Ohio basketball coach Tim O'Shea expressed displeasure with the Mid-American Conference and fans following Saturday's 79-72 double-overtime win against Western Michigan.
The usually mild-mannered O'Shea said he would "get in trouble if he said too much," but still blasted the MAC for its handling of the postponement of the team's game against Akron.
When Ohio could not travel to Akron for last Monday's game due to the winter storm, the MAC rescheduled the game for yesterday at 7 p.m., forcing the Bobcats to play two games in two days. Ohio lost to Akron 84-82 in overtime last night.
"I was open to any equitable solution in terms of a postponement," O'Shea said. "If the definition of equitable and fair is that one team has to travel and play the next day where the other team has two days off and gets to play" It's an interesting definition. I'm not happy."
According to MAC rules, Ohio had to make up the game a week from the original date. O'Shea said, however, that NCAA rules prevented his team from practicing after Saturday's win, so the Bobcats had no preparation for the Zips.
"When this postponement occurred, I was snowed in." O'Shea said. "I trusted our conference to come up with an equitable solution. I was willing to play back-to-back as long as my opponent played back-to-back.
"We have to travel to Akron, get in the hotel, get up and play the game tomorrow and they've been off since Thursday, this could have significant ramifications in terms of a home game for the tournament."
Further complicating the situation for Ohio are the injuries facing forward Sonny Johnson (back and knee), forward Delvar Barrett (ankle) and Jaivon Harris (groin). Because of the injuries, three players were forced to play more than 43 minutes against the Broncos, O'Shea said.
"We've got some guys who are banged up, look at the minutes," O'Shea said. "(Akron coach) Dan Hipsher should take me out to dinner or something, he's got to be thrilled with this arrangement. I probably got myself in trouble today."
O'Shea also defended forward Brandon Hunter.
"I'm getting a little tired of everyone killing the kid around here," O'Shea said. "Give the kid a break, I don't know what kind of standard people are trying to hold this kid up to but it's ridiculous."
Hunter, who leads the nation in rebounding at 13.4 per game, has been the target of the crowd at various times this season for missing free throws late in games. He hit 8-of-12 free throws against the Broncos.
"Understand this, when he goes to the free-throw line and misses a free throw, he's not trying to miss," O'Shea said. "He's a college kid, not a paid professional athlete."
O'Shea said he almost wanted to respond to one fan that continually picked on Hunter.
"You know, we've got a couple people that sit behind our bench, they might as well get another school to cheer for the way they snipe at Brandon," he said. "There's some guy" He should be in the Webster's Dictionary next to moron. I guarantee you he was never an athlete. He never put himself in front of five or six thousand people and made pressure free throws."
17 Archives
Chris Littmann
