Ohio will play their first game of a 10-day road trip on Thursday against Evansville.
Ohio’s taking its own spin on a National Lampoon movie by embarking on a 10-day road trip that'll conclude with spending Christmas in Hawaii.
Next week, the Bobcats will be one of eight teams in this year’s Diamond Head Classic, where they'll play three games in four days.
The Bobcats, however, hope traveling away from the contiguous United States isn’t too much of a distraction as their road trip began Wednesday when they took a bus to Evansville, Indiana.
Ohio (3-3) will play the back end of a home-and-home series with Evansville on Thursday evening in its second road game this season — the first since being blown out by Florida Gulf Coast. The Bobcats defeated the Purple Aces 81-59 in The Convo last year, holding Evansville to 38 percent shooting.
“Don’t overlook Evansville because when we played them last year, they were no joke. A lot of guys knew what that team was about last year and we’re going to play them at their place,” senior guard Stevie Taylor said after Saturday’s 66-55 win against Alcorn State.
“We can look forward to Hawaii or we’ll catch an ‘L’ before we even get in Hawaii.”
After playing just four games in the past 23 days, Ohio’s depth and stamina will be tested during its four-game trip. Ryan Taylor, a freshman guard, missed last Saturday’s game with mononucleosis, but he’s been cleared to play against Evansville. His minutes may be limited, however, if he plays at all.
“I’m going to see how he feels. If he’s not ready to go, he’s not ready to go,” coach Saul Phillips said. “But I will tell you this, he’ll be ready to go by Hawaii. The Evansville game is a game, but there’s three games in Hawaii there in four days and that extra body is gonna be huge for us.”
Evansville (7-2) strung together a five-game winning streak before losing by two points to Murray State last weekend. During that stretch the Purple Aces defeated Belmont, which defeated Ohio on a last-second game-winner earlier this season.
The Bobcats also won last weekend, but had lost their previous two games and had a putrid first half on the road against Florida Gulf Coast. Ohio is hoping to start putting together more complete games by having all aspects of the team complement each other.
“I’m seeing what can happen if we all come together on the same night. If we all get back defensively on the same night,” Phillips said. “We’ll get there, we’ll get there.”
With multiple plane rides ahead of them, the Bobcats hope to start their road trip on the right note Thursday against the Purple Aces. Taylor, one of the Bobcats’ three seniors, said if Hawaii is already a distraction, they’ll “nip that in the butt” and make sure they're focused on Evansville during the bus ride to the Ford Center.
“As a senior, I will make sure the guys really know, ‘hey listen this is what we need to do. Let’s take care of business so we can enjoy our time up there for a couple days and then get back to business,” Stevie Taylor said.
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