Men's basketball works out kinks in matchups against Radford over Halloween weekend.
It may have been a "secret" scrimmage undisclosed to the public, but it was no secret Ohio was eager to play some new faces.
The Bobcats traveled to Radford, Virginia over the Halloween weekend, where coach Saul Phillips said his team was "chomping at the bit" to go against the relatively unknown Highlanders.
"It's just going to be nice to put the guys on a bus, get them in a different atmosphere and go against some different people," Phillips said. "For a young group, you literally don't know how they're going to come out. I got no clue. None. So it will be good to get that first time out of the way, so we can get back to getting better."
With Ohio's season-opener against Florida Gulf Coast creeping up — Nov. 14 — Phillips addressed some issues seen against Radford at practice Monday.
The Bobcats practiced off-ball screens, weak side defensive help and transitional defense during Monday's practice.
"We learned that we need to play harder defense (against Radford)," junior forward Wadly Mompremier said. "It was a different atmosphere and we had to get used to it. The freshman, they hadn't played a real game yet, so that was fresh for them."
Mompremier said the speed of the game is different for freshman acclimating to collegiate basketball and Ohio learned from the quick tempo Radford showed. The Bobcats have six freshmen on their roster.
Last Friday, Phillips said transfer redshirt forward Kenny Kaminski would not participate against Radford and that Kaminski would play limited minutes in an exhibition game against Indiana Tech this upcoming weekend.
Kaminski has been nurturing a right shoulder injury during the offseason after aggravating it from a freshman forward Doug Taylor screen earlier in the year. He's worn a brace during the previous weeks, as Phillips said Ohio's training staff took a "very cautious" approach to treating it.
"Shoulder's healthy finally and just getting back in the groove of things and it's coming along," Kaminski said.
Moving forward, the Bobcats will entertain a dad-filled Convo when Ohio plays Indiana Tech. The Bobcats won't plan much for the exhibition, as Phillips hopes to get a variety of players during game time.
"I haven't seen too much of them, but I heard they're supposed to be good competition for us and they'll give us a challenge," sophomore guard Mike Laster said. "We're ready for them."
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