Gavin Block said after Tuesday’s game the Bobcats have something to prove.
Beating Akron 99-75 at The Convo is a start. And led by 38 points from Jordan Dartis, Ohio validated what Block has believed throughout the recent cluster of losses.
“We’re better than three and whatever we are,” Block said. “It’s starting to show. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction.”
Maybe it is. Maybe the Bobcats are about to turn a corner. But there’s no way to tell from one performance, no matter how impressive.
Despite Dartis’ 38 points, the Bobcats still managed four other double-figure scorers, which had plenty to do with the way they passed the ball.
They passed from player to player like an assembly line. They moved the ball with purpose and without hitches. The Bobcats knew where it was going and the Zips didn’t.
Nineteen of their 32 field goals came off assists. They shot over 50 percent from both the field and 3-point range.
Doug Taylor didn’t score, but that didn’t stop him from impacting the game with five blocks and numerous other altered shots.
This is the team coach Saul Phillips envisions when he talks about being so close. His players’ performance wasn’t just close. It was exactly what he wants.
They followed his instructions down to every detail. They blew out a team that defeated them just two weeks prior. They played well enough that despite their 3-8 conference record, their coach thought they’d earned a moment of leisure.
“I told them to just smile and enjoy each other tonight a little bit,” Phillips said. “Relax.”
After tonight, however, the Bobcats face a difficult road stretch. They’ll play at Toledo, Western Michigan and Buffalo over the next four games.
With that slate ahead of him, Phillips has no time for relief of his own.
“I haven’t had a lot of relaxing moments this year,” Phillips said. “And I don’t know if I will.”
Why should he? The Bobcats won their way into a tie for last place on Tuesday. One game is too small a sample size to infer whether the Bobcats have turned a corner.
In consecutive games, Ohio has scored its two highest point totals in conference play, which improved them to 11th place in the MAC in the kenpom.com offensive efficiency metric out of 12 teams.
And they did so against two of the three worst defensive teams in the conference.
Ohio improved to two wins in their last nine games after beating Akron, and there isn’t a guarantee that their performance will be indicative of future results.
“How many times have you seen it,” Phillips asked rhetorically, “where a team’s lights out one night and the next night they can’t throw it in the ocean?”
The Bobcats can’t rest on one good performance. They also have no choice but to draw on Tuesday’s game — their second win of 2018 — for confidence.
As for turning an anomaly into a trend, their approach is the same.
Well, almost.
“Go home and work tonight,” Phillips said about how he would move forward. “(But) do it with a smile on my face.”
