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Topic: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Topic: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

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Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
General User

Member Since: 7/30/2010
Post Count: 4,177

Status: Offline

2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Posted: 10/24/2025 8:26:06 PM

First game is 10 days away. What do folks expect?

vs Arkansas State
vs Illinois State
@ Saint Mary's
@ 11 Louisville
vs Bethune-Cookman
vs George Mason *
vs FAU or Loyola Marymount
vs Maine
vs Marshall
vs St. Bonaventure *
vs Ohio Wesleyan
vs Bowling Green
vs Miami (OH)-Hamilton
@ Central Michigan
@ Eastern Michigan
vs Massachusetts
vs Buffalo
@ Toledo
@ Ball State
vs Northern Illinois
vs Akron
@ Kent State
@ Buffalo
vs Western Michigan
at Sun Belt Team
@ Miami (OH)
vs Ball State
@ Northern Illinois
vs Toledo
@ Massachusetts
vs Miami (OH)

MAC Tournament

Leaving this one blank so folks can copy & paste. Will post mine below.

Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
General User

Member Since: 7/30/2010
Post Count: 4,177

Status: Offline

RE: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Posted: 10/24/2025 8:37:32 PM

vs Arkansas State -- L
vs Illinois State -- L
@ Saint Mary's -- L
@ 11 Louisville -- L
vs Bethune-Cookman -- W
neutral site George Mason * -- L
neutral site FAU or Loyola Marymount -- L
vs Maine -- W
vs Marshall -- W
neutral site St. Bonaventure -- L
vs Ohio Wesleyan -- W
vs Bowling Green -- W
vs Miami (OH)-Hamilton -- W
@ Central Michigan -- W
@ Eastern Michigan -- W
vs Massachusetts -- W
vs Buffalo -- W
@ Toledo -- L
@ Ball State -- L
vs Northern Illinois -- W
vs Akron -- L
@ Kent State -- L
@ Buffalo -- W
vs Western Michigan -- W
at Sun Belt Team -- W
@ Miami (OH) -- L
vs Ball State -- W
@ Northern Illinois -- W
vs Toledo -- W
@ Massachusetts -- L
vs Miami (OH) -- L

Overall: 17-14
MAC: 11-7

MAC Tournament -- Win Game 1 as 4 seed, lose in semis

GraffZ06
General User

Member Since: 1/5/2005
Location: Dayton, OH
Post Count: 2,267

Status: Offline

RE: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Posted: 10/24/2025 10:02:56 PM

vs Arkansas State - L
vs Illinois State - L
@ Saint Mary's - L
@ 11 Louisville - L
vs Bethune-Cookman - W
vs George Mason * - L
vs FAU or Loyola Marymount - W
vs Maine - W
vs Marshall - L
vs St. Bonaventure * - L
vs Ohio Wesleyan - W
vs Bowling Green - W
vs Miami (OH)-Hamilton - W
@ Central Michigan - L
@ Eastern Michigan - W
vs Massachusetts - L
vs Buffalo - W
@ Toledo - L
@ Ball State - W
vs Northern Illinois - W
vs Akron - L
@ Kent State - L
@ Buffalo - L
vs Western Michigan - W
at Sun Belt Team - L
@ Miami (OH) - L
vs Ball State - W
@ Northern Illinois - W
vs Toledo - L
@ Massachusetts - L
vs Miami (OH) - W

MAC Tourney 0-1

Total: 14-18, 9-9 in MAC

I said it last year, and I'll say it again this year because it's still true - a team led by Jackson Paveletzke and AJ Clayton/Aidan Hadaway isn't winning the MAC.

OhioCatFan
General User

Member Since: 12/20/2004
Location: Athens, OH
Post Count: 14,972

Status: Offline

RE: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Posted: 10/24/2025 10:35:14 PM

Another depressing basketball thread. I guess I'll go back to the football forum. It's clear we are now a football school and basketball is kind of a second thought. It sounds like in March, we'll all be saying, is it football season yet?

The only BLSS Certified Hypocrite on BA

"It is better to be an optimist and be proven a fool than to be a pessimist and be proven right."

Note: My avatar is the national colors of the 78th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, which are now preserved in a climate controlled vault at the Ohio History Connection. Learn more about the old 78th at: http://www.78ohio.org

Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
General User

Member Since: 7/30/2010
Post Count: 4,177

Status: Offline

RE: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Posted: 10/25/2025 10:34:30 AM

GraffZ06 wrote:

I said it last year, and I'll say it again this year because it's still true - a team led by Jackson Paveletzke and AJ Clayton/Aidan Hadaway isn't winning the MAC.

Feels like your view of the team has changed quite a bit. I kind of remember you spending a lot of last year as one of Boals' most vocal defenders and chalking up the lack of results to bad luck. You said this in February of last season:

GraffZ06 wrote:

You don't think an Ohio team with Pavs/Mitchell/Brown/Hadaway/Clayton as it's healthy starting 5 and a combo of Sheldon/Elliott/James/Searls off the bench isn't a top 1/2 team in the MAC? We'll never know because we never got to see it, but the only team that could even remotely hang with that team is Akron IMO.

Sounds like you thought they were the most talented team in the league, no? And in the thread about Boals' record against Kent, Akron, and Toledo you were still suggesting we could win the conference tournament in mid February.

Seems like you've finally come around to the critiques of Boals' roster construction. Welcome to the dark side.

GraffZ06
General User

Member Since: 1/5/2005
Location: Dayton, OH
Post Count: 2,267

Status: Offline

RE: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Posted: 10/25/2025 12:41:59 PM

We were the most talented team, when healthy, last year. Shoot, we might have the best collection of talent this year too. Doesn't help though, that no matter what combinatorics you try - there isn't a group of 5 that actually compliments each other well.

Pavs/Mitchell/Brown/Hadaway/Clayton > Pavs/Sheldon/Elliott/Hadaway/Simmons

And off the bench Elliott/Sheldon/EJ4/Searls > Conners/Breath/.....?

I still think Boals is a great coach. I think our current roster construction is....head scratching. I think we lost a ton of talent from an under-performing team last year, and replaced it with a lot of talented, but young unknowns (Fisher/Kelly/Burris/Mosley) who don't look ready YET.

Combine that with what was an absolutely embarrassing performance against a middling, lower level WSU team (even as a scrimmage) - and I don't see how we don't take a step back this year.

Even last year I was begging to move Elliott to his natural guard position and fill the SG spot with a true 3pt shooter, and then go bigger at 3/4/5 to help with defense and rebounding (but that moves boy wonder to the bench). Nobody liked that idea. We have the same dang problem this year - only the guys who need to fill that shooter role are all unknowns right now (Conners/Burris/Fisher/Kelly).

Now if 2 or 3 of that group of 4 I just listed emerge and are capable of being that shooter, and can defend/rebound well enough to get significant minutes? I think that changes the entire equation. They become the missing ingredients that allow pieces to fit - and allows our talent to naturally come to the forefront. That hypothetical team could challenge for the MAC. My brain just doesn't believe it until I see it.

Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
General User

Member Since: 7/30/2010
Post Count: 4,177

Status: Offline

RE: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Posted: 10/25/2025 3:36:29 PM

GraffZ06 wrote:

I'm not really following. You spent the entire year pushing back against people saying that exact thing -- that the roster construction made no sense -- and insisting that if we were healthy, we'd have been a top team. Now you're saying that the talent didn't matter, because of the roster construction. That's what everyone was saying last year and you were arguing against.

GraffZ06 wrote:

Even last year I was begging to move Elliott to his natural guard position and fill the SG spot with a true 3pt shooter, and then go bigger at 3/4/5 to help with defense and rebounding (but that moves boy wonder to the bench). Nobody liked that idea.

Who would have been the bigger option at the 3 last year? Elliot/AJB (presumably the shooter)/???/Hadaway (for the brief stretch he was healthy) / Clayton. Who was on the roster that allowed for that option?

Taiwan BC
General User

Member Since: 12/20/2004
Location: Kaohsiung
Post Count: 520

Status: Offline

RE: 2025 - 2026 Season Predictions

Posted: 10/26/2025 12:21:45 AM

vs Arkansas State -- W
vs Illinois State -- L
@ Saint Mary's -- L
@ 11 Louisville -- L
vs Bethune-Cookman -- W
neutral site George Mason * -- L
neutral site FAU or Loyola Marymount -- W
vs Maine -- W
vs Marshall -- W Let's GOOOOOOOOOO!!!
neutral site St. Bonaventure -- W
vs Ohio Wesleyan -- W
vs Bowling Green -- W
vs Miami (OH)-Hamilton -- W
@ Central Michigan -- L
@ Eastern Michigan -- W
vs Massachusetts -- W
vs Buffalo -- W
@ Toledo -- L
@ Ball State -- W
vs Northern Illinois -- W
vs Akron -- W
@ Kent State -- L
@ Buffalo -- W
vs Western Michigan -- W
at Sun Belt Team -- W
@ Miami (OH) -- L
vs Ball State -- W
@ Northern Illinois -- W
vs Toledo -- W
@ Massachusetts -- L
vs Miami (OH) -- W

Overall: 22-9
MAC: 13-5
Boals finds 2 3pt shooters out of Pavs, Conners, Sheldon or Burris and finishes strong.
MAC Tournament Champs Baby!

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