Ohio University Basketball Midway Report

Overview

It's midway through Ohio University's men's basketball season so I decided to come out with a status report on how the Bobcats have been doing.

As of now, Ohio is 7-7 and has an rpi of 189.

They have only one quality win which occurred vs. Valparaiso and they have many bad losses.

The list of disappointing losses includes losses to IUPUI, St. Bonaventure in 4 OT's, and Robert Morris in overtime.

It has been a long season for Ohio up until this point.

They entered the year with lots of hype coming off of their second round appearance in the NCAA tournament last year. They had a few votes to start the year in the AP Top 25 and were the preseason MAC favorites.

But instead of matching the hype, they have instead played very poorly. They have played miserably at home and haven't been able to put away teams.

The Bobcats are not an awful team. They have talent but they just can't seem to beat other decent teams.

They have a tendency to over rely on sophomore point guard D.J. Cooper. By over-relying on him, other players haven't stood out as much as they were expected to before the season.

Stand Out Players

I hate to always talk about D.J. Cooper but he is Ohio's only stand out player to this point in the season.

Cooper is averaging 18.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 7.4 assists, and 2.9 steals per game. He leads the team in all of the above categories except for rebounds in which he is 2nd on the team.

DeVaughn Washington and Tommy Freeman are both having decent seasons despite not meeting their preseason expectations. Both are averaging slightly above 10 points per game. Freeman has been hitting 43% of his 3-point attempts and Washington is grabbing 5.4 rebounds per game.

The production from both of them has been decent. It would've been nice if they went another step up with their games but the team should still win with the production they're giving.

Possible Break Out Players

The two players I have my mind on are Ivo Baltic and T.J. Hall.

I have always loved Baltic's athleticism. He's making 50.5% of his field goal attempts and has looked decent at times. He's leading the team in rebounds with 6.0 per game and possesses the "it" factor. I feel as though he is just a few steps away from becoming a very good player for this team.

Another player who I have my eye on is T.J. Hall. He has been getting more minutes in recent games which means more shots. While he sometimes has bad shot selection and has been shooting poorly this year (34.5%), he has a lot of potential and will be important for the Bobcats come conference season.

Disappointing Players

The entire team. You know the saying "You win as a team, you lose as a team." Well, that saying applies to Ohio right now.

They are just playing poorly as a unit right now. Sure, they defeat all the duds on their non-conference schedule such as St. Francis and Norfolk State. But they can't beat the mid-level teams on their schedule.

If Ohio ever wants to step up a level, they have to learn to consistently beat fellow mid-majors and stop over-relying on single players such as D.J. Cooper.

Outlook

Come conference season, anything can happen. The MAC is mid-tier conference that is 16th in conference rpi.

Despite Ohio's early season struggles, there is still no reason to think that they can't win the MAC East. No single team stands out as the team to beat in the division.

On the other side of the MAC, the west is even weaker. Only Ball State has a winning record in the west.

Prediction

I have Ohio finishing 3rd in the MAC East behind Akron and Kent State. I don't like the way Ohio has performed against mid-level teams this season. I can't see them winning the MAC with their current brand of basketball.

However with that being said, I still think that Ohio will have a winning record overall and finish the conference season 9-7.

Also, with Ohio opening their conference season on Sunday against Miami(ohio), I have one thing to say.

MUCK FIAMI