Ohio will open its season against Appalachian State on Saturday, in a game coach Saul Phillips hopes to send fans home feeling good about the upcoming season.
While last Saturday’s exhibition game was a test run, this weekend’s season opener will be the real debut of the Saul Ball era.
The Bobcats struggled to get off to a quick start in new coach Saul Phillips’ first game in The Convo, but Phillips plans to change that against Appalachian State on Saturday.
Ohio’s rough start in the exhibition game stemmed from what Phillips called an “anxious” Ohio team that settled for easy shots and didn’t distribute the ball well at Marietta’s end of the court.
Phillips wants the Bobcats to be more patient this time around.
“I thought we were awfully quick with our shots,” Phillips said of the exhibition game. “When you take quick shots it doesn’t give you a chance to make your team make you better. We’ve done it in practice pretty well, where we’ve learned to play off each other.”
Ohio players remedied the problem before halftime and ended up winning by 13 points after being down by as much as 14 in the first half.
Javarez “Bean” Willis, a redshirt senior guard, led Ohio in shots during the exhibition but said after the game needs to shoot less frequently.
He compared Ohio’s slow start in its exhibition game to last season, when the Bobcats would often begin games with a lack of intensity.
“We have to do whatever it takes to focus and prepare us to come out,” Willis said.
Appalachian State, like Ohio, also begins its season under a new coach. Jim Fox came to the Mountaineers after coaching at Davidson for the past 13 years. The Mountaineers are also competing in their first season in the Sun Belt Conference.
This season, the Mountaineers return four of their five starters and are led by senior guard Tommy Spagnolo, who finished with eight double-doubles in the team’s final 13 games last year.
The Bobcats are expecting a sizable crowd for their season-opener, though The Convo may not see the 11,000-plus patrons it did during the Dads Weekend exhibition game.
“In The Convo, you can have 6,000 and it’ll feel like 14 (thousand fans),” Willis said. “I always felt like it’s just loud.”
@Alex_Busch91
ab109410@ohio.edu
