We are two thirds of the way through beating in a row three teams who have been dominating MAC basketball since we dropped out of the top echelon. Akron down, Kent down, Ohio next. I know, Buffalo and Toledo have had their moments. Ohio and Miami have identical records, both are 11-10 ( 5-4). OU is 8-3 at home. Jeff Boals is still their coach. They had a couple of starters injured , AJ Brown is still out, Elmore James has returned to the lineup. We beat them late in the season in Oxford last year, we need to keep that going.
The Bobcats have 5 guys averaging double digits, but as I said above, AJ Brown has been out for a long time. 6-1 GS Sheref Mitchell averages 13.6/4.3, 6-0 Sr Jaylin Hunter averages 13.4/4.5, 6-8 JR AJ Clayton averages 11.7/4.6, 6-3 SOPH Elmore James averages 10.7/5.2, 6-1 SOPH Miles Brown averages 7.4/4.0.
OU has lots of good guards, their rebounding is a team effort, lots of guys getting 4 or 5 rpg. They are a good shooting team, 45% FG, 35% threes, 78% FT. Here is an odd stat. They have 3 guys on their roster with the first name of AJ. Traditionally they have a big promotion and put more than 10,000 fans in the Convo whenever Miami plays there on a Saturday afternoon.
For us Ryan Mabrey missed our last game with an injury, I don’t know if he will be back or not. Otherwise I think we are healthy for this time in the season and momentum and confidence are building. Both Miami and Ohio are somewhat hard to prepare for because the scoring and contributions come from so many different people. You never know who is going to score 20 points in the game, but somebody probably will. Yesterday Coach Steele was interviewed on WLW and Steve Baker was interviewed by OU announcer Marty Bannister on 980 so our improved play is getting some notice. It would be an important step to keep the momentum building with another big win on Saturday.
