2-18 from 3 and 7-9 from the line. Any efforts to drive on them when they're in their zone result in blocked shots and horrible drive animations for ridiculous reverse layups that never materialize. They are too good on defense for that it appears. If we are going to win, and we have a shot, its going to happen from the 3 point line. We'll continue to drive if the lane is there, but actively trying to draw fouls is failing horribly.
2	19:35	24	34	Well this seems a good omen. Their PG, the one with 89 ball handling/90 passing... just, well, I dunno what. He took the inbounds pass about 5 feet on our side of half court, and the ball just went out of bounds. It looked l ike the ball just magically changed direction and went out of bounds behind everyone under our basket. I'm going to say he dribbled it off his foot, yeah, that's the ticket. We set up a play, Murphy scoots out to the wing with the help of a screen and drains his first 3 pointer of the night.
2	15:50	32	46	Well we're shooting well, 2 baskets by Santiago and one from Murphy but they're scoring on every single trip, and we're not.
2	14:30	35	52	Backups are in early... Murphy just picked up foul #4 and all our starters are tired. Unless something changes fast its apparent that we just cannot score with them.

They score the next 10 in a row against our backups and I concede.

#18 Syracuse 91
Ohio 63

Videnov ends up with 30 for them, Greenleaf 14, Keller 12. Videnov seems all american caliber.

Murphy: 7 points
McCully: 2 points
Santiago: 25 points
Bright: 8 points/6 boards
Keller: 4 points

Mendoza: 7 points
Garcia: 7 points

Santiago is the only scorer we have that can compete at this level right now. Murphy could have had us right in the game at the half and changed things competely, but he just couldn't come through.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 09:46 PM

End of in-season recruiting

Oklahoma State decided to offer 4* SG Jeremie Nava and he signs immediately. Glad they got that over with early.

3* JC C Bernell Roberts signs with OHIO. So that's 1 down, and its a very unexciting 1,but it is a 6'10" big man who appears to have above average talent on the boards.

That leaves us with 3 offers out there that we'll continue working on til the end of the season, the 4* SG that we've had our eye on from the start and our two new backup targets, PF Hogan and PG Buggs.

oh fuck me. Kent State is #23 in the coaches poll this week. They're 10-1, no marquee wins or anything, just 10-1.

The newest mid-major poll:

1. Nevada
2. Pepperdine
3. Ohio
4. Kent State
5. Arkansas St

Bowling Green #14, Miami OH #25.

Our other really big test comes next. At Boston College. They aren't as menacing as Syracuse but they are rated higher than us and it is on the road.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 11:09 PM

December 5, 2016

Ohio (7-1) at Boston College (4-3)

Al Skinner remains at BC and has 523 wins now. BC is rated 87 OVR (88 off/85 def/89 sht/92 reb/93 coach). They score less and shoot worse than Syracuse. Hopefully there's room here for us to make it a game. Their 3 losses are at #23 Michigan State, at Arkansas, and at #1 Florida(that was a 70-44 loss).

Their best win is a 4 point escape over Umass. Other wins are against teams of the caliber of 0-7 Stetson and 1-6 Wiston Salem State. They start 3 young guys with 2 or less bars of experience, but their SG Vernon Johnson is a coach on the floor and will give them a huge lift.

Scouting

PG SR Jakob Allison – SR – 84 OVR – 93 speed/86 quickness/89 vert/71 str (B for a PG), a very very athletic guy. 90 handling/93 passing, also super high quality. 89 defense, 74 steals. 84 close/76 med/73 3/88 off the dribble/76 in traffic. 8 ppg so far this year, for this lower scoring team that is 2^nd in scoring.

SG Vernon Johnson – SR – 83 OVR - Leads the team with only 9 ppg. 87 speed/89 quickness. 83 defense/85 steals, tough to play against. 93 close/77 med/77 3/85 off the dribble/85 in traffic. All those numbers are outstanding, he's 6'6” and has both awareness numbers over 80. If we play a higher scoring game he'll score a heck of a lot more than 9.

SF Rubeen Byfield – SO – 79 OVR – natural SG, 6'4”. 86 defense/78 steals, both good. 87 close/81 med/73 3. Great off the dribble and in traffic. This kid has A- potential and looks great for a sophomore. 7.9 ppg, 3^rd on the team.

PF Maynard McGrain – FR – 77 OVR – 85 orb/75 drb. 6'7 only. 81 post offense/69 post defense. 77 blocked shot rating, very high. 90 close/91 in traffic. McGrain is only a 3 star recruit, incredibly talented. He was #107 ovr last year, one of the top 3 star recruits, if not the top. 6.9 ppg. He's poor defensively but his shot blocking might make up for that.

C Erroyl Snow – SO – 77 OVR – 85 orb/80 drb, solid rebound ratings for this 6'10” center. 85 post offense/73 post d. 73 blocked shot rating and 72 steals(A- for steals for a center). 92 close/90 in traffic. A major scoring threat. 7.5 ppg/4 rpg.

Johnson is very good but not a bona fide superstar like Syracuse had. They have great balance though, 5 backups rated 70-75. 3 of their backups are decent shooting threats. This is a team that it is a bit more likely we can compete with. A win over a major conference school would really help this year.

Half	Time	OHIO	BC	Notes
1	11:30	21	17	Well its star vs star early and our star is winning. In the first 3 minutes, their SG Johnson scored 8 points on 3 straight possessions, a dunk off a steal and 2 3 pointers. They led 11-6 at that point in the game. Santiago drove past his man and drew a foul, scoring 2 from the line. And in the last 4 minutes, he's 4-4 from the 3 point line, he's got 14 points. McCully is not going to be able to do much, they have Johnson playing loose against him(according to the scouting sheet in the team profile they play LOOSE defense in general, which seems to be helping santiago). But McCully cannot beat Johnson for anything, and is scoreless. Bright and Keller have some points in low. One last issue, they have 4 offensive boards early. Thats with our big men in the game. Backups are in now.
1	6:45	27	20	We start real slow, eating clock and just trying to keep the lead, but they turn it over on two straight possessions and we're able to take advantage, rolling out to a 7 point lead! I should point out that they had 4 backups on the court, their starters just came back out.
1	5:45	27	24	They score 4 straight with the help of a Withers turnover(ie he touches the ball and they take it away before I can press a button). I call a timeout to get the starters back in.
1	4:20	27	28	Murphy and Santiago miss open 3's, Murphy gets a good drive to the hoop but is stuffed and can't draw a foul... they score 4 more and take the lead. I call a timeout.
	HALF	32	35	Not bad, but could be better. We're allowing them to shoot 62% from the field. They're 15-24, 3-6 from 3 and 2-4 at the line. By comparison , we are 10-22 from the field, 5-12 from 3 and 7-8 from the line. Johnson is a beast for them, he's 6-6, 2-2 from 3 for 14 points. Snow, their center, is their 2^nd leading scorer with 8. Santiago is 5-6 from 3 and 2-2 at the line for 17 points. After that, a few people have 4. Second half change: Mendoza is in with the starters at SG. McCully can't do anything at all, might as well get a 3 point shooter out there. McCully can maybe use his speed better in the middle of the half when BC is either tired or using their bench.
2	16:23	35	43	Johnson with a wide open 3 to make it 8 after we miss a shot on our end. I call a timeout to keep it close and to quiet the crowd. Santiago is 0-2 from 3 this half.
2	15:00	35	48	A Johnson 3 point play and he's got 20 and we're falling apart. Dammit!
2	12:25	39	53	Keller draws a foul and makes 1 of 2,we get a steal and Keller comes down on the break, Murphy finds him and he blows a dunk. That kinda 2^nd half it appears. Murphy does finally hit a 3. Backups are in, including McCully. Johnson up to 23 for them.
2	8:30	45	60	They call a timeout, not sure why. Johnson with 26.
2	8:20	45	63	I go ahead and get my starters back in, they're fresh and if we're going to coe back its going to be a big run involving Santiago. We'll start that run right after they make a FT, miss the 2^nd get the board and dunk it, however.
2	6:50	47	63	Bright is hurt driving to the basket and drawing a foul. Withers is in. This would be ok except Keller has 4 fouls and could be gone at any minute.
2	5:45	53	63	Hey, that run I joked about above is actually starting! We get two good stops and two fast break baskets in a row and we've cut it down to 10. They just subbed out Johnson.
2	4:10	55	66	UGH!!!! We force a stop, Mendoza with a great bucket on the other end. We play 34 seconds of stellar defense and they fire a cross court pass leading to an open 3... DAMN!
2	2:45	55	70	All our momentum disappeared. The random balls bouncing their way start back up, we block a shot, it falls into their center's hands, he misses a hook, their PG comes out with it and they make a jumper.

We do get it down to 9 again at one point but they have too much free throw shooting and too much offensive rebounding for us to really make a move.

Boston College 77
Ohio 64

Stat of the game: Boston College 15 offensive boards, Ohio 6. They win the rebounding battle 31-22 overall. They shoot 50% while we shoot 39%. We go 7/26 from 3. Vernon Johnson scores 28 for BC. Snow, their center, scores 14.

Murphy: 4 points (1-9 from 3, dammit)
McCully: 0 points
Santiago: 21 points (6-12 from 3)
Bright: 4 points/5 boards
Keller: 7 points/7 boards

Mendoza: 16 points

Radii · 04-05-2009, 11:10 PM

After the game I learn that Bright is out 28 days with a strained achilles. Grundy is still out 18 more days. We're in some trouble.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 11:24 PM

I sim our next game.

Dec 10, 2016

at Ohio 82
Detroit 81

Well that was close. McCully 18, Mendoza 15, Barker (backup PG) 12, that doesn't happen often.

Our next two games we expect to win as well.

Dec 17, 2016

Ohio 73
at Valparaiso 64

Keller puts up 17 today, Santiago 18 in our win.

this makes us 9-2 and takes us to the week of Dec 19. Still no mid-majors in the media top 25, but Kent State is still 23rd in the Coaches poll, they're 12-1.

Mid Major Poll:

1. Kent State (12-1)
2. Nevada (11-2)
3. Pepperdine (10-2)
4. Ohio (9-2)
5. Middle Tennessee State (9-1)

Ball State #12, Bowling Green #16

Seriously, #1 mid major?? haha I don't believe it. Kent State has the #1 RPI in the nation. They have wins over such national powers as UAB, Marshall, and Southern Illinois (seriously those are their 3 best wins... those aren't bad wins, mind you, but come on). I know the RPI resets and looks more normal in January but meh.

I sim one more easy win before getting back to tougher competition.

Dec 20, 2016

at Ohio 89
NC A&T 54

Keller 17, Withers 15, Murphy 11.

We have 3 non-conference games left. We play New Orleans, rated 81 OVR, Duqesne, rated 78 overall. We then play Northern Illinois to open our conference schedule, and then one final mid-major clash before conference play gets in full swing, as perennial top 5 mid major Nevada will come visit Ohio.

Radii · 04-05-2009, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radii

After the game I learn that Bright is out 28 days with a strained achilles. Grundy is still out 18 more days. We're in some trouble.

not in nearly as much trouble as it first seemed, I counted my weeks wrong, I thought grundy was missing the New Orleans and Duqesne games. He's back in time for New Orleans, which I'll play tomorrow.

Radii · 04-06-2009, 10:54 AM

My 360 froze last night when I was done playing, luckily I save frequently and only had to re-sim the NC A&T game. We win this time around 86-65, getting 15 from Santiago and 12 from Murphy.

Radii · 04-06-2009, 12:41 PM

December 24, 2016

New Orleans (4-5) at Ohio (10-2)

New Orleans has had some issues and hopefully we'll continue to make things tough on them. They're rated 81 OVR (80 off/80 def/83 sht/83 reb/80 coach).

With Grundy in our starting lineup instead of Bright, our ratings drop slightly (83 ovr/83 off/81 def/86 sht/88 reb/80 coach).

Their losses really aren't good ones, saint mary's is decent, but UCF, Denver, and Drake are all fairly bad teams. They have beaten a solid Portland team. I played New Orleans a few years ago, don't remember much about them but they had a really good freshman who is now an amazing senior.

Scouting

PG Dermie Bigelow – JR – 75 OVR – 89 speed/86 quickness, 83 defense/75 steals. 80 close/83 med/79 3/80 off the dribble. He looks like most PG's we face these days, he can hurt us with his shot as much as anything, his defense and speed are good but not overwhelming. 8 ppg/4.3 assists.

SG Smackey Davis – SR – 87 OVR – Davis was the #28 recruit in the nation 4 years ago and has developed very nicely. First team all sun-belt last year. 92 speed/84 quickness, 88 defense/77 steals. 90 close/91 med/79 3/81 off the dribble, looks deadly. He's a great athlete, exceptional vertical, hustle and strength. 17.3 ppg so far this year.

SF Raef Beeler – JR – 74 OVR – 84 speed/75 quickness, 77 defense/70 steals. 83 close/71 med/76 3. Not much stands out here other than he can hit the 3 if left open. His quickness and poor defense makes me feel good about Santiago's numbers today. 8.8 ppg.

PF Alton Bone – SR – 75 OVR – 6'10” - 84 orb/77 drb. 74 post off/72 post def. 81 close/85 in atrffic. His better ratings are ones I consider more minor... durability, fouls, consistency and the like. He's averaging 10.9 ppg and is someone we'd like to keep off the offensive glass, but doesn't seem like a big threat.

C Lavardicus Koffi – FR – 67 OVR – 7'1 – 74 orb/74 drb. 78 post offense/76 post d. 90 close/77 in traffic. That disparity between close range shooting and shooting in traffic is tough to reconcile, no clue what to expect. He's very strong(80) and a good worker (80 hustle). 6.6 ppg.

They have a backup big and a couple backup guards rated in the low 70s. Really this team looks quite good, I'm worried about Davis hanging 30 on me today.

Half	Time	OHIO	UNO	Notes
1	14:00	13	7	Davis seems off to a cold start for them, he's missed two open looks. 4 of their 7 in the post, and a 3 by Beeler(who now is sitting with 2 fouls). Murphy and Santiago each have a 3 for us and McCully has 2 fast break buckets.
1	12:30	15	12	New Orleans makes their second 3 and gets a layup off a steal... backups are in for me.
1	7:05	26	20	Their freshman center, Koffi, leads all scoring with 10 points. We're getting enough to keep our lead though and they call a timeout.
1	6:30	30	20	Starters come back in. We score 4 more straight on two steals to go up 10. Mendoza leads us with 7 off the bench so far.
1	3:50	35	22	Defense is playing real strong over the last 5 or 6 minutes now, they call another timeout.
	HALF	45	25	Its great to see strong defense like this again, this feels like a return to some of the strong, strong play we had 2 seasons ago with better defenders on the court. They shoot 10-24, 3-9 from 3. They have 10 turnovers, a few losing control on their own and we've been getting in the passing lanes more than usual(CPU controlled, I rarely jump out myself, when it works well it feels hokey, when it doesn't we give up lots of open shots :P) Davis is scoreless. 0-5 in 16 minutes with 2 turnovers. On our end, we're killing them on the boards, 16-9 so far. We're shooting 11-23, 7-12 from 3, and have drawn 10 fouls, most of them shooting, leading to 16-18 from the line. Santiago has 4 3's and 14 poits. McCully has 7, Mendoza 7, and Murphy 5.
2	15:30	58	31	We score the first 6 of the half to go up 26 and hang on to that lead, they call a timeout.

We extend the lead to 30 with about 13:30 to go and sim to the end.

Ohio 94
New Orleans 67

Their 87 rated SG ends up shooting 3-13 on the day, 1-7 from 3, for 7 points. Outstanding result for us. Koffi, their lowest rated starter by far, a true freshman, scores 23, heh.

Murphy: 17 points/3 assists
McCully: 13 points/3 assists
Santiago: 22 points
Grundy: 6 points/9 boards
Keller: 10 points/8 boards

Mendoza: 12 points

Its hard to lose when you shoot over 50% from 3, and that's what we did today, 13-25. Santiago was 6-10.

Radii · 04-06-2009, 01:14 PM

For the week of the 26th, no mid-majors in the media poll. Kent State rises to #21 in the coaches poll

Mid Major Poll:

1. Kent State
2. Nevada
3. Pepperdine
4. Ohio
5. MTSU

Ball State #12, Bowling Green #20

I rarely bring up recruiting in the middle of the season, but that's because I rarely change targets mid season. The #118 recruit in the nation, PG Brad Buggs out of Texas, has received an offer from Texas Tech. At this point I lost most of the guys I was eyeing as backup targets in the early signing week, so I go and scout out 4 new PG/SG types that don't appear locked into one school yet.

I'm itching to play Nevada so I sim our next two. The first isn't really a guarenteed win but looks like one we should take.

Dec 28, 2016

at Ohio 92
Duqesne 85

high scoring. Grundy leads us with 17 points/11 boards, Keller 15, McCully 14.

And our next game technically opens up conference play, we better win this one.

Dec 31

Ohio 103
at N. Illinois 64

Good good. Keller 23, Northcutt 19, Murphy 14.

On the injury front though, Mendoza is hurt in this game and will miss about 2 weeks.

And going into the first week in january, Kent State enters the MEdia Poll at #21. They're #20 in the coaches poll.

Mid Major Poll:

1. Kent State
2. Pepperdine
3. Ohio
4. MTSU
5. Nevada

Ball State #14.

This sets up our next game. Our final non-conference game of the year, we host the #5 mid major team, consistently one of the top 3 mid majors every year, Nevada.

Mendoza is out for another 1 1/2 weeks, but Bright is back.

Starting lineup:

PG Murphy,SG McCully, SF Santiago, PF Bright, C Keller

Backups:

PG Barker, SG northcutt, SF Garcia, PF Grundy, C Withers

time to go with a 'normal' backup rotation with two big men.

Radii · 04-06-2009, 03:53 PM

January 4, 2017

Nevada (12-4) at Ohio (13-2)

Nevada is highly rated, similar to Boston College really. 88 OVR (87 off/87 def/92 sht/87 reb). That worries me because we do often struggle against good shooting teams.

Scouting

PG Hilton Minnifield – SR – 87 OVR – superstar all the way. 94 speed/85 quickness. 90 defense/75 steals. 93 hands/81 passing. 87 close/84 med/82 3. 87 off the dribble. O-awareness and D-awareness are both 79. 14.7 ppg/3.3 apg so far this year. Minnifield was first team all WAC as a sophomore and junior. This is actually his 5^th season, he played 2 games last year, looks like a medical redshirt.

SG Kyle Mills – SR – 84 OVR - 92 speed/93 quickness. 86 defese, only 67 steals. Great handles and passing, he's a natural PG actually. 89 close/86 med/86 3, lights out shooting. 15.5 ppg.

SF Jake Pawlak – SO – 81 OVR – 6'5”. 87 speed/89 quickness, and Pawlak is a natural SG. 83 defense/94 steals(!!!). 81 close/76 med/77 3, 87 off the dribble. 6.1 ppg, not a big scorer so far. Averaging over 2 steals/game.

PF Tyler Minnifield – JR – 73 OVR – 6'7” - 79 orb/75 drb. 77 post offense/73 post defense. 83 close/80 in traffic. Just 1.9 ppg this year, clearly their 5^th or worse option.

C Aron Odugbela – FR – 79 OVR – 6'8, a natural PF. #33 recruit in the nation last year, 79 for young big man is great. 83 orb/89 drb, better than anything we've got outside of bright. 78 post offense/80 post defense, 77 blocked shot/74 steals, both outstanding. 90 close/86 in traffic. This guy is a stud already. Just 6.1 ppg/5.8 rpg. In 3 years this guy may be a national player of the year candidate. B+ potential, he's going to be a monster.

Nevada has 2 backup point gurds that would both start for me, Petkunas and Turak. Petkunas is a big time 3 point threat off the bench. They've got a 7 foot center and another PF rated over 70 backing up the big men. This is a very good, deep team. This is my goal at Ohio. If I don't move up to the next level any time soon, this Nevada team is what I want to build for Ohio.

Half	Time	OHIO	NEV	Notes
1	19:30	0	2	Two notes. Pawlak has the same insta-release that Santiago has. He hits their first shot. Also, Nevada runs the same 3-2 defense that Ball State runs.
1	16:15	12	5	Well everything seems to be going our way. We've drawn 2 fouls, both on their highly talented SG Mills, he sits. Odugbela went down with an injury a minute or so ago, a pulled hamstring, unsure if he's returning.
1	14:30	18	9	Unexpected big contributions from Murphy early, he hit a 3 and has 2 3 point plays for 9 points. Santiago with 5.
1	13:20	20	14	Their backup center, the 7 footer, Kinloch, is fast and aggressive, he has 2 3 point play chances their last two possessions(only converting 1). Keller and Bright each have two fouls. The starters aren't quite ready to come out yet but I bring in the backup big men to avoid further foul trouble.
1	12:00	26	14	We get the backups in with a 12 point lead. They have 8 fouls already as we seem to be able to drive to the basket with ease, getting out consistently in transition against them.
1	8:30	32	20	We just have them in so much foul trouble that I need to build up a lead, god knows what will happen in the 2^nd half. Timeout Nevada.
2	6:00	36	26	I call a timeout to get the starters back in for the rest of the half.
	HALF	51	36	Well that really could not have gone better. We commit a fair number of fouls ourselves and Nevada is 9-12 from the line, but we end up 15-18 from the line. A total of 7 of the 10 starters have 2 fouls... Santiago, Keller and Bright for us, and all of Nevada's starters except for Odugbela, who came back after a short time. Their backup guard that I mentioned as a threat, Petkunas, leads them with 10. They are 0-6 from 3. We are shooting well, 16-26 from the field/4-12 from 3/15-18 from the line. McCully is a real asset for us in drawing fouls, and he's a great FT shooter... 8-8 today. Murphy with a stellar half leads us with 14. McCully 10, Santiago 9. I'm real curious to see if we can hold this lead when all their starters come back. Also, many games where we start out drawing so many 1^st half fouls end up with almost none in the 2^nd half, so the pace of the game may well change drastically.
2	15:00	58	43	Happy to still be up 15 here, Santiago and Murphy both start the half off cold but our defense is still getting along well. Santiago hits a 3 finally (1-3 for the half) on a good inside-out play with Keller and they call a timeout.
2	14:50	58	43	Keller with a stupid reach in and he's got 4 fouls now. McCully has picked up his 2^nd so far also, we have 3 fouls this half, I don't think Nevada has any yet. I get Withers in at center.
2	12:40	66	46	Backups are in. Santiago with a beautiful 3 point play with a fingeroll while being fouled, then Keller earns a 3 point play after a nice feed by McCully, and Murphy is fouled shooting a 3. The defense is playing outstanding and we are totally dominating the glass.
2	8:50	74	51	Just an outstanding stretch. At the 10 minute mark I decide to start running some clock, waiting 15-20 seconds into the shot clock to run my offense. We have a great stretch, burning 30 seconds, missing but getting the offensive board, burning 30 more seconds and missing again, they get the board but we get a steal. We burn 34 more seconds and Barker makes a 3 pointer with 1 second left on the shot clock, a stretch lasting about 2 minutes where they don't even takea shot and we extend the lead. Timeout Nevada
2	5:11	81	56	What a run, we've put this away. I bring Keller back in as Withers is exhausted, but otherwise, with the injury settings turned up, i'll just run my backups ragged.

We kill the clock and pick up a giant win.

Ohio 86
Nevada 63

There is one really big difference between Nevada and Boston College/Syracuse/Texas Tech, at least the difference in this game... someone as fast and good with the ball as McCully can drive by most anyone unless they're playing him real loose. Against Syracuse he attacks the basket and just loses the ball, throws up an ugly reverse, or simply misses a tough shot in traffic, maybe his shot is outright blocked... against nevada, he draws a foul or he scores. HUGE difference in the level of play between some of the other top teams and this Nevada team, at least today.

Who knows how the game would have gone without the fouls. PG Minnifield played 22 minutes, SG Mills played 15 due to foul trouble. That's their two top scorers playing 10 and 15 minutes less than expected. Pawlak got 16 for them, Odugbela 10 and Petkunas 10, their 3 top scorers. They shot under 50% overall, 3-15 from 3, and 17-20 from the line. We were 24-32 from the line, only 6-22 from 3, we were not shooting well from behind the arc but our aggressive play worked so well it didn't matter.

Murphy: 15 points
McCully: 12 points/4 assists
Santiago: 15 points (3-9 from 3)
Bright: 11 points/4 boards
Keller: 4 points/6 boards

Withers: 9 points/7 boards

Huge win for us. Maybe this is the win that gets us into the top 25?

Radii · 04-06-2009, 04:08 PM

I go ahead and sim our next game this week, I probably should play it as W. Michigan is one of the higher rated conference opponents(77 OVR) but they're 4-9 and its at home and i'm anxious to get to next week:

Jan 8, 2017

at Ohio 84
W. Michigan 79

Santiago 18,Garcia 16, McCully and Keller 10 each.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo.

For the week of January 9th, Ohio has entered the Media poll as the #24 team in the nation!!!! Coaching skill increases are getting harder and harder to come by, this was the next hurdle on the list.

Kent State is now 15-1 and up to #19 in the nation, their only loss to us in the preseason NIT finals. We are now 15-2. Kent State is up to #18 in the coaches poll, and we are not represented there.

Mid Major Poll:

1. Kent State (15-1)
2. Ohio (15-2)
3. Pepperdine (13-3)
4. MTSU (13-2)
5. Nevada (13-5)

Ball State #13, Bowling Green #20.

We'll get into our normal rotation of playing out every other MAC game the rest of the way. My expectations at this point are unbelievably high, given our start, the fact that we've already beaten Kent State, and that many MAC teams have fallen off in their ratings a bit... We'll probably lose a couple road games that we shouldn't, but at this point 14-2 in conference play seems reasonable. And anything other than a conference tournament title would be a disappointment. that might be saying a bit much given that we haven't seen many MAC teams yet, we'll see.

Radii · 04-07-2009, 01:55 AM

I'm more of a “hang around with a shiteating grin on my face for the next few days” type of guy than a “go set bonfires on Franklin Street”, so expect another late night of college hoops progression.

January 11, 2017

Eastern Michigan (8-6, 2-0 MAC) at #24 Ohio (15-2, 2-0 MAC)

Eastern Michigan is rated 77 OVR (77 off/77 def/78 sht/85 reb/75 coach). Their two wins are against two of the worst teams in the league, Central Michigan and Northern Illinois. We played them last year in the MAC semifinals and struggled greatly to pull out a 4 point win. We trailed with 10 minutes left and never did stretch our lead out over 5 in the last 10 minutes of the game.

I expect an easier time of things this year, McCully has totally changed our team. However, EMU returns 4 starters from that team and starts 4 seniors and a junior. They are very experienced.

Scouting

PG Jeremee Alleyne – SR – 68 OVR – 86 speed/83 quickness. 74 defense, godawful. 77 close/68 med/71 3. 79 off the dribble. 81 hands/84 passing... much better passing (C hands/B passing). 9.2 ppg/5.1 apg this year.

SG Woody Karis – SR – 75 OVR – 6'5, big for a SG for whatever its worth. 86 speed/84 quickness, 78 defense(very low). 80 close/78 med/76 3. 80 off the dribble/79 in traffic. 82 steals which his solid. 8.9 ppg so far. Karis improved almost none over last year.

SF Francis Blankenship – JR – 70 OVR – A rare situation where a team has too many big men and not enough guards/small forwards. 6'8, a natural PF. As such he is slow with awful, awful on ball defense(64). 87 close/67 med/61 3. 79 in traffic. 5.8 ppg, less than he's scored in his last two years as a backup in the post. Santiago is going to have a field day.

PF Kentrell Warner –SR – 73 OVR – 6'10”, 82 orb/79 drb, 75 post offense/74 post defense. 83 close/84 in traffic. 12.2 ppg so far this year.

C Dameon Archibong – SR – 73 OVR – 6'11” - 76 orb/78 drb, fairly poor(C), 79 post offense/76 post defense. 84 close/82 in traffic. 16.5 ppg so far, which is a lot more than i'd expect from his ratings.

They are not a deep team, only 3 backups rated 65+. I remember saying this same thing in the conference semis last year... they are a poor defensive team and don't have any great offensive talent. We ought to kill them.

Half	Time	OHIO	EMU	Notes
1	15:!5	9	12	The offense has been pedestrian at best, and the defense is not looking good so far. We've left Karis too open too often, he has 2 3's and 8 points early on.
1	13:25	9	15	Backups are in to turn things around.
1	10:25	17	19	Backups start scoring pretty well for us, Northcutt and Withers with 4 each. Withers goes out hurt after a big standing 1 handed dunk though. No word on his injury yet. Keller comes in initially but I bring Snowden in to play PF and move Grundy to center instead.
1	8:15	21	24	Withers has a pulled hamstring and won't be 100% for about 20 days. But he's back and ready to go.
1	6:50	25	24	4 straight transition points for Barker and we take the lead. I call a timeout after a rebound to get our starters back in.
	HALF	37	41	Its back and forth the rest of the half, neither team leading by more than this 4 point margin we have here. We've allowed EMU to shoot 15-27 from the field and 5-9 from 3, that has to stop in the 2^nd half. Karis with 8, backup SG Sykes with 6, lots with 5 and 4. We're 0-5 from 3 and just 13-28 from the field. 11-15 from the line (they are 6-8, 11 fouls for them, 8 for us). Murphy has 7, Northcutt 6, no one else with more than 4. Santiago missed his first 2 3's and hasn't tried another one since.
2	18:40	40	43	Murphy runs off a screen and drains a 3, our first of the game.
2	16:15	42	52	5 straight from Karis and a turnover and missed shot on our end and we're behind 10 all of a sudden. I call a timeout.
2	15:00	46	57	I sit Bright with his 3^rd foul, Grundy in. They are succeeding in the post every time they go inside.
2	13:45	46	61	I call a timeout. Keller caught a pass on the block with no one between him and the basket, I turbo towards the basket and go up, and dink the ball into the rim. WTF! Backups are in.
2	11:55	54	61	Withers with a bucket inside. Grundy a block, leading to a Northcutt layup. They miss a fallaway by a post player, long outlet leading to a Northcutt layup. Then Northcutt gets a steal and is fouled going up strong on the other end. He makes both free throws. A quick 8-0 run gets us right back into it, led by stronger defensive play.
2	11:25	56	61	Grundy with a 2^nd block inside, an outlet to Garcia for a layup and we get a 6^th man boost as we cut it to 5 on 10 straight!
2	9:10	60	63	Grundy is everywhere, 7 boards now, at least 3 in this stretch and a basket on offense, though Northcutt is the beneficiary of most of this. Timeout EMU..
2	6:45	69	69	NORTHCUTT!!! Where the hell did this come from, the guy has 20 points now. They're playing man defense and Northcutt is on their 'SF' that is actually a slow PF. That plus Northcutt being first out on the break any time we get a rebound has led to a huge explosion for him. Tie game and another 6^th man boost for us!!!
2	6:10	72	70	They get one free throw on their end. Grundy gets the ball uncontested at the free throw line, attacks the hoop and gives us the lead! After a turnover Garcia is fouled and makes 1 of 2 to put us up 2.
2	5:30	74	70	Another block on defense! Withers with a little hook shot on the offensive end, another 6^th man bonus and another EMU timeout. Normally I get my starters back in around here no matter what's been happening as they are far far more talented, but for some reason today the backup squad is vastly outperforming the starting 5. I'm keeping the backups out there until we allow a run and lose the lead, or they become fatigued. They may well finish the game if we keep getting lifted by the 6^th man.
2	4:00	74	73	Hah, so much for that. Starters come back in after we turn it over twice in a row and they cut it to 1(and just missed the FT that would have tied it)
2	2:30	79	77	They take a 1 point lead after a poor pass leads to a turnover and layup, Karis scores 4 straight for them and has 20. Santiago comes up huge on the other end with a 3 and we're up 2.
2	1:52	82	77	After a stop we struggle to get a good look, almost turning it over once when McCully tries to go inside. We recover though and hit Santiago with 3 seconds left on the shot clock, he's got just a step in between him and his man but its enough, a clutch 3 and we're up 5!!
2	1:00	84	79	They cut it to 3 on a good drive by one of their bigs, but we get a bucket by Bright after burning some clock and go up 5. Timeout EMU.

Very similar to last year's tournament game vs EMU. We get a stop on their next trip and are solid from the line to seal the deal.

Ohio 91
Eastern Michigan 81

Like last year, its close for a half, they make a run and we are in a bit of trouble, but we pull through and make the plays we need to when it counts. Though the deficit we faced midway through the second half here was pretty scary.

Karis, their star, scores 22. Alleyne 10, and their post players all end up with 6-9 points. They shoot over 50% for the game (33-61), 6-17 from 3.

Murphy: 12 points/3 assists/2 steals
McCully: 11 points
Santiago: 12 points (2-5 from 3)
Bright: 7 points/7 boards
Keller: 5 points/4 boards

Northcutt: 20 points
Withers: 9 points
Grundy: 8 points/9 boards/3 blocks

Northcutt's perfromance really came out of nowhere, that was awesome.

Radii · 04-07-2009, 02:07 AM

Next up we travel to play 2 win Central Michigan.

Jan 14, 2017

Ohio 90
at C. Michigan 66

15 from Keller, 12 from Santiago and Garcia, 11 for McCully, 10 for Murphy.

heh, i hadn't followed the polls closely in the past, though I've seen the RPI reset a couple times, and this is the "real" RPI that remains consistent through the end of the year. The top 25 poll seems to totally be re-calculated as a result too. We jump from #24 to #15. Duke jumps to #2 from #10, Texas Tech falls from #4 to #24... weird stuff.

Anyway, the MAC is getting some serious love. Kent State is #14 in the nation, Ohio #15.

Kent State is #15 in the coaches poll and we are unranked there, hah.

Mid-Major Poll:

1. Kent State (16-2)
2. Ohio (17-2)
3. MTSU (14-3)
4. Manhattan (14-6)
5. Pepperdine (14-4)

Ball State is 13th.

In this new RPI we are rated 9th. 2-2 vs the top 50, 2-0 vs 51-100, and undefeated vs 100+.

Our next game is against a poor Buffalo team:

Jan 17, 2017

at Ohio 88
Buffalo 56

Murphy scores 18, Grundy 13, Northcutt 12, Keller 10.

Bad news though, Bright separates his shoulder and will miss 2 weeks of action.

Two good games coming up next. First we travel to Miami OH, a team down slightly from recent years but stlil a team that's given us trouble. After that is our only showdown this season with Ball State.

Radii · 04-07-2009, 05:17 AM

January 22, 2017

#15 Ohio (18-2, 5-0 MAC) at Miami OH (11-6, 5-0 MAC)

I haven't looked at the standings much this year, hoping that I'll just roll through, but Miami is 5-0, so this game has a lot of meaning. Miami gave Kent State their only conference loss so far. Miami OH is rated 78 OVR (78 off/80 def/82 sht/80 reb). That rebounding rating is extremely low and makes me optimistic.

Scouting

PG Chas Lemons – FR – 67 OVR – 89 speed/80 quickness. 80 defense/72 steals. 79 hands/76 passing(C-/C+). 79 close/69 med/68 3/78 off the dribble. He'll develop into a decent player but this is pretty weak overall for now. 6.7 ppg/3.4 rpg.

SG Stan Victor – SR – 83 OVR – 86 speed/81 quickness. 82 defense/83 steals. 87 close/83 med/88 3. 76 off the dribble/83 in traffic. 13.5 ppg so far this year, the off the dribble rating is good to see.

SF Rashad Sharp – JR – 69 OVR – 6'9”. Another PF playing SF. His skills for SF are weak, 67 defense, 83 close/63 med/49 3. 80 in traffic. Good leaper(71) and strength(66). 3.6 ppg, this is a weakness for them..

PF Jarrett McCleod – SR – 80 OVR – 6'9”, 89 orb/80 drb . 83 shot blocker, 75 post D, good vertical, good strength and great hustle. 87 post offense/90 close/86 in traffic. 12.9 ppg/7.5 rpg

C Terry Samuel – JR – 74 OVR – 7 feet tall. 80 orb/77 drb. 81 blocks(B). 75 post off/75 post def. 90 close/78 in traffic. 10.7 ppg this year, much improved from only 6 a game as a soph.

They only have 3 other players rated over 60. Their two best scorers from last year's team that beat me have graduated, Crandle, a great shooting SG, and Hess, an explosive SF that both killed me repeatedly for 4 years. Victor and McCleod are strong but I feel real good about this matchup.

This is a road test so that could present additional problems.

Half	Time	OHIO	MIA	Notes
1	15:00	17	7	Santiago scores the first 8 of the game before Miami gets on the board, and scores the first 11 for me... he's got 13 now and we're playing real well to start the game off, timeout miami.
1	11:55	22	9	Backups are in, so far so good! Great defense and hot offense so far.
1	8:40	31	16	Victor has 10 of their 16 points. They call their 3^rd timeout of the half.
1	6:50	31	22	6 straight for Miami and we call a timeout, getting the starters back in.
	HALF	40	32	They get it as low as 6 and we get it up to 10 again... half ends with an 8 point difference. They shoot 12-27 from the field, 2-8 from 3, 6-9 at the line. Victor scores 12, Sharp 6, no one else more than 4. We are 13-26 from the field, 4-10 from 3 and 10-12 at the line. We've got a small edge on the boards. Santiago has 17(4-8 from 3), McCully has 10, and no one else has more than 4. Keller has 7 boards. They withstood what could have been a game ending stretch midway through the first half and are within striking distance. We need to come out strong in the 2^nd half.
2	16:30	43	35	Whoa, injury to Victor. No idea on the duration yet. They can't come back without him though. Murphy has 3 fouls on our end.
2	14:45	47	37	Much slower start to the second half. Grundy with 2 turnaround jumpers in the post and we hang on to our 10 point lead. Timeout miami.
2	12:35	55	39	We score 8 more in a row and go up 18, they finally hit a bucket and I go ahead and call a timeout, the backups were ready to come in around the 14 minute mark... Victor is back in for them, minor injury.

The backups go off, 11-2 run to take a 25 point lead around the 10 minute mark. I go ahead and sim the rest.

Ohio 98
Miami OH 60

One of the coolest things i've seen visually towards the end there... Withers tips a pass into the post, its headed out of bounds, Mendoza dives out of bounds and saves it back in right to Withers. Withers turns and hits a streaking Barker past half court, Barker goes in for a dunk. Just very pretty to watch, very smooth.

Victor only ends up with 15, we just totally shut them down in the second half. Their Center Samuel with 10, no one else in double figures.

Murphy: 7 points/4 assists/3 steals
McCully: 16 points
Santiago: 28 points (5-10 from 3)
Grundy: 8 points/6 boards
Keller:8 points/13 boards

Mendoza: 13 points

Radii · 04-07-2009, 05:23 AM

We drop to #20 in the media poll. mid major poll for the week:

1. Kent State
2. Ohio
3. Manhattan
4. Drexel
5. MTSU

Nevada is "down" this year, 6 losses already and only #9 in the mid major poll.

Ball State #16, Miami OH #22.

Next up, Ball State, not really as good as you'd expect the #16 mid-major team to be(not that you expect greatness... but damn, 30 point losses to Bowling Green, Kent State and Miami each).

Revenge game.

Radii · 04-07-2009, 07:33 AM

January 25, 2017

Ball State (13-7, 3-3 MAC) at #20 Ohio (19-2, 6-0 MAC)

This isn't the same team that has owned us over the last 2 or 3 seasons. But, its still Ball State. 77 OVR (78 off/76 def/82 sht/85 reb). They return only 1 starter from last year's team, and two backups who are good shooters and whose names I recognize even off the bench in past season(s).

Scouting

PG Brendan McCarthy – SO – 71 OVR – 86 speed/84 quickness. Poor ball handling(77/D). 78 close/70 med/85 3. Terrible off the dribble, he was better off the bench being set up from 3, we'll see how he does starting. 11.2 ppg/3.1 apg.

SG Happy Hoyer – SR – 73 OVR – 86 speed/81 quickness. 84 defense. 85 close/67 med/75 3/78 off the dribble/80 in traffic. Hoyer isn't nearly the starter that Edelin was last year, but he can get hot from 3. 14.1 ppg so far this year, leading the team.

SF Fab Minoff – SR – 82 OVR – their 1 returning starter. Minoff has hurt us badly in the past. 82 speed/85 quickness. 85 defense/71 steals. 88 close/83 med/66 3. 86 in traffic, 85 vert/79 hustle, he's good with the ball and attacks the basket hard. 11.9 ppg/7.2 rpg so far this year.

PF Max Burns – SO – 67 OVR – Natural SF. 71 orb/71 deb. 61 post offense/74 post defense. 81 close/78 in trafic. Not at all built to play PF. 6 ppg.

C Alberto Tyler – SO – 66 OVR - 6'9” PF, 76 orb/75 drb. 69 post off/60 post d. 86 close/83 in traffic. A rather terrible basketball player for this level. 5 ppg/4 rpg.

They have a backup PF rated 60 OVR, and a backup PG rated 71. That's it. They're dead.

Half	Time	OHIO	BSU	Notes
1	14:30	9	11	They've hit 3 3's. We just have 2. I call a timeout as I struggle to break their press without a held ball.
1	11:40	17	15	I call a timeout to get the backups in. Santiago with 3 3's and a 3 point play, his 12 points is driving everything so far.
1	6:00	34	26	We slowly pull ahead, Mendoza hits 2 3 pointers and we play some good defense at times and get some fast breaks off long rebounds. Starters back in.
1	4:00	41	31	Grundy has our last 4, Santiago another 3.. up 10.
	HALF	45	41	They score 6 straight to cut it to 4, and it stays there the rest of the half. Each team shoots 51%. Minoff leads them with 11, McCarthy and Hoyer both with 9... They're only 3-12 from 3, 8-10 at the line. We're 7-18 from 3, 4-7 from the line. Santiago is 5-9 from 3 and has 18 points. Grundy with 6, Mendoza with 6. We have a 17-13 edge on the boards.
2	19:30	51	41	Santiago with a 3, they fumble away the ball trying to beat our press, and Murphy rather quickly hits another 3. 10 point lead, 6^th man boost and we're off to a good start to the 2^nd half1
2	16:00	53	50	We go up 53-44 and they score 6 straight to cut the lead back down. I get a timeout, their last bucket was a rather aggressive jam by Minoff, who now has 16 points.
2	14:10	61	56	McCully picks up fouls #3 and #4 in fairly quick succession, and comes out fo the game.
2	10:45	65	59	Backups are in, we'd run the lead up to 9 but Minoff with a 3 to cut it back down. I have to call a timeout to get the backups in, the starters are a bit gassed at this point.
2	10:05	65	61	Northcutt goes down with an injury after driving hard to the basket.
2	7:45	71	66	Withers with our last 4 points and we're up 5, timeout Ball State.
2	7:25	71	68	Starters are coming back in, with all the timeouts they're ready. McCully's in with 4, if he fouls out Mendoza can go.
2	6:00	73	75	Minoff with another 3 and they lead by 2. God I hate ball state.
2	4:35	78	75	Grundy ties it up and Santiago puts us back on top with a 3. 6^th man boost for us.
2	2:55	78	78	A FT, an empty trip as Murphy misses a 3, and alayup back on their end and they score 3 straight to tie it back up. Our ball.
2	2:10	80	78	Santiago with a jumper at the FT line, we're up 2, timeout ball state.
2	1:05	80	83	They tie it up, McCully misses on a drive after we work trying to find something open and pretty much fail. McCarthy hits a 3 on their end, he's got 19 and we're down 3.
2	0:45	80	85	We turn it over and foul them(not intentionally) as they set up their offense... down 5.
2	0:23	82	85	McCully with a bucket on our end. McCully committs his 5^th foul to send them to the line. Mendoza comes in for him and they miss the front end of the 1 and 1, our ball, down 3.

I call a timeout because the CPU subbed in Barker when McCully fouled out, so I get a TO to set my lineup the way I want it. And... throw the inbounds pass away trying to be sneaky and get a qucik 3 point attempt by Santiago. We foul but they make their Fts and we do not make our 3's.

Ball State 90
Ohio 82

So who saw this coming? Pretty much everyone? Yeah....

McCarthy scores 23... 4-6 from 3. Hoyer scores 18. Minoff 26 including 4 3's despite a rating under 70. They're 31-57 from the field. 8-23 from 3(which means they were 23-34 from 2 point range).

McCully is wholly ineffective again today. I try to get my bigs going and Grundy does alright, shooting 5-10 inside, but Keller is 2-6. Withers is solid for the backups, 3-3 for 6 points. But we didn't use him enough. Murphy, who has been so good recently in our big wins, lays an egg today, shooting 2-11 from 3.

Murphy: 8 points
McCully: 6 points
Santiago: 29 points
Grundy: 10 points/12 boards
Keller: 4 points/11 boards

Mendoza: 8 points
Withers: 6 points

Radii · 04-07-2009, 07:40 AM

We sim our next one, a home game vs a 6-14 Akron team.

Jan 28, 2017

at Ohio 77
Akron 53

Santiago 15, Murphy 15, Keller 13 in the win.

We fall to #21 in the nation after the loss, not bad.

Mid Major #1 is Kent State. Mid MAjor #2 is Ohio.

Kent State and Ohio are tied for 1st in the MAC at the halfway point, both teams are 7-1.

Our next game? Kent State at Ohio. The winner of this game would be expected to win the MAC.

Radii · 04-07-2009, 11:31 PM

January 31, 2017

#18 Kent State (20-2, 7-1 MAC) at #21 Ohio (20-3, 7-1 MAC)

Well our starting PF and highest rated player, Bright, is out for this game... he's back in 1 more day. But we seem to have the edge in the injury department. Both Bowden and Maye, their starting PF and starting C, are out. Our backups are much higher quality inside than theirs too. As long as they have Parsons/Holland/Montgomery they are a scary team to face regardless. But, we do seem to have a slightly bigger edge from the inside game.

Scouting

PG R. Parsons – SR – 74 OVR – 87 speed/81 quickness. Outstanding defender(89), not a steals guy so that's good. 79 close/76 med/73 3, not great but can't leave him open. 83 off the dribble. 10.5 Parsons has become a very good ball handler(89, B rating for a PG, but we don't see that often in the MAC).

SG Theodore Holland – SR – 76 OVR – A 3 point shooting specialist, rated 88 from behind the arc. He doesn't look to do much else. 82 defense. 9.7 ppg.

SF Logan Montgomery – SR – 83 OVR – 83 speed/84 quickness, good for a SF. 84 vertical/81 hustle, both exceptional. 79 defensive awareness, almost unheard of for this level. Good defense for a SF(85), 88 close/75 med/81 3, 80 off the dribble, 90 in traffic. 14.5 ppg so far this season.

PF Odie Bonfim – SO – 67 OVR – 6'11” - 77 orb/80 drb, 72 post off/67 post def. 82 close/81 in traffic. 2.6 ppg

C Jonpaul Withers – FR – 67 OVR – 6'10” - 80 orb/76 drb. 74 post off/68 post def. 82 close/82 in traffic. He'll improve but for now we have an edge over him no matter who we put out there. 2.7 ppg.

We have a nice edge inside now, but they still have 4 good scorers, the other 3 starters and backup SG Laws. Montgomery scored 27 the first time we played.

Half	Time	OHIO	KSU	Notes
1	13:05	8	14	Backups are in. Montgomery has 7, Holland 4 as they pull out ahead early. Santiago has 3 and is 1-3 from 3, Grundy with 3 also but we're not very effective so far against their 2-3 zone.
1	10:35	16	18	4 straight from Northcutt cut the lead down to 2. Timeout Kent State
1	5:30	22	26	Withers got the ball in seemingly good position a number of times and missed 4 shots in a row. He's hard to figure out, good post offense, but poor close/traffic ratings. Sometimes I can hit hooks and turnarounds with him well, sometimes not. Starters are back in.
	HALF	29	32	We score a 3 to make it 26-25, they score 6 straight and go up by 7, and we close it out with the last 4 of the half.. Its a close 3 point game at the half. Holland is killing us inside, he has 11 points, drives to the hoop/backdoor cuts, he's rated 88 from 3 so we have to play him tight, but he's good at using that to his advantage. Montgomery has 7. Their PF Bonfim is having a big day, 6 points/9 boards at the half already. We've got a hard 8 from Santiago, 6 out of Northcutt and 5 from Grundy. Santiago is 3-8 from the field/2-5 from 3. They have a 21-15 edge on the boards thanks to Bonfim, that's the main difference so far.
2	18:00	31	34	Keller with fouls #3 and #4 in quick succession... Withers in.
2	16:30	36	38	A 3 by Murphy and a steal by Santiago trigger a 6^th man bonus, Santiago misses the tying shot though.
2	16:20	39	38	They throw away a pass intended for a big man inside, McCully out on the run, he fakes out Parsons, goes by him for a dunk and draws the foul! FT is good and we're up 1.
2	12:30	51	46	Our bigget lead of the game. Santiago heats up and hits 2 3's in a row, then McCully gets out on the break for 4 straight with a couple misses and steals in between and we push out to our biggest lead. Timeout Kent State. This is our 3^rd 6^th man bonus of the half so our starters are in good shape.
2	10:45	53	46	Defense is still playing great, and Withers with a big standing dunk to make it 7, another Kent State timeout.
2	9:05	58	46	Go go defense!! Murphy with a transition 3 and McCully with another basket, yet another timeout kent state.
2	5:40	64	53	This is easily the longest stretch i've ever played one squad for. The starters are finally tired and need to sit after 14:20 in the 2^nd half. Assuming we hang on to the lead the backups will close out the game for us. Keller is in at center with his 4 fouls.

They cut it down to 9 with 4 minutes left... 68-59. We score 5 straight over the next 2 minutes and then run the clock out.

Ohio 78
Kent State 61

The matchup was more favorable for us than the first meeting in the preseason NIT, but, we still had to take care of business. The MAC title is now ours to lose.

Holland with 17, Montgomery with 13 for them. Their backup PF had a great day with 10 points and 13 boards.

Murphy: 6 points
McCully: 15 points
Santiago: 18 points (4-10 from 3)
Grundy: 7 points/11 boards
Keller: 10 points/6 boards

Northcutt: 9 points

Great win!

Radii · 04-07-2009, 11:34 PM

Next up we travel to Toledo, expecting to win a simmed one easily.

Feb 4, 2017

Ohio 85
at Toledo 64

Santiago 18, Northcutt 14, Murphy 12, Grundy 11.

We jump to #17 in the media poll. Kent State falls out of the poll. We're the only mid-major represented now. We still are not in the coaches poll.

Mid-Major Poll:

1. Ohio
2. Kent State
3. MTSU
4. Drexel
5. Pepperdine

Ball State #12

Next up is a road trip to Bowling Green. They're only 11-10 and 4-6 in MAC play, but they are the highest rated team left on our schedule.

Radii · 04-08-2009, 01:23 AM

Lloyd Bright is back from his injury. I get him back into the starting lineup, but do not expect much right away. His confidence is totally shot. A pep talk gets him up to 54%.

February 7, 2017

#17 Ohio (21-3, 9-1 MAC) at Bowling Green (11-10, 4-6 MAC)

Bowling Green is rated 79 OVR (77 off/79 def/80 ht/84 reb/84 coach). They've been down lately and I haven't played out a game against them recently so I don't really know these players.

Scouting

PG Alan Mayes – FR – 67 OVR – 87 speed/82 quicknes. 81 defense, poor steals, poor handles, poor passer. 76 close/71 med/72 3/81 in traffic. Just 4.8 ppg/2.7 apg. Not someone I'm worried about.

SG Jean Goss – SR – 82 OVR – 90 speed/84 quicknes/88 vert/79 hustle. All outstanding. 83 defense/77 steals. 93 close/75 med/73 3/81 off the dribble/83 in traffic. 17.7 ppg and he'll shoot/drive from anywhere. He's currently leading the MAC in scoring, 2^nd is a full 1.6ppg behind him.

SF Lavell Pait – SR – 72 OVR – 80 speed/76 quicknes, average for a SF. 81 defense is good for a SF. 88 close/63 med/64 3. 83 in traffic. Not a threat from outside so he'll be realying on his ability to get the ball inside. 8 ppg/5.4 rpg.

PF Jair Watkins – SO – 76 OVR – dual 7 footers. 82 orb/86 drb. 82 post off/75 post def. 87 close/82 in traffic. Watkins was freshman of the year last year and has A- potential. He seems a serious threat to win MAC player of the year before he's done. Not this year... but with that size, talent so far and potential, he'll be amazing his senior year. 10.8 ppg/7.2 rpg this year so far.

C Ferdinand Whitehead – JR – 79 OVR – 7 feet tall, always scary to see this talent and 7 foot size paired together. 80 orb/75 drb. 79 post off/83 post def. 89 close/89 in traffic. Great strength(82) hustle (87), dunking, awareness ... the kid can play. 11.1 ppg/6.0 rpg. I expect him to do more against us.

Well their starting lineup is pretty damn good. Their big men are flat out better than mine, talent and size is a scary combo. But, they have no depth. They have a 6'9” backup center. That's it. Everyone else off the bench is rated below 60.

Half	Time	OHIO	BGSU	Notes
1	12:45	14	13	McCully with 9, he's carrying us so far. Santiago missed his first 4 shots before sinking a 3 finally. Backups are in.
1	5:30	25	31	Its back and forth for a few trips, Goss hits a 3 that puts them up 5 and we haven't caught up any in the last couple minutes. Starters are back in to finish off the half.
	HALF	31	41	Very frustrating finish to the half. We get it down to 2 and they score the last 8 of the half... 2 3's by their PG, Mayes, and a post bucket from Whitehead. They are 3-14 from 3... only 5 free throws attempted, 17-38 from the field. We are worse. 1-14 from 3. 10-30 from the field. We do draw some fouls and are 10-11 from the line. Santiago is 1-8 from 3, just not his day. McCully has 13, Withers 6 off the bench.
2	19:00	31	44	They score to open the half, Bright with a miss, they board and get a 6^th man boost going. Keller with a foul on an inide shot, 1-2 from the line for them and we trail by 13.
2	16:10	41	50	They go up 15 on a bucket by their center, Whitehead. Santiago hits a 3, McCully with a 3 point play and its back down to 9, and its been back and forth since then. Whitehead is really coming up big for them today, he has 17.
2	15:45	46	50	Bright with a bucket in low, they turn it over and Murphy draws a foul and scores on the other end. Timeout Bowling Green as we get it down to 4.
2	11:40	53	58	We've had it as low as 3, they've pushed it back as high as 7. Its 5 right now. Santiago is still not really hot but he has a couple 3's now and 13 points. I call a timeout though to get my backups in, starters were ready to come out about 13:30.
2	9:10	62	60	Grundy and Withers score inside, a couple defensive stops, and Mendoza drains an open 3, giving us the lead.
2	7:35	66	62	Withers gets his 10^th point in low, he's doing real well in the post when i've gotten him the ball. I find him again and he attacks the rim and is fouled... and hurt. Keller come in to shoot free throws for him.
2	7:16	68	62	Starters are back in.
2	4:00	76	73	We're hanging on to a 3-6 point lead here. McCully and Santiago coming up big time and time again for us.
2	3:25	76	73	Santiago beats his man but a center inside alters his shot as he drives and his layup rolls off the front rim. The rebound gives Bowling Green a 6^th man boost and they're on the run. They throw a bad pass and turn it back over though, and I call a timeout.
2	3:05	76	75	We turn it over against their press and Whitehead gets an easy basket inside, his 21^st point. And another 6^th man boost for them,and another timeout by me.
2	2:00	76	77	Two more possessions without a shot for us... a turnover on the inbounds after our timeout, but we play good defense and they fail to score. A drive by Murphy on our next trip results in a turnover and they go down and score and we trail by 1.
2	1:25	78	77	We run our offense and cannot get a good shot. With 5 seconds left on the shot clock, we throw it to Santiago, he puts a move on his man and takes an 18 foot jumper with 1 second left on the shot clock, GOOD. We're up 1. timeout BGSU. This is what House used to do for us, albeit in slightly different fashion, but for the first time in 2 seasons, we've got a go to scorer when we need something good to happen down the stretch. I bring Withers in for Bright to finish off the game. Bright has had a rough game his first back from injury, and Withers is our best post player, just another option for points.
2	1:05	78	79	Maybe I shouldn't have brought Withers in.... Goss takes a 3, there's a high bouncing rebound, Watkins(their PF) skies seemingly OVER Withers and dunks it without coming down with the ball. I've never seen anything like that. They go up 1, 6^th man boost, timeout Ohio.
2	0:47	80	79	We work the ball around the perimeter, Murphy gets his man in the air, drives and hits a little fingerroll, we're up 1, their ball.

“Ethical” dilemma here. They throw the ball away, Keller picks up the loose ball with 39 seconds left... 4 second differential, we're up 1. they're not going to foul, I've run into this onetime before, it seems to occur with 35-40 seconds left on the clock only. Take advantage and run the clock out, or run your offense like normal? I go ahead and run my offense Murphy get a good look with 15 seconds left, he misses. They go down and shoot a 3 with 6 seconds left, no good. Keller rebound, he's fouled, sinks 2 free throws, and we come away with a win.

Ohio 82
Bowling Green 79

Their Center had one of the stronger inside performances i've seen from the CPU. 21 points/9 rebounds on 10-16 shooting. Goss was cold, only 10 points(2-8 from 3).

Murphy: 10 points/3 assists
McCully: 19 points
Santiago: 18 points
Bright: 3 points/10 boards
Keller: 8 points/7 boards

Withers: 10 points/5 boards

Santiago was 4-12 from 3. Keller was 2-7, rough day. He just seems bad in the post, but these were strong big men inside to go up against. It's the freshman, Withers, who seems to do best with his back to the basket. 5-9 for his 10 points.

Radii · 04-08-2009, 01:40 AM

We close the week with an easy one against Northern Illinois.

Feb 12, 2017

at Ohio 92
N. Illinois 86

Well then, an easy one that wasn't so easy. NIU rated 70 OVR, 6-18 on the season... whew. Wow. Overtime. They led 47-40 at the half, we win the 2nd half 38-31 and finish them in OT.

santiago with 19, Grundy 13, Bright 12... god I would have not been pleased to lose a simmed game to freaking northern illinois.

We move up to #15 in the media poll. The coaches poll continues to shun the mid majors.

Mid Major Poll:

1. Ohio (24-3)
2. Kent State (21-5)
3. Drexel (20-5)
4. Pepperdine 20-5)
5. UC Irvine (19-5)

Ball State is up to #9.

With just a few weeks left in the season, bracketology is out. I expect a high seed. And, at this point I appear to be in position to be rewarded with one. Ohio is projected to be a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament as of right now. Kent State would earn an at large and a 9 seed. Ball State's RPI is 50, they're on the bubble but projected to be out as of now. When they beat Ohio yet again in the MAC tournament I'm sure they'll make it in(god if that happens I will cry).

Quick recruiting update:

The 4* SG we're going hard after, Jimenez, now has an offer from Central Florida. He has for awhile actually. UCF looks to have him in the 95% range right now with 2 weeks to go. I'm assuming they've used all their visits. It will be interesting to see if they can get him to 100%. And if they do, will he immediately switch over to them and sign or will he favor us. He wants to saty near home and he's from Tampa so I figure we lose him. But our success seems to have an impact and we've had him at 100% since mid-december.

We've finally settled our backup target. I had offered a second 3* guard, but after 3 weeks of spending time with him, NC State offered him a scholarship, so I had to drop off there and go to my 3rd attempt to fill that extra guard spot I have open. We're up to 95% on a PG from Oregon in the top 150 overall. He has no other offers yet and we've still got a visit left. Utah might be interested, but they've only got 2 weeks left to offer him.

And lastly we're going after a 6'11" PF, #285 who looks to be an outstanding rebounder (B- orb/B drb, I'd expect freshman numbers in the low-mid 80s... 82/85 maybe, with lot of room to grow). because of the clusterfuck going on with our other targets we haven't been able to use all our visits with him til now. He's only at 85%, and he likes Evansville(he's from Tennessee). It seems Evansville will likely decide whether we land him or not.

I'll almost certainly go into offseason recruiting with 2 guys at 100% that I will land or lose on day 1.

Radii · 04-08-2009, 01:43 AM

going into our next game(against western michigan) I use 2 more pep talks. Another for Bright who is finally back in game shape after his injury, and one for Mendoza who always seems to be in a slow slide.

Barker, backup PG, has a day to day injury. My backups run close enough together though that I am going to sit him. Mendoza at PG, Northcutt SG, Garcia SF, and the two 7 footers for backups.

Radii · 04-08-2009, 02:38 AM

February 15, 2017

#15 Ohio (24-3, 11-1 MAC) at Western Michigan (9-15, 5-7 MAC)

This is similar to our last game... a road contest at a team we should beat, but who is not as bad as their record shows and could scare us.

WMU is rated 77 OVR (79 off/75 def/78 sht/78 reb/87 coach).

With development we have finally gained an overall ratings point on our roster strength page... 85 OVR (85 off/83 def/88 sht/89 reb/80 coach). Probably because we've had an extra scholarship.. and have had to go to multiple backup targets, we've had to use a lot more coaching visits this year, and it seems to have slightly, but noticeably, slowed player development.

Scouting

PG Shawan Whitaker – SR – 71 OVR – 91 speed/84 quickness. Awful defender, 79 def. 81 close/72 med/66 3. 82 off the dribble which is solid, buthe doesn't seem to have anything else to go with it to make him scary at all. 7.4 ppg nonetheless

SG Demetrieus Mayer – JR– 75 OVR - 85 speed/80 quickness, not that good really, C- quickness. 84 defense/79 steals, not bad at all. 89 close/74 med/84 3, 73 off the dribble/74 in traffic. 8 ppg/5.4 rpg. Great shooting but terrible at creating his own shot it would appear.

SF LJ Haigler – SO – 70 OVR – 6'7, a larger SF. 79 defese/64 steals. 87 close/73 med/68 3. terrible off the dribble, even more terrible in traffic. 58 defensive awareness... horrible. 6.9 ppg/4.4 rpg. We should own this guy.

PF Harrison Mark – JR – 67 OVR – only 6'7”. 66 orb/69 drb... those are SF or even SG numbers. 74 post offense/72 post defense. 82 close/80 in traffic. Laughable, I'm surprised he's not rated wore than 67. 4.6 ppg. He's a JC Transfer so this is his first year.

C Cornelio Bernard – SR – 72 OVR – 6'11” 78 orb/83 drb, 79 post off/76 post def. Not much of a shot blocker. Strong, 76 str (B+). 84 close/86 in traffic, which is about average. 11.7 ppg/5.8 rpg, a large increase over last season.

They have some decent depth. Backup Center Edwin Christy off the bench scores 10 ppg.

Half	Time	OHIO	WMU	Notes
1	13:00	16	14	Backups in. We spend 4 minutes working our way out to a 9-0 start to the game. Then they score 6 in about 15 seconds... and they're shooting very well since, keeping it close.
1	10:30	24	16	They call a timeout. This is going to be a very high scoring game I think. At least for Ohio. Whether WMU can keep up remains to be seen..
1	6:00	37	23	It seems unlikely they can keep up. Starters back in.
	HALF	48	39	I lead 46-30 and allow them to finish the half on a 9-2 run, pressing too hard to get it up to where I'm willingn to mercy rule game since things were flowing so well for awhile. They get 13 from SG Mayer, 8 from C Bernard, and 7 from PG Whitaker. I have 13 from McCully, 8 from Santiago though its a rough 8 again, 1-8 from 3 in the process. Northcutt and garcia keyed our big run with the backups with 8 and 7 respectively.
2	17:15	56	44	Bright with his 4^th foul. Withers in. The offense seems to be flowing well again.
2	15:55	61	46	3 by Santiago, deuce from Keller and they call a timeout.

We get the lead up to 25 before the 13 minute mark and I go ahead and sim this one out.

Ohio 95
Western Michigan 79

Murphy: 2 points/5 assists
McCully: 17 points
Santiago: 20 points
Bright: 4 points/9 boards
Keller: 12 points/7 boards

Garcia: 9 points

Mendoza, Northcutt and Grundy all score 8

Radii · 04-08-2009, 02:55 AM

Next is our simmed game against Central michigan, a terrible 6-17.

Feb 25, 2017

at Ohio 97
Central michigan 75

Keller 19 points/11 boards. Santiago 18, Murphy 11. grundy 14/Northcutt 11 off the bench.

Our next game is against 74 rated Buffalo. Final game against 76 rated E. Michigan. We'd normally sim the first, play the second. But if we win the first, or Miami OH loses their game that day, we clinch the MAC regular season title. Assuming we do that, I'm simming the last game too to get into the tournament.

Feb 28, 2017

Ohio 84
at Buffalo 62

Santiago 19, Grundy 14, Murphy 11. Easy win.

The final day of the regular season we travel to Eastern Michigan, they're not bad so a loss on the road wouldn't surprise me here.

Mar 5, 2017

Ohio 76
at E. Michigan 63

Yeah, no losses here. Keller 23 points, Bright 11, Grundy 10.

Going into conference tournament week, we are now ranked #14 in the media poll. We remain the only mid-major ranked at all. We finally break into the coaches poll as well, currently ranked #21 there.

Mid Major Poll:

1. Ohio (28-3)
2. Kent State (23-7)
3. Pepperdine (25-7)
4. Drexel (23-8)
5. UC Irvine (23-6)

Ball State #18, Miami OH finishes the season very strong and is back in at #22.

Final MAC Standings

1. Ohio 15-1
2. Miami OH 13-3
3. Kent State 10-6
4. Ball State 10-6
5. Buffalo 9-7
6. W. Michigan 8-8
7. Bowling Green 7-9
8. E. Michigan 6-10
9. Akron 6-10
10. Toledo 5-11
11. C. Michigan 5-11
12. N. Illinois 2-14

MAC First Round

9. Akron 66
8. E. Michigan 62

5. Buffalo 87
12. N. Illinois 42

11. C. Michigan 68
6. W. michigan 58

7. Bowling Green 102
10. Toledo 52

Yes, 102-52. Go Bowling Green?

MAC Quarterfinals

1. Ohio
9. Akron

4. Ball State
5. Buffalo

3. Kent State
11. C. Michigan

2. Miami OH
7. Bowling Green

Some notes:

Kent State's two big men missed a full month of play. They imploded a bit in February, their loss to us was the start of a 2-5 stretch. Losses to Ohio, Buffalo, Ball State, Bowling Green and Miami OH.

Miami OH on the other hand, lost to us and then Buffalo 2 games in a row and was 5-2 in the MAC at the time. They finished very strong, going 8-1 in their last 9, including a 13 point win over Bowling Green, a 9 point win over Kent State and a 7 point win on the road at Ball State.

Aside from Ball State, Kent State and some road games where the other teams' crowd was up for them to try to beat us, we really just mowed through the MAC. I don't want to gloss over or understate how good this team is or how strong this season has been.

We are 15-1 in MAC play. Our only loss was a close contest against our nemesis, Ball State. We are 28-3 overall. Our only non conference losses were at Syracuse, a team that is 26-4 themselves and in the top 10, a team with a very real shot at a 1 seed... and Boston College, not nearly as strong but still a respectable ACC School with a top 100 RPI.

I'll repeat that b/c it is pretty cool to type out. We are 28-3 entering the postseason.

Now, to go kill Akron and shamelessly root against Ball State. I'm fine with winning the MAC without seeing them again

Radii · 04-08-2009, 03:56 AM

March 9, 2017 - MAC Quarterfinals

(1) Ohio (28-3, 15-1 MAC) vs (9) Akron (10-20, 6-10 MAC)

Well, Akron was rated 77 or so when I simmed a game against them earlier in the year I believe. Though it was in the same 2 game cycle where we faced Ball State so it was getting simmed anyway... but damn, they have improved, or had an injury or something.

Akron: 80 OVR (80 off/80 def/81 sht/77 reb/86 coach). 77 rebounding is always nice to see in an opponent.

Scouting

PG Toby Warner – SR – 80 OVR – 96 speed/90 quickness(wow). 88 defene/74 steals. 85 hands/88 passing(real good). 84 close/76 med/78 3/83 off the dribble. 73 clutch if it comes down to the end too. 11.5 ppg/4.5 apg.

SG Godwin Washburn – FR – 75 OVR – 87 speed/80 quickness. 85 defense/80 steals... 92 close/78 med/71 3. 84 off the dribble/76 in traffic. Well, we need to keep him away from the rim no matter what. Just 7.5 ppg this year so far. Only C- potential but still 75 as a freshman with some great skills... he's going to be good.

SF Curry Bouma – SR – 79 OVR – 6'6” - great rebounding for a SF. 83 drb. 76 post off/73 post def. 86 close/72 med/71 3/81 off the dribble/87 in traffic. 85 vertical and strong as well. 11.5 ppg/4.9 rpg.
PF Shema Day – JR – 72 OVR – 6'8” - 75 orb/71 drb, awful. 73 post off/73 post def, not very good. 90 close/82 in traffic. 79 mid range so he can step out and hit jumpers too. 7.6 ppg/4.5 rpg.

C Esmond Jolly – SO – 69 OVR – Yes, Esmond. Not Desmond. 69 orb/82 drb. Average on the defensive glass. Only 6'8”. 77 post off/79 post def. 81 close/79 in traffic. Seems very weak. 5.9 ppg/4.6 rpg.

They only have these 4 starters rated over 70, but they do go 8 deep rated 65+. Their backups don't seem that skilled though, the big men aren't any beter on the boards, and the guards aren't good shooters. Warner/Washburn/Bouma though... that's a very tough combo. They run a 2-3 defense and that has given us fits if we're not shooting well.

Half	Time	OHIO	AKR	Notes
1	13:00	12	9	They have 5 from Bouma, 4 from Washburn, both layups in traffic. Murphy has 2 3's for us. Santiago is cold once again today, 0-3 from 3. Backups are in.
1	11:30	14	9	Timeout Akron. It was 12-9 around the 15 minute mark, we've been cold but they're colder.
1	6:35	23	17	Starters back in. Almost all their baskets are coming from inside the paint, either post buckets(not usually) or more often a guard cutting into the lane and hitting a layup, we're not getting in the passing lanes well today(also Warner is a great great passer).
1	4:25	29	19	We steal 3 passes in a row and run off 6 straight, taking a 10 point lead. Keller scores 4 of the 6 and his last bucket triggers the 6^th man for us. Timeout Akron.
2	2:10	35	21	Its a slow increase but we seem to be controlling things, another timeout Akron.
	HALF	37	22	They're only shooting 30% from the field, 10-31. We're awful from 3, 2-14, but our runs come from steals/blocks and missed shots, we're getting a lot of easy baskets/fouls in transition. Murphy leads us with 8, Keller with 6, Northcutt with 6. Lots of guys with 4. Santiago is 0-6 from 3, he's really been cold lately. Washburn leads them with 8, Bouma 5. We have a small(21-18) edge on the boards.
2	15:05	49	34	Fairly high scoring start to the 2^nd half compared to the first... its even so far though which works fine for us. Timeout Akron.
2	11:45	63	41	Well that happened fast. Santiago hit his first 3, Keller with another couple buckets, McCully in transition and most importantly we play good defense down low and stop a few of their drive and shots from dropping, allowing us to get on a big run. We've been up as much as 24. Backups are in.

We score 5 more in a row and in the interest of playing Ball State right now if they win I sim the rest.

Ohio 97
Akron 63

Murphy: 17 points/5 assists
McCully: 15 points
Santiago: 18 points (1-8 from 3)
Bright: 8 points/9 boards
Keller: 14 points/9 boards

Northcutt with 14 off the bench.
Grundy: 9 points/9 boards

Radii · 04-08-2009, 03:58 AM

MAC Quarterfinals

1. Ohio 97
9. Akron 63

4. Ball State 90
5. Buffalo 50

3. Kent State 81
11. C. Michigan 65

7. Bowling Green 81
2. Miami OH 77

MAC Semifinals

1. Ohio
4. Ball State

3. Kent State
7. Bowling Green

Bowling Green with the upset of the hot team on the other side of the bracket, Miami. Here comes Ball State again.

Radii · 04-08-2009, 05:24 AM

March 10, 2017 – MAC Semifinals

(1) Ohio (29-3, 15-1 MAC) vs (4) Ball State (21-10, 10-6 MAC)

With a few losses Ball State's RPI is down to 71 and they have fallen off the bubble. If they want to go dancing they need to win the tournament.

Scouting

PG Brendan McCarthy – SO – 72 OVR – 86 speed/84 quickness. Poor ball handling(77/D). 78 close/70 med/85 3. Terrible off the dribble, he was better off the bench being set up from 3, we'll see how he does starting. 11.2 ppg/3.1 apg.

SG Happy Hoyer – SR – 74 OVR – 86 speed/81 quickness. 84 defense. 85 close/67 med/75 3/78 off the dribble/80 in traffic. Hoyer isn't nearly the starter that Edelin was last year, but he can get hot from 3. 14.1 ppg so far this year, leading the team.

SF Fab Minoff – SR – 83 OVR – their 1 returning starter. Minoff has hurt us badly in the past. 82 speed/85 quickness. 85 defense/71 steals. 88 close/83 med/66 3. 86 in traffic, 85 vert/79 hustle, he's good with the ball and attacks the basket hard. 11.9 ppg/7.2 rpg so far this year.

PF Max Burns – SO – 68 OVR – Natural SF. 71 orb/71 deb. 61 post offense/74 post defense. 81 close/78 in trafic. Not at all built to play PF. 6 ppg.

C Alberto Tyler – SO – 67 OVR - 6'9” PF, 76 orb/75 drb. 69 post off/60 post d. 86 close/83 in traffic. A rather terrible basketball player for this level. 5 ppg/4 rpg.

The last time we met, we led by 10 on two different occasions, 41-31 with 4 minutes left in the half and 51-41 early in the second half. It took most of the second half but they took the lead with about 6 minutes left. We led with 2:10 left, they took the lead around the 1 minute mark, and we blew it with a turnover with 45 seconds left and let them sink free throws to beat us.

It was their backcourt again. Minoff, Hoyer and McCarthy all scored between 18 and 26 points. We have to slow down their scorers today.

Also, McCully was worthless against their 3-2 zone. He couldn't draw fouls when he got to the basket. There are holes in the middle of that 3-2 defense, if I can get McCully set up right he's got an 89 mid-range rating.

Half	Time	OHIO	BSU	Notes
1	16:40	3	11	Minoff has 6. McCarthy just picked Murphy and took it all the way for a layup, 6^th man boost for Ball State. Its their second one, they got an alley-oop to Minoff to go up 5-1 about 80 seconds in for the first one. I call a timeout.
1	13:30	6	17	Santiago has a 3, Bright a deuce, Keller a free throw. That is our entire offense so far. Backups are in.
1	10:45	11	24	Northcutt gets us 5 straight after falling behind 20-6. Minoff gets them 4 straight to make it 24-11. I call a timeout.
1	7:15	18	30	Northcutt scores every single point for the backups. He has 12, including an open 3 from an inside out look. Sadly the defense sucks. We just forced a terrible shot, allowed an offensive board and Garcia fouls their big man from behind as he lays it up... 3 point play. Starters are back.
1	5:15	23	30	Santiago with our last 5 points and the defense is playing the best its played today(or they're just cold arbitrarily, which is possible). Either way, its a 7 point game and they call a timeout. They had Minoff and McCarthy on the bench during this run, they're back in, lets see what happens.
1	1:00	31	44	We cut it to 6 at one point, they just scored 7 straight though. Minoff has 18, he hit back to back 3's for them, McCarthy just got an easy layup to make it 13 again and I call a timeout.
	HALF	35	44	We manage the last 4 of the half and cut it under 10. Its standard ball state fair really. Minoff 18, McCarthy 9, Hoyer 8. They shoot 50%, we shoot 35%. Our side of things is worrisome though. Santiago has 15. Northcutt has 12. The rest of the team is 2-13 from the field. Bright has 4 points, 2 from the line. And here's the thing that kills me with this team. Minoff is rated 69 from 3. After the confidence boost that makes him an 87 rated player on the court. Yet he's 3-5 from 3. What the hell do I do about that? And he does this every time we play. Its not unusual for him, I just treat him like he's this incredible 3 point shooter because he's going to make 5 against me.
2	19:15	38	44	We get a stop to open the 2^nd half. Santiago gets out on the run and is fouled attacking the hoop. He makes 1, misses 1, Keller gets the board and putback. Down 6.
2	19:05	38	47	Santiago fouls Minoff on the other end. He makes the shot, and the free throw. 3 point play.
2	15:15	43	54	We had it down to 5. They score 6 straight. Minoff has 23 now. Murphy is 0-6, all wide open 3's. Why can't I get 2 starters to have good games at the same time when I play this team? I call a timeout.
2	14:00	44	59	Minoff with 5 in arow, including another 3. I don't get it.
2	13:30	46	59	Starters sit. 3 starters have 3 fouls(murphy, santiago, bright) and we have 6 fouls in the half.
2	10:37	56	69	Minoff just caught the ball on the wing, did a spin move and dunked from about 6 feet out over 3 guys including Grundy. Dear lord. 33 points.
2	9:45	59	71	Mendoza hits a 3. We're on pace for 80. We just can't keep up if we run, and can't stop them if we slow it down. Seriously I'm out of ideas. We can't play a 2-3 zone against a team with 3 3 point shooters. I've found other zones to be incredibly weak against the 3 too, even the 3-2. But if we play man they just drive/cut and get layup after dunk after laypu, with 3's mixed in. I've got nothing. I started in tight defense on all their shooters. I backed off to auto on Minoff. I am trying something new. Loose defense on their entire backcourt. If they can make 3's they win. Or I try something else I guess. But their driving and cutting hurts us worse and more consistently.
2	8:40	64	71	Garcia with a layup, Mendoza with another 3, and its back to 7 again.
2	7:10	68	71	We've got it down to 3. three missed jump shots, one of them from like 12 feet out by McCarthy, and we draw fouls all 3 times. Unfortunately we go 2-4 on the first two, coulda been a 1 point game. Either way... 3 point game, 7:10 left. Timeout Ball State.
2	6:10	68	75	4 in a row for them, both teams with 6^th man bonuses. The last two was awful, I took a 3 from like 25 feet out with Mendoza by accident, trying to pump fake and he went up.
2	5:15	72	75	Northcutt with 4 in a row on our end, and another missed FT, he had a 3 point play on one of this shots but culdn't convert. 6^th man might carry the backups to the end if I want. Murphy is playing terrible... Mendoza makes sense. Northcutt has 22 and is on fire. They're both staying in. I bring Santiago and Bright in for shooting and rebounding, Withers size stays out there.
2	4:15	72	79	They score on their end, a post play by C Tyler. Mendoza misses an open 3, and they get Hoyer down low for an easy look.
2	3:45	72	82	That was probably it. Mendoza with a drive, can't hit the layup. Minoff with another god damn 3. Timeout Ohio.
2	2:15	74	86	Northcutt falls over dribbling by his man. Santiago misses 2 open 3's in a row. Minoff with two dunks. He has 40 now.

So remember a couple seasons ago I had an incredible game where House made everything for a full 40 minutes and scored 48? Yeah, it turns out its not fun when the guy doing that is on the other team.

Ball State 96
Ohio 78

They graduated two great players last year but it turns out they didn't matter. They were just secondary options behind this SF.

SF Minoff: 17-21 FG, 6-8 FG, 5-7 FT. 45 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 1 blocked shot.

I mean, I'm tired of losing to Ball State, really. I can't believe I have all this talent, might get a 3 or a 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and cannot beat this team. But today... I don't think I can complain. I just had a guy hang 45 on me. I just had a guy with a 69 3 point rating AFTER confidence boost in game shoot 6-8 from 3. That's just not beatable. No way no how.

McCarthy had 12 and Hoyer 15 to supplement Minoff.

There is some good news here. Minoff is a senior. I never have to face him again.

Murphy: 0 points (0-8 shooting)
McCully: 8 points
Santiago: 19 points (4-14 from 3)
Bright: 4 points
Keller: 3 points

Mendoza: 12 points
Northcutt: 26 points

I really have no explanation as to why Northcutt put up 26 points and I could only manage 8 from McCully.

Radii · 04-08-2009, 05:25 AM

MAC Semifinals

4. Ball State 96
1. Ohio 78

3. Kent State 76
7. Bowling Green 70

MAC Finals

4. Ball State 74
3. Kent State 67

No surprise at all. Luckily, this year it's Kent State that gets to worry.

Radii · 04-08-2009, 05:48 AM

Ohio is listed as a 3 seed in the final Bracketology. Ball State is projected to be a 12 seed. Kent State(25-8) is projected in as a 10 seed. 3 teams in the tournament for this conference after being a poor 1 bid conference when I joined is an imipressive thought. Kent State is a bubble team though.

NCAA Selection

We're #14 in the final poll.

Bubble teams

Kent State is listed here. Drexel, Utah State also make the list from mid-majors. Washington State and Rutgers are listed here with 19 wins and 13 losses each.

1 seeds:

East: Texas Tech
South: Texas A&M
Midwest: Clemson
West: Syracuse

hey hey, I lost to a 1 seed this year.

EAST Region

1. Texas Tech

Mid major powerhouse Pepperdine is the 9 seed here, playing BYU.

Duke and UCLA set up to meet in round two, 3 seed/6 seed.

Kent State is in! South Florida is #7 here, Kent State #10.

West Virginia is the 2 seed here.

South Region

1. Texas A&M

mid major powerhouse Nevada is a 9 seed here, playing St Joseph's.

Bubble team Rutgers is the 11 seed here, playing Indiana.

UNC is the 2 seed here.

Midwest Region

1. Clemson - 30 wins, ACC champs.

we're not in the midwest, must be heading out West. Haven't seen ball state either. Don't you dare fuck me, selection committee, with some BS 4/12 Ohio/Ball State matchup.

Louisville is the 2 seed here.

West Region

1. Syracuse

Ball State is the 12 seed in the West. They play 19-9 Baylor.

Va TEch is the 4 seed here, did we really hang on to a 3 seed even without winning our conference tournament??

Kansas earns the 6 seed, they play 11 seed Manhattan, one of the top mid-majors this year.

OHIO!!!!!!!!!

Ohio is the 3 seed in the West Region

We play American University.

Florida is the 2 seed here.

Big east gets 9 teams into the dance.

Pac 10, A-10, big 10 and MAC earn 3 bids. Clark Kellog informs us that "we have to take our hats off to the MAC, earning 3 bids out of a smaller conference".

American University has an RPI of 147. They are 17-12 overall, stinking it up in the Patriot League to the tune of a 6-8 conference record. They were the #6 team in their league, beating 3 seed Colgate, , 7 seed navy, and then upsetting 1 seed Bucknell 74-71.

Errm. American looks good. They have a senior PG rated 81 OVR, three players rated in the mid-70s. They're dragged down by a 57 rated power forward.

Oh. Those 4 players are their entire team. No one else on the team is rated over 57. Their backup PG is rated 50 OVR. Still if we can't get them in foul trouble to keep their stars off the court, it could be a closer game than I would like.

If we do beat American, our next opponent is most likely Kansas. Kansas is rated 93 OVR, has 4 player rated over 85, both their starting guards are coach on the floor caliber players. A daunting task to reach the sweet 16.

Manhattan, out of the MAAC,actually looks a fair bit like us at a high level glance, rated 85 OVR, they have 5 players rated in the same range we do.. except they ahve a superstar PG rated 86 OVR We obviously root for them to pull the upset.

We are the classic Gonzaga style 3 seed(sorry mid-major fans). We've played only a couple truly good teams all year, but we plaed just enough competition to look like a team that could go to the final four to someone who is only halfway paying attention. But its all smoke and mirrors. I *want* a sweet 16 appearance so badly for the coaching point, and simply for the advancement of the Ohio program. But I think its a long shot.

hoopsguy · 04-08-2009, 06:07 AM

Congrats on your best regular season yet. Now go get win #30.

If/when you leave Ohio and move onto a bigger program I think you should schedule Ball State every year until you feel that you have exacted a sufficient amount of revenge on their crappy school.

04-05-2009, 02:10 AM	#508
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Incoming Recruits PG John McCully - 6'2" 173 lbs - 76 OVR Awesome!! C+ Potential which is really exciting. He's as fast as we're likely to see at Ohio, 90 speed/91 quickness. He can defend, handle the ball, and has a great midrange shot (89/A!). He'll be an average 3 point shooter with work. I haven't looked at everything else yet but the CPU has him starting. SG Sidney Whitted - 6'5" 187 lbs - 71 OVR I'm not sure what to make of Whitted. Speedy, above average defense, 70 steals rating is above average. But he's really not a shooter. There's a good chance that Northcutt will be our backup SG for a year and Whitted will get redshirt. C potential. C Darryl Withers - 7'1" 232 lbs - 68 OVR About what I expected. Big, but raw. his raw numbers are not good. 72 orb/76 drb, 82 post offense(that actually is quite good)/71 post deefnse. 80 close/78 in traffic. The CPU wants to redshirt him too. I could do that and put Garcia(6'7") as my backup PF for a bit of size. He gets pushed around a lot though. I've got the guard depth to use Garcia that way if I want. Withers has C+ potential,giving me the hope that he could develop reasonably well. If I can get his rebounding ratings up closer to 80 I'd be a lot more interested in what i'm seeing. Last edited by Radii : 04-05-2009 at 02:11 AM.

04-05-2009, 11:24 PM	#525
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I sim our next game. Dec 10, 2016 at Ohio 82 Detroit 81 Well that was close. McCully 18, Mendoza 15, Barker (backup PG) 12, that doesn't happen often. Our next two games we expect to win as well. Dec 17, 2016 Ohio 73 at Valparaiso 64 Keller puts up 17 today, Santiago 18 in our win. this makes us 9-2 and takes us to the week of Dec 19. Still no mid-majors in the media top 25, but Kent State is still 23rd in the Coaches poll, they're 12-1. Mid Major Poll: 1. Kent State (12-1) 2. Nevada (11-2) 3. Pepperdine (10-2) 4. Ohio (9-2) 5. Middle Tennessee State (9-1) Ball State #12, Bowling Green #16 Seriously, #1 mid major?? haha I don't believe it. Kent State has the #1 RPI in the nation. They have wins over such national powers as UAB, Marshall, and Southern Illinois (seriously those are their 3 best wins... those aren't bad wins, mind you, but come on). I know the RPI resets and looks more normal in January but meh. I sim one more easy win before getting back to tougher competition. Dec 20, 2016 at Ohio 89 NC A&T 54 Keller 17, Withers 15, Murphy 11. We have 3 non-conference games left. We play New Orleans, rated 81 OVR, Duqesne, rated 78 overall. We then play Northern Illinois to open our conference schedule, and then one final mid-major clash before conference play gets in full swing, as perennial top 5 mid major Nevada will come visit Ohio. Last edited by Radii : 04-05-2009 at 11:24 PM.

04-05-2009, 01:13 AM	#501
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	2016 Awards North Carolina is the national champion, wow, roster strength of 98. Two starters rated 90 OVR, their worst starter was rated 87. Their entire roster is rated above 80 OVR. Their top backups at each position were rated 85+. Powerhouse. They went 39-3. Villanova's Erwin Hardaway wins the player of the year award. He's a center, 25.1 ppg/5.7 rpg. Pepperdine's Naim Paul is the mid-major player of the year. A SG averaging 24.0 ppg/6.0 rpg/3.4 apg. Roy Williams is the coach of the year. Keep on going roy. He's 66 years old. 1st Team All Americans PG Nik Mombollet - SR - Kentucky - 89 OVR - 16.6 ppg/5.2 apg SG Naim Paul - SR - Pepperdine - 85 OVR - 24.0 ppg/6.0 rpg SF Josip Loucks - SR - Kentucky - 88 OVR - 17.3 ppg/6.1 rpg PF Iman Wilcox - SR - Boston College- 85 OVR - 20 ppg/5.6 rpg C Erwin Hardaway - SR - Villanova - 88 OVR - 25.1 ppg/5.7 rpg Two Wildcats, wow. D'Jamal Adkins of Texas Tech is on the 2nd team. MAC Awards I am the coach of the year in the MAC for the 2nd straight year! I'm 41 years old now, 164-111 career record. PF Errick Floyd of Northern Illinois is the player of the year. Rated 82 OVR, Floyd scored 19.1 ppg/8.4 rpg this year. I simmed my game(s) against NIU this year, but I remember Floyd from years past, a very good post player. C Jair Watkins from Bowling Green is freshman of the year, rated 74 OVR, Watkins had 6.2 ppg/6.1 rpg per game. Santiago got jobbed. 1st Team All-MAC PG Toby Warner - JR - Akron - 78 OVR - 11.6 ppg/5.0 apg SG Gary Edelin - SR - Ball State - 85 OVR - 14.3 ppg SF Tim Krymski - SR - Toledo - 79 OVR - 12.2 ppg/6.9 rpg PF Errick Floyd - SR - N. Illinois - 82 OVR - 19.1 ppg/8.4 rpg C Roburt Maye - JR - Kent State -71 OVR - 13.6 ppg/6.5 rpg Second Team All-MAC PG Zam Surov - SR - Bowling Green - 74 OVR - 10.1 ppg/5.8 apg SG Jean Goss - JR - Bowling Green - 79 OVR - 15.2 ppg/5.2 rpg SF Kaylen Lufkin - SR - Ohio - 80 OVR - 13.3 ppg/3.4 rpg PF Elton Falls - SR - Buffalo - 81 OVR - 16.7 ppg/4.3 rpg C Dameon Archibong - JR - E. Michigan - 71 OVR - 12.8 ppg/4.9 rpg Freshman All-MAC team PG Femi Janiszewski - Ball State - 69 OVr - 7.5 ppg/3.6 apg SG Erkan Northcutt - Ohio - 70 OVR - 1.6 ppg SF Rodney Santiago - Ohio - 77 OVR - 9.6 ppg/1.7 rpg PF Mading Deren - Akron - 65 OVR - 6.3 ppg/5.4 rpg C Jair Watkins - Bowling Green - 74 OVR - 6.2 ppg/6.1 rpg Northcutt?? Was he the only freshman SG in the league this year? Not a huge awards season for Ohio, but coach of the year and the #2 freshman in theleague is nice.

04-05-2009, 01:22 AM	#502
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I am awarded a 5 year contract extension at Ohio this season. I have a coaching skill point but I cannot for the life of me remember what I did to earn it? I decide to work on becomign a defensive guru and put it into defense: Offense: C Defense: A- Teaching: A- Scouting: C- Charisma: A+ Discipline: C

04-05-2009, 01:23 AM	#503
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Coaching Carousel 3 major conference jobs are open. I am not yet qualified for any of them. The big news is that one of them is Duke, as Coach K has decided to retire. The other two are Minnesota and St. John's. No large conference jobs are open. Some WCC and WAC jobs are available but nothing real special. However, I think that might change. Duke hires Nevada's head coach, opening up one of the top mid-major jobs in the nation. At this point though, I've built Ohio up to the point that it is within striking distance of Nevada and Gonzaga and Pepperdine, etc. Minnesota hires Albany's head coach. St John's hires Old Dominion's head coach. I'm actually only 3rd on the list for the Nevada job anyway. But I would have turned it down. After that I could have any mid-major job of my choosing if I wanted it. San Francisco, Fresno State, Boise State, Old Dominion...

04-05-2009, 01:29 AM	#504
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Assistant Hiring I'm starting to see better assistant's available to me. I seem to qualify for "B-" level assistants instead of just C+ ones. However, none of them imrpove the skills that i need in a way that would make sense to fire one of my current guys. Transfers A 77 rated SG transfers out of Iowa and to Northwestern State. A 77 rated PG transfers from VCU to NJIT. Wow, VCU is good enough that they dump a 77 rated PG on the bench to the point that he gets pissed and leaves?? A 71 rated SF transfers from Nebraska to Central Michigan. This is the only transfer in our out involving anyone in the MAC

04-05-2009, 01:49 AM	#505
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Offseason Recruiting We've already landed our big man as 3* 7 foot C Darryl Withers will be coming to play for Ohio next year. We have two other scholarships out there: 4* PG Jon McCully - #60 OVR. Right now only two teams are listed on his interest list. We're at 85%. Charlotte is below us. We're the only offer. The fact that i've been working on him all year and only have him at 85% probably means he's a lost cause but until someone else steals him i'm not going away. 3* SG Sidney Whitted - #192 OVR from the Bronx. His overall grades are all solidly in the B range, but none really stand out as awesome. He looks most likely to be a speedy defensive guy with an average shot. We have him at 100% and are his only offer. It seems a near certainty that we will land him. We have a 3* SF, a JC SO(only would be with us 2 years) that is at 100% interest in us, and Georgetown. Neither have offered. I've had no success scouting him at all, I don't know much about him. No one else has offered and he's a possible target but the lack of scouting is frustrating. I don't know if its a bug or what but I requested game tape on him 3 or 4 times last year and that option was always there the next week but I never got any scouting info. I have him at 100% though. I hae a couple other targets in the 80-90% range that I could consider if I lose McCully. Initial Signing Day Our 3* SG, Whitted, does indeed sign with Ohio as expected. More on him later. McCully has not yet received an offer from anyone else. Week 2 #1 Target John McCully has signed with OHIO!!! I should be a lot more excited about this than I am. He's a 4* PG, a top 100 recruit(#60 OVR). He looks really strong, speedy, possibly a solid shooter, solid defender, decent athlete, good PG skills with the ball... but the fact that no one else ever came calling makes me wonder if he's flawed in some terrible way. Recruiting Class Review *4 PG John McCully - 6'2" 173 lbs - #60 OVR/#29 PG McCully scored 12.4 points and had 5.1 assists in the ABL games. 42% from the field, 77% atthe line and 34% from 3. Shooting: A Skills: A- Defense: B+ Athleticism: A- Rebounding: B- Intelligence: B Potential: B+ Size: C+ Speed and Quickness both scout out at B ratings, I expect a very fast guy to come in. B- defense should also be solid. B- Close/A Med/C 3 pointer. He can shoot off the dribble(B+) and a little in traffic(C+). I'd be perfectly fine with a guy that can drive hard to the basket but can't necessarily shoot the 3. C+ hands and passing. C+ vert/str and C hustle. 3* C Darryl Withers - 7'0" 223 lbs - #397 OVR/#33 C Just average but with size. C orb/drb. B- post offense/C- post defense. C- shot blocking. A- str/B+ hustle. Doesn't look like a scorer at all. C- close/C- in traffic. 3* SG Sidney Whitted - 6'4" 183 lbs - #192 OVR/#50 SG** top 200 is kinda exciting. 13.4 ppg in the ABL, 41% from the field, 38% from 3. 57% at the line is scary. Shooting: B Skills: B Defense: B+ Athleticism: B+ Rebounding: B- Intelligence: B+ Potential: B Speed C+/Quickness C, Defense and Steals both C+. Shooting is just average, C+ close/C med/C 3. C+ Defensive Awareness is potentially solid too. We'll of course see how all these guys come in, but after landing the 4* PG I've got visions of McCully and Santiago being a very strong backcourt combination for 3 years.

04-05-2009, 01:51 AM	#506
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Recruiting Class Rankings 1. Florida 2. Kansas 3. UNLV 4. Arizona 5. Boston College Ohio has the 51st rated recruiting class, far behind some other mid majors (Pepperdine and VCU are pulling in top 20 classes here) but well ahead of anyone else in the MAC. toledo is in the 90-100 range.

04-05-2009, 02:00 AM	#507
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	2016/17 Scheduling The CPU tries to give me 9 November games, including games on the 4th, 5th and 6th. WTF. I make a lot of modifications to the schedule, getting more of my games in December so I can spend more time recruiting in November, i think I had 3 sunday games scheduled, if you have a sunday game you can't do any visits, so I moved all of those, etc. I think we'll have our toughest schedule yet as well. We won't be a 5 or 6 loss team this year probably, we'll see how we do though and if I am unable to be an at large team b/c I scheduled 1 too many highly unlikely victory, I'll learn from it. I've got Syracuse, Boston college and Nevada on the schedule, all teams sure to be rated higher than me. Our non-conference tourney this year is pretty early, we'll play San diego in the opener and most likely North texas if we win, a Sun Belt team rated pretty well too.

04-05-2009, 02:21 AM	#509
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	MAC Preview Last year we were rated 83 OVR at the season's outset, tops in the league, with Miami OH, Kent State, and Ball Freaking State all hovering around 80(81/79/79 for the 3). The +/- in parenthesis represents the change in overall roster strenght, not in position/ranking. 1. Ohio 84 (+1) 2. Kent State 80 (+1) 3. Akron 79 (+2) 4. Miami OH 77 (-3) 5. Bowling Green 77 (0) 6. Eastern Michigan 77 (0) 7. Ball State 76 (-3) 8. Western Michigan 76 (+1) 9. Toledo 74 (-2) 10. Buffalo 73 (-3) 11. Central Michigan 70 (-4) 12. N. Illinois 69 (-6) Northern Illinois got decimated, wow. Ball State graduated Edelin and their big men. They still have Minoff, their very talented SF, but not enough around him to make a lot of noise this year. I don't care who else I'm playing in the cycles when I face Ball Stae, the other game gets simmed. I'll play ball state and if I can get up by 50 points I will, no simming to the end. They need to suffer a little for the last couple seasons. MAC Preseason Recognition Best Overall Player: SF Logan Montgomery - SR Kent State - 82 OVR Best Freshman: PG John McCully - Ohio - 76 OVR Best Shooter: SG Stan Victor - SR - Miami OH - 82 OVR Best Playmaker: PG Toby Warner - SR - Akron - 79 OVR Best Pro Prospect: SF Logan Montgomery - SR Kent State - 82 OVR Best Defender: SF Fab Minoff - SR - Ball State - 81 OVR This is the second year in a row I've had the best freshman in the league. This is a very good thing. I think I like what the CPU has done as far as suggesting a starting lineup, but this year there are more decisions to make than I would usually face. Lineups next.

04-05-2009, 03:20 AM	#510
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	2016/17 Ohio Roster Starting Lineup PG John McCully - FR - 6'2" 173 lbs - 76 OVR 90 speed/91 quickness. 84 defense, only 67 steals which is a C rating, won't produce a ton of turnovers. 85 hands/78 passing (C+/C+). 79 close/89 med/71 3/81 off the dribble/77 in traffic. 78 vert/64 str/67 hustle. C hustle, I'm not sure how that impacts too much though, but its only a C rating and a bit low. I haven't seen McCully in action yet but I'm hopeful he is a big time slasher and scorer inside with that speed and handling. SG Michel Murphy - SR - 6'2" 196 lbs - 76 OVR (+3) 92 speed/85 quickness. 87 defense/74 steals. 80 hands/81 passing. 76 close/78 med/81 3/81 off the dribble. 74 vert/59 str/77 hustle. Averaged 8.1 ppg last year. Murphy isn't the type that has a good blowby move. There is an argument to play Murphy at PG and McCully at SG. I think the deciding factor there will be transition play. Murphy's weak blowby move might make him a better PG(who usually comes back to get the ball after a rebound) if McCully can score a lot in transition. On hte other hand, I might like the 81 3 point rating at SG so that McCully can set him up. SF Rodeny Santiago - SO - 6'4" 214 lbs - 79 OVR (+3) Doing some quick math, if Santiago can gain 3 ratings points each year, he goes into his senior season rated 85 OVR. Just sayin. 79 speed/82 quickness, good for a SF. 81 defense/68 steals, both good for a SF. 86 close/72 med/81 3/77 in traffic/77 off the dribble. 74 o awareness/73 d awareness are both pretty good. 86 vert/79 str/72 hustle, he's a solid athlete too. He showed towards the end of last year a strong potential to become a big time go to scorer. I hope to expand on that this year. Scored 9.6 ppg as a freshman, I'm hoping to get that over 15 ppg this year. PF Lloyd Bright - JR - 6'8" 231 lbs - 80 OVR (+2) I don't think I've ever had a junior rated 80 before. He grew an inch last year which for a PF around this size is big. 81 orb/95 drb, averaged 7.6 rebounds/game last year as a 6'7 PF with lower ratings, I think its reasonable to expect Bright to lead the league in rebounds this year. 82 post offense/79 post defense. 70 blocks/69 steals(B-/B). 88 close/86 in traffic. I've had a hell of a time scoring with Bright in the post. 77 vert/73 str/78 hustle... 85 speed/78 quickness, those are SG/SF speed numbers, not power forward. Bright is a great athlete. C JR Keller - SR - 6'10" 231 lbs - 76 OVR (+3) 80 orb/77 drb. 83 post offense/79 post defense. 73 blocks. 89 close/84 in traffic. This will be Kellers first and only year starting at center. I'm starting him because I think Grundy can be more effective as a backup where i have less scoring options. On the backup squad i can always just give the ball to Grundy and tell him to attack with his size. As a starter he'd not really be a scoring threat though. Backups So there is a minor decision with McCully and Murphy as to who to play at what position... the backups though there are some real challenges. Mendoza or Barker at PG (Barker is the guy i redshirted last year). Garcia at SF or PF(Pf would mean I'm redshirting Withers)? Redshirt Whitted and give Northcutt some minutes? And this is going to look weird, and its subject to change. PG Tim Barker - FR - 6'2 185 lbs - 70 OVR (+1) 85 speed/80 quickness. 84 defense/75 steals. 81 close/71 med/72 3/81 off the dribble. 86 hands/76 passing. He's got good enough PG skills and he is a solid defensive player who can force some turnovers. So he's got a spot on the team. SG Erkan Northcutt - SO - 6'2" 198 lbs - 72 OVR(+3) 86 speed/84 quickness. 80 defense/68 steals. 86 close/75 med/72 3/77 off the dribble. His shooting stats are a bit low, he isn't intended to be a big threat. He's an... acceptable defender and he developed quite a bit last year despite C- potential. So he's got a spot too. SF David Mendoza - SR - 6'4" 174 lbs - 74 OVR (+2) He's a PG... kinda ridiculous to play him at SF. But out of the guards I have he's technically the tallest and best rebounder. So here he goes. 91 speed/82 quikness. 85 defefnse/82 steals. 87 hands. 77 close/70 med/77 3/74 off the dribble/76 in traffic. He isn't great at creating his own shot, though he does ok getting to the basket, and against bigger SF's he might be able to drive here better. With his defense and 3 point rating, he needs to be on the floor. I think he'll do ok here. PF Shawn Garcia - SR - 6'7" 205 lbs - 71 OVR (+1) natural SG. I learned last year that Garcia has a decent place on the backup squad. He has a decent blowby move and can attack the basket fairly well. Plyaing him out of position here might make him an interesting weapon if he can pull out opposing PF's and go by them. 84 speed/78 quickness. 78 defense/77 steals. He'll get killed in the post (52/58 post off/def ratings). 79 close/73 med/76 3/77 off the dribble. C Nathan Grundy - JR - 7'1" 266 lbs - 73 OVR (+3) 74 orb/82 drb. 76 post off/71 post def. 66 blocks 9C+). 92 close/87 in traffic. Grundy does pretty well at times going strong at the basket. He's still fairly raw but coming around. Reserves SF Dwight Snowden - JR - 6'8" 230 lbs - 68 OVR (+1) It might make a lot more sense for Snowden to play PF, keep Northcutt on the bench and go with Barker/Mendoza/Garcia. If Garcia gets killed too badly inside I might do that. But Snowden is just simply unskilled. He offers nothing but a few inches in height and a slightly better fit at PF. SG Sidney Whitted - FR - 6'5" 187 lbs - 71 OVR - REDSHIRT Whitted is decent, but there's no reason to use him right now, 85 speed/83 quickness. 81 defense/70 steals. 80 close/71 med/68 3/76 off the dribble. Mendoza and Garcia will be the main scoring options from the bench, whether I use Whitted or not. Might as well redshirt him, next year unless I recruit better there is more likely to be a space for him. C Darryl Withers - FR - 7'1" 232 lbs - 68 OVR - REDSHIRT I could remove the redshirt and just have a massive line with Grundy and Withers. And I have been known to overthink things at times, I might be doing that here. But Withers with his current ratings is nothing more than a warm body. I knew this might well be the case when i recruited him. But I kinda want to experiment and this seems a good time to do it.

04-05-2009, 03:27 AM	#511
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Season Goals i'm not doing anything different in an effort to reach these goals, just looking at my coaching sheet and listing out the things I think are within the realm of possibility as far as ways to earn skill improvements. I really need to earn a couple more i think to move up to a larger conference. Assemble a top 20 recruiting class - extrodinarily unlikely, but this is a year where we have 4 scholarships and I have pulled a top 40 class before. If there are two 4* guys out there then who knows. Coach a team into the top 25 - With the tougher schedule this year this may prove unrealistic. Or, I could pull off an upset and do it easily. But either way, this is an accomplishment I need to make at Ohio to improve to the point that I can move up. Coach a team to the sweet 16 - Another goal I really need to reach at Ohio. Without a couple more skill points I don't know if I have a shot at a A-10 job, much less a power conference job. Not this year, but I get another point when I reach 200 wins. I have 164 now, so I need to average 18 wins this year and next. I need to make sure I hit this milestone next season. I'll go as far as to say that if I only win 15 or 16 this year because of some screwup, I'll schedule an easy non-conference schedule just to guarentee that this happens.

04-05-2009, 03:53 AM	#512
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	2016/17 Recruiting Preview We have 4 scholarships. We're losing: C JR Keller - 76 OVR - Starter PG Michel Murphy - 76 OVR - Starter PG David Mendoza - 74 OVR - Backup SG Shawn Garcia - 71 OVR - Backup Looking ahead to next season, we graduate Bright and Grundy. Needs/Goals I can go ahead and pencil in 4 of the 5 slots in next years starting lineup: PG McCully, SG ??, SF Santiago, PF Bright, C Grundy Bright and Grundy will be seniors and I don't know who my SG will be. That pretty much dictates my needs for me. With 4 scholarships, I need 2 big men, 1 SG, and 1 other guy. SF would make the most sense but I don't have to have a SF. 2 SG's or even SG/PG would be fine if I see a PG with a good set of shooting and defensive skills. I spend the first week sending out a bunch of feelers. Usually by now I've decided who I want based on rating alone but I think as I have a bit more success I have a little more freedom here. Two targets are immediately clear. A 4* PF from Cleveland in the top 100 rates me right up there with any of the big schools (at least for now), and a 4* SG in the top 100 from Tampa does the same. Initial Offers I offer 3 scholarships. 4* SG Quincy Jimenez - Tampa, FL - #92 OVR/#32 SG - I'm unsure on the likelyhood of landing Jimenez. But I think we'll learn before the early signing period where we stand pretty well. If Florida State or Auburn wants him, they win. But we've got him to 82% with 4 weeks to go still til signing starts, and my schedule is pretty light. He's coming in for a campus visit this week. 4* PF Bobby Bragg - 6'10" 234 lbs - Columbus, OH - #97 OVR/#15 PF Bragg has us at 84% already and is coming in for a campus visit this week too. We've used two home visits on him already, just one for Jimenez. Bragg being local though I think helps me out, staying near home is his #2 priority(playing time is #1). Pitt and Virginia Tech would be the teams most likely to steal him away. 3* C Stefan Fitch - 6'10" 227 lbs - #143 OVR/#11 C - Anaheim, CA we're going out west here and hoping to woo Fitch away from UNLV and USC. And again we have a fair shot, we have him at 85% early, and he's coming in for a campus visit this week. I haven't offered my 4th scholarship yet and I don't have a strong feel for who it ought to go to. I have a couple local JC players would I could sign easily, but they don't really excite me much.

04-05-2009, 05:24 AM	#514
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Huh, the team we expected to face if we won is not there. We have 3 games between now and the early signing period. none of them are against teams rated above 70. I'll sim them so I can get to the signing period ASAP. OH! I'm in the preseason NIT. I had no idea this was how it was structured. 4 groups, winner of each group goes to new york city. I get it now :P Nov 4, 2016 Ohio 84 Alabama A&M 73 Keller scores 17 and grabs 12 boards. Grundy has 13, McCully 10, Santiago 7. Also, I didn't realize how this tournament worked. Winning our little group feeds us into another group the next week. We're going to be playing 80 OVR rated SMU. After that, we'll be playing either Kent State out of our own conference, or Vanderbilt out of the SEC. Vandy is rated 81 OVR/Kent State 80. I'm definitely playing out those two games, will be a great early challenge for us. In a recruiting update, this might turn into a disaster... the 3* Center out west, UNLV has made an offer to. We still seem like we can get him to 100% before the signing period so we'll take our shot but expect to lose out. The local 4* PF has gotten an offer from pittsburgh. He does not list a big school in any of his top 3 priorities. He wants playing time, close to home, and feeling wanted. Geographically, Pittsburgh looks closer than Athens to Cleveland, so I dunno if that is distance based or state based. But anyway, we can gethim to 100% too most likely so we're going to try. The 4* SG we'veoffered it seems unlikely we'll get him to 100% but no one else has offered. I also offer a scholarship to a JC SF, Brendon okosa. He's from Cincinnati and Marshall is coming after him. He seems someone who is decent and could give us some better depth than Snowden offers at the position for a couple years. And with 4 scholarships it would feel good to land someone early, even if not a top target. If we lose out on all 3 of our top targets things will get real interesting... just getting 1 of the 3 would be worth the effort. I want to play out the preseason NIT so no more recruiting news until later when those games are done.

04-05-2009, 05:03 PM	#516
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I forgot ot mention, I upped my injury sliders at the start of the season to the same level that EF27 did recently. I had increased mine but nearly as much, and had not seen any difference at all(albeit over a small sample size).

04-05-2009, 07:49 PM	#518
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Out of necessity now(and maybe for the best anyway in the end), I remove the redshirt on freshman big man Darryl Withers. Grundy is out for 42 days with his broken ankle. I update my lineups and depth charts to put Withers in Grundy's old spot, no other changes. When Grundy is back he may start at center and Keller will come off the bench, or I may just put both my 7 footers out there with the backups, it mostly depends on how Keller does over this next month. I sim my next two games to get us to the early signing period: Nov 14 at Ohio 88 E. Tennessee State 48 Murphy 21, Keller 19, Santiago 16, Mendoza 10 as we blow out a bad team. Next up is another terrible team. Nov 19, 2016 at Ohio 68 Binghamton 40 Santiago 16, Keller 12, Bright 10, Murphy 11. We're 6-0 with no games in the final week leading up to the signing period. There are no mid majors in either top 25 poll. Here's the first mid-major poll I've bothered to look at: 1. Nevada (7-0) 2. Ohio (6-0) 3. Arkansas State (4-1) 4. Pepperdine (5-1) 5. Kent State (6-1) Ball State is 15th, Eastern Michigan is 25th.

04-05-2009, 08:10 PM	#519
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Early Signing Period I think we're leaning more towards disaster than big rewards here, but we'll see. On the last day before this starts: 3* C Stefan Fitch - This is the only guy we have at 100%. However, UNLV has him at 100% too and we've both offered him. He'll likely sign right away, and given that he's from California UNLV seems more likely. 4* PF Bobby Bragg - Pitt offered him a scholarship and they appear to have him at 100%. We have him at 98%. I expect to lose him to Pitt. 3* JC SF Brendon Okosa - Marshall has offered him as well. We havehim at 97% and he's coming in for a campus visit tomorrow. If the campus visit is processed before signing's we will have him at 100% and have a real shot. We'll see. 4* PG Quincy Jimenez - We have him at 94%. I don't think there's anything we can do to get him to 100% before the end of next week. FSU is right up there but hasn't made him an offer. There's a real chance we lose all four of these guys this week. I'm pretty worried.... and, lets sim to the next day and cross our fingers. 4* PF Bobby Bragg signs with Pittsburgh. 3* C Stefan Fitch signs with UNLV. That was our most likely signing, that's rough. 3* SF Brendon Okosa signs with Marshall. Strikeout. wooboy. That's going to make the rest of this recruiting season interesting. And to be clear, I mean trainwreck interesting, not exciting interesting. Some good news, 4* SG Quincy Jimenez drops FSU down a bit, I assume they signed someone else at SG which would cause him to take a hit. That doesn't mean they won't offer him also and screw us. We've got him at 94%. He'll get to 100% by the end of the season, but not by the end of the week. So lets talk backup targets: 6'10" C, a JC FR, Bernell Roberts has a scholarship offer from UNC Asheville, but he is from Columbus, OH and wants to stay close to home. We're on the same level as UNC-A without a single visit or a scholarship offer. Looks like its our turn to steal someone away. roberts isn't a stud but he is an above average rebounder. I haven't scouted him enough to see if he is a scoring threat or not, but the rebounding alone is enough to pursue. The scholarship offer jumps him from 84% to 94%, a call to 95% and we're visiting him. Seems promising. 3* PG Brad Buggs - Buggs is from Texas, he doesn't care a lot about staying close to home, but our competition here is Texas and Texas Tech. I guess the thing we most have going for us is that Buggs is the #32 PG in the nation and there's a reasonable chance that those schools will ignore him and go after higher rated targets. 3* PF Zachary Hogan - 6'11" and the #285 recruit in the nation, #45 PF. He looks pretty damn exciting actually, B- ORB/B DRB, C+ Close range shot, B Shot blocking. He has no offers yet and we would appear to be right in the mix with Evansville, Middle Tennesee State, Western Kentucky and Georgia State. He is from Nashville 4* SG Jeremie Nava - #88 OVR/#30 SG. A long shot, but only Oklahoma State has shown any interest and they haven't made him an offer yet. I offer my scholarship to him but am not going to make him a priority for visits(which is going to be an issue with 3 new targets to try to woo...), but rather I'm going to work on him slowly, visit when I have time/have used up visits on the other guys, and be there at the end if Oklahoma State never comes calling. I don't really have a great feel for my odds with these guys. First lets get through this week and see if anything else happens at the end of the signing period. November 28, 2016 at Ohio 86 Montana State 61 Another bad team, Bright with 16, Keller with 10, Murphy with 14, Mendoza 12. I can't quite finish the week right away, because the day before the week ends is our best shot ever to try to punch a ticket into the media and coaches top 25. We're 7-0 and travelling to #18 Syracuse. It'll be a tough game we expect to lose, but if we can find a way to win, we're sure to earn a ranking finally.

04-05-2009, 08:15 PM	#520
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	As I sim to Saturday, we visit JC Center Bernell Roberts. That jumps him up to 100% interest in us. We've fully scouted him out now and he's not the most impressive recruit in the world. C- close range shot, C- post offense, but C post defense, C+ defensive rebounding, B- str and B hustle. Seems like he's a likely candidate to sign with Ohio this week. I'd really, really like that, it would make going after our other 2 new scholarship offers and trying to maintain some kind of backup targets for them more feasible.

04-05-2009, 09:46 PM	#522
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	End of in-season recruiting Oklahoma State decided to offer 4* SG Jeremie Nava and he signs immediately. Glad they got that over with early. 3* JC C Bernell Roberts signs with OHIO. So that's 1 down, and its a very unexciting 1,but it is a 6'10" big man who appears to have above average talent on the boards. That leaves us with 3 offers out there that we'll continue working on til the end of the season, the 4* SG that we've had our eye on from the start and our two new backup targets, PF Hogan and PG Buggs. oh fuck me. Kent State is #23 in the coaches poll this week. They're 10-1, no marquee wins or anything, just 10-1. The newest mid-major poll: 1. Nevada 2. Pepperdine 3. Ohio 4. Kent State 5. Arkansas St Bowling Green #14, Miami OH #25. Our other really big test comes next. At Boston College. They aren't as menacing as Syracuse but they are rated higher than us and it is on the road.

04-05-2009, 11:10 PM	#524
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	After the game I learn that Bright is out 28 days with a strained achilles. Grundy is still out 18 more days. We're in some trouble.

04-06-2009, 10:54 AM	#527
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	My 360 froze last night when I was done playing, luckily I save frequently and only had to re-sim the NC A&T game. We win this time around 86-65, getting 15 from Santiago and 12 from Murphy.

04-06-2009, 01:14 PM	#529
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	For the week of the 26th, no mid-majors in the media poll. Kent State rises to #21 in the coaches poll Mid Major Poll: 1. Kent State 2. Nevada 3. Pepperdine 4. Ohio 5. MTSU Ball State #12, Bowling Green #20 I rarely bring up recruiting in the middle of the season, but that's because I rarely change targets mid season. The #118 recruit in the nation, PG Brad Buggs out of Texas, has received an offer from Texas Tech. At this point I lost most of the guys I was eyeing as backup targets in the early signing week, so I go and scout out 4 new PG/SG types that don't appear locked into one school yet. I'm itching to play Nevada so I sim our next two. The first isn't really a guarenteed win but looks like one we should take. Dec 28, 2016 at Ohio 92 Duqesne 85 high scoring. Grundy leads us with 17 points/11 boards, Keller 15, McCully 14. And our next game technically opens up conference play, we better win this one. Dec 31 Ohio 103 at N. Illinois 64 Good good. Keller 23, Northcutt 19, Murphy 14. On the injury front though, Mendoza is hurt in this game and will miss about 2 weeks. And going into the first week in january, Kent State enters the MEdia Poll at #21. They're #20 in the coaches poll. Mid Major Poll: 1. Kent State 2. Pepperdine 3. Ohio 4. MTSU 5. Nevada Ball State #14. This sets up our next game. Our final non-conference game of the year, we host the #5 mid major team, consistently one of the top 3 mid majors every year, Nevada. Mendoza is out for another 1 1/2 weeks, but Bright is back. Starting lineup: PG Murphy,SG McCully, SF Santiago, PF Bright, C Keller Backups: PG Barker, SG northcutt, SF Garcia, PF Grundy, C Withers time to go with a 'normal' backup rotation with two big men.

04-06-2009, 04:08 PM	#531
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	I go ahead and sim our next game this week, I probably should play it as W. Michigan is one of the higher rated conference opponents(77 OVR) but they're 4-9 and its at home and i'm anxious to get to next week: Jan 8, 2017 at Ohio 84 W. Michigan 79 Santiago 18,Garcia 16, McCully and Keller 10 each. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo. For the week of January 9th, Ohio has entered the Media poll as the #24 team in the nation!!!! Coaching skill increases are getting harder and harder to come by, this was the next hurdle on the list. Kent State is now 15-1 and up to #19 in the nation, their only loss to us in the preseason NIT finals. We are now 15-2. Kent State is up to #18 in the coaches poll, and we are not represented there. Mid Major Poll: 1. Kent State (15-1) 2. Ohio (15-2) 3. Pepperdine (13-3) 4. MTSU (13-2) 5. Nevada (13-5) Ball State #13, Bowling Green #20. We'll get into our normal rotation of playing out every other MAC game the rest of the way. My expectations at this point are unbelievably high, given our start, the fact that we've already beaten Kent State, and that many MAC teams have fallen off in their ratings a bit... We'll probably lose a couple road games that we shouldn't, but at this point 14-2 in conference play seems reasonable. And anything other than a conference tournament title would be a disappointment. that might be saying a bit much given that we haven't seen many MAC teams yet, we'll see.

04-07-2009, 02:07 AM	#533
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Next up we travel to play 2 win Central Michigan. Jan 14, 2017 Ohio 90 at C. Michigan 66 15 from Keller, 12 from Santiago and Garcia, 11 for McCully, 10 for Murphy. heh, i hadn't followed the polls closely in the past, though I've seen the RPI reset a couple times, and this is the "real" RPI that remains consistent through the end of the year. The top 25 poll seems to totally be re-calculated as a result too. We jump from #24 to #15. Duke jumps to #2 from #10, Texas Tech falls from #4 to #24... weird stuff. Anyway, the MAC is getting some serious love. Kent State is #14 in the nation, Ohio #15. Kent State is #15 in the coaches poll and we are unranked there, hah. Mid-Major Poll: 1. Kent State (16-2) 2. Ohio (17-2) 3. MTSU (14-3) 4. Manhattan (14-6) 5. Pepperdine (14-4) Ball State is 13th. In this new RPI we are rated 9th. 2-2 vs the top 50, 2-0 vs 51-100, and undefeated vs 100+. Our next game is against a poor Buffalo team: Jan 17, 2017 at Ohio 88 Buffalo 56 Murphy scores 18, Grundy 13, Northcutt 12, Keller 10. Bad news though, Bright separates his shoulder and will miss 2 weeks of action. Two good games coming up next. First we travel to Miami OH, a team down slightly from recent years but stlil a team that's given us trouble. After that is our only showdown this season with Ball State.

04-07-2009, 05:23 AM	#535
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	We drop to #20 in the media poll. mid major poll for the week: 1. Kent State 2. Ohio 3. Manhattan 4. Drexel 5. MTSU Nevada is "down" this year, 6 losses already and only #9 in the mid major poll. Ball State #16, Miami OH #22. Next up, Ball State, not really as good as you'd expect the #16 mid-major team to be(not that you expect greatness... but damn, 30 point losses to Bowling Green, Kent State and Miami each). Revenge game.

04-07-2009, 07:40 AM	#537
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	We sim our next one, a home game vs a 6-14 Akron team. Jan 28, 2017 at Ohio 77 Akron 53 Santiago 15, Murphy 15, Keller 13 in the win. We fall to #21 in the nation after the loss, not bad. Mid Major #1 is Kent State. Mid MAjor #2 is Ohio. Kent State and Ohio are tied for 1st in the MAC at the halfway point, both teams are 7-1. Our next game? Kent State at Ohio. The winner of this game would be expected to win the MAC.

04-07-2009, 11:34 PM	#539
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Next up we travel to Toledo, expecting to win a simmed one easily. Feb 4, 2017 Ohio 85 at Toledo 64 Santiago 18, Northcutt 14, Murphy 12, Grundy 11. We jump to #17 in the media poll. Kent State falls out of the poll. We're the only mid-major represented now. We still are not in the coaches poll. Mid-Major Poll: 1. Ohio 2. Kent State 3. MTSU 4. Drexel 5. Pepperdine Ball State #12 Next up is a road trip to Bowling Green. They're only 11-10 and 4-6 in MAC play, but they are the highest rated team left on our schedule.

04-08-2009, 01:40 AM	#541
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	We close the week with an easy one against Northern Illinois. Feb 12, 2017 at Ohio 92 N. Illinois 86 Well then, an easy one that wasn't so easy. NIU rated 70 OVR, 6-18 on the season... whew. Wow. Overtime. They led 47-40 at the half, we win the 2nd half 38-31 and finish them in OT. santiago with 19, Grundy 13, Bright 12... god I would have not been pleased to lose a simmed game to freaking northern illinois. We move up to #15 in the media poll. The coaches poll continues to shun the mid majors. Mid Major Poll: 1. Ohio (24-3) 2. Kent State (21-5) 3. Drexel (20-5) 4. Pepperdine 20-5) 5. UC Irvine (19-5) Ball State is up to #9. With just a few weeks left in the season, bracketology is out. I expect a high seed. And, at this point I appear to be in position to be rewarded with one. Ohio is projected to be a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament as of right now. Kent State would earn an at large and a 9 seed. Ball State's RPI is 50, they're on the bubble but projected to be out as of now. When they beat Ohio yet again in the MAC tournament I'm sure they'll make it in(god if that happens I will cry). Quick recruiting update: The 4* SG we're going hard after, Jimenez, now has an offer from Central Florida. He has for awhile actually. UCF looks to have him in the 95% range right now with 2 weeks to go. I'm assuming they've used all their visits. It will be interesting to see if they can get him to 100%. And if they do, will he immediately switch over to them and sign or will he favor us. He wants to saty near home and he's from Tampa so I figure we lose him. But our success seems to have an impact and we've had him at 100% since mid-december. We've finally settled our backup target. I had offered a second 3* guard, but after 3 weeks of spending time with him, NC State offered him a scholarship, so I had to drop off there and go to my 3rd attempt to fill that extra guard spot I have open. We're up to 95% on a PG from Oregon in the top 150 overall. He has no other offers yet and we've still got a visit left. Utah might be interested, but they've only got 2 weeks left to offer him. And lastly we're going after a 6'11" PF, #285 who looks to be an outstanding rebounder (B- orb/B drb, I'd expect freshman numbers in the low-mid 80s... 82/85 maybe, with lot of room to grow). because of the clusterfuck going on with our other targets we haven't been able to use all our visits with him til now. He's only at 85%, and he likes Evansville(he's from Tennessee). It seems Evansville will likely decide whether we land him or not. I'll almost certainly go into offseason recruiting with 2 guys at 100% that I will land or lose on day 1.

04-08-2009, 01:43 AM	#542
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	going into our next game(against western michigan) I use 2 more pep talks. Another for Bright who is finally back in game shape after his injury, and one for Mendoza who always seems to be in a slow slide. Barker, backup PG, has a day to day injury. My backups run close enough together though that I am going to sit him. Mendoza at PG, Northcutt SG, Garcia SF, and the two 7 footers for backups.

04-08-2009, 02:55 AM	#544
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Next is our simmed game against Central michigan, a terrible 6-17. Feb 25, 2017 at Ohio 97 Central michigan 75 Keller 19 points/11 boards. Santiago 18, Murphy 11. grundy 14/Northcutt 11 off the bench. Our next game is against 74 rated Buffalo. Final game against 76 rated E. Michigan. We'd normally sim the first, play the second. But if we win the first, or Miami OH loses their game that day, we clinch the MAC regular season title. Assuming we do that, I'm simming the last game too to get into the tournament. Feb 28, 2017 Ohio 84 at Buffalo 62 Santiago 19, Grundy 14, Murphy 11. Easy win. The final day of the regular season we travel to Eastern Michigan, they're not bad so a loss on the road wouldn't surprise me here. Mar 5, 2017 Ohio 76 at E. Michigan 63 Yeah, no losses here. Keller 23 points, Bright 11, Grundy 10. Going into conference tournament week, we are now ranked #14 in the media poll. We remain the only mid-major ranked at all. We finally break into the coaches poll as well, currently ranked #21 there. Mid Major Poll: 1. Ohio (28-3) 2. Kent State (23-7) 3. Pepperdine (25-7) 4. Drexel (23-8) 5. UC Irvine (23-6) Ball State #18, Miami OH finishes the season very strong and is back in at #22. Final MAC Standings 1. Ohio 15-1 2. Miami OH 13-3 3. Kent State 10-6 4. Ball State 10-6 5. Buffalo 9-7 6. W. Michigan 8-8 7. Bowling Green 7-9 8. E. Michigan 6-10 9. Akron 6-10 10. Toledo 5-11 11. C. Michigan 5-11 12. N. Illinois 2-14 MAC First Round 9. Akron 66 8. E. Michigan 62 5. Buffalo 87 12. N. Illinois 42 11. C. Michigan 68 6. W. michigan 58 7. Bowling Green 102 10. Toledo 52 Yes, 102-52. Go Bowling Green? MAC Quarterfinals 1. Ohio 9. Akron 4. Ball State 5. Buffalo 3. Kent State 11. C. Michigan 2. Miami OH 7. Bowling Green Some notes: Kent State's two big men missed a full month of play. They imploded a bit in February, their loss to us was the start of a 2-5 stretch. Losses to Ohio, Buffalo, Ball State, Bowling Green and Miami OH. Miami OH on the other hand, lost to us and then Buffalo 2 games in a row and was 5-2 in the MAC at the time. They finished very strong, going 8-1 in their last 9, including a 13 point win over Bowling Green, a 9 point win over Kent State and a 7 point win on the road at Ball State. Aside from Ball State, Kent State and some road games where the other teams' crowd was up for them to try to beat us, we really just mowed through the MAC. I don't want to gloss over or understate how good this team is or how strong this season has been. We are 15-1 in MAC play. Our only loss was a close contest against our nemesis, Ball State. We are 28-3 overall. Our only non conference losses were at Syracuse, a team that is 26-4 themselves and in the top 10, a team with a very real shot at a 1 seed... and Boston College, not nearly as strong but still a respectable ACC School with a top 100 RPI. I'll repeat that b/c it is pretty cool to type out. We are 28-3 entering the postseason. Now, to go kill Akron and shamelessly root against Ball State. I'm fine with winning the MAC without seeing them again

04-08-2009, 03:58 AM	#546
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	MAC Quarterfinals 1. Ohio 97 9. Akron 63 4. Ball State 90 5. Buffalo 50 3. Kent State 81 11. C. Michigan 65 7. Bowling Green 81 2. Miami OH 77 MAC Semifinals 1. Ohio 4. Ball State 3. Kent State 7. Bowling Green Bowling Green with the upset of the hot team on the other side of the bracket, Miami. Here comes Ball State again.

04-08-2009, 05:25 AM	#548
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	MAC Semifinals 4. Ball State 96 1. Ohio 78 3. Kent State 76 7. Bowling Green 70 MAC Finals 4. Ball State 74 3. Kent State 67 No surprise at all. Luckily, this year it's Kent State that gets to worry.