The quest for a consecutive regular season Mid-American Conference championship continues this weekend with Kent State coming to Athens. The Bobcats are 12-3 (3-1 MAC), but how good are they really?
Offense
The offensive focus to entering the season was a better team-oriented offense without Kiyanna Black commanding shot attempts.
However, coach Bob Boldon’s vision of Quiera Lampkins, Yamonie Jenkins and Taylor Agler sauntering into the post and kicking out to open shooters hasn’t translated as well as Bobcat fans wanted. Thus far, Ohio is assisting on 48.2 percent of its makes, compared to 51.1 percent last season.
In other words, Ohio was better at sharing the ball last season than this team is so far.
Luckily for Ohio, Lampkins’ seamless transition to Ohio’s new alpha has lugged the offense along when the ball movement is lacking. Lampkins is averaging 20.5 points per game on 45 percent shooting when Ohio’s assist total dips below 15.
On the season, she's averaging over a point more than Black did last season and is shooting three percentage points higher from the field. Boldon believes she has a chance to win the awards for both conference player and defensive player of the year. She won the latter last season.
Lampkins hasn’t been able to replicate Black’s 3-point prowess, but that hasn’t stopped her or the rest of the team from jacking 3-pointers anyway.
Despite playing the least minutes of any MAC team this season, Ohio leads the conference in 3-point attempts.
The Bobcats have taken 33 more 3-pointers than second place Bowling Green, which has played 225 more minutes than Ohio. Despite Ohio’s well-documented struggles from three-point range, it has outscored its opponents by 69 points in that category.
Boldon has been bending the 3-point math in his team’s favor all season by simply encouraging his team to continue shooting 3s. And shoot they have.
Overall, the Ohio offense epitomizes the game of runs title often associated with basketball. The Bobcats are streaky shooters and can struggle when teams get a chance to set their defense at the other end.
With Lampkins on the floor, however, they always have a reliable option to turn to when the offense stalls, and there are still 14 regular season games left to sort out the rest.
Defense
The main reason Ohio gets away with its come-and-go scoring ability is its unrelenting defense. Five current Bobcats have been practicing Boldon’s defensive design for at least three years, and the results are indicative of a veteran defense.
Ohio is one of three teams in the MAC to hold opponents under 40 percent from the field and under 35 percent from 3-point range. The Bobcats have held opponents under 50 points more times (three) than they have allowed them to break 70 (twice).
Peak Bobcat defense, however, is forcing turnovers that turn into transition points. The best way Ohio has figured to beat set defenses is to not allow them to get set.
The Ohio transition attack isn’t exclusive to turnovers, either. The Ohio guards recognize when the opposing defense is lax after a rebound and can manufacture fast breaks in those situations as well.
Ohio has only been outscored in fast-break points twice this season. One came in the loss to Michigan. The other was a 2-0 final tally in the win against Buffalo.
The fatal flaw of the Bobcat defense is not a new concept for Boldon’s team. Ohio was last in the MAC in rebounding margin last season and is fourth from the bottom this season. That’s a noticeable improvement, but the Bobcats are still a team that gives opponents extra possessions.
One possible source for a rebounding kick could be 6-foot-2 Kelly Karlis, who is averaging 4.2 rebounds per game, compared to 5-foot-9 Agler’s four a game.
When all five players are attentive on defense, the rebounding is the only issue Ohio has on that end of the floor. The Bobcats won’t suddenly become a top rebounding team, but any incremental progress on the boards will cut down the energy spent on defense.
