Ohio will begin Mid-American Conference play on Wednesday against Northern Illinois in The Convo.
Ready or not, Mid-American Conference play has arrived.
In a mid-major conference that perennially only receives one NCAA Tournament bid — at least that’s been the case since 1999 — Ohio’s quest to make the postseason will begin Wednesday.
Before the season started, seniors Javarez “Bean” Willis and Maurice Ndour said their only ultimate goal was to make the NCAA Tournament. The duo has been the Bobcats’ one-two offensive punch lately, as each player is averaging more than 15 points per game. They hope to get conference play started on a positive note on Wednesday in The Convo against Northern Illinois.
“I’m just ready for it,” Willis said. “I’m ready to see what we can do.”
Ohio (5-6) is entering MAC play under .500 for the first time since the 2003-04 campaign, but the losing record isn’t bothering too many of the Bobcats or coach Saul Phillips.
“When we look at it, we’re 5-6 but we’ve got some quality losses, so we’re not worried,” Willis said. “I don’t think there’s a team in the conference that’s better than Nebraska, and I think we played them okay. We just ran out of gas the last few minutes.”
The Bobcats are coming off a 72-53 win against UNCW last week. Ohio also recorded a 21-point victory against DePaul during the Diamond Head Classic two weeks ago. Those two wins are sandwiched around a Nebraska loss to comprise the final three games before MAC play begins.
Despite a positive finish to non-conference play, the Bobcats might not be the team they appear to be on paper. The Bobcats’ RPI is 225th, which is 10th out of 12 MAC schools. However, all six teams Ohio lost to have winning records, and four are first place of their respective conferences.
“You can get all sideways in a season where you’re sitting on the losing side of being .500, but we can be okay,” Phillips said. “The teams we lost to are high-level MAC teams.”
Phillips, in his first year at Ohio, hasn’t coached during MAC play and because of youth many of the Bobcats haven’t played significant minutes against MAC opponents, if any at all.
Ohio has been starting a pair of freshmen, Mike Laster and Ryan Taylor, the past three games, which Willis said is helping them learn and the team as a whole.
“I think (improvement) is about effort and attitude — a little bit with just having a couple games under your belt,” Willis said. “We’ve got some freshmen that just need to see it game after game after game.”
The Bobcats have began each of the past two MAC campaigns with wins and will hope to do the same against the Huskies (6-5), which are the worst shooting team in the conference. Northern Illinois, like Ohio, also doesn’t have a marquee non-conference win.
Then again, with the MAC champion traditionally receiving the only bid into the NCAA Tournament, every team is on an even playing field now.
“Winning’s more fun than losing. We got five wins in this preseason, which is better than four but not as good as six," Phillips said. "That’s how I analyze it.”
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