THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

I didn't want this to get lost in all that's going on today with the NFL and the Bengals. I'll have more on that later in the day.

I spent this weekend in Cleveland watching my alma mater completely dominate a school in the Big East. Ohio brought balanced scoring, tenacious defense and the most important thing a team needs to do, make free throws.

I was particularly impressed with a couple of players, three actually. Leon Williams couldn't be handled by anyone on the UC team. He was fouled virtually every time he touched the ball in the paint. Of course, it wasn't always called. But when he went to the line, Leon was 'money', 12 of 15 from the line. Leon also hauled down 12-rebounds and managed a couple of blocks and a couple of assists.

Whitney Davis looked sharp too. He's got a unique style handling the ball, but he not only gets it into his playmakers hands, he also can score.

Jerome Tillman was solid and so was Sonny Troutman. I made the observation after watching Ohio defeat Bellermine earlier this year: Troutman may have a sweet lefthanded shot and he will penetrate the lane, but his best weapon is the pass. He's very unselfish.

I spent some time talking with Tim O'Shea. The Bobcats head coach told me there wasn't any secret to his defense on UC. Like Ohio did with Louisville, the Bobcats packed it in tight and allowed the Bearcats to try and beat them with the three ball. Neither team, historically, has shot well from the outside. The strategy worked.

It was great visiting with some other coaches. I got to talk with Kevin Kuwik and Brian Townsend. Brian said he grew up watching me on television (ouch!), while he was a stand out athlete at Cincinnati's Northwest High School.

I got a chance to visit again with assistant coach Doug Dewey, who was a standout athlete at Cincinnati's Glen Este High School. Terrific guy and is learning a lot from the other coaches on the Ohio staff.

Bubba Walther said the same thing too. That was a little easier to take, considering Bubba isn't that far removed from Moeller.

Ohio will play deep into March. I've seen Miami play. Charlie Coles will get everything that team has, but I don't see the RedHawks being any kind of factor. But with solid wins over a Big East team (UC) and an Atlantic 10 team (St Joe's), Ohio has laid the ground work for a great run through the MAC. Bobcat fans should be stoked.

By the way, the Ohio football team leaves Tuesday for the GMAC Bowl. If you live in central and southern Ohio, I'm filling in this Thursday and Friday morning on 1530 Homer WCKY. Ohio head football coach, Frank Solich, will be my 'live' guest from Mobile at 9:10am this Thursday. If you don't live here in the greater Cincinnati area, you can catch it on line.

I'll have more on the Bobcats later in the week on my The Broo View podcast, which you can catch on my web site, www.kenbroo.com.


Go Bobcats!

Ken