Frank Solich delivers a nice crop today, Cats beat UB, and Lady Cats win. Landing three star QB Brandon Jones the #39 rated QB among hs QB's was nice. Solich also landed the Kentucky player of the year. The bigs on the o-line look good too. O'Shea got a big win tonite against UB. He's earning his $$$ this year.

Spoken like a true Hardcore fan.

I have a feeling that if I would post this on bobcatattack.com, with those hardcoare anti-O'Shea people (just a few of them), I would get blasted....

But people need to start giving O'Shea some credit, he has recruited players that play the way he wants to play. He is doing a great job this year. I have never given up on TOS since he's been here because I think he has a great basketball mind is a real "player's coach".

I hope that he knows that he does have supporters and that was just one or two idiots that had those stupid "Ohio Fans in Self-Imposed Exile" ads. If we win the MAC (I know its early, but I'm just saying IF) they better take out ads just like the did back then and say they support TOS. It's only fair.


GO CATS

O'Shea has his team in place now. It takes a few years to rebuild a program. We were gonna have a down year last year. Nobody-even Miami- can replace an NBA calibur big man and not have a drop. It happen to Hunter when Trent left after his junior year. O'Shea needed a couple of years to see what talent he needed to contend in the MAC. Sure his first recruiting class was a dud; however, a good coach learns from his mistakes. Anytime a team changes coaches, it impacts recruiting. You can't grade O'Shea for his first recruiting class, just like Solich in football. It's the next few years that will yeild the big results for Solich just like O'Shea has. Anything this early is gravy. O'Shea has proven that he can bring in top level talent that can compete against the MAC elite. As for his game coaching, I think he has handled this team great. It is the players who must hit the shot. Getting the players that can hit the shot is recruiting. I love the pressure defense that O'Shea has. That is the perfect ant-Miami defense. Look at the turnovers that we have created. The since the Cats went up-tempo (mid last season) we have been in every game. Sure every team has off shooting nites, but defense will give you a chance on those nites. Today was one of those. This team has come to play every nite. They never quit.

O'Shea has definatly learned from his mistakes. In the first couple of years he made some VERY questionable recruting calls. (Bota, King, Kieko....who am i forgetting?) . But in the last couple years, his recruits have been fantastic, all of them have been able to contribute right away. He definatly now knows what recruits he wants and needs to win in the MAC, and he is bringing them in. Has there been a bigger recruiting class in the past 10 years than the one that he broght in this past year? Can you imagine if we didn't have Fears, Green, and Williams? We would be no where near the position we are in right now.

I feel like right now, we can beat anyone in the MAC. The only team that can beat us is ourselves. If we don't make stupid mistakes and let the other team go on huge runs (especially on the road) we can beat anyone in the MAC.

GO CATS

I agree. This recruiting class may go down as the one of the best in school history. Fears and Williams may set all kinds of records. It is rare to have two true Freshman start from almost day one. Sure Williams didn't have Shaq to be out on our roster, but the kid had had a great year. Fears, like Gino Ford, is a starter as a Freshman. I remember when Ford beat out Gus Johnson at point in 1994. It turned an average team into a championship calibur team. That year Johnson became a key two guard when Estis needed a blow or let Hunter go with three guards. Having a guy like Fears come in and take the point, lets O'Shea have the depth to play his style. Green is also a first year starter and may be are best overall player. Three impact starters in one class. Four years from now, this class will be judged by the results. Troutman, Harbut and Davis are showing that last years wasn't too bad either. 2 starters and a very nice reserve. Halbert has given the team big minutes in his career. His leadership and his shooting really compliments the younger more athletic players on the roster. Even during the Trent years, Hunter didn't have the talent on the roster that O'Shea has now. It was just 3 shooters and Trent inside. The roster had lots of experience among the supporting cast. This years team is bigger in the backcourt than the 1994 MAC champs and the roster is far more athletic. This years team has more than one option on offense and creates more offense on defense, but years team doesn't have a shot blocker like Jason Terry(7foot2) or Flomo. All in all this roster has some major upside the next 2-3 years. The chemistry seems better with this team.