The Ohio Bobcats have gotten off to an expected good start. Their record coming into Huntington is 4-0, while beating Southern (77-67), Sam Houston State (95-75), @Georgia Tech (67-61), and Tennessee Tech (68-57). The MAC preseason polls had Ohio 2nd in the East division to Toledo, even though Ohio had more first place votes. The Bobcats currently reside at #32 in the "much too early to tell" ESPN RPI ranking. Ohio has a very good coach in Saul Phillips. He lead North Dakota State to an NCAA appearance in 2009 and in 2014, where in 2014 they were the 12th seeded team who knocked off the 5th seeded Oklahoma Sooners in the first round. Phillips' North Dakota State team made it to the 3rd round of the NCAA tournament that year where they lost to San Diego State.
Ohio has a good mixture of inside/outside play. Their leading scorer so far this season is Antonio Campbell. Campbell is a 6'9-251lb senior who is currently averaging 16.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. Campbell had 7pts and 15 rebounds last season when Marshall went to Athens. The player who gave Marshall the most trouble last season when the two teams played was Jaaron Simmons, who was a transfer from Houston. Simmons had 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists against Marshall in Athens. Jon Elmore wasn't playing at that time, so that will be a match up to watch for tonight. Kenny Kaminski is a talented 6'8-228lb stretch four for Ohio. He is a transfer from Michigan State and was one of the highest rated recruits out of the state of Ohio prior to going to East Lansing. The fourth player to watch for tonight is Ohio's starting 2-guard, Jordan Dartis. Dartis is a 6'3-195lb sophomore who looks to be one of those players who can explode for 20+ points or hardly provide any scoring production, depending on how hot/cold he is on a given night. He shot 12 three point shots in their last game vs Tennessee Tech, while making six of them (he scored a total of 22 points in that game). However, when playing on the road against Georgia Tech, he only scored four points. Marshall can't allow him to get going early on.
Ohio is a really tall team for a smaller school. Antonio Campbell is 6'9, Kenny Kaminski is 6'8, their starting small forward (Gavin Block) is 6'7, and they bring Jason Carter (6'8-224), Khari Harley (6'9-189), Rodney Culver (6'5-190), and Doug Taylor (6'9-258) off their bench as guys who are averaging over 10:00 per game. Marshall better get serious about getting a body into someone on shot attempts and get defensive rebounds.
Defensively: Ohio will try do some similar things you see us doing. Campbell/Kaminski will work as the screener in some pick and roll and will also just spot up on the perimeter and get some looks off dribble penetration, the same way we do. It will be important for us to actually execute our defense in this game and not revert back to our old habits when things get tough like we did against Ohio State. Making an effort to keep the ball on one side of the floor, trapping Campbell/Kaminski on post entries, while knowing where Dartis is at out of that first pass out of the post will be key tonight.
Another thing to watch tonight will the the amount of FT attempts each team gets. We're not sending teams to the line very often and we are getting to the line. However, does Ohio's length not allow us to draw many fouls because of their ability to just play us straight up and use the verticallity rule? Also, Ohio hasn't been a very good FT shooting team so far this season (64.0%--ranks 295th in the country). I wouldn't mind us situationally fouling Campbell (who shoots 61.5% from the FT line), with one of our bench players while Taylor/Thompson are out. He hasn't shot more than four FTs in a game this season. I'd like to see us put him on the line 12+ times and make him get his points from there.
Ohio has a good mixture of inside/outside play. Their leading scorer so far this season is Antonio Campbell. Campbell is a 6'9-251lb senior who is currently averaging 16.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. Campbell had 7pts and 15 rebounds last season when Marshall went to Athens. The player who gave Marshall the most trouble last season when the two teams played was Jaaron Simmons, who was a transfer from Houston. Simmons had 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists against Marshall in Athens. Jon Elmore wasn't playing at that time, so that will be a match up to watch for tonight. Kenny Kaminski is a talented 6'8-228lb stretch four for Ohio. He is a transfer from Michigan State and was one of the highest rated recruits out of the state of Ohio prior to going to East Lansing. The fourth player to watch for tonight is Ohio's starting 2-guard, Jordan Dartis. Dartis is a 6'3-195lb sophomore who looks to be one of those players who can explode for 20+ points or hardly provide any scoring production, depending on how hot/cold he is on a given night. He shot 12 three point shots in their last game vs Tennessee Tech, while making six of them (he scored a total of 22 points in that game). However, when playing on the road against Georgia Tech, he only scored four points. Marshall can't allow him to get going early on.
Ohio is a really tall team for a smaller school. Antonio Campbell is 6'9, Kenny Kaminski is 6'8, their starting small forward (Gavin Block) is 6'7, and they bring Jason Carter (6'8-224), Khari Harley (6'9-189), Rodney Culver (6'5-190), and Doug Taylor (6'9-258) off their bench as guys who are averaging over 10:00 per game. Marshall better get serious about getting a body into someone on shot attempts and get defensive rebounds.
Three Areas Where Ohio Excels
- 3pt Shooting %- The Ohio Bobcats are shooting the ball behind the three point line at an incredible rate. Making 45.3% of their 3pt shots--which is better than their 2pt shooting percentage. Ohio is currently 2nd in the nation in 3pt shooting percentage.
- Opponent FG %- Ohio's opponent Effective FG percentage is 43.7%, which is good for 31st in the country. Another stat to show how well Ohio is forcing missed shots is to look at their defensive rebound totals vs their defensive rebounding percentage. Ohio is averaging 26.0 defensive rebounds per game, which is good for 66th best in the country, while their defensive rebounding percentage is at 69.8%, which is good for 243rd in the country. That stat shows Ohio is forcing a lot of misses to be ranked so high in defensive rebounding totals, while not having a good defensive rebounding percentage.
- Opponent Assists/Game- Another stat to show how well Ohio plays on the defensive side of the ball is to look at how many assists they allow. They are only allowing 10.8 assists/game. This is a disruptive statistic and it shows they rotate well in their defense (which I'm sure is helped by their length) to not allow a lot of shot opportunities off of ball movement/offensive flow, or the first pass off of penetration.
What I Think We'll Do vs Ohio
Offensively: With Ohio being very long, I figure they'll try to run us off the 3pt line and give us lanes to take the ball inside against their size. It will be important for us to attack the paint under control to either draw a foul or give the ball off for a nice assist. Going into the paint wildly, attempting some finesse move, and hoping to make high arcing shots isn't going to cut it. It didn't in Columbus and it won't in Huntington. We also need to find ways to get Antonio Campbell and Kenny Kaminski guarding us on the perimeter (pick & roll) and take them to the basket--possibly drawing fouls.Defensively: Ohio will try do some similar things you see us doing. Campbell/Kaminski will work as the screener in some pick and roll and will also just spot up on the perimeter and get some looks off dribble penetration, the same way we do. It will be important for us to actually execute our defense in this game and not revert back to our old habits when things get tough like we did against Ohio State. Making an effort to keep the ball on one side of the floor, trapping Campbell/Kaminski on post entries, while knowing where Dartis is at out of that first pass out of the post will be key tonight.
Another thing to watch tonight will the the amount of FT attempts each team gets. We're not sending teams to the line very often and we are getting to the line. However, does Ohio's length not allow us to draw many fouls because of their ability to just play us straight up and use the verticallity rule? Also, Ohio hasn't been a very good FT shooting team so far this season (64.0%--ranks 295th in the country). I wouldn't mind us situationally fouling Campbell (who shoots 61.5% from the FT line), with one of our bench players while Taylor/Thompson are out. He hasn't shot more than four FTs in a game this season. I'd like to see us put him on the line 12+ times and make him get his points from there.
