By all accounts this was a great effort, best road and perhaps best game overall this year.
Now the boys know how it feels to play so well for 40 minutes.
Let's make this result "a turn the corner experience".




GO BOBCATS

Wish we could have watched this one without the $30 tag. Does anyone know if highlights are anywhere online? Win this next home game heading into MAC play and I feel pretty OK with where we are going into league play.

The only things I'm gathering from this thread:

1. AJ Brown is good.
2. We got a big road win.
3. A lot of you walked up hill in the snow with no shoes on BOTH WAYS to get to school.

I didn't but my father did, but only after he walked through the corn stubble with his bare bleeding feet to milk the cows. He was then allowed to wear shoes as he walked up hill both ways in two feet of snow to his one-room school. We are so soft nowadays.

Did AJ get hurt or what took him out of the offense...?

In the first 9 minutes he was 5/8... the remaining 31 minutes of game time he only took 1 shot...?

Would love to see him stay aggressive and stay on it. He's too good to only average 14 points.

He's not a ball hog like some of our previous recent stars have been. Though he only had two assists, he passed the ball around and let others score. Plus he was on the bench some. My impression is that AJB is real good team player.

Thoughts from my seat in Newark, DE last night:

One week earlier I watched a hideous performance in person in Tampa. Yesterday, I truly witnessed what I think is one of the top 5 basketball games played by an Ohio basketball team over the last five years.

Let's start with the rotation. Boals I believe has it down. He can effectively play 9 guys. At the 17:30 mark of every game he gets Wilson out for Wiz. Wilson takes a breather for 16 minute media timeout and then back in after the first whistle from that timeout. He doesn't sit Wilson for 4-5 minutes.

AJ Brown comes out at 16 minute mark, but Boals doesn't wait until the 12 minute mark. He gets him back in after usually a quick 2:30 rest. He has learned you can't keep Brown and Wilson off the floor for 4 minute stretches.

AJ Brown: Smooth as silk. Effortless drives to the hoop...like he's gliding. A team player. You can tell his teammates truly like him. Dude is the best player on the court every night. I pray to god we can keep him in Athens for three years.

AJ Clayton: It's well documented how he's been a no show in the first half of games this year. This was clearly the finest game of his career. He was aggressive all night long and the touch at the line was amazing. If we get this kind of AJ Clayton on a more consistent basis...wow.

Wilson: Just a beast. Great effort. Missed a couple of bunnies, but man...what a horse he is. Still needs to identify the double-teams quicker and kick the ball out when he can, but we can't ask anymore out of this guy.

Hunter: He was frustrating for 18 minutes and then played huge in the last two minutes of the first half to extend the lead.

Miles: Good to see the "3" ball return. Two massive back to back 3 daggers in the second half.

Wiz: We've been hard on him, but time to give him credit. He's taking better care of the basketball and getting rebounds and getting points. He has been more than serviceable over the last three weeks and hope this continues into MAC play.

BRod: I like his aggressiveness. Shot isn't falling right now, but I think he's close to finding form again. He's attacking the glass and contributing elsewhere.

Baker: Absolutely love him coming off the bench and he appears to have a good attitude about it. We are better with him not getting starter minutes.

Elmore: He played a very underrated 3 minutes in the first half. Hit a huge three. He can help us come MAC season.

Sheldon: I don't believe he had a turnover last night, but I could be wrong. He seems to be gaining confidence. Doesn't necessarily need to take shots. Just needs to do his job as backup PG and not turn it over. He looked more comfortable last night than he has the whole season.

Delaware is damn good basketball team. The Nelson kid is going to make some coin overseas. The limited Delaware fans who were there were stunned by what they watched. It was a fantastic road win.

Delaware's gym was much better than I expected. However, two things were brutal about the experience. They had the worst PA guy in the business who was obnoxious. And the court has nothing on it. I mean nothing. You don't see Delaware or Blue Hens branding anywhere on the court....odd.

All in all...it was a great night and a nice early Christmas gift.

He got into foul trouble. Had 3 fouls at the 16 minute mark and I believe 4 fouls at 10 minute mark. But with that said....he really is a team player. I though he was going to score 30 last night and probably could have. But the way the game was flowing....everyone was scoring and he didn't have too. All five starters in double-figures.

Weirdly enough, BRod is shooting better from 3 this year than he has his entire career. I was curious of the dropoff, so went over to sports-reference.com and checked it out. Possible he's just being more selective about when to fire one up from deep.

2019-20: .367
2020-21: .396
2021-22: .222
2022-23: .412

He is only averaging 2.6 attempts from three this year, compared to 6 his Sophomore year and almost 4 last year.

Pretty simple answer...he's not starting this year when he did last year. Minutes cut dramatically=less shots.

 

The Bobcats were in the flow on Wednesday night & we had the infotainment flowing on the radio too. Our gift to you: the @OhioSP @Learfield rewind of how @robcwv & I called @OhioMBasketball's win at @DelawareMBB.😼🏀🎙️ pic.twitter.com/QPfG29CGce

— Russ Eisenstein (@RussEisenstein) December 22, 2022