The Bobcats are still yet to claim a Mid-American Conference victory in four tries so far this season, but Wednesday’s matchup at Ball State might just be the perfect chance for Ohio.
Amid a four-game losing streak and a struggle to claim its first Mid-American Conference victory, it’s easier said than done for Ohio to turn its season around.
However, the Bobcats (5-10, 0-4 MAC) will have an opportunity to end their slump on Wednesday, when they travel to take on Ball State.
The Cardinals (7-8, 2-2 MAC) have also experienced a losing swing, as Ball State saw itself with a 3-6 record earlier this season, before it rattled off three straight wins and started MAC play with two wins in a row.
Ohio coach Saul Phillips said Monday, “Things are never as bad or never as good as you think,” while senior guard Stevie Taylor believes in keeping a level head despite the team's recent shortcomings.
Although Taylor said he’s still having fun playing basketball during a slow start, he said the Bobcats can’t lose the locker room if they want to turn it around.
“If your mind goes then everything is going to go,” he said. “Once one person goes then two people go, then after that you look up and you don’t really even have a team there — you’re just a bunch of guys playing basketball and trying to get to the end of the season.”
This week’s practices were run differently than those earlier this season in order to regain a competitive spirit from the players.
“There’s not one magic bullet. If it were that simple, we would’ve worked on it all day,” Phillips said. “I know one thing that would help: get to the free-throw line more often. And I know another thing that would help: get more offensive rebounds.”
There’s a lot that Ohio has been working on as struggles seem to change each game, but the biggest emphasis Phillips has made after the Bobcats’ loss to Kent State on Saturday is turnovers, which they had 10 of in the first half alone.
Ohio is the only team without a MAC win, but there also aren’t any MAC teams without a conference loss. The Bobcats are just three games behind Buffalo — the first place team in the MAC East at 3-1.
Ball State is in the middle of the pack of MAC teams in just about every statistical category, but a good sign for the Bobcats is that the Cardinals are the only team turning the ball over more frequently than them. The Cardinals have committed 217 turnovers this season (14.5 per game) and have a margin of minus-1.47, compared to Ohio’s minus-1.33.
Phillips doesn’t doubt his team’s ability compete in the MAC, but turnovers are likely to be a key to victory on Wednesday, along with preventing points off any turnovers that Ohio does commit.
“We’ve got to get back on track and win the next game,” Phillips said. “It’s not a matter of if we can play with people, we just need to play better for 40 minutes when we’re on the court.
“It seems like when we have bad stretches offensively, turnovers are directly involved and it affects our ability to defend on the other end.”
Taylor added that it will continue to come down to what happens on the court, because saying the right things to motivate the team won’t necessarily usher in success.
“Right now guys are itching to get wins out here,” Taylor said. “But it’s not easy, you can’t just say ‘we want to win’ and you just win the game. We have to produce on the court, it’s much deeper than just words and just saying things.”
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