Use this thread to talk about anything game-related. For away games, we'll have a separate travel thread.

Date: Wednesday December 3rd, 2025 7:00 PM

Opponent: Maine  (0-9)

Site: Convocation Center

TV/Webcast: ESPN+

Radio: The Varsity Network App (free) 

Maine statistics, roster and media guide

Just read that we paid Maine 80k for this game.

In our '23 financial statement, we had ~466k in top line ticket sales. About $25k per game.

How's the math work on that, exactly?

Cooper Flagg's twin brother, Ace, is a freshman for Maine.

Looking forward to the first trip to the Convo this year. 3 games in DC over the weekend....Amtrak from Waterloo IN to DC then back at work for a day and a return to Athens followed by Oxford. It's hoops season. Got to find a few evenings for some HS hoops.

Usually I would see a 0-6 team coming to the Convo and think "time to feast!" Now I look at this 0-6 Maine team and I am nervous. We SHOULD win this game after time to reset but nothing is a given until this team shows me something more.

I'm confident at least one team will be well-coached.

What Chris Markwood has done at Maine is on par with the Grobe revival of Ohio football. Not that I would dare advocate hiring from Maine to replace a once-popular alumni head coach... again.

Last year's 10-6 in the America East was their first winning record since 9-7 in 10-11. The first round tourney win was their first since 05. They'd lost 30 consecutive to Vermont before the second round win in Burlington.

Follow this link for a video about how their fight song was the #1 tune of 1930.
https://youtu.be/9EjLvTCUmLM?si=l4kjELZZPPrZPHUv

Full respect for Maine.

The start of our 6 game win streak to get over .500

Great link. Very interesting story. Thanks for posting.

11.5 point favorites. A loss here or even a sketchy win and would be bad news. Maine needs to be our slumpbuster tonight with a 20+ point comfortable win.

Looking forward to being back in the convo.

Agreed, need something positive to happen for #BobcatNation right now, all things considered.

We are going to go on a 20 game win streak and Coach Smith will be back next season too.

Sheldon returns to starting 5. Discuss.

I think there may be better options.

Though only a sample of one, you can’t help feeling a little more optimistic after tonight’s game. Particularly a number of the new guys showed well tonight and Boals gave some of them extended minutes. Let’s hope we can gain some confidence as a group before the MAC competition.

I thought we had some excellent interior passing tonight.

I thought our passing looked better than I have seen in a while. Still sloppy at points but way better and with purpose.

Agree as well! For the most part we were patient looking for the extra pass, rather than reverting to iso ball. Regardless of opponent, 18 assists is solid.

I think Jalen Breath should get more minutes. Good finisher around the rim, great rebounder on both ends, seems to be in the right place when the extra pass does come.

Feel good win, but we can't ignore that Maine is pretty terrible (although fun fact their only loss by more than 13 was their opener against GW), they just did not shoot well at all. Will be interesting to see how they fare at Miami Saturday.

Worst non-break crowd I can remember in the Convo. Maybe 150 students and about 10 standing. I know, we were a 1-6 team and the opponent was Maine. But I was so happy and encouraged by the students for the Ark State game, and to a lesser extent Illinois St. Hopefully we recapture them by the time they come back from break in Jan.

My man crush on JJ Kelly is growing, I love everything about him but especially his passion and attitude. Moving my seats close to Ohio's bench this season I see a little more of the body language, responses to coaching, etc. Kelly is so coachable, supportive, and hyped. But on the court his senses and awareness are top notch for a true freshman, and he is a natural athlete. His touch around the rim will only improve with experience. I am happy to see him starting and when he wasn't in the game, I wanted him to be. I have a hard time believing there are 5 guys who should get more PT than him.

At about 9 minutes left, Kelly got a great steal and sent it ahead to Hadaway. JJ was enthusiastically trailing behind and they attempted a failed alley oop off the backboard, which was very quickly transitioned out to a quick 3 for Maine. (Sidebar that would've been potential 4 star territory if it landed.) It was a 5 point swing and Boals slammed down and shattered his whiteboard. I was interested to see how and who he ripped into for that, but he was quickly calmed when Hadaway answered with a 3 and Sheldon did the thing that makes coach happier than ANYTHING - sneak a mid-court steal and immediately draw a foul.

Breath & Simmons both very productive in the paint, strong rebounding and takes to the hoop. I still think our frontcourt will be an asset in the MAC for sure.

Burris getting 12 minutes including a long run in the 1st half with JP on the bench was a surprise. After starting with an ugly 3 point attempt he finally looked good, hopefully got the jitters out of the way and is ready to contribute. As of now, I suspect he figured heavily into the 26-27 plans to replace JP.

This was mostly just avoiding disaster. Need to win Saturday to start feeling like we are getting somewhere and start moving past that 1-6 start.

Glad to see Burris getting more PT. And it looked like he played some of those minutes as our point guard. Wasn't expecting that.

Agree with Ruck that it's tough to really gauge this group after last night given Maine just isn't very good.

JJ Kelly is a legit contender for MAC FOY. It was nice to see Burris log some minutes and hopefully build some confidence. His shooting is needed in the worst way. To me, this signals that the 2 spot or minutes in the 2 spot, are up for grabs between Sheldon, Elliot, Connors, and now Burris. Outside of the latter, the other three haven't exactly set the world on fire.

Still hoping to see more of Kuany as part of the frontcourt rotation. He's only logged double digit minutes twice this season.

I've seen enough out of Kelly that I don't want him to leave the starting lineup and around 25+ minutes a game. We've been getting crushed by teams with bigger, athletic guards/wings for years and Kelly seems to be just the remedy. 14 points, six boards, two blocks, three steals, and no turnovers. He gets at least one impressive block a game it seems, with several against seven footers.

The two guard spot is still up for grabs between Sheldon, Conners, Elliott, and to maybe a lesser extent Burris. Sheldon is so frustrating. On one hand he makes some absolutely careless decisions on offense but then he'll come up with a lightning quick steal or chase down block on the other end.

Big one in the Convo on Saturday. I wish I could make it as my son's basketball schedule does allow for the trip. I think I was anticipating football going to Detroit and since then we've made other arrangements. Should be a great December atmosphere if we only had a record that the casual fan could look at and say we at least have a pulse.

I pretty much echo everyone's thoughts here. Maine is AWFUL. Hard to gauge anything off this one. The next question...do we take a step forward or backwards against better competition on Saturday? Very intriguing game.

Wait wait wait wait wait wait...you're saying that Burris is our backup PG and plans for the future?

https://share.google/nm0jYJgGIl49QGamf

I guess he was a PG in high school, but man I haven't seen anything out of him yet that would lead me to believe that's what he'll be playing at Ohio.

I agree that Maine was not good but they played hard. I was happy we did not play at their level. We often play at our competition's level and we didn't. Saturday will be the test to see if we are making strides to be a good team.

IMHO I thought Burris looked good. First of all, I am no basketball expert but have seen a lot of Ohio basketball and generally go with the eye test (In my defense I do give that more weight than staying at a Holiday Inn last night). Against Maine, he looked much more comfortable and does look for his teammates (witness his inside assist to Simmons). Is he a college level PG? I don’t know and how would anyone come to the conclusion he’s not a college-level PG? He hasn’t gotten enough run to know. Maybe some commenting on that have regular access to practice and have reached their conclusions that way. And, no, I do not know Mr. Burris.

Lastly, and this is not just about Burris although he was the person affected the other night. Why do many coaches, Boals included, substitute for players who seem to be finding their groove in a ball game? I know there are matchups and game conditions, etc., etc., but can a coach just go with their gut on what they are seeing on the court? It scares me to think they don’t see it. Maybe keep it simple sometimes. Anyone else feel this way?