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Has Tim O’Shea Hurt the Long Term Future for the Ohio Bobcats?

Has Tim O’Shea hurt the long term future for the Ohio Bobcats? I say yes. This is a strange conversation to have about a guy who took his team to their first NCAA Tournament in a decade two seasons ago. It’s an even stranger conversation to have about a coach who looks to have his team poised to at least compete for an NCAA Tournament bid this season.

Hear me out.

I know a large number of Ohio Bobcat fans are Tim O’Shea bashers. I am not. That said, I think Bobcat fans should breathe a sigh of relief if O’Shea has enough success this season to garner a job offer from a bigger school in a better conference. It’s not because I think O’Shea is a bad guy, or a terrible coach. I just don’t believe he has the vision to build a sustainable basketball program. If he has this vision, he certainly hasn’t displayed it to me thus far. (If you want to see the perfect model of what I consider a sustainable system, see Kent State).

There are two main parts to coaching college basketball. You’ve gotta be able to coach and you’ve gotta be able to recruit. My problem with the job that O’Shea is doing right now is that the way that he recruits and the way that he coaches don’t mesh. A lot of Bobcat fans would argue with me here. O’Shea is considered a successful recruiter by a lot of Bobcat fans because of his big successes. He generally brings one fairly talented, possible All-MAC player into the program each year. O’Shea has brought in guys over the years like Jeff Halbert, Sonny Troutman, Leon Williams, Jeremy Fears, and Jerome Tillman. These were all solid, possibly standout, MAC players from the day they arrived on campus.

The problem with O’Shea’s recruiting is that he has been largely ineffective in bringing in a supporting cast for his core guys. Over the years, O’Shea has been unable to recruit multiple players in a year that he could develop over the long term. He continuously has taken chances on project JUCOs and transfers who don’t have 4 full years to develop and never pan out.

This wouldn’t necessarily be poison for all coaches, but O’Shea has shown an unwillingness, or inability, to get his bench regular minutes during his tenure in Athens. The result is that O’Shea sometimes does a poor job of developing talent in the short-term, because it’s hard for guys who aren’t in starting five to get consistent minutes in his system.

Again, this is an OK coaching philosophy, but when you couple it with the way that O’Shea recruits, it becomes dangerous for a program’s year-to-year stability. Instead of bringing in players who he could develop over 4 years (see: Whitney Davis) O’Shea has overloaded this year’s senior class by taking chances on a couple of players with only two years of eligibility. As a coach you can’t continue to recruit projects with only a portion of their eligibility left, or you take the chance of getting burned. Neither Ken Ottrix or Johnnie Jackson looked to fit in with this team from the day that they stepped on campus, and both of them were dismissed from the team earlier this season.

The Bobcats will be bringing in at least six new players next season (this number could grow to seven depending on Antonio Chatman’s status). They’ll have a small, but impressive core of guys who’ve seen consistent minutes, Leon Williams, Jerome Tillman, Bubba Walther, and Kenneth Van Kempen. Also count Justin Orr in that group as the transfer from Murray State shouldn’t have any problems adjusting to the MAC. Looking at that core, how nice would it be if instead of bringing in two-year projects like Ottrix and Jackson, O’Shea had brought in a couple of four year projects who he could have worked to develop over the past two years? How nice would it have been if even one of those guys would have been ready to contribute, even if on a limited basis, as a junior next season?

As a coach, you’re going to have recruiting misses. The point is, it doesn’t make sense to bring in guys with only partial eligibility remaining who are projects or role players. Teams have more success recruiting 4 year players, coaching them up, and molding them into the roles that they fit. It’s certainly easier than taking partially raw JUCOs and transfers with only half the time to learn the system, the conference, their roles, etc.

By Dan Whitmyer, VanDelay Sports Head Basketball Writer & Ohio Beat Writer

published 01.18.2007

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