Without adding any players, Ohio’s offense may have just gotten more dangerous.
On Thursday, Ohio men’s basketball coach Saul Phillips announced the addition of Tommy Freeman and Joe Gricar as graduate assistants to the Bobcats’ coaching staff.
Why the new additions? To potentially make an already efficient offense even more so.
"It's great to have both these young men on board," Phillips said in an Ohio Athletics press release. "Both are hard workers and are very serious about becoming coaches full-time someday."
The Bobcats ranked first in shooting percentage (47 percent) and 3-point shooting (39 percent) in the Mid-American Conference.
Now, one of Ohio's best shooters joins its coaching team.
Freeman ranks as the program's all-time leader in career 3-point field goal percentage (44 percent), third in career 3-point field goals made (259) and fourth in career 3-point field goal attempts (588) while playing under former Bobcat coaches Tim O’Shea and John Groce from 2007 to 2011.
"Tommy is obviously recognizable to a lot of our fans, and it's always nice to extend the tradition of what's gone on here," Phillips said in the press release. "Nobody cares more about this program and being a Bobcat than Tommy."
Freeman could help the shooting stroke of redshirt senior forward Kenny Kaminski — who struggled with his shot in his first season with the Bobcats after displaying notable sharpshooting skills during his time at Michigan State.
Kaminski shot 39 percent from the field and 36 percent on 3-pointers, good for 13 points per game in 2016. He also battled a shoulder injury throughout the campaign.
Another name that could use Freeman’s shooting wisdom?
Sophomore shooting guard Jordan Dartis, who set the Bobcats’ single season shooting percentage record as a freshman, averaging 48 percent when shooting threes.
But they aren’t the only two Bobcats that could use Freeman's guidance. Phillips recently said point guard Jaaron Simmons has improved his jumpshot over the offseason. Simmons displayed with high accuracy from mid-range last season, making 46 percent of his shots.
Gricar coached the freshman and varsity teams at Franklin High School in Franklin, Wisconsin prior to working at LSU from 2011 to 2015 as a student manager.
He's another pipeline-name for Phillips, who's from Wisconsin, and just another building block to a program that — in Phillips' words — will be fully built in three seasons.
“I’m very, very comfortable that we’re heading the right direction,” Phillips said in an interview with The Post. “And there is a chance that this is the year that we get (contend and win the MAC).”
