Saturday was a day of firsts for Ohio during its 66-44 exhibition victory against Ashland, an NCAA Division II opponent.
It was the team’s first game in a new era, putting the years of D.J. Cooper, Reggie Keely, Ivo Baltic and Walter Offutt in the rearview mirror and turning the team over to a new group of leaders who are looking to take their games to the “next level.”
“I’m taking my role, what I have been since I’ve been here, and taking it to the next level,” senior guard Ricardo Johnson said. “I’m doing what I’ve done and taking it to another level. I’m not doing too much, just being solid, doing what I can do, and the little things.”
Johnson had an efficient afternoon, hitting five of six shots for 11 points along with four rebounds.
It was also the collegiate debut for five freshman players and the NCAA debut for junior forward Maurice Ndour, who spent the past two seasons playing at the junior college level.
With roles not totally defined and competition for playing time still ongoing, coach Jim Christian said he was pleased with how the new faces fared in their first game.
But with that being said, Christian didn’t think this game would play as the be-all, end-all in determining how much each player would play.
“The roles they have are going to change as they continue to get comfortable, continue to get better,” Christian said. “I think they did some good things. I think each one of them just did some really good things, and I see it every day in practice.”
Each of the freshman scholarship players played at least five minutes and grabbed at least one rebound.
But perhaps the most anticipated debut was that of Ndour, the 6-foot-9 forward from Senegal who cracked the starting lineup to make his Ohio debut, notching nine points, three rebounds, a block and a steal.
Junior guard Stevie Taylor, who saw the bulk of the playing time at point guard because of a one-game suspension of Javarez “Bean” Willis, was impressed with Ndour and credited his strong finish on an alley-oop slam as a catalyst for the Bobcats during the second half.
Christian was also impressed with the play of Ndour, but said that there are still points of his game that need to be improved as Ohio approaches its season-opening game against Northern Iowa on Saturday.
“He obviously has a unique skill set and plays very, very hard,” Christian said. “We’ve just got to get (him) to understand, and that’s going to be an adjustment for any new player, the team defensive concepts. I think he’s not used to doing that at the level he has to do that at here.
“He’s just going to get better and better as he gets comfortable, as he gets a better understanding of those things,” Christian continued.
ch203310@ohiou.edu
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