MAC Basketball Season Preview: Ohio Bobcats

An extensive if not comprehensive look at all 12 Mid-American Conference college basketball teams. The opening game is November 10, so we better get started.

Last year: 21-14 (7-9), 5th MAC East; won MAC tournament; beat Georgetown in first round of NCAA tournament, lost in second round to Tennessee

This year: Picked first in MAC East (12 of 24 first place votes) picked by 10 of 24 to defend MAC tournament title

Coach: John Groce enters his third year with the Bobcats. His record: 37-32.

First Game: Saturday, November 12 vs. Delaware

Can a bobcat dribble a basketball? Sure, just tell the bobcat that it's a ball of yarn. Better yet, wrap the basketball in yarn and your bobcat will be entertained for hours. Your efforts will be rewarded if you tip the yarn-strewn basketball in some type of meat juice. Then you can finally get back to building your scale replica of

Departures

Armon Bassett (pro basketball)
Steven Coleman (rap career) (!!!)
Jay Kinney (dismissed)
Kenneth van Kempen (graduated)

Transfers (sitting out this year)

Jon Smith (Saint Louis)
Walter Offutt (Ohio State)

Returning Award-Winners

D.J. Cooper (All-MAC Honorable Mention, Freshman of the Year)

Big Nonconference Games

11/26 vs. Kansas
12/22 vs. Temple

A Paragraph of Thought on OHIO Basketball

Just need to point out, once again, that one of the players left the basketball program to pursue a rap career. Everybody good? All right. So now that the mysterious team that finished 7-9 in the MAC yet won the tournament and beat Georgetown is fresh in everybody's frontal lobes, they're suddenly the MAC favorites and DJ Cooper is going to lead them to great things, even though Bassett left before his senior season. Hey, maybe they will repeat, because who else got that much better? Ball State's not there yet. Akron ... maybe. So let's keep it with OHIO, because they bottled lightning once and sold it to the masses. They can do it again, right gang? If not, they can all join a rap group.