(10-21-2015 11:19 PM)DICK Wrote:  What does Ohio have that would cause them to move up from last years performance? All I remember of them is that their best players were Seniors and I think one of their freshman starters transferred to Evansville, so not a great deal returning. Are there a bunch of BCS type transfers coming eligible or something?

Ohio's best players were seniors, Ohio's worst players were seniors. We all know Mo NDour will be a big loss but the senior guards, Stevie Taylor and Bean Willis, will not. Both guards were capable of putting up big numbers but did so at the expense of the rest of the team. They didn't run the offense consistently and their effort on defense was non existent. There's also rumors of poor leadership in the locker room that negatively impacted the younger players. So much so that last year's best freshman, Ryan Taylor, transferred to Evansville even though the seniors were gone.

Here's Ohio's record for the last 4 seasons-

29-8(11-5)
24-10(14-2)
25-12(11-7)
10-20(5-13)

Losing Nick Kellogg isn't a reason to drop your win total by 15 in one season, OU grossly under performed last year. 3 Head coaches in 4 years finally caught up to them.

As mentioned Ohio has 2 strong transfers that become eligible this year and have brought in 5 talented freshmen, but that's 7 guys playing D1 basketball this year that didn't play it last year. Ohio is young too with only 1 senior, back up F Treg Setty.

So the question is- how does losing 3 seniors and a starting freshman move Ohio up from 6th to the 3rd in the East? My answer is- I'm not confident it does. I'm very optimistic though that Ohio will be a better team this year and will play closer to its potential, but I don't know what that means in regards to how they finish compared to the rest of the MAC East. I can see Ohio winning 18 to 20 games this year.

Six freshmen and a transfer = No idea where the Rockets will finish--mid pack in MAC West seems like the safe pick.

(10-22-2015 05:32 PM)San Giuseppe Jato Rocket Wrote:  Six freshmen and a transfer = No idea where the Rockets will finish--mid pack in MAC West seems like the safe pick.

Transfer won't play this year.

Western's chances just took a big hit. Connar Tava having surgery to repair a broken foot this morning. Out indefinitely.


http://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/2..._fo_1.html

(10-23-2015 08:30 AM)OUVan Wrote:  Western's chances just took a big hit. Connar Tava having surgery to repair a broken foot this morning. Out indefinitely.


http://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/2..._fo_1.html

Too bad. Latest in a long string of WMU strongmen. Guy does a bit of everything.

he'll probably get back into form just to crush the rockets end of season hopes as usual.

I think that that is the best I'll hope for from BSU, especially after the last few years (and really, anything since 2001 tbh). There are a lot of good returning players (Tyler is back from his academic problems, along with Sellers, House, Calhoun, Davis, Kiapaway), and some intriguing newcomers (7'1" senior Nate Wells, 6'6" transfer SF Ryan Weber, freshmen bigs Moses and Teague, 6'4" transfer PG Naiel Smith). That many new players, and especially relying almost exclusively on those new players as bigs, is always a crapshoot. And the roster is still wildly unbalanced, with a whole mess of small forwards and with the aforementioned new bigs at the far ends of the classes. But... adding three bigs to supplement our undersized forwards, adding a true PG to replace the erratic Zavier Turner, and adding another scorer all seem like solid moves in the right direction.

For me, this is kinda of a make-or-break season for Whit. I really, really like him and think he can succeed, but he now is a few years removed from the disastrous situation he walked in to, and he's had time to get his recruits in. I'm still not sold on his recruiting of bigs yet, though the freshman class is encouraging, and about the lack of balance on the squad. I'm also dismayed a bit about the lack of buzz around any recruiting for next year, but there may be good things in the works.

(10-23-2015 03:36 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  Too bad. Latest in a long string of WMU strongmen. Guy does a bit of everything.

Hate playing against him but would love to have him on the Bobcats. One of my favorite current players in the MAC. Reminds me a little bit of former Bobcat Jeff Boals.

(10-28-2015 09:17 AM)pennies4everybody Wrote:  I think that that is the best I'll hope for from BSU, especially after the last few years (and really, anything since 2001 tbh). There are a lot of good returning players (Tyler is back from his academic problems, along with Sellers, House, Calhoun, Davis, Kiapaway), and some intriguing newcomers (7'1" senior Nate Wells, 6'6" transfer SF Ryan Weber, freshmen bigs Moses and Teague, 6'4" transfer PG Naiel Smith). That many new players, and especially relying almost exclusively on those new players as bigs, is always a crapshoot. And the roster is still wildly unbalanced, with a whole mess of small forwards and with the aforementioned new bigs at the far ends of the classes. But... adding three bigs to supplement our undersized forwards, adding a true PG to replace the erratic Zavier Turner, and adding another scorer all seem like solid moves in the right direction.

For me, this is kinda of a make-or-break season for Whit. I really, really like him and think he can succeed, but he now is a few years removed from the disastrous situation he walked in to, and he's had time to get his recruits in. I'm still not sold on his recruiting of bigs yet, though the freshman class is encouraging, and about the lack of balance on the squad. I'm also dismayed a bit about the lack of buzz around any recruiting for next year, but there may be good things in the works.

Keep the faith "pennies." You and a lot of others are in for a big surprise.