Ohio is 11-11 ( 3-6) with at NET ranking of 158, while Miami is 7-15 (1-8) with a NET of #323. Ohio has been good at home (9-1), pretty bad on the road ( 2-10). That was probably expected this year as they had their two MAC All stars transfer. Sears is the second leading scorer for #2 Alabama while Vander Plas is 4th in scoring and 2nd in rebounding for Virginia.
Jeff Boals is 5-0 vs Miami.
Starters
G Elmore James 6-3 Fr 5.3ppg
G Miles Brown 6-1 SR 10.5ppg
G Ben Roderick 6-5 SR 5.1ppg
C Dwight Wilson III 6-8 GRAD 15.8ppg/ 9.8rpg
G Jaylin Hunter 6-0 JR 11ppg
C AJ Clayton 6-8 SOPH 8.9ppg
F AJ Brown 6-4 FR 10.6ppg
G Devon Baker 6-2 SR 6.1ppg
Dwight Wilson missed last year with injuries, but he is fully back. In his last season, he led OU to a MAC tourney championship and a first round NCAA win over Virginia.
Miami needs some wins to get back into the race for Cleveland. Right now we could be headed for our worst ever MAC record. We have been close, but need to get over the hump.
That last rebound before the half was exactly why he can be special. Would’ve been better if he made the free throws, but he went up between two players and came down with the ball while getting fouled.
He’s a lot more active today than he’s been other games. He’s still missed a couple plays he shouldn’t have, but he’s driving and making quick decisions on offense.
All these guys want to play pro ball after college. If I learned anything from watching Ira Newble it’s that if you can play lights out defense and rebound, someone will take a flyer on you. Ben Wallace made great money without hardly ever needing to score. The guy who figures this out first will be the guy who gobbles up the most minutes and gets the most opportunity to pad stats for the scouts.
Yesterday we did not get the same type of contributions from the 4 guys who have been doing it. Lairy ( although their point guard got 23) and Safford came through but Mirambeaux was stymied by an ALL MAC type of big man in Dwight Wilson. Andy was only 2 for 10, although he still did contribute 9 points and 6 rebounds. Ryan Mabry however was the big difference for us, just not getting the job down. He was 0 for 7 on threes ( almost all were great looks) and 0 for 9 in all. Our 5th starter and guys off the bench all contributed a little, not much different than it has been.
We should be able to get a win against Western Michigan in Oxford on Tuesday night, but our margin of success is pretty small, everybody has to step up.