It's been 11 months since Leon Williams tipped in a ball as time expired in double overtime to give Ohio University the MAC championship with an 80-79 win. It's been 11 months since the win gave the Bobcats its first spot in the NCAA tournament since 1994. And it's been 11 months since OU came back from a 20-point deficit to Florida in the first round of the tournament, but finally lost to the Florida Gators, 65-60.
Things couldn't have been better for coach Tim O'Shea, now in his fourth year as Bobcats coach. He had four of five starters returning. He had a good mix of players last year — juniors Jeff Halbert and Mychal Green and senior Terren Harbut to lead the pack, and fabulous freshmen Jeremy Fears and Leon Williams. They also had help from sophomores Sonny Troutman and Whitney Davis to round out the very deep team. The outlook was bright after almost upsetting Florida and proving their ability to compete with big-time schools, a task that many mid-major teams often fail to complete.
So what happened to this team after Williams earned himself the nickname of "Shaq of the MAC" and was the conference's Freshman of the Year? No one really knows. Perhaps it was their confidence in scheduling a tough non-conference schedule early on. Ohio lost to both Cincinnati and Kentucky in December, and things never really looked up from there.
The Bobcats have not been able to beat the MAC's tougher teams and lost three straight against Buffalo, Miami, and Kent State. Granted, the MAC East Division has been the more dominating section, Ohio still has not been able to make the shots at crucial times. For a team that relied so much on the three-pointer in the past, to get cold from anywhere will never get the job done. The likely method of counteracting that problem would be to get the ball inside, but in the loss at Buffalo in January, Williams had no points. In fact, he shot the ball zero times. Did the Bobcats forget how to play? Did O'Shea forget how to coach?
And did the team forget how to make foul shots? Though the team combined had about a 68% free throw percentage going into Thursday's game against Northern Illinois, clutch foul shots during certain stretches in OU's losses could have made their games a lot more interesting. Finally, against the Huskies, the Bobcats converted 18-of-19 free throw attempts and Williams got 20 points in OU's win over the MAC West's leader.
One other bright spot has been the emergence of Davis off the bench. The sixth man for sure has come a long way to become the leading scorer in conference play (11.7 ppg). Davis also set a career-high with 18 points against Toledo this year.
Though it was thought at the beginning of the season that the MAC could possibly get two teams in the tournament, it doesn't appear to be so anymore. Ohio doesn't even have a great resume, either, stuck in fourth place in the East with a 8-4 conference record (14-6 overall). But wait until the MAC tournament, where the Bobcats proved they could win the close games last year. All it takes is Ohio to start shooting the ball well again. They certainly have the shooters to do so. Yet if worse still comes to worst, maybe another Williams tip-in is all they really need.
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