If you are a reporter covering basketball for long enough, one of the classic lines basketball coaches will tell you will be about starting over.
"There are three times each season a team's record is 0-0," they'll say. "At the beginning of the season, at the beginning of conference play and at the start of postseason play."
Fortunately for the Ohio men's basketball team, tonight's game against Virginia marks a fourth, one-game season where the Bobcats have nothing to lose.
The game is a chance to forget preseason hype. It's an opportunity to forget a season's worth of injuries, humbling losses, missed opportunities and unmet expectations and simply play the game.
No, this game is not what Ohio had hoped it to be - a showcase game. The idea was a win against a big-time opponent would springboard Ohio into the position of NCAA Tournament darling occupied by Mid-American Conference teams of years past - like Wally Szczerbiak's 1998-99 Miami team or the Trevor Huffman-led Kent State team of last season.
Obviously, that hasn't happened.
But this game could be a springboard to salvaging what's left of the season. The bumps in the road in places such as Providence, Boston, Toledo, Mt. Pleasant, Mich., and Muncie, Ind. could feel a little less jolting, and the rest of the ride could feel a little smoother with a win against the Cavaliers.
It's a chance for Ohio forward Brandon Hunter to show coaches of top teams around the country one more time what they missed out on by not recruiting him.
For forward Sonny Johnson it's a chance to forget for 40 minutes about battles with knee and back injuries and a car wreck, and it's a start on ending a five-year, two-college career on a high note.
For forward Delvar Barrett it's a chance to forget about the hardships of juggling caring for his blind mother, providing for a child, and trying to rehab from a season-long ankle injury.
But this game isn't just about redemption for Ohio players - it's for the fans as well. Ohio's attendance has decreased from a MAC-best 7,145 fans per game last season to 5,782 fans per game this season. And lately those numbers have been even worse. Only 4,352 fans witnessed the Feb. 15 win against Kent State on a Saturday, compared to 10,962 that witnessed the same game a year ago.
But fans would be a fool to miss tonight's game. They have the chance to be a part of something that has never happened in Ohio's nearly 200-year-old history - a home game against a school from the Atlantic Coast Conference. If you don't know a thing about basketball, an ACC school traveling to play in a MAC school's gym is Goliath at David personified. It just doesn't happen.
For the first time in a long time, the Bobcats have nothing to lose and everything to gain. A season's worth of demons have a shot at being exorcised on the national stage - right here in Athens.
So Ohio fans, paint your faces. Make your signs. And if Ohio wins, storm the court. Because a game like this only comes once every 200 years.
—Whitney is a junior journalism major. Send him an e-mail at blake.whitney@ohiou.edu.
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Blake Whitney
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Blake Whitney
