AMHERST, Mass. – Ohio University at first glance would seem like an obvious pick to win the Mid-American Conference this season. Their personnel, their experience that includes a run to the Sweet 16 last year, and their coach are all reasons to feel that they are the team to beat. But if their 85-76 loss at UMass on Wednesday night is any indication, there are things that could derail a championship and an attempt to make another run in the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio is unquestionably a veteran team. The Bobcats have no freshmen and are dominated by upperclassmen, with three senior starters, five seniors overall and seven juniors. They have used the same starting lineup in every game thus far, and nine Bobcats average double-digit minutes and another averages 9.3. But those numbers are a bit deceptive, as from a production standpoint there is a pretty good drop-off after the top six players in the rotation.
“We need some consistent depth, we need productivity,” said head coach Jim Christian. “More than just getting guys rest, they’ve got to give us more productivity, and that’s not really happening right now.”
Indicative of that was Wednesday night’s box score. Three players combined to score 56 of their 76 points, and the bench contributed just 16 points and eight rebounds from six players. Clearly, Christian is trying to find the right guys and combinations when he goes to the bench.
The Bobcats have a healthy personnel mix that includes transfers, as often happens for successful MAC teams. Among the starters are Walter Offutt, who started his college career at Ohio State, and Jon Smith, who started his career at St. Louis. Former Missouri forward Kadeem Green played in his second game on Wednesday after becoming eligible after the first semester.
And at the helm is a guy who knows something about winning in the conference in Christian. He’s back in his element after four challenging seasons at TCU, as prior to that he had a great run at Kent State that included five postseason appearances in six seasons and at least 20 wins every season.
Watch this team, and it’s clear they are capable of moving the ball very well, and when they do that they can score. They practically put on a clinic doing that in the early minutes of Wednesday night’s game, when they ran out to a 13-4 lead with three early three-pointers. The Bobcats had an assist on all 15 made field goals in the opening frame, and they came into the game with an assist on nearly two-thirds of their field goals. They would assist on each of their first 23 baskets on the night, a remarkable statistic.
“We pride ourselves on being unselfish and sharing the ball,” said junior Nick Kellogg, who scored 15 points on 6-9 shooting. “We aim for 20 assists a game, and tonight we had 26, so we did well in that category.”
While UMass’ defense is not world-class, it’s not bad, and at times on Wednesday the Bobcats had a player or two wide open from where Cooper was. Christian has designed a very good offense around this team’s talents, and when they aren’t committing unforced turnovers they can be fun to watch at that end.
“When we take care of the ball, we’re a pretty good basketball team,” Christian said.
The Bobcats revolve around D.J. Cooper, one of the best point guards in the country. At times he makes running the team look effortless with his passes, but he has a legitimate chance to put up numbers that no player has in college basketball history. Based on his career numbers, Cooper could close out his career with at least 2,000 points, 900 assists, 650 rebounds and 300 steals, which no player has ever done. He became the school’s all-time assists leader last year and on Wednesday night moved into sixth on the all-time scoring list.
Cooper has plenty of good options to get the ball to from Offutt to primary sniper Kellogg to Ivo Baltic among the starters. The balance is such that five players average at least nine points per game. Offutt, who at one time was viewed as a big-time prospect before ACL injuries hit in high school, kept them in Wednesday’s game in the first half with 15 points.
Ohio has areas for improvement, starting at the defensive end. Although the Bobcats force over 19 turnovers per game, Wednesday night showed that they could stand to improve when the opponent is able to get up a shot. UMass’ shooting, led by the big night Jesse Morgan had in scoring 35 points on 12-18 shooting (7-10 from long range), wasn’t just the case of a hot team; on more than a few occasions the Bobcats left a shooter open.
The Bobcats have also allowed opponents to get to the foul line nearly 24 times per game; UMass went to the line 35 times on Wednesday night. Considering they don’t get to the line often (less than 17 times per game, including just ten against UMass), that can hurt them in a big way later on. After Wednesday night, opponents have made almost as many free throws (177) as the Bobcats have attempted (179).
A lot of that comes from the area that concerns Christian the most, the inside play, where defensive struggles have been most acute. They also have been out-rebounded on the season and could stand to be a little better at finishing defensive possessions with the rebound.
“We’re struggling to find the right frontcourt combination,” Christian said. “It’s a big problem for us both ways. We foul a lot down there and give up a lot of easy ones, and don’t get enough. It’s something we have to keep getting better at.”
Ohio won’t be getting an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament based on their non-conference record. While they have a nice win over Richmond, that is all, and the Spiders are hardly a lock for the tournament. Their remaining three games before MAC play – home against Maryland-Eastern Shore and Marshall and at Oklahoma – will not offer any more chances for quality wins.
So far, Ohio seems to have adjusted well to Christian after he took over for the departed John Groce. This team is in a good place at 7-4 and has shown that they don’t have as many areas to shore up as a lot of other teams do. They pass the “look” test of a team that can win the MAC, but shoring up some problem areas and adding some consistency can only help down the road.
