Antonio Campbell didn’t mince words when he talked about his goals for the offseason.
Campbell, a 6-foot-8, 279-pound freshman, said if he can get himself into peak physical condition, the rest of the Mid-American Conference should be on notice.
“One goal is to get the strength up in the weight room,” Campbell said. “I feel like if I tone up and get more muscular, All-MAC player sophomore year, junior year and senior year. … If I can run the floor like the seven-footer Zeke Marshall did, I’ll be amazing.”
Campbell showed some of his promise and potential in a 21-point scoring performance in a first-round CollegeInsider.com Tournament game against Cleveland State. He is also one of eight players returning to a Bobcat team that is starting to fit into the mold of coach Jim Christian.
But with the medical disqualification of forward D.J. Wingfield, whose knee problems will likely end his basketball career, Christian has another role on the roster to fill.
“(Wingfield was) a wing, so we have to look at wings if we can,” Christian said. “But we have to have a point guard, no question. We’ve been recruiting point guards all year, whether that is a high school point guard, transfer point guard the following year.”
Christian also has a need for a point guard because though the position depth on the roster is strong right now with Stevie Taylor and Javarez “Bean” Willis offering two starting options, the cupboard could be bare in the future with both graduating after next season.
Of course, that all depends on whether Christian is still coaching in Athens next season, with Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated and Jeff Goodman of ESPN reporting the 49-year-old native of Bethpage, NY is one of the leading candidates for the vacant Boston College job.
If Christian returns, he will look to improve upon the program’s culture, which he’s not satisfied with at the end of his second season as the Ohio head coach.
Though there was a feeling of togetherness in the locker room, that’s not everything when it comes to establishing a culture, Christian said.
“You can be together and not have a good culture,” he said. “Our culture is growing. It’s getting there. But I think when we all, one through 13, buy into doing things the way we want to do them every single day and believe in everything we have and what we’re doing, that culture will be where I want it to be.”
The tightness of the team might have been a problem at times for Christian, Campbell said, as players weren’t always willing to criticize one another.
“I’m not sure that kind of went well with coach that everyone liked each other considering the fact that no one got angry with each other, which made each other want to play,” he said.
Both Campbell and sophomore forward Treg Setty said that Ohio’s “The Pack” mentality, which the team brought into this season, is something that they’d like to carry over next season.
Though the name might change, the idea of fighting for each other as if they were in a pack will continue, Setty said.
“(The Pack) was really just something we put together because we were such a cohesive unit and we were so close and we worked so hard together and loved being around each other,” he said. “If it fits the bill (next) year, we might go ahead and give it the same identification.”
With injuries hampering seniors Travis Wilkins and T.J Hall, and Jon Smith leaving the team, the players returning for next season were forced to play a major role during Ohio’s CIT run. Setty said learning to play without the seniors boosted the Bobcats’ confidence.
“The seniors really had limited production as far as what they usually give,” he said. “It forced us … to kind of step up and do a lot more. And it gave us a lot of experience, we were able to get Wadly (Mompremier) more experience. We were able to play loose and kind of have fun.”
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