College Hoops 2k8: 2009 Edition

[Radii]

January 29, 2011

Akron (8-10, 6-1 MAC) at Ohio (14-5, 5-2 MAC)

Akron leads the MAC, but we're only 1 game back now that they lost their last contest(at Ball State, incidentally). We have a chance to tie for the conference lead at the halfway point with a win here. Akron has the most efficient offense in the conference. We have the 2^nd most efficient.

Scouting

PG Ronnie Steward – SR – 73 OVR – Incredible speed and quickness(94/94), incredible ball handling(89), and a decent shooter from everywhere(79/76/77 close/med/3). Very good off the dribble(84). 10.5 ppg.

SG Leroy Butler – JR – 78 OVR – Thankfully Butler is just average from 3(72). He's great in close and I guess he gets there a lot. Amazing speed(91), good quicks(83), average defense and only average ball handling. Brilliant in traffic(87, highest I've seen out of a guard ever I think), and clutch(80). Averaging 13 ppg.

SF Leon Mills – JR – 66 OVR – 6'9”, actually listed as a PF. Slow, only worth a damn inside. Terrible defense. I'll see if I can't get washington to use his superior athleticism against Mills in man to man sets. 3.4 ppg.

PF Steve Swiech – SR – 66 OVR – 6'10”, very good rebounder(83 O/82 D), and very good inside(87). Quite strong as well(79). Just 4 points a game here but I expect a lot of rebounding.

C Kirsten Davis – JR – 72 OVR – 7'3”, solid inside, solid post play on both ends, and a solid rebounder. Basically he has average to above average numbers, PLUS he's 7'3”. That's a scary combination. Only 9 ppg/4 rpg somehow.

They run a 2-3 zone and are noted to not try too terribly hard to get back in transition defense. Those two things give me a bit of hope. I just hope we're shooting well today.

Half	Time	OHIO	AKR	Notes
1	13:30	10	14	Our backups come in as the starters struggle quite a bit. They have 3 6'9+ guys guarding the paint in a 2-3 zone and we can't make a jump shot to save our lives. Gonna be rough like that.
1	9:30	14	31	Holy shit these guys are abusing our backups like you wouldn't believe. We just cannot buy a bucket. They've hit a couple 3's, we've turned it over 3 times, leading to layups, and other than that we just miss shots and they run their offense well and score lots and lots.
1	7:00	19	40	Starters are back in. Their inside guys got most of those last 9 points, laying the ball in over my 6'6” backup PF with ease.
1	4:00	28	48	Freeman finally heats up from 3 and has our last 9 points, but, we are not slowing them down or cutting into the lead any.
1	3:00	32	48	We score 4 straight, all from Turner, but Pearson picks up his 3rd foul and we're in even more trouble inside.
1	2:30	33	50	Dahi commits his 3rd foul as well.
	HALF	40	61	Wow. Akron is shooting 62%. They have no turnovers, we have 7. They have shot 19 free throws, we have shot 5. Freeman leads us with 15, but that's 5-12 from 3. That's pretty solid actually, but he had a 3-3 stretch and was 2-9 otherwise. Turner has 7 points/7 assists. Pearson has 3, Dahi 2. They have 4 guys already in double figures, their starting C, backup C, SG, and backup SG.
2	18:30	48	63	Freeman makes a 3, they miss a shot and Turner is out on the break. They score on an offensive board where their center just jumps over my center to steal a board from him... and then Turner hits a 3. Good start for us.
2	17:20	50	65	Another offensive rebound and putback for them, but the big news here is that their superspeedy PG, Steward, just picked up foul #3 and has to sit for awhile. Shocker: it was on a charge.
2	14:00	56	69	We had it down to 12 with 2 chances to get it to 10 or under and could not. This pace trying to catch up has worn us out though, and I get my backups in. Actually its my backups in the backcourt and my starters in the front court, since Dahi and Pearson were sitting with 3 fouls. Turner has scored 12 already this half and is on fire, the main reason we caught up some and are in it.
2	12:15	63	74	We had it down to 11 twice, once we got the ball with a chance to cut it under 10 again and were unable. They came down and drained a 3. We answered with a Massey 3 and its still 11 as Akron burns a time out.
2	11:20	63	80	They put their starting big men back in and all of a sudden Dahi misses two shots from point blank range, they get two quick 3's and its 17 again.
2	6:00	76	95	As soon as they brought their big men starters back in they just took the game right back away. Our starters are back in but this is pretty damn hopeless.

I have never before been dominated like that by a team's inside game.

Akron 106
Ohio 89

Their 7'3” center, Davis, scored 21 points, grabbed 14 boards, and had 4 blocked shots. Their backup center scored 18 and had 8 rebounds.

Their SG, Butler, scored 18, and their backup SG scored 19. The thing is, the only thing I can see doing different to give me a chance to win is “shoot better”. I tried driving into their big man. They just swatted the ball away, no fouls. They got offensive boards over the backs of my big men without trying, and our guys end up in foul trouble trying to defend all the putbacks. This says they only had 10 offensive rebounds. It sure seemed like more. They won the rebounding battle 41-33.

In the end, we shot really well from 3. We were 15/35, 42% from behind the arc. It just wasn't enough.

Turner: 23 points/9 assists (2-6 from 3)
Freeman: 27 points (9/19 from 3)
Washington: 2 points/2 boards
Pearson: 5 points/4 boards
Dahi: 9 points/14 boards

Massey: 13 points (3-4 from 3)
Harris: 5 points (1-6 from 3)

I would rather play Ball State with my job on the line, than have to play this team again.

[Radii]

We're halfway through the conference season now. Ohio is 5-3, 2-2 in games I play out and 3-1 in simmed games.

standings at the halfway point:

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

We're in a 3 way tie for 2nd but obviously there's a giant bunch between 2nd and 8th just separated by 1 game.

Looking at our schedule the rest of the way, we do not have to play Akron again. I am thankful for that. We play Ball State in our 2nd to last game. 5 of our 8 remaining games are on the road.

[Radii]

Wow, I figured we were not going to be ranked in the mid-major poll anymore, but we've actually moved up quite a bit.

We're #16 in the mid-major poll, doing well with a 7-3 record in our last 10 games now. We're the only MAC team in the list.

VCU, Nevada and Southern Illinois are the top 3, and they are all ranked in the national polls. VCU is #6 in the nation at 19-2. Nevada is #21 and S. illinois is #25.

[Radii]

This week I'm going to play the easier of my two games, just so I'm (hopefully) not only winning my simmed games

Feb 2, 2011

Ohio 83, at Buffalo 69

Freeman leads the team with 16, Pearson with 15/8 boards, Dahi with 8/10 boards, and Harris with 12 off the bench in a solid win. Buffalo isn't really very good either, they're 3-6 in conference play now.

[Radii]

February 5, 2011

Ohio (15-6, 6-3 MAC) at Central Michigan (9-11, 2-7 MAC)

Scouting

PG Jeremy Allen – SR – 67 OVR – average shooter, average speed, poor passer, but good ball handler. Very average overall. 9.9 ppg.

SG Chase Simon – SR – 73 OVR – solid speed, defense, ball handling and a good scorer off the dribble. He can make jumpers when he's open. 11.2 ppg.

SF Marquise Laws – SO – 71 OVR – 6'10” - another PF playing SF... uhoh. 6 ppg/5 rpg, not really great skills anywhere, good on the offensive glass, pretty ok post offense, good inside but he won' be making any jupmers.

PF Kyle Caskill – SO – 72 OVR – 6'9”, great post offense(84), 90 close range, pretty good on the defensive boards. 10.1 ppg.

C Rans Lemons – FR – 73 OVR – 7'1”, 280 lbs. 83 str, 85 hustle, not a great rebounder, but size will help there. Great post offense(82) that might be a problem. 7.7 ppg.

Hopefully I haven't walked into another nightmare here with 3 big men starting for these guys. They're not quite as big and not nearly as highly rated as the Akron guys.

Half	Time	OHIO	CMU	Notes
1	13:30	14	20	The primary reason for our deficit isn't the play of their big men, but our attempts to rush the ball up the court a bit too much. We've committed some stupid turnovers, which we seem to be doing a lot lately. Our backups come in.
1	11:30	23	23	Solid play by the backups. We got Lemons' 2nd foul(the only two fouls CMU has committed so far) and their 7'1” center is on the bench for awhile. Massey is playing well on offense and we've tied it up.
1	6:45	28	32	Even at 27-27, CMU has pulled ahead just slightly. Starters come back in to fix that though.
	HALF	45	44	We ended up even at 34, they hit 2 3's to go up 40-34, then they brought in a no guard lineup.. a SF running the point, and 4 PF/C. We ran off 11 in a row against that lineup before they managed the last 4 points of the half. They have 14 from Allen and 10 from Simon. Their bigs aren't really scoring at all, so our zone is effective. Despite the high scoring and good shooting start, I'm content to force allen and Simon to make outside shots all day. Freeman leads us with 12. He's 4-5 from 3. Turner has 7 points/7 assists, while Washington has 8 points from the SF spot, a nice suprise.
2	16:00	59	51	We get out ahead by 8 as 2 dunks in a row in transition by Turner bring the crowd to a frenzy. A Dahi 3 point play on an offensive board gives Lemons his 3rd foul and he sits some more.
1	14:30	64	53	A 3 from Freeman and a dunk from Washington push our lead up into double digits. Timeout CMU.
2	11:15	73	66	Freeman has 20, Turner I think is up to 17. Backups come in though and we'll need to slow the game down a bit. We've simply been outrunning them this half.
2	6:15	81	77	Backups do a pretty good job keeping the lead. Massey hit a 3 and we got a couple buckets from Delic. Starters are back in to finish it off.
2	4:30	92	77	Dahi gets a putback on our first possession. After that its the Freeman show. 3 straight wide open 3 pointers, the last one in transition, and we just exploded this game out to a 15 point lead.

After that run to go up 15, I just eat the clock up. We scored the final 20 points of the game.

Ohio 101
Central Michigan 77

14 for 29 from 3 is good, right? Their two guards had great days, 24 for Allen, 21 for Simon. No one else managed 10 points and their big men were not effective enough.

Turner: 22 points/15 assists
Freeman: 35 points (11-19 shooting)
Washington: 10 points/5 boards
Pearson: 4 points/6 boards
Dahi: 8 points/21 boards

15 assists for Turner, 35 points for Freeman, 21 boards for Dahi... monster numbers all around.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I always thought it was "avoid fouls" as well and higher was better (and that the letter was backwards.) However, I don't have any conclusive evidence of that. I've been enjoying following along.

I'm beginning to flip flop back on this and take my original position. I searched the league leaders in the NCAA in fouls per game. It pulled up a big group of players who all have 3.4 or 3.5 fouls per game. The vast majority of them had Foul ratings above 80, and a not-insignificant number had foul ratings over 90.


Additionally, I've continued to do the Challenge Shot mini-game. I have almost completed it 3 or 4 times, but have not yet successfully. However, I have seen the foul rating bar creep downward a couple times for these guys. I don't know if that is impacted by confidence or not, but I have without a doubt noticed the bar emptying for the Foul rating, not increasing, in two cases. One of those cases was for my pissed off 4th string center, which is why I mention confidence.

And lastly, now that I have slightly better development, I'm seeing more ratings increases. I have had players make ratings gains in every single stat except for fouls. I am thinking this is because the game isn't showing down arrows, and that it's quite likely that a couple players have lowered this rating during the year.


None of that is conclusive by any stretch. But I am taking back my "I think I was wrong about the fouls rating" comment from earlier

[Radii]

February 9, 2011

Ohio (16-6, 7-3 MAC) at Miami(OH) (9-13, 5-5 MAC)

Miami OH has a roster strength similar to ours. 75 OVR, 76 O/74 D/79 Shooting/86 Rebounding. In fact they are one of only two teams in the league with a higher rebounding rating than us. The other being Akron. Our rebounding rating is 85.

Scouting

PG Jerald Demond – SR – 69 OVR – Demond is their 3 point threat(80). His speed, quickness, handling and defense are all average for a PG, but nothing special. All within a couple points of 80, some above, some below. Our main worry here seems to be the 3 point shooting. He only averages 7.4 ppg, but we expect he'll put up 20 on us.

SG Dragutin Baker – SO – 73 OVR – Great speed(89) but not as quick(81). Above average defender(81) and great inside(83). We're plelased to see a 3 point shooting rating under 70(68). Looks like a guy that needs to drive to the hoop to be dangerous. Averaing 7.2 ppg.

SF Nick Winbush – SR – 72 OVR – 6'8”. Great in close(87) and solid from mid-range(77). Not a great 3 point shooter(70). Good in traffic and off the dribble. Averaging 10.4 ppg.

PF Cristano Blalock – FR – 67 OVR – 6'9”, only average on the boards and in the post. Ok strength, ok inside abilities. Seems like a guy Pearson should match up pretty well against. 5.5 ppg.

C Hashin Friend – JR – 69 OVR – 7'0”. Average on the boards(72 O/79 D), strong(79), good post offense, not as good on d(79/68). With size and strenght we definitely worry about “only average to above average” ratings. He leads the team with 17 ppg. Only 5.8 rebounds though.

I feel like we match up pretty well here if we are able to keep them off the glass.

Half	Time	OHIO	MOH	Notes
1	13:15	10	15	Feels worse than a 4 point deficit. They have 3 or 4 offensive boards, we don't have any. We have 4 turnovers, mostly from trying to rush and force the tempo. Freeman hasn't scored yet, they're playing man to man defense and Baker is keeping him fairly well covered. Backups are in.
1	9:50	14	24	A 3 pointer followed by a steal and a 3 point play and we're trailing by 10 now. The problems are the same as in recent games. We're turning it over too much, and giving up way too many offensive rebounds. Their good shooting PG, Demond, just went out with an injury.... whoa, a serious one. Broken ankle – 48 days.
1	8:10	19	31	Still struggling quite a bit, but we've just drawn foul #2 on Friend, their big man inside. Hopefully that will help our rebounding problems.
1	6:40	23	35	Starters are back in.
1	4:30	31	40	The loss of Demond is really hurting them, as is the foul trouble inside. They've got two guards in the game rated under 60 and we have the size advantage now. Lead is down to 9 and it feels like we have the momentum.
1	1:10	42	44	They bring some of their guys in foul trouble back in the game for the final minute of the half.
	HALF	48	48	Freeman scores our last 6 points and we tie it back up before halftime. So basically the situation is this: They don't run a deep bench. They are the only team I've played this year that when scouted it said that they don't like to use their bench much, only to rest starters when necessary. So the foul situation is fairly even. We committed 10 fouls, they committed 12. But their 12 were primarily with starters on the court, so 4 of their starters end up with 4 fouls. The other starter is their PG Demond who broke his foot and is out for the rest of the season. Their starters are killing us today but I expect us to outlast them given the foul and injury situation. Turner really took over the game late, driving by their 58 rated guard at will. He has 17. Delic has 7 for the backups, and Freeman 6. The rest of our points are spread out very evenly. Backup PG Massey has 3 fouls, and SF Washington has 2 for us.
2	17:30	53	52	We take our first lead in a very long time. We've drawn 2 fouls on them as well. Winbush and Friend are out for now with 3 fouls. Friend is the big one, their big center. We've committed one foul, Dahi's 2nd.
2	15:30	59	54	We use an offensive rebound of our own... after a missed free throw, to go up 5. Miami OH takes a time out, and things are turning firmly in our direction at this point.
2	14:15	64	54	Freeman drains a 3 in transition, and Turner gets a dunk after a steal, Miami OH calls another time out.
2	10:00	72	62	Backups are in, except for Dahi. I sat Dahi at the 15 minute mark since he was tired earlier than the others, I'm bringing him back in now.
2	6:15	81	70	We're doing well, given that they've got their starters back in. I call a time out to get Dahi off the floor, and to give my starters a bit more rest, hoping to get them back for the final 5 minutes to hold on to this lead. Massey has 4 fouls now, fwiw.
2	5:00	81	72	Starters back in. We're still going to keep things slow, no need to let them get on a run if we turn it over a couple times quickly.

They hit a 3 pointer with 2:30 to go to make it 81-75. We really sealed the game when we came down on the next play, ran 25 seconds off the clock, and hit a 3 of our own. 6 was the closest that it got until they hit a meaningless 3 as time expired.

Ohio 90
Miami (Ohio) 85

If their PG doesn't go down with an injury in the first half, we probably don't win this game. If we don't get their starters in foul trouble early, we probably don't win.

Turner: 29 points/10 assists
Freeman: 14 points
Washington: 15 points/12 boards
Pearson: 2 points/4 boards
Dahi: 6 points/13 boards

Delic: 9 points

Washington is a lot more athletic than either of my big men. The big men just got their shit blocked if they tried to go inside, Washington hit a few midrange jumpers and drove to the hoop a couple times when he got by his man, drawing fouls.

[Radii]

February 13, 2011

at Ohio 91, N Illinois 77

We win a simmed game against one of the worst teams in the conference, as expected. Turner has 11 points/9 assists, Freemanm has 17 points. Pearson has 12, Dahi 16, and Delic 11 off the bench.


Out of our next two games, the 2nd one is clearly the one we want to play, so we sim the first one:

February 16, 2011

Ohio 86, at W Michigan 63

Turner with 18, Pearson with 12, Dahi with 16 today. Another game we expected to win, but still real nice to lock up regardless.


At this point we have 3 games left in the regular season, and we'll be playing out the next two in a row.


MAC Standings

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


Our final 3 games:

at Bowling Green
vs Ball State
at E. Michigan


We beat Bowling Green at home by 9, but the game was 6 points or closer almost the entire way, one of the most competitive games I've played this season. We lost at Ball State by 13 and felt like they were a much more talented team than us. The final game I expect us to win.


We're 19-6 overall, but our RPI puts us only rated 75th. We've only played 1 top 100 team and lost. So we have zero at large prospects. If we want to go to the NCAA Tournament, we have to win our conference tournament. As long as we can win 1 of our final 4+ games(counting the MAC tourney) we will reach 20 wins. I'd like to knock that out in our next game at Bowling Green just so I dont' have to worry about it

[Radii]

February 26, 2011

Ohio (19-6, 10-3 MAC) at Bowling Green (16-9, 9-4 MAC)

Bowling Green has improved and is now rated 80 OVR.

Scouting

PG Joe Jakubowski – SR – 72 OVR – Game Experience is maxxed out, not sure i've seen that too often before. Good speed, quicks, handling and passing. Good shooter(82 close/77 med/77 3) and good off the dribble. 8.2 ppg/6.0 apg

SG Wallace Mason – JR – 81 OVR – Wow, this guy is a stud. 89 SPD/87 QCK, 85 DEF, 83 Close, 72 Med, 86 3-pt. Great off the dribble or in traffic, clutch rating of 82. Hell his defensive rebounding is 83! We are in trouble. He's averaging 15.2 ppg.

SF Anil Akins – SO – 75 OVR – Akins was hurt the first time around, this actually strengthens them quite a bit. Outstanding rebounder for a 6'6” SF(81/80), great steals guy, great midrange shot and good inside. Averaging 9 points per game.

PF Clif Ahvenniemi – SO – 69 OVR – 6'7”, a little undersized compared to pearson. better rebounder than Minter(79 D), extremely good low post defender(82), but poor post offense. Good clutch rating(74), good vertical and decent strength. 4.5 ppg/3.9 rpg.

C Tarick Minter – JR – 75 OVR – only 6'9”. Not a great rebounder(81 O/74 D). Better post offense than defense(79 O/73 D). ok but not great inside(83 close, 85 shtr). He is very strong and has great awareness. 13.9 ppg/4.0rpg.

Finally another team that we have some size over, nice for a change. They are still a solid rebounding team. In our first matchup Pearson and Freeman had very big days for us.

Half	Time	OHIO	BGU	Notes
1	13:20	26	19	We start out in a 2-3, and that worked well for awhile but they have gotten hot from 3 and we're going to have to switch to man defense. Our offense is really clicking. We have maybe 4 fast break points, but we have 4 3's(2 from Turner, 2 from Freeman), Washington has scored 4, and Dahi and Pearson have both gotten some good looks inside. Backups are coming in now, the game has moved at a pretty brisk pace with few whistles, so we're tired out.
1	6:50	33	35	All the shots that they were missing at our place, they are making here. Our backups played well but they have confidence issues at this point, as they all think they should start apparently, so I have to take what I can get out of them. I burn a timeout as they take the lead and the crowd goes nuts. Starters back in.
1	4:05	36	44	Bowling Green just lobbed up an alley oop pass from about 30 feet from the basket, their guy caught it over my PF and dunked it. I called a timeout to ponder what it is that I just witnessed.
	HALF	43	54	Turner misses a dunk with 2 seconds left in the half, a fitting end to a very difficult half for us. Mason has 15 for them. SF Akins has 12, backup SF Knight has 10. They're 10-23 from 3. We just can't compete with that. We're 6-14 from 3 and pretty pleased about that. Turner has 13, Freeman 10. Massey has 7 off the bench. We didn't do a good job getting the ball inside in the latter part of the half. Need to get Pearson going in the 2nd half.
2	18:30	51	58	Two quick 3 point plays cut the lead down to 7. Both in transition, both generate fouls on Mason, his first two fouls. Freeman and Washington were the beneficiaries.
2	16:30	51	68	Wow, just as quickly, they go on a 10-0 run. Mason has 8 of those points.
2	14:00	53	74	We score a basket. At this point worth noting. That was a 16-0 Bowling Green run, it likely ended the game.
2	11:45	55	78	Backups are in.

At the 10 minute mark we're down 25 and I throw in the towel.

Bowling Green 98
Ohio 81

This is more of what I feared when I saw Mason the first time around. He was a little off that entire game. Not this one. Mason led them with 33 points. Akins scored 21.

Turner: 16 points/6 assists
Freeman: 16 points
Washington: 12 points/7 boards
Pearson: 6 points/13 boards
Dahi: 6 points/7 boards

I tried a bit too hard to keep up with them from 3 point range, when I should have been working the ball inside more. But I think on this day it was unlikely to matter at all.

[Radii]

March 1, 2011

Ball State (16-10, 9-5 MAC) at Ohio (19-7, 10-4 MAC)

I have 4 pep talks remaining and use all four before our upcoming game with Ball State. I want my backups to be as effective as possible.

Scouting

Ball State is led by their great poing guard Melvin Goins. Goins is the returning MAC player of the year and may well win it again this year. Goins is averaging 18.1 points per game and is their best 3 point shooter at 39%, and best free throw shooter at 82%.

After that SG Diarra and PF Monroe average about 10 points each.

We've got a size edge inside and must take advantage today.

Half	Time	OHIO	BSU	Notes
1	12:30	19	21	UGH. We get out to a great start, we're up 19-10, dahi has 8, Turner 6. One turnover, one missed shot, 2 3's by Goins and a couple other quick buckets and Ball State is on an 11-0 run as I call a time out. Backups are in.
1	10:20	25	26	You don't know who my 3rd string center is, you say? That's because I haven't typed his name a single time this season. Its Hope Meade, a freshman walkon. He's in the game because backup C Sessoms just picked up his 3rd foul in 2 minutes and 10 seconds of play.
1	7:30	32	28	Great recovery by the backups. Delic has scored 5(or 7... I think 5 though) and has had a solid impact. Harris with 4, and the defense is obvoiusly playing well.
1	6:30	36	28	We get 4 more, a dunk in transition from Delic and a jumper from Massey. Ball State burns another time out. My starters are ready to come back in but as long as the backups are on this roll why change anything?
1	5:00	40	30	Starters are back in. Outstanding job by the backups to build this lead up.
1	2:45	42	40	Ugh, 10-2 run by Ball State... UGH!
	HALF	50	43	Strong finish to the half. Turner is easily the player of the half, he's hit 3 3 pointers, picked up a 3 point play on our last possession of the half, and has a total of 14 points. Freeman is ice cold, so is Pearson. Dahi has 10 poitns and is playing very well. Delic was great off the bench with 11 points. They have 12 from Goins, 7 from Diarra. They're 7-21 from 3. Big stat: 28-17 edge on the boards in our favor. We're killing them on the glass.
2	15:30	57	51	We'd gone up by 12, 57-45, but they've run off 6 in a row, two turnovers on our part help that out. I burn a time out to settle my guys down.
2	13:00	57	56	They're on a 11-0 run now.
2	12:00	61	56	Turner scores 4 in a row to end the run, then we get our backups into the game.
2	9:15	66	58	A little run, and some good defense holding them to 2 points over the last 3 minutes, and we're back up by 8. Ball State calls a time out. They were resting all 5 starters and just brought them back in, so we'll see how things change.
2	6:30	72	65	Massey with a couple nice buckets, Delic with a basket and a foul(but missed the FT), and we hold on to a 7 point lead, starters coming back in for the duration.
2	6:20	75	65	They come out in a 3-2 defense, which they've done a few times. We've had good success with it, either finding the spacing problems and getting open 3's, or getting someone into the middle of the zone and drawing fouls. Here we get Turner an open 3.
2	3:00	83	73	They've made a few 3's but Turner has really taken over the game for us, and I don't mean just getting fast break layups. Driving to the basket and dishing so Washington can get a bucket, hitting the open 3, driving past Goins for a layup in isolation, popping out of the lane after a cut for a 18 foot jumper... he's been a superstar for us today.

We still lead by 10 with 1:30 to go and seal up the game by making our free throws.

Ohio 94
Ball State 85

Great win. We've now beaten both Bowling Green and Ball State at home, and gotten crushed by them on the road. That leaves Akron as the only team in the conference that we haven't proven that we can beat.

Total Rebounds: Ohio 55, Ball State 38

Goins scored 16 and Diarra 20 for them, about what we expected, really holding Goins to 16 makes me happy.

Turner: 28 points
Freeman: 11 points
Washington: 7 points/7 boards
Pearson: 4 points/15 boards
Dahi: 12 points/12 boards

Delic: 15 points/6 boards

Turner came up so big today, but Delic deserves mention too. He was huge for our backup squad, getting us a number of key buckets, espicially in the first half when Ball State was on a big run and had taken the lead.

[Radii]

Our win over Ball State gives me 20 wins for the first time in my career! This'll mean a coaching point, but also,its damn satisfying to pump out a 20 win season. It'll feel better down the road to do it with a team mostly made up of my own recruits, but this is outstanding.

We close out the season at Eastern Michigan. I'm not checking the standings b/c I said i'd sim this game and really we *should* win anyway.

March 6th, 2011

Ohio 66, at Eastern Michigan 65

Turner with 15, Washington with 16, and Pearson with 8 in a very close win.


I guess that game mattered, heh. AFter the game, a popup: "Congratulations, you have coached your team to a conference championship!" That's another coaching point, and presumably the 1 seed in the MAC tourney?

Final MAC Standings

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


Ok, I'm a little disappointed to see that. We got killed by Akron. Head to head should be the first tiebreaker and they should have won the regular season. They had a murdurous non-conference schedule though and are only 14-13 overall, while we are 21-7. I assume that is the difference?


Going into the MAC tournament we are #13 in the mid-major poll. VCU is still #1, S. Illinois is #2, Nevada has fallen to 5th though(they were ranked earlier in the year in the media poll). Pepperdine and Gonzaga are #3/#4, which should make for an exciting West Coast Conference tournament.

[Radii]

MAC First Round

8. W. Michigan 65
9. E. Michigan 53

5. Ball State 88
12. N. Illinois 36

6. Kent State 72
11. C. Michigan 55

10. Buffalo 83
7. Miami (OH) 73


MAC Quarterfinal Pairings

1. Ohio
8. W. Michigan

4. Toledo
5. Ball State

3. Bowling Green
6. Kent State

2. Akron
10. Buffalo

[Radii]

March 10, 2011 - MAC Quarterfinals

Western Michigan (9-18, 6-10 MAC) vs Ohio (21-7, 12-4 MAC)

We lost to Western Michigan in a simmed game very early in the year. Hopefully that was not a sign of anything to come, other than revenge for us.

Scouting

PG Wilson Parks – JR – 74 OVR – Parks is an outstanding 3 point shooter(84), and outstanding off the dribble(85), very fast and a solid ball handler. He has excellent awareness on both ends of the floor and looks like a serious threat. He doesn't have strong shooting tendenciesthough and only averages 6 points per game.

SG Ian Massie – SR – 67 OVR – Very fast(91), average defender, above average shooter(80 close/66 med/78 3). Also good off the dribble(81). I'm definitely worried about this backcourt.

SF Juston Hairston – SR – 71 OVR – Good all around shooter, 83 close/78 med/76 3. Outstanding leaper(91 verg) and good speed for a 6'6 SF. Looks like another threat. 10 ppg/7.7 rpg.

PF Kellen Rakiecki – SO – 73 OVR – 6'7”, good rebounder, good post skills, great inside shot(93), good leaper. Averaging 9.3 ppg/7.2 rpg.

C Raitis Townsend – SO – 70 OVR – 6'8”, natural PF. Other than the 1 inch in height, Rakiecki looks superior everywhere. 11.0 ppg/4.0 rpg.

They seem to greatly prefer shooting inside, only about 30% of their shots come from 3. I'm going to start in a 2-3 zone at our scout's recommendation but may switch that up.

Half	Time	OHIO	WMU	Notes
1	15:00	19	9	Turner has 10. Freeman has 9. Parks has a horrible shooting motion for them that takes a year. Massie is 5'7”.
1	12:15	30	19	Turner has 16. Freeman has 12. Washington has 2. Backups are in.
1	9:30	39	19	With the backups all the points are coming in the paint instead of on jumpers. Delic and Sessoms are doing well here.
1	7:50	47	23	Massey goes out injured after driving and drawing a foul. That won't matter this game but if he is not ok for tomorrow then we will have depth issues the rest of the tournament. Turner is back in.
1	6:45	51	25	Starters back in. I'm looking to quick sim this at the half.

Halftime Score: 68-36

Ohio 106
Western Michigan 74

Turner: 43 points/4 assists
Freeman: 17 points
Washington: 7 points/5 boards
Pearson: 2 points/13 boards
Dahi: 4 points/12 boards

Delic: 9 points
Harris: 11 points

so yeah, I guess that first loss was a fluke. Massey just has a sore knee, just day to day for 1 day. He's fine.

[Radii]

MAC Quarterfinal Results

1. Ohio 106
8. W. Michigan 74

4. Toledo 78
5. Ball State 65

3. Bowling Green 76
6. Kent State 94

2. Akron 79
10. Buffalo 70


MAC Semifinal Pairings

1. Ohio
4. Toledo

6. Kent State
2. Akron


So everyone that gave me a tough time this year lost except the team I *really* don't want to see... Akron. Go Kent State! We beat Toledo earlier this year in a simmed game, so I haven't actually seen them yet.

As much as I want to finish the tournament tonight, I have a ton to do tomorrow and can't afford to stay up all night I'll finish the season tomorrow evening.

[Radii]

March 11, 2011 – MAC Semifinals

Toledo(18-13, 11-5 MAC) vs Ohio (22-7, 12-4 MAC)

I've never made a conference finals before, so this game represents another chance at a step forward in my coaching career. We beat Toledo 89-75 in a simmed game at their place back in late January.

Scouting

PG Mychal Beckwith – SO – 69 OVR – very good passer(82) but not that good a ball handler for a point guard(77). Solid 3 point shooter(81) and good off the dribble(81). 8 ppg, and the guy is 5'11”

SG Corey Bingham – SR – 71 OVR – Decent speed, decent defense, good ball handling and a solid shooter from all over(81 close/77 med/78 3). 10.1 ppg, horrible awareness on both ends, maybe something we can exploit when we're on offense.

SF Sammy Urbina – SO – 73 OVR – 6'6”. Better rebounder than Works. He doesn't look like much of a scoring threat though, 78 close/71 med/61 3. Average defender at best. 7.9 ppg.

PF Darshan Works – JR – 73 OVR – 6'8”, actually listed at SF. Not a good rebounder for a PF(72 O/73 D), not that great inside, poor post play. This guy looks more like a guard than a forward, other than the size. 6.7 ppg.

C Justin Anyijong – SR – 67 OVR – Solid in close(88), average post skills(74 O/73 D), very good rebounder (83/83). Only 6.9 ppg, and only 6'9”. We've got a small height edge over these guys.

Backup SF Kirby McLeod is their leading scorer at 11 points per game, so we'll have to be wary of him. Their guards don't seem to be that great on defense which hopefully gives us... espicially Turner, a big edge.

Half	Time	OHIO	TOL	Notes
1	13:00	23	17	Very fast start, very little defense being played by anyone. Turner has 2 3's, Freeman 1. We've only drawn 3 fouls on Toledo but 2 are on their center so he's sitting for now. Backups are in.
1	9:50	34	23	Massey and Harris have both hit a 3 for us, and Delic has gotten a couple shots to fall down low. We are a very difficult team to beat if people other than Freeman are making 3's.
1	6:15	40	25	Defense is playing outstanding and Toledo is ice cold. Our starters come back in.
	HALF	55	35	Dominant half! They are just trying to launch 3's over our zone, and they're not making them. They are 5-27 from 3. Which isn't to say we aren't launching our own 3's. We're 7-20 from behind the arc. The big difference appears to be from the line, though. We've drawn 9 fouls and gotten to the line 16 times. When we aren't taking 3's we're attacking the basket. They only got to the line twice. Turner has 16, Freeman 11, Massey 10 off the bench.
2	14:45	68	50	They've gotten the lead down to 15 a couple times and are executing their offense much better. We have 2 3's from Turner and 2 3's from Freeman.
2	12:15	73	53	Backups are in.

Harris hits a 3, Harris gets a couple at the line, and Delic scores 6 straight. At the 8:30 mark its 84-55 and we sim it out.

Ohio 94
Toledo 62

Today was simply all about the outside shooters. They shot 7-41 from 3. 14-41 from 2, not really any better there, for a terrible all around shooting percentage. We launched 33 3's ourselves and were 13-33.

Turner: 28 points/4 assists
Freeman: 22 points
Washington: 8 points/5 boards/5 assists
Pearson: 2 points/15 boards
Dahi: 4 points/17 boards

Massey: 11 points
Harris: 8 points
Delic: 9 points/6 boards

We are on to the MAC finals!

[Radii]

MAC Semifinal Results

1. Ohio 94
4. Toledo 62

6. Kent State 55
2. Akron 70


MAC Finals

1. Ohio
2. Akron

Akron destroyed us the only time we played this season, beating us by 17 at our place. They put up 61 points on us in the first half and seemed unstoppable. It does appear that their 7'3" center, who put up 21 points/14 rebounds on us in the first meeting, is out with an injury.

[Radii]

March 12, 2011 – MAC Championship

Akron (16-13, 12-4 MAC) vs Ohio (22-7, 12-4 MAC)

Rematch! Akron killed us in our place earlier in the year. We were unable to stop their guards from scoring, we got outrebounded badly and were generally outmanned. The big difference this game is that their starting center, Kirsten Davis, a 7'3” monster who put up 21 and 14 in our first game, is hurt and can not play.

Scouting

PG Ronnie Steward – SR – 73 OVR – Incredible speed and quickness(94/94), incredible ball handling(89), and a decent shooter from everywhere(79/76/77 close/med/3). Very good off the dribble(84). 10.5 ppg.

SG Leroy Butler – JR – 78 OVR – Thankfully Butler is just average from 3(72). He's great in close and I guess he gets there a lot. Amazing speed(91), good quicks(83), average defense and only average ball handling. Brilliant in traffic(87, highest I've seen out of a guard ever I think), and clutch(80). Averaging 13 ppg.

SF Rydell Brooks – SR – 71 OVR – A 6'3” SG, they're going with a 3 guard offense today against us. Brooks is very very fast (92 spd/90 quick), strong ball handler(87), average defender. He can't shoot the 3 at all(51!), but is an average midrange and inside shooter.

PF Steve Swiech – SR – 66 OVR – 6'10”, very good rebounder(83 O/82 D), and very good inside(87). Quite strong as well(79). Just 4 points a game here but I expect a lot of rebounding.

C Mike Bardo – SR – 65 OVR – 6'10”, a good rebounder (78/83), a very good low post defender(80), and decent inside scoring(87). He's a major step down from Davis.

This is a totally different team than we played a month ago. Starting Butler at the SF position makes this a much better matchup for us. Their big man at the 3 spot, plus Davis made them impossible to rebound against. They still have a strong front line but it looks much more manageable now.

Half	Time	OHIO	AKR	Notes
1	12:30	12	14	We got out to a 7-2 lead, then they went on a 12-3 run and we've just scored to make it a 2 point game. Akron has 7 second chance points already and the guy with the 51 3 point rating has made one, which is always fun. Backups are in. We got pretty balanced scoring from the starters, Freeman and Turner have each made 1 three, and the guys inside have a couple buckets.
1	11:00	16	17	A 4-0 run, with a blocked shot in the middle, has our crowd pumped up, giving our backups a lift.
1	8:50	23	20	We trade 3's to make it 20-19 Akron, then another 4-0 run gives us the lead back. Akron burns a timeout. Backup SG Harris is giving us the bulk of our offensive production off the bench so far.
1	5:50	25	24	Lead is down to 1, a couple more second chance points for Akron. Starters are back in for the final 6 minutes.
	HALF	40	42	The final 3 minutes turned into Wayne Turner vs Leroy Butler. It was tied 31-31. Turner scored our final 9 points, and Butler scored 8 of Akron's final 11 points. Butler is killing us, he has 19 points and it 5-8 from 3. No one else has more than 6. We only drew 2 fouls on Akron all half, both were on their PG Steward. Turner leads us with 12. Dahi has 6 points/5 boards, and Harris off the bench has 7. Freeman has taken 4 wide open 3's, only making 1. He has 3 points at the half and has been a bit of a disappointment. Akron has 9 second chance points on 5 offensive boards.
2	15:55	55	49	Freeman has made his last two 3's which is encouraging. Turner has hit another as well and is up to 17 points total. They burn a timeout as we take the biggest lead of the game for either team... 6 points.
2	15:10	55	55	Butler makes a 3, we miss a jumper, Steward makes a 3. We call a timeout as the crowd goes nuts for Akron.
2	11:30	65	62	They ended up on an 11-0 run and took a 60-55 lead. Freeman came through with a jumper, then Turner with 6 straight, then Washington with a dunk. Akron just burned another time out, 3 point game here!
2	8:30	73	70	We had gone up by 9, 73-64, had gotten almost constant boosts from the crowd. Freeman missed a 3 that would have put us up by 12, they got a dunk on their end and the momentum swung pretty much instantly. Their last 4 points have been on fast breaks. I finally pull my starters, I don't know that the crowd can carry them the final 9 minutes heh, so I'd rather get them some rest and be safe. Backups in!
2	7:00	82	70	Massey hits 3 3's in a row! I haven't talked about his shot before I don't think, but he practically has a set shot. Its impossible to block. His confidence issues have just been so great that I haven't had a chance to use it much but he is on fire right now and we have the biggest lead of the game with 7 minutes left!
2	5:30	82	76	We miss a couple shots, even missing a second chance bucket after a Sessoms rebound that I thought was an easy layin. They've hit 2 3's in a row, and I call a timeout just to stave off any run in advance, and to try to keep the crowd out of it on their end.
2	4:15	82	79	Butler comes back into the game for them and immediately hits a 3. He has 27 now to lead Akron. After a couple dry possessions on both ends, including 2 open 3's that make it apparent that Massey is no longer on fire I call a timeout and get my starters back on the floor.
2	3:55	85	79	They open in a 2-3 zone, which out of a timeout always means I'm getting Freeman a 3 point attempt. He drains this one and we're up 6. Akron immediately calls timeout.
2	2:30	88	82	We get a putback from Dahi following a missed mid-range jumper, and 1 free throw on our next possession when Turner is fouled going up for a shot. They get a 3 from Steward. Our ball, up 6.
2	2:05	90	82	Whos cleaning up the offensive boards now!?! Freeman misses an open 3, but Pearson grabs the board and goes back up strong for 2.
2	1:00	90	85	They miss a 3 from Butler, we run some clock and end up taking a terrible shot, they get a 3 from Butler and trail now by 5, our ball.
2	0:38	90	85	We barely manage to get the ball over half court, it ends up in Pearson's hands and he trows it away. Their PG tries to drive but our big men got back in time and he ends up out of control near the basket and cannot get a good shot off, we grab the ball! They begin fouling, and this is where the fact that we've been unable to draw fouls on these guys all day will come in handy. They've only committed 3 team fouls so far.

It takes them 10 seconds to get the rest of the fouls they need. I'm a bit concerned as we don't have any outstanding FT shooters, and we're only 65% as a team, but Turner makes the first. He misses the second, but we play strong man defense and force a long, heavily contested 3. They miss, we rebound and that puts the game out of reach.

Ohio 94
Akron 85

Akron fans lament the loss of Kirsten Davis and assume that they would have won the MAC title were he not injured. Given that the game was only a 4-6 point game most of the way, they are probably right.

Ohio wins the MAC Tournament and is heading to the NCAA Tournament!!!!!

The big stats: 44-39 rebound edge in our favor
They end up with 9 offensive boards and 11 second chance points... only 2 in the 2^nd half.

Their man Leroy Butler was a beast, scoring 30 points on us today. Their big men struggled inside though and there was no one available to step up and pick up the slack that Davis left.

Wayne Turner was huge again for us today.

Turner: 29 points/8 assists
Freeman: 14 points
Washington: 6 points/4 boards
Pearson: 13 points/12 boards
Dahi: 10 points/14 boards

Massey: 11 points/4 assists
Harris: 7 points

[law90026]

grats on the win, great dynasty

[Radii]

Since we were the 1 seed in the MAC, we'd been showing up in Bracketology for the last week. We were rated a 12 seed, though after winning the tournament the final Bracketology before the selection show makes us for an 11 seed. That would rock as the 6 seeds are all fellow mid-majors. Some of the best mid-majors in the country of course, Southern Illinois, Nevada and Pepperdine.. but still mid-majors.

Wow. Our winning streak actually had moved us into the bubble watch list. We are 4th on that list and our RPI is up to 51st. We probably had an outside shot at an at-large bid had we lost. But the automatic bid is much sweeter heh.

NCAA Tournament Selection

I watch the selection show which i've never done before, so this is kinda cool.

#1 seeds:

Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Syracuse

heh interesting. Duke was the #1 team in the country in the polls. I guess UNC won the ACC tournament.


First the East:

#1 Florida
play in winner

8. Arizona State
9. Michigan State

5. Georgetown
12. UW Green Bay

4. DePaul
13. Hawaii

6. Temple
11. Ohio


WOOHOOOOO!!!!

3. Michigan (25-6)
14. UC Davis

7. Villanova
10. Ole Miss

2. Vanderbilt
15. McNeese State


... ok yeah getting announced early makes me ready to just skip ahead

Other mid-majors up pretty high:

Southern Illinois is the 6 seed in the South, playing St Johns.

EF27's USC Trojans are a 3 seed, finishing 24-8 this year.

Nevada fell to a 7 seed, they're 22-7, playing NC State

VCU is 27-4 and earns a 2 seed. VCU and Nevada were the top two mid-majors for much of the year.

Pepperdine is a 6 seed out west, playing Iowa

The big east places 8 teams in the tourney, SEC 7, ACC 5.


I'll be playing my game against Temple in a little while.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by law90026

grats on the win, great dynasty

Thanks

[Radii]

March 12, 2011 – NCAA First Round

Temple (23-7, 12-4 A10) vs Ohio (24-7, 12-4 MAC)

Temple finished 2^nd in the A-10 in the regular season behind Rhode Island. They had a signature non-conference win on the road at Georgetown in early december, Georgetown earning a 5 seed in the tournament this year. They lost in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament to St Bonaventure, who went on to earn an 11 seed in the tourney, primarily by making a run to the A-10 finals it appears.

Temple's roster strength is 82 OVR and they appear to have that balanced between all facets of the game, with ratings over 80 in offense, defense and rebounding. Really that could be a decent sign for us. Sure it'd be an upset if we won, but their rating of 82 is only 6 more than our starting roster strength of 76.

Scouting

PG Roosevelt Leach – SO – 69 OVR – Looks like the type of guard we see in the MAC, ok speed, ok ball handler, average defender and an average shooter. All he has to do is pass it to the other guys though for them to win.

SG Martavis Kee – SR – 76 OVR – 88 from 3. Probably all I need to say. 87 off the dribble, 83 mid-range. Good ball handler and passer, he's going to kill us. Averages 14.4 ppg.

SF Rafael Tate – JR – 84 OVR - Tate will be one of the best players any of my teams have ever seen. Great speed for a 6'6” guy(89), he's an outstanding rebounder(80/86), very good inside and a decent outside shooter as well(86/81/76 close/med/3). He's a shot blocker, and a good steals guy both, great in traffic(88!). He's extremely athletic, with a 90 vertical, 94 hustle and great stamina so he'll be out there a lot. Tate averages 14 points/game and 9 rebounds out of the small forward role. He was a 4* top 100 recruit out of high school and was the A-10 freshman of the year 2 years ago.

PF Randall Pleick – FR – 76 OVR – Only 6'7” which gives us some hope, but he's a very good rebounder(85 O/85 D), and is solid inside(85). A better low post defender than offensive player(70 O/77 D), he's averaging 9 points and 6 rebounds per game.

C Michael Eric – SR – 72 OVR – 6'9”, outstanding rebounder(82 O/89 D), great post defender(80), and solid inside (88 close/84 in traffic). He's actually a backup, it looks like their starter is hurt. Only averages 6 points/4 boards a game. Wow, one last thing I didn't notice right away. BLK: 99 A+. Hah.


We do have a height advantage, but Kee and Tate are going to be our big worries this game.

Half	Time	OHIO	TEM	Notes
1	16:00	3	8	We get Freeman an open 3 and he drains it. Our first points in 4 minutes. They are really pretty cold too and have missed some shots that would have made this a much bigger lead. We have 2 offensive boards but got owned trying to go back up with the ball.
1	14:00	7	10	Turner and Freeman both have 2 fouls on them early.
1	12:50	11	12	Backups are in. Freeman has 6 so far to lead us. We're hanging close, how long we can do so likely depends on Massey and Harris outside.
1	10:50	18	19	Tate has scored 5 straight for them, but a 3 from Massey and a 3 from Harris keep us close.
1	6:30	23	33	We've gone cold and they are killing us on the offensive glass. I bring my starters back into the game.
1	1:30	37	50	Temple had gone up by about 16, Turner and Freeman have kept it as close as it is by getting to the basket (Turner) and making 3's (freeman). But we don't seem to have an answer for Tate on defense. That really isn't much of a suprise, heh.
	HALF	40	52	Freeman misses a 3 at the buzzer that could have cut it back down below 10. Tate has 14 for them on 5-11 shooting. Kee only has 6, he's 0-3 from 3 so far. Their backup PF Boatner has 8 and their backup PG Walcott has 11. Temple plays a 2-3 zone and we have 2 guys on the court at all times who can make the 3, so we're trying to shoot over it. We're 7-25 from 3 in the first half though, so that's not working so well at this point. Freeman is 5-14 and has 15 points. Turner has 8. Dahi is 0-6 inside which is hurting us. We actually have 9 offensive boards which is outstanding, but only 2 second chance points. They might let us catch the ball inside, but they're not letting us put it back up down there.
2	14:30	52	63	We fell behind by 15, scored 7 in a row and were only down 60-52 before Tate hit a 3 on us last possession. Turner and Freeman continue to be my only reliable options on offense.
2	12:30	54	63	Ugh. We had 3 straight possessions with chances to cut the lead down to 7... we get a steal, Dahi on the secondary break but he can't finish inside. Another steal, Turner misses a dunk. A missed shot on their end, and we commit a turnover. We call a timeout to get our backups in.
2	10:30	60	69	Temple calls another timeout. Harris is scoring well, and Delic actually scored in the post over one of their big defenders.
2	5:50	69	81	We had it down 9 with a chance to cut it closer, a turnover near half court and a 3 for Temple and its 12 again. We call a time out to get the starters back in. We've done a great job hanging with them this half but we need to make a run soon that gets it down to 5 or less if we want to pull the upser.
2	4:05	71	88	Wrong team made the run. They turned up the pressure on their defense, we missed a couple shots, committed a turnover... and all of a sudden they're up 17.

From that point on its really all we can do to just keep them from breaking 100.

Temple 94
Ohio 75

About what I expected. They're not a great team but they have one very very good player and a solid team around him. We played well and hung with them for decent stretches but in the end just did not have what it takes to pull off the upset.

They got 26 points from Tate, 16 from Kee(their sharpshooting SG), 18 from backup guard Walcott and 10 from backup big man Boatner.

Turner: 21 points/6 assists
Freeman: 20 points
Washington: 2 points
Pearson: 5 points/10 boards
Dahi: 0 points/16 boards

Harris: 10 points
Delic 7 points

This was a game where Delic's ratings and abilities helped him out a little, he was able to use his sound post game to get a few points where Dahi and Pearson struggled mightily.

Turner was 2-11 from 3, Freeman was 6-17.

[Radii]

Before we advance any further, some stats that I'm curious/semi-concerned about

Ohio averaged 81.4 points per game this year. That would be good for 7th in the real world this year. It is 13th in the NCAA in this season of CH2k8.

Ohio took 2009 field goal attempts this season in 32 games. That's an average of 63 per game. In the real world VMI takes 71 per game, while North Carolina takes 67 per game. The # of field goals is in line with the other high scoring teams in the game.

Ohio took 702 3 pointers this season, an average of 22 per game. Many teams took more.

The issue though, is that I simmed half my games this season. Those averages were brought down by the lower scores/pace in the simmed games.

The reason I'm looking at this is that it seems in many of my played games I seem to take a much larger than average number of shots, often 75-80. I attribute this to a couple things:

-- Few teams try to slow the pace on me. Teams that average 60 points a game are universally happy to take the first open shot they see against me. My team is *always* dictating the pace of the game.

-- There seem to be lots of teams with a 'ball hog' who wants to take every open 3 he gets. Since I often run a 2-3 zone, that works out in an unreasonable way in my favor. Terrible 3 point shooters have taken 15 3's against me with some regularity.

-- When i have a guy with a good, quick blowby move, it seems too easy against teams of equal caliber to fast break at times. This wasn't universal, as Turner had many games where he scored 15-25 points in the flow of the offense. But there were also 30 point first halves in some of those simmed games. often times the other team has two men back in defense but one of them slacks off to pick up whoever else is trailing behind instead of helping to stop the ball, and I get an easy 1 on 1 move against a slower PG.

This stuff isn't ridiculously out of line, and I do want to be running this type of offense ideally(any time I have the talent to do so). But the averages of number of shots taken, FG %, points, etc, seems a bit high as a result of this stuff so I'm keeping an eye on it.


At this point I'm only going to make one change next season. I have always controlled my PG on defense. This was due in part to playing a ton back before i had an HDTV.. if I controlled anyone else they ended up off screen in a corner too often But also just a lack of skill on my part.

So next season i'm going to start doing what EF27 and a few others have mentioned in the CH2k8 thread. I'm going to control on defense whoever took my last shot on offense. I think this *might*, without any sort of other house rule of style of play change, slow things down a bit. I never, ever cherry pick layups with my PG, I always keep him near the 3 point line when my opponent shoots, but I do position him so that he's in the best possible position to get out on the break, at the best angle to receive a pass, etc. So I'm hoping that controlling other players and leaving Turner in CPU control will slightly decrease the number of fast break points I put up and bring some of these numbers back in line a bit.

I'll review again at the end of next year.

[Radii]

Man that post was chief rum lengthy! (old RWBL joke ).

Cliff Notes: I score a lot more, and take a lot more shots in played games than seems reasonable at times. The primary reason I believe is the efficiency with which I can get out on the fast break. I don't want to change my style of play or put on a ton of house rules, but i'm a little concerned.

I'm going to start using the same defensive rule that many have mentioned using elsewhere.. whoever takes my last shot on offense, I control on defense, no exceptions. This will hopefully create fewer ideal fast break opportunities for me and pull some of my numbers back in line next season.

[Radii]

NCAA Tournament

6 seed Temple went on to upset 3 seed michigan to make the sweet 16.

7 seed Villanova took out 2 seed Vandy and 6 vs 7 meet in the East.


in the Midwest, 1 seed North Carolina falls to 8 seed Texas Tech(dammit, Roy). 10 seed NC State upsets 2 seed VCU to make the sweet 16.

No noteworthy upsets in the other two regions.


EAST: 1 seed Florida beats 7 seed Villanova to make the final four.
WEST: 1 seed Syracuse beats 2 seed Duke
SOUTH: 1 seed Maryland destroys 2 seed Arizona, 104-60
MIDWEST 4 seed Mississippi State beats 10 seed NC State to make the final four.

10 seed NC State upset 3 seed Southern Cal in the sweet 16 to get that far.


Florida beats Syracuse 83-64, and 4 seed Mississippi State beats Maryland 98-87 for an all-SEC finals.

Florida beats Mississippi State 101-80 and Florida wins the national championship.

[Radii]

Awards

Texas Tech's Konrad Jones, JR PG, is the player of the year. Jones averages 24.6 points per game for the Red Raiders.

New Mexico State's Herb Pope is the mid-major player of the year, a SR PF averaging 23.3 points and 8.8 boards per game.

Florida's Billy Donovan is the Coach of the year after leading Florida to the title.

Ummmmm.....

Ohio's freshman center Arnaud Dahi is the defensive player of the year. I assume this has to do with the rebounding issues in the game... we average a solid 3 rebonds/game more than any other team in the nation. A problem with simmed games I assume. Dahi averages 11.4 rebounds/game, likely leading the nation.

1st Team All-Americans

PG Konrad Jones - JR - Texas Tech - 90 OVR - 24.6 ppg
SG Hugh Hoyer - JR - North Carolina - 93 OVR - 22.1 ppg
SF Jamelle Horne - SR - Arizona - 89 OVR - 22.6 ppg
PF Jamine Peterson - SR - Providence - 24.6 ppg/5.4 rpg
C JJ Hickson - SR - NC State - 23.5 ppg/6.6 rpg.

Dahi is also a freshman all-american with his 8.6 ppg/11.4 rpg.


MAC Awards

Ball State's Billy Taylor wins the coach of the year award. I was kind of hoping for that this year, but with the other BS coaching points I'm going to get for Dahi being defensive player of the year and freshman all-american will help offset that.

Wayne Turner wins the player of the year award in the MAC! 18.7 ppg and 6.2 assists per game, solid numbers. He's a junior, which is one of the big reasons i'm excited about next season.

Dahi is freshman of the year. In the MAC that's probably deserved even if it wasn't for the BS Rebound stat issues.


First Team All-MAC:

PG Wayne Turner - JR - Ohio - 73 OVR - 18.7 ppg/6.2 apg
SG Leroy Butler - JR - Akron - 78 OVR - 15.9 ppg/6.0 rpg
SF Andy Dupree - JR - Kent State - 73 OVR - 14.2 ppg
PF Marvin Skipper - SR - E. Michigan - 79 OVR - 16.9 ppg/7.8 rpg
C Arnaud Dahi - FR - Ohio - 67 OVR - 8.6 ppg/11.4 rpg


2nd team all-conference

PG Melvin Goins - SR - Ball State - 76 OVR - 18.5 ppg
SG Wallace Mason - JR - Bowling Green - 82 OVR - 16.2 ppg
SF Dan Werner - SR - Buffalo - 9.8 ppg
PF Maurice Pearson - SR - Ohio - 68 OVR - 8.9 ppg/6.6 rpg
C Hashin Friend - JR - Miami (OH) - 69 OVR - 16.6 ppg/6.6 rpg


Freshman All-Conference

PG WB McCoy - E. Michigan - 68 OVR - 7.1 ppg/4.1 apg
SG Ruben Swanson - W. Michigan - 56 OVR - 3.0 ppg
SF Bryan Delgado - Akron - 53 OVR - 1.3 ppg
PF Daryl Delic - Ohio - 74 OVR - 6.5 ppg
C Arnaud Dahi - Ohio - 67 OVR - 8.6 ppg/11.4 rpg

Not a lot of freshman doing anything at all in this conference.

[Radii]

Graduating Seniors

We're losing some key guys to be sure.

SG Tommy Freeman - 67 OVR

Freeman averaged 13.5 points per game this year. He had a career high 35 points earlier in the season. He was 105-269 from 3 point range this year, an outstanding 39%. He didn't make it to the line a ton, just 60 times all year, but he was 78% when he got there.


SF Devaughn Washington - 67 OVR

An athletic 6'8" SF, we made a little more use of him than we usually do this position. he averaged 7.5 points per game and 4.7 rebounds. He was a 47% FG shooter. I didn't take a lot of jumpers with him, allowing his FG % to be pretty high.


PF Maurice Pearson - 68 OVR

Pearson started the year on the bench but became a valuable starter midway through the year, averaging 8.9 ppg/6.6 rpg. He was a 46% FG shooter and was 73% from the line.


SG Mike Harris - 68 OVR

Harris only averaged 5.6 ppg off the bench. He underpeformed due to confidence issues, he seemed to feel he should be a starter on the team, but he wasn't even my best backup guard, so I don't know where that idea came from. He shot 38% from the floor, and was 28-90 from 3, 31.1%.


That's 3 starters and 1 key backup leaving. When Pearson was a backup and I had 2 starters only leaving with Turner and Delic and Dahi coming back I wasn't worried at all. But 4 guys is a lot to effectively replace. I'm hoping our 4* guy comes in awesome and we're better next year, but we'll have to see.

[Radii]

I earned 5 coaching points between the end of last year and this year. Lets see... get hired by a bigger school, land a world recruit, land a 4* recruit, win my conference, make the NCAA Tournament, and I believe I got one for coaching an all american, getting credit for Dahi.

I decide to throw the bulk of my poitns once again into Defense and Teaching, 2 each. I use my last point in Disclipline.

Offense: C-
Defense: B
Teaching: B
Scouting: C-
Charisma: A+
Disclipline: C

My overall coach rating is now B-.

[Radii]

Coaching Carousel

I'm unable to take a job, this being my first year at Ohio.

3 Power conference jobs are open initially: Virginia Tech, Auburn, and Rutgers.

VCU's head coach is the top man for every job, and he takes over at Virginia Tech. Southern Illinois' head coach lands at Auburn, while Northeastern's coach goes to Rutgers.

I of course note that these are all mid-major schools, and wonder how much I can accomplish in the MAC. I know in EF27's dynasty Roy Williams retired fairly early... way too early to have a shot at taking over for him(yeah, I hadn't mentioned it in the dynasty yet but I assume anyone who has ever seen me post knows that my goal would be to coach North Carolina to a national title ), I guess I'll have to decide how much I can improve at Ohio. I'm not considering it mandatory to jump into the A-10 or one of the similar "large" conferences right away if its not a team I like though.


Tommy Amaker leaves Harvard for VCU. Eastern Washington's head coach takes over at Southern Illinois.

Two MAC jobs are open, Buffalo and Northern Illinois. No suprise there, those were the two worst teams in the league and it didn't seem close. Buffalo hires Jacksonville State's head coach, while Northern Illinois hires Tennessee State's head coach.


A duke assistant ends up at Harvard, which is pretty neat following Duke alum Tommy Amaker.

Seth Greenburg, fired by Virginia Tech, ends up at Penn.

Jeff Lebo, fired by Auburn, and one of my all time favorite Tar Heels when I was a kid, takes over for UC Santa Barbara.


Bobby Cremins retired at College of Charleston.

[Radii]

Assistant Hiring

I went all out getting offense/defense/teaching out of my assistants last year, and ended up with no one better than a C- scout. I need to rectify that this year. There is a guy who is a B in defense and B in scouting available. I'm going to hire him.

the only question is who do I fire.

My current guys:

Coach A: B+ Offense/D Defense/C+ Teaching
Coach B: C- Offense/B- Defense/B Teaching

If I fire coach A, I have *no one* who can coach the offense. we'll all be stuck on C-. However, we'd be stacked as far as defense goes, and be extremely solid at teaching as well.

It's kinda tempting to do that, but I assume the balance is more important. I fire coach B.

[Radii]

Transfers

One player is willing to transfer from Utah:

Sophomore PF Eni Danelius, 6'7" 213 lbs.

I'm not thrilled about a 6'7" PF but I've likely got two scholarships open and really very little in the way of leads on them(I haven't discussed recruiting but I think I'm losing one of my targets to Clemson).

Danelius is rated 91 from close range, but only 78 in traffic, I'm not sure what to make of those two ratings combined. He's an average to above average rebounder for this level (79 O/77 D). He has outstanding Defensive Awareness(77) and in the end that is the deciding factor for me, as I'm hoping very much to build a team with high defensive awareness at all positions. I take him.


Eastern Michigan picks up a 73 rated 6'9" center.

Huh, a scholarship player left my team. 55 rated deep bench player(may have played in a simmed game?) Something Diaz left the team. That means I still have 2 scholarships available apparently. That's a nice way to upgrade.

[Radii]

Offseason Recruiting

We had 1 guy offered when we last discussed recruiting:

SG Danny Warsaw, #235 recruit in the nation. He's from Tennessee and appears to want to stay down south though. We've had him at 100% for a long time, but during the season Clemson offered him a scholarship. I expect him to sign with Clemson on day 1.

We have one other guy we've looked at seriously:

PF Cliffone Mikalauskas, he's a JC Sophomore, and he's 6'10". We've only got him up to 84%. South Carolia and... USA(san antonio?) have him at 100% but neither have offered. We're going to be offering him a scholarship as soon as we can.


Warsaw does indeed sign with Clemson on day 1.

Mikalauskas gets a campus invite and scholarship offer from us right away.


Well that was easier than expected. Mikalauskas signs after the first week when I make him his offer and get him a campus visit.

3* Cliffone Mikalauskus - 6'10" JC Sophomore

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


I'd really like to land a guard with my last scholarship, and it looks like I pretty quickly find my guy. He'll just be someone to eat minutes most likely, but there you go.


2* PG Brannon Babcock - 6'3" 188 lbs - #708 OVR/#190 PG

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

nothing special but I don't really need anything special here.

I spend the rest of my time on the juniors I've been looking at. I've got 5 guys up over 70%. Some of them are at the same position(3 PF's actually, a PG and SG actually), but hopefully that will help me start out next season.

And to recap, the other two guys I signed in the early signing period:

3* SF Wendell House - #157 OVR/#29 SF

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


4* SG Arzelle Cooper - #63 OVR/#22 SG

Scouting Grades:

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

[Radii]

I earned 5000 legacy points this year. Too bad that didn't trigger when I first eclipsed that mark, but rather waited til the end of the season. Regardless, that's another point next year!

Incoming Recruiting Classes

1. Mississippi State
2. Duke
3. Seton Hall
4. Arizona
5. Stanford
6. Florida
7. Villanova
8. USC
9. Oklahoma State
10. Baylor


Ohio lands the #50 recruiting class in the nation!!!! Some of the A-10 schools are in that range, and Saint Mary's was 58th, but we have the top mid-major class this year.

Wow, Bethune-Cookman out of the MEAC had a top 70 class.

Akron pulled in a class ranked around 90th... 1 3* and 3 2* recruits. The MAC is horrible at recruiting apparently.

Ball State is listed around 140th or so with 3 3* guys. Akron's 3* guy must be a damn good one?



Scheduling

I make a tougher schedule this year. I am hosting Rhode Island out of the A-10, travelling to Virginia Tech and UNC in the ACC, and going to play Cincinnati in the Big East. I'm also hosting VCU, the top mid-major team from last season.

I'm playing in the Orange County Shootout on November 17th. This is actually not a terrible tournament and could be pretty good for us. We'll play New Orleans out of the Sun Belt to open this up. Other mid-major competition includes Southern Illinois, while the tournament is headlined by Arkansas out of the SEC and Pac 10 powerhouse(and preseason #5) UCLA.

[Radii]

The very first thing i notice after the ABL is that I have 5 scholarships available this year. That's going to be fun.

[Radii]

2011/12 Roster

Some solid gains were made during the offseason. Most of our players gained 1 point on top of what they gained during the year last year. Our starting roster strength has increased from a low of 74 last year(it ended the season at 76 thanks to development) to 79 to start out the year this year.

Starting Lineup

PG Wayne Turner - SR - 74 OVR - The returning player of the year in the MAC. 91 speed, 89 quick, 88 ball handling, and an above average shooter from everywhere on the court. I love Turner.

SG Arzelle Cooper - FR - 74 OVR - Our 4* recruit comes in rated 74 OVR! I'm thrilled to see that. He has B- potential, so I'm hoping that he'll turn into a guy rated 80 or above by the end of his college career. He's fast, 89 SPD, good ball handler, and he'll be our best on ball defender(84). He's got an 84 hustle rating, but he's not a great shooter yet. 76 close/73 med/74 3. Assuming he develops well he's going to end up an outstanding defender who is an above average scorer. For now he's a very good defender who is an average scorer. 70 Defensive Awareness.

SF Wendell House - FR - 73 OVR - House comes in pretty solid too. 83 speed, 88 stamina(which might matter heh), he's a decent post player and an above average rebounder(76 O/73 D). He's a good inside scorer, 86 close range, 89 dunk rating, and 83 shooting in traffic. He's average from mid-range and can make the 3, but not that well(71 med/70 3). House is 6'8" and we'll be running a pretty big lineup with him on the floor. Unfortunately, House's potential is only a D. He may not improve a whole lot.

PF Daryl Delic - SO - 75 OVR - Delic has improved 3 points OVR since he came in as a 72 rated freshman, this "B" potential thing is awesome. 79 post offense, 72 offensive awareness, 82 offensive boards/79 defensive boards. 90 close range/88 in traffic. Ohhhh, he grew an inch!!! 6'7" baby. Hah, that made me way more excited than it should have. With our SG being a defensive minded guard and no one to replace Freeman, Delic is likely to be a big part of our offense.

C Arnaud Dahi - SO - 68 OVR Dahi is 6'11". Slightly above average on the boards, 78 O/82 D. He's ok in close but nothing special(82 close/78 traffic/64 dunk). He is very strong(78) and has an imrpoved defensive awareness(72). I obviously like his size quite a bit and that makes him my starting center no matter what.


Bench Players

I've run a 10 man rotation in the past and struggled a lot last year trying to change it to a 9 man rotation. I might set my rotation this year and let the CPU sub and see how it works out for me for a few games as far as generating the minutes played that I want.

PG Drake Massey - JR - 70 OVR - If I can keep him happy, Massey will be an extremely effective backup. Decent speed(83) a decent all around shooter(83 close/74 med/77 3), Massey has an almost set-shot like shooting motion, so he doesn't need as much room as some guys to get an open shot. He's a good defender too, 83 DEF. If I had more depth i might consider a starting lineup of Turner/Massey/Cooper, but I have no one else to run PG for me behind Turner, Massey has to do it.

SG Taymon Roller - SR - 57 OVR - Roller played SF for me last year behind Washington, only because I forced myself into a 10 man rotation. He is terrible and I tried to avoid having him touch the ball last year. 59 mid-range, 69 3 pointer. 81 in close if he gets an open look in close somehow.

SF ???

PF Cliffone Mikalauskas - JR - 68 OVR - Mikalauskas is our JC recruit, he'll give me a decent 2 seasons as a nice 6'10" big man I hope. He's not great, but he doesn't look terrible. 78 o/74 d for rebounds, 72 o/72 d for post play. 80 close range/87 shootin gin traffic. He's a fine backup really.

C Kenan Sessoms - SO - 67 OVR - Much like I expect mikalauskas to be, Sessoms was a fine backup last year and will continue to be for me. He's 6'11" so he gives me some size. His C+ potential means he is developing some. 76 post offense/78 post defense is actually quite nice. 79 o/76 d rebounding is alright too, and he's an acceptable shot blocker(77). Only 80 inside/73 shooting in traffic so he isn't often an option on offense on purpose.


My 4th recruit last year, Brannon Babcock, is a disaster. Rated 50 OVR, 73 on defense, cannot shoot, 75 ball handling/76 passing.

I also have an extra center in reserve, a walkon, 6'10" soph Hope Meade. Meade is rated 67 OVR and really looks a lot like Sessoms. If I cannot run an 8 or 9 man rotation(8 would be ideal,no Roller at SG), I could go with 10 men and go really big with my backups. Mikalauskas at the 3, Sessoms and Meade inside.


I haven't decided what to do here yet, I won't start playing any games til tomorrow. At this point though I'm leaning towards slowing things down, trying to cut the game down into as few possessions as possible to keep my best players on the court, and run an 8 man rotation. After that super long post about how I fear I run too much too

[Radii]

Recruiting Preview

So I had about 7 juniors I'd been working on. One was a 4* guy, the rest 3*. I didn't realize that the * ratings could change from year to year. The 4* guy I was going after turned into the #5 recruit in the nation out of Chicago. Unfortunately, he kinda wants to play at a big program and has Tennessee and Cincinnati at the top of his list. We have no shot and I have too many holes to fill to waste my points on him.

A couple targets are obvious early:

PG Shavlik Willie - #147 OVr/#49 PG, he seems to want to stay in the northeast and favors Rhode Island and Boston College over us, but we've got my A+ Charisma going for us, and we're going to go hard after him early. After all, we don't have a whole lot of PG depth.

SF Kaylen Lufkin - #216 OVR/#48 SF - We're #5 on his list, competing with Dayton and Xavier and Townson State. If Dayton or Xavier hit him we may struggle, but he's from Columbus and we'll try hard to keep him close to home.


I go ahead and drop off the PF and C targets I was going after. I need to recruit 4 guards/SF's here, I can pretty much ignore the inside guys for now. And I'm not likely to have a lot of luck with these PF's that want playing time with all the inside depth I have.


After those two top targets a number of guards and a few SF's have pretty high interest in me. A couple SG's ranked in the low #300's seem like good shots, as does a PG out of Washington, DC that seems to like me only a little less than UVA and George Washington.


I have a couple weeks to recruit before games start and i end up offering all 5 scholarships early, all to 3* guys. There's only 1 that it looks likely that I can get to 100% before teh early signing period. The others all have some flaws, they're the best players that are interested in me, but either they want playing time and they see Cooper as a freshman 4* guard, or they want to stay near home and they live in Boston.

More on recruiting as we get closer to the early signing period. It looks like, with the preseason tournament, we'll have 7 games to play by then. I'll probably play 4 of them and sim 3.

[Radii]

I sim my first game, hosting Rhode Island. Game #2 is against Virginia Tech. Both Rhode Island and Va Tech are rated 85 OVR but Tech looks like a team we might matchup better against.

November 11, 2011:

Rhode Island 82
Ohio 63

Cooper scores 2 in his debut... House scores 3. Delic with 8, Dahi with 18, and Massey with 13 off the bench.

[Radii]

Heh, I played out the first half against Virginia Tech but there wasn't a lot to say. Cooper got in foul trouble in the first 5 minutes which meant my already weak backcourt depth was even worse off. We were down 42-20 at the half and I simmed it to the end after falling further behind early in the 2nd half.

Next time I am losing 4 players off my roster I need to remember to schedule some cupcakes early... sort of a disconnect there for me between the roster strength and schedulilng

Virginia Tech 83
Ohio 41

Oof!

[Radii]

November 17, 2011 – Orange County Shootout

Ohio (0-2) vs New Orleans (0-2)

New Orleans is rated 71 OVR, 72 Off/73 Def/75 Sht/80 Reb. We should beat them with ease. In theory of course. We do have team unity issues. Ours is 28, theirs is 42.

Scouting

Size is about equal in this game. Their PG is rated 58 OVR and is completely outmanned against us. So is their SG.

Their forwards are actually as good as ours or better. SF Alloway is rated 80 OVR, is an outstanding defender and shooter (90 close/77 med/81 3). PF Minoff is rated 77 OVR and is 93 inside. He's a decent rebounder and post player. Freshman C Elvin Horton is already rated 76 OVR, is a very solid post player(86 O/only 73 D), 88 close range and rebound numbers look solid. He has A- potential and was rated #115 overall last year, the #5 center in a guard dominated recruiting class. He's going to be awesome.

We're obviously packing it in against this team and hoping to control them inside.

Half	Time	OHIO	NO	Notes
1	13:00	14	8	We're playing pretty well on offense, working it in to Dahi and Delic and our backup big men a bit once they come in. Defense looks solid, they've hit a couple lucky 3's of course.
1	7:00	17	17	We've gone cold as our guards tire, and their big men are establishing dominance inside on their offensive end.
1	1:15	31	22	Timeout by New Orleans as Turner runs off a quick 5 points, blowing by his man and pulling up for a jumper at the free throw line, and running off a screen to take an open 3.
	HALF	35	24	Solid close to the half after they had tied it up at 17. Their highly skilled SF, Alloway, has 10 of their 24 points. No one else has more than 4. We have a huge rebounding edge, 21-12. Turner and Delic lead us, 9 points for turner, 8 for Delic. Delic has been effective down low on offense. House is having a great game at the SF spot, 5 points/10 boards early for him.
2	12:30	46	41	We're matching them shot for shot, but they're hitting a few 3's and we're not.
2	9:30	46	45	Defense is still ok, but we've gone cold and allowed them to cut the lead to 1.
2	9:20	46	47	We have a terrible lineup on the court. Roller at PG, House at SG, Mikalauskus at SF, and two big men inside... ugh. That's about as bad as it gets. We lose the lead with a turnover and a layup going the other way.
2	6:15	50	49	We call a timeout hoping to get Roller off the damn court. House came up with two big buckets for us in that stretch. A pump fake/drive leading to a very nice one hand dunk, and a 12 foot jumper. Cooper and Turner look to be back in.
2	3:40	52	56	Alloway with their last 7 points. Turner just missed a wide open 3, it rimmed out, would have made it 55-54 Ohio, instead they push it on the rebound and go up 2 possessions.
2	3:00	54	58	Their ball up 4... I get it in to Dahi in a great position but he gets stripped going up. They get a layup. Turner draws a foul on the other end and makes 2 Fts
2	1:55	56	58	What the hell is wrong with Dahi? Turner finds him streaking to the basket and he misses a layin with no one nearby. We hold on defense and Delic draws a foul and makes his free throws to cut it to two. Crowd starts going crazy for Ohio and they call a time out.
2	0:45	58	63	We tied it up, and they came back down and drained a 3 on us. Forgetting that Freeman had graduated, I see that the white guy at SG is wide open, 3 point shot time! Yeah, Cooper isn't Freeman, he misses, they get the ball and score again. Our ball down 5 with 45 seconds to go.
2	0:32	61	63	Turner gets by his man, draws a foul and makes a hard shot!!! He makes the free throw and we trail by 2.
2	0:23	63	63	They throw away the inbounds pass! I get an open jumper for Turner after the inbounds play and we tie it up!
	OT	63	63	They stall too long and end up with a bad shot, their PF from about 20 feet away in the corner. Its no good and we're going to overtime.
OT	2:30	68	69	Sloppy on both ends so far. They went up by 3, Turner made a 3 to tie it. Delic fouls them, they get a 3 point play. We score on our end then both teams commit stupid turnovers... its their ball right now, New Orleans just used a timeout.

Holy crap, their stud, Alloway, took over the game in the final 2 mintes. He hit 3 straight 3 pointers to ice the game.

New Orleans 81
Ohio 74

OT

Well we didn't expect that at all. Alloway killed us with 27 points. He was, by far, the most talented player on the floor and it showed. I think we will be good but it is going to take some time. Running this team is just 100% different than any of the high octane 10 deep teams in the past. Cooper has the same blowby move as Turner and I need to get better at driving and dishing in the half court sets. House has the ability to explode with power to the basket if I can get him the ball at the right times. I suspect this team will play some very average games but come on strong down the stretch like some of my earlier teams.

Turner: 22 points
Cooper: 7 points
House: 12 points/12 boards
Delic: 16 points/2 boards
Dahi: 12 points/13 boards

Massey only scored 3 points today. He's a decent offensive threat and I need more out of him when he's on the floor. He also only got 10 minutes. I've set my depth chart to try to get him closer to 20.

[Radii]

With the loss our next game is against a reasonably evenly matched fellow mid-major in Portland, rated 81 OVR out of the West Coast Conference. I'll play that game, and hopefully get to the early signing period, tomorrow.

[Radii]

November 18, 2011 – Orange County Shootout

Ohio (0-3) vs Portland(2-2)

Portland is rated 81 OVR,slightly higher than us. 82 Off/81 Def/85 Sht/83 reb.

Scouting

PG Ransom Lowe – JR – 70 OVR – very good ball handler and passer, but not a huge scoring threat, med/3 are both under 70. Good on the drive and inside. Just 5.5 ppg.

SG Andrea Sherman – FR – 68 OVR – Also good if he gets in deep but not much of an outside threat. 6.5 ppg.

SF Lamarr Sneed – SR – 78 OVR – 6'6” - A good rebounder(80 drb) and fairly quick. 88 close/69 med/76 3, so he can step out and shoot if left open. A clutch player, and a great dunker. 11.8 ppg.

PF Rasheed Minter – SO – 75 OVR – 6'8” - fairly good in the post (80 O/78 D), a good shot blocker and steals guy(both in the mid 70s). We had issues vs New Orleans of our big men getting picked before they went up for a shot, that is a concern here. 89 Close range shooting, not so good in traffic though. 7.5 ppg.

C Torrin Jensen – SO – 79 OVR – 6'9” - solid on the boards, extremely good in the post(90 O/84 D!!), and 92 close range shot. 85 strength/85 hustle, looks like a serious threat inside. 10.3 ppg so far this year.

Formidable inside game here. They have backups at SF/PF/C that are all rated higher than their starting guards, so they go very deep in the post.

Half	Time	OHIO	POR	Notes
1	15:20	12	11	We've drawn 2 total fouls on them, both are on their center, Jensen, so he sits. This is quite the blessing, as he is manhandling us in the post(note the 90 post offense rating). He has 9 of Portland's 11 points when he sits.
1	13:00	12	20	We give up 9 straight, a 3 point play, a turnover against their full court press, another turnover as dahi is stripped inside... all inside baskets for them.
1	12:00	12	25	Dahi stripped down low, delic gets it, his shot is blocked and seconds later they get a 3 point play...
1	11:15	14	27	Massey gets his man in the air and gets by him for a layup. ie. Holy crap we scored!
1	10:40	14	30	Another 3 point play for Portland. Cooper picks up foul #2 and has to sit.
1	5:30	30	39	Turner gets going a little, hitting a couple midrange jumpers, and we get House off for 4 straight. We get a 2nd big man of theirs into foul trouble, just a backup, but it seems to have hurt their depth just a bit and is making things a bit easier on us.
1	4:30	31	44	Turner commits his 2nd foul, allowing Portland their... 4th? 5Th? 3 point play of the half.
	HALF	38	53	The foul trouble to Cooper and Turner really hurt us down the stretch. We end up with 4 forward lineups out there and an exhausted Massey. For Portland, Jensen scored 9 in 5 minutes. Sneed scored 13(their talented SF) and their PG scored 11, mostly on the fast break. They have a 17-11 rebound edge, and they have 0 turnovers. We have 10. Many are just our guys getting stripped the second they touch the ball in the paint. House leads us with 8, Massey and Turner have 7.
2	18:30	38	57	3rd foul on Turner. Delic has been blocked on our first two possessions of the 2nd half.

What a difference a year makes. I quick sim it out when they go up 67-40.

Portland 99
Ohio 60

So far we've run into some terrible matchups. Here the turnover margin was 10 for them, 23 for us. They outrebounded us 30-23.

Turner: 7 points
Cooper: 7 points
House: 12 points
Delic: 3 points/5 boards
Dahi: 8 points/5 boards

Massey 9 points/6 assists.

[Radii]

The 7th place game in the Orange County Shootout involves us and the worst rated team in the tournament, The Citadel. Rated 61 overall, I simulate our first win:

Ohio 103
The Citadel 69

Turner scores 17, while Delic and Massey both score 21. House continues to have good numbers in simmed and live played games, 12 points/8 boards. I think I've finally found a SF I like to play with.



I also go ahead and sim my next game:

#3 North Carolina 86
Ohio 70

Massey with 18 today, Dahi with 12, House and Delic with 8.

My next game is vs an evenly rated VCU team which I'll play out. After that its early signing period time.

[Radii]

November 24, 2011

VCU (3-3) at Ohio (1-5)

VCU is rated a little higher than us, 82 OVR (82 off/79 def/84 sht/82 reb). They're #21 in the latest mid-major poll. The poll is still dominated by the CAA with 5 teams ranked in it , including Northeastern #1. Bowling Green is the only MAC team currently ranked, they're #16 right now.

Scouting

PG Serge Merritt – SR – 75 OVR – 92 spd/86 quickness looks pretty solid, above average defender, great passer, and a good mid-range jumper. Not a huge 3 point threat(69 3). Very good off the dribble.. averaging 7.3 ppg/4.5 apg

SG Dale Pope – SO – 75 OVR – Average defense, above average speed, 78 shooting from 3. Good enough to be dangerous as we try to pack it in to stop their big men. 76 defensive awareness is a bit scary too. 7.3 ppg.

SF Bennet Law – JR – 81 OVR – 6'5”, 5.7 ppg, Average most of the way aorund but outstanding from mid-range(85 med shot. In addition he defends the post well which will likely matter since they run a lot of 2-3 defense.

PF Garrett Newby – SR – 86 OVR – 6'8”, 86 post O/82 post D/90 BLK/84 DRB/93 Close... this guy will eat us alive. Averaging 19.3 ppg/9.3 rebounds

C Hal Lettenberger – SO – 67 OVR – 7'0”, decent inside, decent on the boards, also, 7'0”.

Ugh, this is the problem we're seeing with these teams rated in the low 80s, they have a couple outstanding players that we just can't match up against. Dear lord conference play can't get here fast enough.

Half	Time	OHIO	VCU	Notes
1	12:30	10	15	Smooth game with very few stoppages in play. They have 7 points off the offensive glass which is becoming a recurring theme. Merritt is also hurting us with his 92 speed on the break. The big difference with not controlling the PG all the time is my inability to slow down the other team's fast break.
1	10:30	18	22	Turner and Cooper each hit a 3(a rarity for Cooper) and we make up for a couple poor defensive possesions.
1	7:45	23	30	They go on an 8-2 run to make it 30-20. A Massey 3 cuts into that lead and they burn another time out.
	HALF	39	47	We got the lead down to 4 once, 35-31, they got it right back up to 10 within a minute. After that the lead has been hovering between 8-10 most of the game. Newby has 8 for them, Merritt 10 and Pope 8.. the talented big man, the speedy PG, and the shooter at SG. No surprise there. Turnovers are again an issue. They have 0. We have 7. Massey has been good for us with 13 points on 4-8 shooting. Only 1-5 from 3 though. Turner and Cooper both have 7, House has 6.
2	16:00	47	58	We get dunks on two possessions in a row by Cooper and House, but they score 5 on the other end and extend the lead up to 11.
2	12:30	54	60	Cooper hits his 2nd 3 of the game where they left him open for what seemed like a year and I figured why not. We just need to keep the pressure on and cut this lead the rest of the way down.
2	9:00	58	65	Can't get it closer than 6... we call a timeout as Cooper and Delic are exhausted.
2	5:00	64	72	We had the lead down to 5, and House was charging to the basket for what I assumed would be a dunk... instead he pulled up for a jumper when I went for the shot and it came up short. They hit a 3 and went back up 8 and the best we've been able to do since is keep it at 8.
2	4:00	66	74	We trade buckets and they call a time out.
2	1:50	68	76	Oh so frustrating. Turner got to the basket to cut the lead to 6, we had 3 possessions in a row with a chance to cut it to 4, got a couple open looks, including a wide open 3 from turner who has been clutch late for me many times... no dice. They score finally to go back up 8. That was likely our chance to make it a game in the final minute.

Down 8 with2 minutes left, Turner misses an open 3, House gets the board and dinks the putback. They score again, we turn it over and they get a 3 and that's that.

VCU 84
Ohio 68

We're playing better. I'm starting to get a feel for the pace this team can reasonably play, and I'm using House and Cooper better, I'm having fun with House's athleticism in a 6'8” body at SF, but its easy to try to force it with him... he really has to get a step to the basket or an open look or he's going to screw up.

Turnovers were a huge story today... 4 for them, 16 for us. We've got to cut down on those.

Turner: 14 points/3 assists
Cooper: 16 points
House: 12 points/7 boards
Delic: 4 points/6 boards
Dahi: 5 points/7 boards

Massey: 13 points

Delic and Dahi combined for 2-10 shooting today.

[Radii]

Early Signing Period

Going into the early signing period, we're only looking at one recruit.

6'4" SG Chuck Lamkin, #363 in the nation out of Jacksonville, NC, has us at 100%. Ugh, Campbell just made him an offer in this last week and may win out due to the location advantage.

We have 3 other recruits over 80% that we hope to have a good shot at later in the year.

WHEW. Huge, HUGE load off my mind. Chuck Lamkin chooses Ohio over Campbell:

3* SG Chuck Lamkin - #363 OVR/#87 SG

Lamkin scored 12 points per game and grabbed 6 boards for his ABL team, the Wizards. He shot 42% from the floor, 37% from 3.

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

With 5 scholarships open and a severe lack of depth at guard that is going to get worse when Turner leaves this year... I'm thrilled to have landed a guard early.


That leaves us with 4 scholarships remaining. We have 5 guys on our radar right now, and all of our other 4 scholarships offered:

3* SG Shawn Garcia - #305 OVR - He's Mr Basketball in Kansas this year, must be a down year in Kansas High Schools. We're his only offer so far. Tulsa has thrown some weight at him but hasn't offered him. We've got him at 93% and hope to snag him as soon as the season ends. B+ Shooting and Defense both are his best traits.

3* PG Shavlik Willie - #147 OVR from Boston, MA. We're at the mercy of Rhode Island and Boston College here. He likes us, and we'll get him to 100% easily, but if Rhode Island or BC offer, its a near certainty he'll go to either of those. If they don't, Ohio is in good shape. A- Skills, B+ Defense and B+ Athleticism have me hoping he comes my way.

3* PG Jeremie Roberson - #142 OVR out of Washington, DC. We have him at 90% currently and could have done better but I threw most of my focus towards Lamkin and Garcia. Roberson likes George Washington and VCU but he likes us a lot more right now, its not 100% clear if a scholarship from VCU would mean that we lose, unlike with Willie. 12 points/5 assists and 38% shooting from 3 all look pretty good in his ABL games. B+ Skills, A Defense, and A- Athleticism.

3* SF Kaylen Lufkin - #216 OVR - We didn't go very hard after Lufkin yet either, his interest in us is only 75% despite the scholarship offer. He seems to like Townson State and Dayton quite a bit as well. Lufkin put up 10 points and 9 boards a game in the ABL. B+ Shooting, B+ Athleticism are his top skills. He's a local kid, from Columbus.

Those are our 4 remaining scholarship offers. We have one big man on our radar too.

3* PF Curtis Watson, 6'9" 231 lbs - #287 OVR out of Toronto. We haven't scouted him out that well yet, we have him as an A rebounder but that's all we've got on him. He has interest from 5 other teams, we're all pretty much at the same level, and no one has made him an offer yet.

[Radii]

We had one game during the signing week that I simmed:

Ohio 56
Northern Iowa 50

Turner scores 11, Delic 10, and House 9 in a game where not many people scored much at all.


Ohio is 2-6 now with 6 more non-conference games to go. The first 5 are games where we should be favored and should expect to win, the last one is at Cincinnati. I'll play them out until I win one myself just to make sure I get a win under my belt before conference play starts. After that I'll probably sim out the rest of my non-conference games, with the intent of playing all my MAC games this year.

[Radii]

Hooray for Daryl Delic and his 'B' potential. He's already gained an point to his overall rating this year, up to 76. He's improving in many areas that i'm pleased to see... his mid-range shooting, low post offense and defense, rebounding and strength have all gone up a point this season so far.

My starting Center, Dahi, is suffering a little lack of confidence due to his poor play against some of the better big men we've been facing. I give him a pep talk to try to get him going.

December 7, 2011

Montana (1-6) at Ohio (2-6)

Montana is only rated 74 OVR. (75 Off/74 Def/77 Sht/81 Reb).

Scouting

Not much to worry about here. They have a 6'8” PF averaging 10 points/game. No one on their team has a 3point shot rated higher than 71, and they look pretty poor overall on the boards.

Our team unity is up to 35, slowly rising.

Half	Time	OHIO	MON	Notes
1	15:30	8	7	Cooper picks up a quick 2 fouls... this kills my guard play for the rest of the half pretty much with no depth.
1	13:20	16	9	Massey and Turner each hit a 3, House is making some very athletic moves to the hoop against his man for some early points. Solid start.
1	8:30	19	13	Another 3 from Massey but our offense has slowed a bit.
1	8:00	19	!6	I call a timeout after they get a 3 point play. 5 Ohio fouls, all 5 on our backcourt. Cooper is the only guy with 2 so far but I'm getting worried.
1	2:30	30	29	Massey just blew a 100% wide open layup after getting by his man with a pump fake. My entire back court is gassed. Roller has 2 fouls now too. I can't stand Roller but he's sitting too and Massey and House are dying out there. I call a time out.
1	0:50	32	29	Turner picks up his 2nd foul.
	HALF	32	30	Foul trouble is obviously the theme of the first half. Turner, Cooper, and Roller have 2 fouls each. Massey leads us with 9 points at the half, on 3-8 3 point shooting. Dahi scores 8 on 4-4 shooting and is having his first decent game in awhile. House has 4(I thought he had more). Their PF Morton, the only guy I bothered to mention pregame, has 8 points/5 boards. Their PG has 8 points too, on 3-10 shooting.
2	17:45	38	34	Cooper gets foul #3 on a stupid reach. We've gotten all our scoring so far in the post this half.
2	14:40	47	39	House hits a rare 3, then we get a blocked shot leading to a fast break opportunity for Turner. A quick 5-0 run gives us a little separation, gets the crowd pumped up for us, and forces a Montana timeout. We needed all 3 of those things heh.
2	13:20	52	42	Massey hits an open 3 and House uses a screen to get to the rim for an easy 2. They call another time out.
2	7:00	58	55	I was just about to comment on how we don't seem to have any more foul issues, when we turn it over against their press and Cooper picks up foul #4 trying to stop the man going hard to the basket. They're on a 7-0 run and have cut a 10 point lead down to 3.
2	6:30	60	55	Turner misses an open 3, but House SKIES for the rebound and gets the putback. This is easily the most athletic guy I've ever played with over 6'3” or so, I'm really going to enjoy his career here.
2	5:20	62	59	I call a time out , just to rest my guys primarily.
2	3:30	64	64	I burn another time out. Cooper is back in for Roller, thank god for that. House and Turner are both at around 75% energy though. Turner has come up short on his last couple open jumpers. I need something out of Cooper and my post men here.
2	1:10	66	66	Tied at 66 with the ball I burn my next to last time out.
2	0:30	66	66	Cooper gets by his man and tries an athletic move inside but cannot sink his little up and under shot. Montana has the ball and can hold for the last shot.

We play good defense but their SF hits a contested jump shot from the left corner with 0.1 left on the clock. We fall by 2.

Montana 68
Ohio 66

We didn't play a bad game today but as is becoming a recurring theme... we only have 5 guys that can play PG/SG/SF, and one of them is rated in the mid 50s and is terrible, so we only have 4 I can count on. When one of them gets foul #2 4 ½ minutes in, foul #3 2 minutes into the 2^nd half and foul #4 with 7 minutes to go... it really hurts. The CPU seemed insistant on having my starting 5 in the game at the end even though Turner was totally gassed and Massey was ready to go. I kind of feel like if I'm going to use the CPU for subs I should stick with what the CPU does, I may override that in late game situations in the future though. It definitely made a big difference here.

Turner: 9 points/4 assists
Cooper: 2 points (only 13 minutes played)
House: 15 points/9 boards
Delic: 6 points/2 boards/4 steals
Dahi: 12 points/9 boards

Massey: 16 points

[Radii]

Man, that was a bad loss to Montana, should never have happened. Here's another one that we really expect to win pretty much every time.

December 10, 2011

Ohio (2-7) at Youngstown State(2-4)

Youngstown State looks similar to Montana based on overall rating(73 OVR/74 Off/73 Def/75 Sht/81 Reb). This one is on the road, so its a bit different.

Scouting

Not much to mention here either. They have a SF, Kohn, who is rated 73 OVR and looks fairly solid but they don't have anyone that stands out in any way.

I lower my coach settings Defensive Pressure from 50 down to 35 in an effort to hopefully foul less.

There's a giant angry Penguin in the center of Youngstown State's home court. I played them last year at my place. After seeing this I don't know how they can be taken seriously.

Half	Time	OHIO	YSU	Notes
1	13:00	15	16	Well no foul trouble this game, and things have gone much better on offense, though they've hit a few 3's on their end and have led by a couple the whole way. But we have a problem... House just came off the floor with an injury. We'll see how bad it is.
1	10:50	19	18	We take the lead and they burn a time out.
1	10:00	19	20	UGH. Disaster. I mentioned after my last game that I had 5 people that could play PG/SG/SF for me and one of them sucks. Well, for the next month I have 4. House has a high ankle sprain and is going to miss about a month's worth of time.
1	5:00	30	24	Its my favorite lineup... Massey, PF Delic and 3 centers. The nice thing about this lineup is that they really pack it in on defense, so if Massey is hot he can shoot 3's all day. He has 5 in a row for us here to extend our lead to 6.
	HALF	32	31	They closed out the half on a 7-2 run. Massey really kept us alive with our crappy lineup out there. He scored 11 for us. Turner has 7 and Cooper has 6. No inside game to speak of.
2	18:00	34	40	We score the opening basket of the second half, then they hit 3 straight 3 pointers. Dahi and Meade down low(meade = 3rd string center... in there with Delic playing SF for House heh) have both missed decent looks inside.
2	14:50	38	50	We get a lineup that I really like out there... Turner, Massey and Cooper all on the floor at the same time. And we turn it over and give up layup after layup. They're on a 7-0 run and are starting to pull away. I call a time out because... well why the hell not, nothing else is working!
2	13:45	38	52	Turner picks up foul #3 defending against the fast break after we turn it over yet again on offense.
2	11:30	43	55	We score 5 in a row after falling behind by 17. That's the good news. The bad news is that our lineup is now Roller at PG, and 4 post players.
2	7:30	54	65	We get going a little with Dahi inside. We're committing a lot of fouls this half, centers guarding guards on the perimeter does that I guess. They're already in the double bonus.
2	5:30	58	68	We get it down to 10 as Massey makes 1 of 2 at the line.
2	4:10	60	71	If we're going to make a run here we need to do it soon.

We never got the lead below 10..

Youngstown State 83
Ohio 70

Their SF, who has a 70 3 point rating, hit 7 3's today.

Turner: 21 points
Cooper: 10 points
House: 2 points
Delic: 8 points/7 boards
Dahi: 9 points/11 boards

Massey: 14 points

Delic and Dahi combined for 4-17 shooting.

[Radii]

So I had been running a 9 man rotation, but wishing I could get away with 8, as SG Taymon Roller is rated 10 points below my next worst player that sees any minutes.

Now my starting SF, Wendell House, is out for 27 days with a high ankle sprain.

I decide, for better or worse, to start my best 5 players.

PG Turner
SG Massey
SF Cooper
PF Delic
C Dahi

That leaves PF Mikalauskas, C Sessoms, and SG Roller on the bench. What has been a very, very poor start, is about to get much worse for the next month.

I should point out, the only other guard on the entire roster is the 2* PG I recruited at the last minute last season, Brannon Babcock. He's rated 50 OVR and is redshirting. I could remove his redshirt, which really wouldn't hurt him any as he'd likely never see the floor again after this upcoming month. But I don't see myself being any better with him out there as opposed to some of the awful 4 forward lineups that the CPU uses with my current rotation.

It looks like House will miss 5 games, including our conference opener. He'll return Jan 7th for a road contest at Central Michigan.

[Radii]

December 13, 2011

CSU Bakersfield (5-7) at Ohio (2-9)

The competition just gets worse and worse. CSU Bakersfield is rated 67 OVR. Our overall strength stays the same with Massey in the lineup instead of House, 78 OVR.

Scouting

Their PG is rated 55 OVR. Their Center 71 OVR. Their other 3 players in the low 60s.

The center, Ronald Bachmann, is 7 feet tall and could be a problem inside. He's averaging 16 points/9 boards a game. Their 55 rated PG can make the 3 pointer on occasion(rated 74 there)

Half	Time	OHIO	CSUB	Notes
1	13:20	11	11	Cooper has 2 fouls. I want to strangle him. Seriously.
1	8:50	17	17	God such depth problems. Everyone is tired.
1	6:20	19	22	Roller commits his 2nd foul of the half.
1	HALF	30	35	After tying the game up at 22, they scored 9 straight to take a 31-22 lead. We were able to feed it inside a few times with some success to dig into that lead a little bit. We're still relying too much today on the outside game. Turner with 7, Massey with 9. They're in a 2-3 zone pretty much the entire time which just totally eliminates Delic, he doesn't have the size to deal with that. Dahi is 2-4 and I need to get him the ball more.
2	19:20	33	35	Bachmann, their center who has 10 points/13 boards and is easily CSU's best player, is now sitting with his 3rd foul.
2	17:30	35	44	We tie the game up and then they hit 3 straight 3 pointers on us, including one by their SF who is rated 56 from 3.
2	14:15	44	55	Delic picks up foul #3 as we're getting embarrassed by a much worse team than us.
2	11:45	52	58	A nice run on our end starting with baskets by Massey and Cooper, and ending with a 4 point possession, Sessoms is fouled and scores, misses the free throw but Dahi gets the putback.
2	9:10	56	60	We've got it down to 4 after Meade draws a foul and makes 2 free throws. We get a nice lineup on the floor too, we made that little run entirely by going inside to big men, now we've got Massey and Cooper both out there.
2	7:30	61	62	Cooper finds Delic inside for a layup and we get the lead down to 1. Another timeout for CSU-Bakerfield.
2	5:40	68	67	The crowd is going crazy for Ohio as Delic gets an offensive putback to give us the lead!
2	5:00	70	67	A dunk in transition by Turner and they burn yet another time out. They took a 4 point lead when Bachmann came back in, but we've since scored 7 straight to take our lead.
2	2:30	75	69	Bachmann gets his millionth rebound of the game(or 20th, something like that), Delic gets WAY up there to block his putback though, we get on the break and Delic draws a foul on our end. We've got all the momentum at this point.

We get the lead up to 9 with 2 minutes left and are able to successfully kill the clock.

Ohio 82
CSU Bakersfield 71

We shot 43% on the game, but held them to 31%. Their big man, Bachmann, scored 15 and got 21 boards on the day. We never did stop him from getting rebounds but we did keep him from scoring in the last few minutes which helped.

Turner: 11 points/6 assists
Massey: 18 points
Cooper: 7 points/6 boards/4 assists
Delic: 14 points/9 boards
Dahi: 13 points/16 boards

Delic and Dahi were 11-18 today. I didn't do a good job using the inside game in the 1^st half, the 2^nd half was MUCH better.

[Radii]

It took a long time, but we've finally won a game that I played out with this team. The down side is it is against the lowest rated team I'm going to see by quite a bit. The up side is we won without House, so we were a bit handicapped.

I'm going to sim out my last 3 non-conference games as I said I would do when I finally won a game on my own, and get moving in conference play. I'm glad I built up so much love with the AD by getting to the tournament last year, because I'm not sure this is going to improve any once we get into conference play.

December 15th, 2011:

Ohio 89
NC A&T 70

Turner scores 31 and has 9 assists here. Massey has 18 points/8 assists, and Dahi has 14 points on 7-11 shooting. Nice game by the guards in a simmed one here.


December 20th, 2011

Ohio 82
Harvard 60

Turner scores 22, Massey and Cooper 9, Delic 14, and Dahi 13 in this one.


December 24th, 2011

Cincinnati 79
Ohio 67

Turner with 14, Massey 11, Cooper and Dahi 5 as we lose our last non-conference game of the year.

This takes us to 5-9 going into conference play.

[Radii]

MAC Preview

Based on total roster strength

1. Kent State 83 OVR
2. Bowling Green 80 OVR
3. Ball State 79 OVR
4. Ohio 78 OVR
5. Akron 78 OVR
6. Toledo 76 OVR
7. N. Illinois 74 OVR
8. W. Michigan 74 OVR
9. Buffalo 74 OVR
10. Central Michigan 73 OVR
11. E. Michigan 72 OVR
12. Miami-OH 68 OVR


There are a lot of teams with very big holes, freshmen rated in the 50s starting at PF for Eastern michigan, at PG and SG for Miami-OH. I see 3 players rated 80 or better. C Colin Wierzba from Kent State, SG Leroy Butler from Akron, and SG Wallace Mason from Bowling Green. Leroy Butler and Wallace Mason would give me nightmares. Wierzba I don't remember playing.
Wierzba is only a junior...

According to the league page:

Best Overall Player: Wallace Mason, Bowling Green (84 OVR)
Best Freshman: Arzelle Cooper, Ohio (74 OVR)
Best Shooter: Wallace Mason, Bowling Green
Best Playmaker: Wayne Turner, Ohio (74 OVR)
Best Pro Prospect: Wallace Mason, Bowling Green
Best Defender: Michael Murphy, Kent State (78 OVR)

I had some trouble getting Turner to fit into my offense in non-conference play. This isn't because I was forcing myself not to run, by the way. All worries about that went away the second I stopped controlling the PG all the time. Any time the other team runs my defense embarrasses itself. So I have no qualms about running right back. But because of the lack of depth I'm not forcing it so often, I'm only doing it when it looks like I have the clear advantage. Turner can create an awful lot in the half court set though.