MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[mc1983]

I was reading up on the Berg hire of Mike Summey and I'm not sure what to think.  Almost no HC experience, but a lot of D1 experience at a lot of places.  I guess we'll see how it goes.  Here's his resume I pieced together since the Berg bio has some holes in it: 

97-99  Graduate manager, NC State
99-03  Asst. coach, St. Francis (PA)
03-04  Asst. coach, Queens University
04-06  Asst. coach, The Citadel
06-08  Asst. coach, North Florida
08-09  Head coach, Bethany
09-13  Dir. of ops, Miami (FL)
13-15  Assoc HC, St. Francis (PA)
15-20  Asst. coach, BGSU
20-22  Asst. coach, NC State
22-24  Asst. coach, Campbell
24-25  GM, Utah

He's been placed in a difficult spot just trying to field a roster. Between transfers and graduation, there's not much left. Markell Johnson-Nichols appears to be staying. But otherwise, the team looks to be very young. Bucheit brought almost all of his freshman recruits to Marietta.

[Dr. Acula]

At this point you basically have to give him a pass on this first season because it's going to be difficult to recruit the majority of a roster for this year when you get hired in late June.  They understandably had to cancel their team camps in June because they didn't have a coach yet so that doesn't help either.

[Dr. Acula]

I decided to do a little Fuline praising tonight because something today reminded me of the pre-Fuline days.

Fuline's 1st year (2011-12) they went 7-11 in OAC play.  He's never had a losing record again.  The last 7 seasons they're 95-24 (.798).  Excluding the 12 game COVID season they've averaged 23.3 wins/yr over that span.  For reference, Lee Hood's 19 yrs they averaged 13.2 wins/yr.

He's made the NCAA tourney 4 times.  3 of those times they advanced at least to the sweet 16.  And I think we all agree that the 2020 squad that was robbed of their chance to keep playing had a real shot at the final 4.

Mount started playing basketball in 1895.  Prior to Fuline they had one 20 win season...Hood's fantastic 1996-97 team with Aaron Shipp and Neal Richards that went 25-5.  Fuline is AVERAGING 20 wins a season (280 wins in 14 seasons).

I will never stop being thankful that he decided to take the Mount job and stay in Alliance long-term and I'm sure anyone else who was around before him agrees.

[Dr. Acula]

Looking at the 2024-25 All-OAC teams to see who is potentially returning:

1st team: 
          G - Duane Davis* (Muskie)

2nd team: 
          G - Elijah Harden* (Etta)
          G - Ray Ellington* (BW)
          G - Jadi Cunningham (ONU) - transferred to Walsh
          G - Markell Johnson-Nichols* (Berg)
          PG - McKane Finkenbine* (Cap)
          F - Elijah Farrington (Mount)

HM:       
          G - Owen Emig* (Muskie)
          G - Will Miller* (ONU)
          G - Chance Casenhiser (Mount)
          F - Chase Garito* (Ott)


* confirmed on 25-26 roster posted
       

[mc1983]

Looking at the 2024-25 All-OAC teams to see who is potentially returning:

1st team: 
          G - Duane Davis (Muskie)

2nd team: 
          G - Elijah Harden (Etta)
          G - Ray Ellington* (BW)
          G - Jadi Cunningham (ONU)
          G - Markell Johnson-Nichols (Berg)
          PG - McKane Finkenbine* (Cap)
          F - Elijah Farrington (Mount)

HM:       
          G - Owen Emig (Muskie)
          G - Wes Miller (ONU)
          G - Chance Casenhiser (Mount)
          F - Chase Garito* (Ott)


* confirmed on 25-26 roster posted
       

Jadi Cunningham transferred to Walsh: https://athletics.walsh.edu/sports/mens-basketball/roster

[Dr. Acula]

Updated.  Thank you, mc.

[Dr. Acula]

Looking at the schedule graphic on social today it looks like Laurich is back for Mount.  That's good news to have a veteran post guy with the absence of Parker.  I did not, however, see Hudson in the pic.  I wouldn't have hated having a veteran PG back as well, but Casenhiser can handle it.

[Dr. Acula]

D3hoops preseason poll is out.  No OAC teams in the top 25.  No OAC teams overly close to the top 25 to be more accurate.  Mount is the only OAC team receiving votes.  Overall it's a rough start for the region with Calvin being the lone region 7 team ranked at #12.  Denison and Trine join Mount in ORV.  The smart thing about the D3hoops poll is that they do the preseason poll then let the season breathe for a few weeks before releasing the first in-season poll.   

[Dr. Acula]

I updated the returning All-OAC players.  As usual, Mount is bringing up the rear and does not have their roster up yet.  I think last year it got posted a day or two before their first game.

When looking at the rosters I did notice that Berg brought in 9 freshmen.  All things considered with the timing of the coaching moves I thought that was a solid class in quantity.  We'll see about quality.

I also noticed J'Allen Barrino is on the Muskie roster.  Originally he was headed to Etta, but it looks like the VanderWal departure may have changed things.  I was hoping Mount would land him initially.