Ohio works on transitional defense and live-ball turnovers before Marshall on Tuesday.
Ohio coach Saul Phillips said if he could have one Ohio basketball player at his Thanksgiving dinner table he would have ...
"LeBron James."
Yup, the NBA All-Star who is about 10 years too old to play in the green and white.
"Honestly, shoot, I would take all of them," Phillips said. "I just like being around them. ... They're a fun group."
With Ohio (3-2) preparing for Marshall (0-3) on Tuesday, the Bobcats could use James' defensive prowess and court vision, as Phillips, on a more serious note, said turnovers and transitional defense will be two points of interest for the Bobcats.
Transitional defense
It isn't the first time the Bobcats have mentioned trouble in transition this season. Big men Wadly Mompremier and Antonio Campbell said Ohio had trouble with its transitional defense in a scrimmage against Radford earlier this year.
Phillips then tacked on that Ohio's transition defense in the Virgin Islands last week "wasn't where it was supposed to be."
The Bobcats gave up 12 fast break points against the Florida State Seminoles, eventually losing 90-81. They also gave up a 19-point lead to eventually lose to Tulsa, 90-88.
"We let teams out in transition," Phillips said. "Particularly Tulsa when they made their comeback against us, a huge amount of that was done after turnovers and transition.
"I don't know if we'll ever be world beater with this group on defense. I think we need to be a really good offensive team to win with this group."
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The Bobcats rank on polarizing ends when it comes to offensive and defensive statistics inside the Mid-American Conference.
The offense ranks first, scoring 84 points per game and providing a variety of attack. The defense, however, ranks last (12th), giving up 78 points per outing.
"(Tulsa and Florida State) are really long and athletic, so that's something they do really well," redshirt junior Kenny Kaminski said. "We haven't seen much of that up to this point, so we struggled a little bit, but we're working on it every day to get better at it."
Now, enter the Herd on Tuesday in The Convo.
Marshall's offense could be an antidote for Ohio's concern on defense. The Herd only score about 70 points per game at a 36 percent shooting clip — the second-worst shooting percentage in the Conference USA and just a few tenths better than Southern Mississippi (.354 shooting percentage).
Turnovers
In term of turnovers, it's a matter for a young Ohio team adjusting to playing with one another.
Jaaron Simmons, Ohio's leading scorer and assister, has 31 turnovers this season — almost triple of the next most turnover-prone Bobcats (Treg Setty with nine).
Even with Simmons' and the Bobcats' live-ball turnovers, Phillips said working on turnovers is just another "box to tick off." After five games, the Bobcats are still a work in progress.
"The Tulsa guys, coach said, have played all four years together," Kaminski said. "We had three games played together at that point. So a lot of that is going to come, and it's really early, and we're really blessed to have these lessons early in the season, not come February."
Now, enter Marshall (again).
The Herd commit 14 turnovers per game in comparison to the 15 turnovers committed by their first three opponents.
Statistics, for obvious reasons, won't predict what happens come Tuesday, but a matchup between guard Stevie Browning, Marshall's leading scorer, and Simmons could entertain fans.
@Lukeoroark
Lr514812@ohio.edu
