Before Ohio’s game against Kent State in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament, Ohio coach Jeff Boals did not know what to expect.
The Bobcats were staggering into Cleveland. They hadn’t played a game in 12 days due to COVID-19 concerns and a handful of players had ended quarantine the day before tipoff against the Golden Flashes. The focus of practice in the days leading up to Cleveland was hard practice and preparing for a team Ohio hadn’t met face-to-face in almost two months.
Not to mention the unfamiliarity of its situation.
Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse was foreign soil to the Bobcats. Not a single man on the roster has played a game in Cleveland before. Some were too new to the program, others were shut out when the coronavirus shut down the 2020 MAC Tournament before they could play. It was all Greek to them. Early game jitters were expected.
Turns out those expectations were wrong — dead wrong.
Ohio blew Kent State out of the water 85-63. The only time Kent State had a lead or was tied with Ohio was for 46 seconds in the first two minutes. Ohio pulled ahead and never looked back.
It was a game 55 days in the making.
Ohio had been preparing to face Kent State again since its 89-79 loss on Jan. 15. It had been manhandled and the loss didn’t sit right with the roster. When the rematch on March 2 was canceled, Ohio had to wait even longer to let off steam — if it ever got the chance. The seedings for the tournament hadn’t been solidified at that point. It might never have a second game with the Golden Flashes.
A few days later, Ohio got its chance. After Kent State’s loss to Buffalo on March 5, the MAC Tournament bracket was set in stone. No. 5 Ohio would play No. 4 Kent State right off the bat.
The Bobcats knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Boals said on multiple occasions that the MAC Tournament was a free-for-all that any team had a chance to win. Seeding wasn’t important. What was important was the game in front of them.
“Our guys’ mindsets, their resiliency, has been great all year,“ Boals said. “We talked about E plus R equals O, what their response is gonna be to every event. And, you know, these things haven't fazed them so I want to give them a lot of credit.”
Thursday was the perfect storm for Ohio. It made out like a bandit due to Kent State’s misfortune.
A few minutes before tipoff, reports came in that Danny Pippen wasn’t dressed to play for the Golden Flashes. Kent State coach Rob Senderoff said after the game that he elected not to start Pippen, claiming he was “unavailable to play.”
“That was my decision that he didn't play,“ Senderoff said in a post-game Zoom call. “That was my decision and you know, that's a decision I'll live with.”
Pippen is the third-best offensive player in the MAC and averaged 19.3 points per game before the MAC Tournament. His absence was only made worse by the absence of Mike Nuga, whose season had ended in early February due to a knee injury suffered against Central Michigan.
Nuga and Pippen had been the bane of Ohio’s existence in its first game against Kent State. The pair combined for 38 points against the Bobcats and had run The Convo during their visit. Now, they were gone and Ohio had two fewer thorns in its side to deal with.
The absence of the duo worked wonders for Ohio. Without Pippen, Kent State was forced to rework its game plan on the fly. Ohio saw the chink the armor and exploited it. It had its second-best shooting performance of the season, with a 58.8 shooting percentage from the field.
Ohio has started a trend in the final weeks of its season. In rematches against teams it had previously lost against, it will come out sharp and bury the opponent. It buried Akron 90-73 on Feb. 23, and just wiped the floor with Kent State.
If the trend continues against No. 1 Toledo, Ohio may upset the seeding yet again.
