MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

Wow.  That's pretty far in the rear view mirror.  Dick Reynolds era Cards.

[BillyRayJimBob]

Otterbein ranked No. 24, their first ranking since November 2004.
https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2025-26/week7

Wow! ... Happy for that, and the OAC! I am not going to go back and check, but I assume that was Otterbein's national championship year. (That school year, Mount Union #1 in football, Otterbein #1 in basketball, Marietta #2 in baseball ... Way to mess up the dance, Pios! ... LOL!)
I see that Mount Union lost their lone first place vote.

[BillyRayJimBob]

Not a discussion for this board (because the other is "dead"), but the Mount Union Ladies are doing well, improving on years past. A respectable 12-4 record, but only 4-3 in conference play.
The "Flaming Pile" ... regardless of sport or gender ... rules the roost, undefeated.

[Dr. Acula]

Otterbein ranked No. 24, their first ranking since November 2004.
https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2025-26/week7

Wow! ... Happy for that, and the OAC! I am not going to go back and check, but I assume that was Otterbein's national championship year. (That school year, Mount Union #1 in football, Otterbein #1 in basketball, Marietta #2 in baseball ... Way to mess up the dance, Pios! ... LOL!)
I see that Mount Union lost their lone first place vote.

Otterbein won their natty in '02 although I'm sure Reynolds would have gladly let Gibbs play another couple years if he could have!

[Dr. Acula]

I had to go look it up because I knew it was something insane like this.  2001-2002 Otterbein went 30-3 and won the national title.  They won the national title game 102-83.  Their 3 losses?  77-76 at Muskie.  63-62 at ONU.  And 106-59 at Mount.  The largest margin of victory in the history of Ott/Mount.  For context, that Mount team went 18-9 so solid, but not spectacular.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I had to go look it up because I knew it was something insane like this.  2001-2002 Otterbein went 30-3 and won the national title.  They won the national title game 102-83.  Their 3 losses?  77-76 at Muskie.  63-62 at ONU.  And 106-59 at Mount.  The largest margin of victory in the history of Ott/Mount.  For context, that Mount team went 18-9 so solid, but not spectacular.

I believe that Mount Union loss was the game Jeff Gibbs missed, right?  He's pretty quick to mention that when the championship season comes up!

[Dr. Acula]

Berg up 30-17 midway through the half.  I don't want to be mean but this is an embarrassing effort on both ends so far.

[Dr. Acula]

I'll post more tomorrow, but Mount cannot play much worse than they did in this loss.  Berg is slightly above mediocre.  Casenhiser going 3-18 is killer but they defended and rebdounded like **** tonight.

[Dr. Acula]

Okay, now that I've had time to digest that game here are my takeaways.

They were only able to get to 16-0 on the strength of the backcourt.  Hamilton and Casenhiser have been outstanding all season.  Unfortunately last night they did not shoot the ball well.  It happens.  And with no one else having a hot hand you need those two to keep shooting.  In the end they shot 37.5% as a team.  That makes it tough.

Farrington getting in foul trouble was killer.  He fouled out in 21 minutes with only 3 FG attempts.  This stung because Berg does not have the size to defend him down low.  This is a game where if he plays a normal amount he should score 20+ with a chunk being from the FT line.   

Defensively Mount holds their opponents to around 40% FG.  Berg was exactly at 50%.  And 40% from 3.  Add in that they had +10 FT  attempts and it's a recipe for a win.

Positives?  Mount played by far their worst game of the season, was down double digits less than 5 minutes in on the road, down 17 early in the 2nd half and still battled and somehow took the lead late in the 2nd half.  That's just grit.  They came up just short, but the point is that Fuline's teams never roll over no matter the score.

Big game in Ada Saturday.     

[D3fanboy]

not the best Raiders performance, but an undefeated season was super unlikely.  Take the L, learn from it and move on.  In Fuline We Trust