The Enigma that is the OU Bobcats

[Rollo83]

I stated earlier that I thought OU had the most talented team in the league this year. I thought if they struggled, it would be on Tom O’Shea. This appears to be the case. They have lost three of their last five games, plus two by a combined 34 points!

The MAC, as with most leagues, is a grind. Nobody is going to go through this league without a couple of hiccups. But OU has not even shown up in their last two games. I hope this funk lasts another week when they come to Anderson Arena.

But remember, this is how OU played last year when they came on and made that terrific run in the MAC tournament. I still consider them the favorite, no matter how they come to Cleveland this year. They know how to turn it up at tournament time. But we all are starting to see some chinks in the amour.

Note to Tim O’Shea: Its one thing to recruit them it’s another to coach them up.

[BleedOrange]

I stated earlier that I thought OU had the most talented team in the league this year. I thought if they struggled, it would be on Tom O’Shea. This appears to be the case. They have lost three of their last five games, plus two by a combined 34 points!

The MAC, as with most leagues, is a grind. Nobody is going to go through this league without a couple of hiccups. But OU has not even shown up in their last two games. I hope this funk lasts another week when they come to Anderson Arena.

But remember, this is how OU played last year when they came on and made that terrific run in the MAC tournament. I still consider them the favorite, no matter how they come to Cleveland this year. They know how to turn it up at tournament time. But we all are starting to see some chinks in the amour.

Note to Tim O’Shea: Its one thing to recruit them it’s another to coach them up.

I've never been sold on OU being that good. They got hot in the tournament and had a brilliant comeback against Florida.

Going into last year, TOS looked to be on the hot seat after some very disappointing seasons. He was fortunate that 3 newcomers had good years to pull him out of the fire. With this years class, he did almost nothing to address the non-existent depth behind Williams.

If this year's OU squad had to compete in some of the other recent MAC years, they'd be realistically looking 2nd or 3rd place, and that's what they're looking at this year, too. OU doesn't have any less to prove than Kent, Akron, or Buffalo, in my book.

[Jham]

As today's policeman, it's Tim. But I agree, that guy saved his job last year, and if he falters this year, he will be right back on the chopping block.

[BGSU33]

But remember, this is how OU played last year when they came on and made that terrific run in the MAC tournament. I still consider them the favorite, no matter how they come to Cleveland this year. They know how to turn it up at tournament time. But we all are starting to see some chinks in the amour.

I couldn't agree with you more Rollo83. I still believe Ohio is the most dangerous team in the MAC. They have so much talent and some very good depth on that club. I sometimes think they are their own worst enemy when they lose because when you watch them play, you can see how good they can be when they play together. Last year, they were just chugging along and O'Shea was under some heat, but when they finally started playing together, they made a serious run and did some major damage en route to winning the MAC Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Regardless of their seed in the MAC Tournament this year, this will be a team no one will want to face and they are still my pick to win the MAC Tournament. They are defending MAC champs until someone knocks them off.

But I will say this much, I really can’t wait until we play them next weekend. I have always considered Ohio one of our bigger rivals, but with some of the smack being talked about on here, it has made this game the most interesting one for me this season. I would love to beat these guys next Saturday! I really hope we get a good crowd next week and beat Ohio!

[OSUFALCON]

Tim O' Shea otherwise know as TOS, is not a good coach. Yes the won the tournament last year but he still has just over a 500 record at OU. To be honest many fans at OU don't care for him, he bought a house in Rhode Island over the Summer. He is anything but a Midwestern. Those that have interviewed him don't think as much of him as he does. It wouldn't surprise me to see him gone if this season comes apart. The problem is OU like many school do after a good year, gave him a big contact extension. OU fans love there basketball but this could get ugly if they go down Weds. versus Kent St. Speaking of fans, where were all of ours today? The student area was only 3/4 full! What were the students doing today on a Sunday afternoon? Studying? Please. The best team in the MAC comes to town and we can only get 2200. Forget the first half, the second half was great. I don't care if we are 8-11 or 2-18 why can't we support our teams?

[Tricky_Falcon]

Ohio was ready to can O'Shea last year before the tournament run. If you look at the way his team plays it is streetball indoors. Sometimes it is fun to watch but it can be stopped. They do have talent there is no question about that but to think that they were going to be good enough to run the table this year in the MAC is just crazy. They got a lot of preseason hype and that is what it has turned out to be...hype. I would not doubt that they make another run in the tournament this year but if you watched last years tournament it was just a matter of them getting hot at the right time.

[OSUFALCON]

What is going to make it tough in Athens is many thought they could go 16-2 or 15-3 at the worst. Now I would say they will be luckey to make it to the MAC tournament with less than 5 or 6 losses. Many OU fan thought they could be a top 20 team. Wow how things change. Oh where is that Bobcat John? If he was half of a man he would be back on here. I guess he's a little pissy cat.

[BGSU33]

This point was made in another post somewhere, but watching OU in its losses kind of reminds me of watching BG in football this past year. You can easily make the case that BG football and OU basketball in the preseason were the cream of the crop in the MAC. Now we all know what happened with BG football, but that's what made the season so hard to take for BG fans because we fell so short of our obtainable goals with a team that was, on paper, loaded and one that should have done a lot better than it did with what it had and had going for it. That's where I also see OU basketball at this very point. Now, they still have a lot of games to play yet and like I said above, I think they're going to play themselves right back on track. But following these losses to UB and Miami, I can relate to what they must be thinking. It will be interesting to see how they respond against a good Kent State team on Wednesday in their next game.