Ohio travels to Kent State attempting to even its record in Mid-American Conference play.
Ohio freshmen Jordan Dartis and Doug Taylor said Mid-American Conference play is similar to a "war zone."
No, neither should lose blood when Ohio travels to Kent State Saturday, but how the Bobcats play against the Golden Flashes could foreshadow the rest of conference play.
"Toughness. (Kent) can just pound you on the glass," Ohio coach Saul Phillips said. "They're good in transition ... They are a scrappy, hard-nose club and we're going to their place."
"Toughness" is a descriptor just dangling in front of Phillip's crew.
The Bobcats (10-5, 1-2 MAC) rank among the top in offensive production, but according to Phillips, it took him six years to get his former collegiate team, North Dakota State, to play the type of defense he sees fit.
The Bobcats are similar.
Defensively this season, Ohio ranks near the bottom of the conference. The Bobcats rank 10th, out of 12 teams, in scoring defense (close to 74 points per game), and Phillips emphasized crashing the boards and playing "tough, transitional defense" against Kent (11-5, 2-1 MAC) during Thursday's practice.
Phillips added that Kent State's Khaliq Spicer and Jimmy Hall will be two forwards Ohio will zone in on. Spicer and Hall combine for an average of 22 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks per game this season.
"We got to box out a little bit more and get better defensively," Dartis said. "That's really our main focus, and the offense will take care of itself."
Going in, Ohio's defense has been a relatively weak point. The Bobcats have surrendered 81 points per game since starting MAC play on Jan. 6 and Kent State's seventh-ranked offense (76 points per game) could be an indicator, again, of how the Bobcats fair in the MAC.
Of course, statistics don't provide a clear picture against Kent and the future.
The Bobcats have matured exponentially since last year — a fairly obvious observation for those who've witnessed Ohio this year — with Ohio's youth progressing along the way.
"We're looking forward to the rivalry," Taylor said. "As a freshman, I'm going in and I haven't experienced much of a rivalry like Kent and Ohio University."
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Taylor said the Bobcats' rivalry and battle for the MAC will be "grimy", or like a "war zone."
"Every time I'm out there, I guess guys on the other team know I'm a pretty good offensive rebounder, so every time a shot goes up on our team, I get hit in the side or I get blasted in the back and it's just unexpected," he added.
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