Coaches Corner: #SaulBall Chapter 2

Alrighty! It has been quite a few weeks since the end of college basketball season, but not too far from that national championship game that college basketball is an irrelevant topic!

Most conversations around the water cooler entail the latest head coach firings, and more importantly, who will be the replacement.

Over here at Ohio University, Saul and Company are gearing up for the 2015-16 season, or as I am referring to as "Chapter 2" of #SaulBall! Coach heads back out this weekend for another round of recruiting and then we have some "rest" until July! We shall see what Coach's recruiting schedule look like given Little Miss Kemp's due date (June 26, 2015).

Before Coach heads out, I figure I might as well sit down and ask him a few questions about Ohio Men's Basketball!

What was the highlight of the 2014-15 basketball season?

The two things I will remember about our first team at Ohio would be the Akron and Buffalo home games. We were able to give our fans a glimpse of the excitement of the future. The Buffalo game, in particular, came down to the last possession and our senior forward Maurice Ndour dunked the basketball with one second left on the clock sending the crown into a frenzy. We have the best fans in the MAC. I cannot wait until next year!

What was your favorite road trip of the season?

Outside of the conference road win at Ball State, I would have to go with the Hawaii trip. It is hard to beat Waikiki Beach for the holidays! In addition to spending Christmas with family in Hawaii, we had a nice win against DePaul of the Big East Conference, and a game against our good friend Tim Miles, and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. It is hard to beat Waikiki Beach for the holidays!

This year you wrote again for the College ChalkTalk National Coaches' Diary Series. Are you disappointed to see the series discontinued?

It was a great experience writing for Chris Di Sano and College ChalkTalk. I enjoyed contributing to the site and hope the coaching fraternity enjoyed my entries. It would have been nice to continue writing, but college coaching will definitely keep me busy!

What was the most disappointing loss?

Since all losses are disappointing, I will go with the final loss of the season. We were coming off of a convincing win against Miami Ohio, and played at Western Michigan in the MAC tournament. I truly believe our guys played winning basketball for 30 minutes in that game. Unfortunately we came up short, but it was good to end the season in competitive fashion. It will certainly bode well for the future of Bobcat Basketball.

What are your thoughts about the Badgers?

I have been a Badger fan since I was about three. They are my hometown team. It has been a great experience to watch them play in two straight Final Four games. Simply put, the championship game was a battle of two great teams and two great coaches. Go Badgers!

The season is over, what is on your plate now?

We have turned over a large portion of our roster and are excited about the future. We have some talented players, and are excited about our freshman. We are spending a lot of time with our team, and they are responding well. Other than that, we have one more recruiting weekend, so we will be able to see plenty of potential Bobcats. I have plenty to keep me busy while we wait on Little Miss Kemp!

What do Ohio fans have to look forward to next season?

The Ohio fan base will be proud of the progress we will make next year. We will be hard working, and we will play together. Like our past teams, we will focus on emphasizing the winning elements of the game. Turnover margin, rebound margin, field goal percentage, and free throw margin will be our focus. We must get better in all of those categories. We cannot wait to get started with our new look Bobcats!

Thanks Coach for the interview. Check out our interview last year "The Madness Never Stops!"

Michelyn Cynthia