Men's Basketball

Awards

• Ohio lost their last game which was against the Akron Zips - 59-71. The Bobcats have lost two straight. The first loss in the two game streak was a 73-74 overtime loss at Florida International.

• The Bobcats have lost 4 of their last 6 games.

• This will be the 64th meeting between Ball State and Ohio University. Ohio leads the all time series 35-28. Ball State leads the series when games are played in Muncie 15-13. Ohio's last victory in Muncie was on January 3rd, 2001. 

• Ohio won last years meeting in Athens. The Cardinals fought back from a double digit deficit to force overtime, but came out on the short end 88-84. Matt McCollom lead BSU with 23 points in the game. During the game a nasty ice storm hit Athens and Cardinal fans and team were delayed by a multi-car pileup that happened on a US-33 bridge on the way out of town. Lets hope things are not as nasty with the ice storm that is expected to hit Muncie on Wednesday.

• Ohio U is 7-1 vs. Ball State when the game is played in the first week of January, but only 3 of those 8 games were played in Muncie; one of which was the Ball State victory.

• Ball State lost it's only previous January 5th meeting with Ohio. Overall Ball State is 11-12 on January 5th however, Tim Buckley coached Ball State teams have never lost on January 5th.

• Ohio has won 9 MAC regular season championships (1960, 61, 64, 65, 70, 72, 74, 85, 94).

• Ohio has won 3 MAC Tournaments (1983, 85, 94).

• Ohio U has represented the MAC on 10 different occasions in the NCAA tournament and has a 4-11 record (one loss  was in a consolation game) with victories over Notre Dame, Kentucky, Louisville, and Illinois State. OU's deepest penetration in the NCAA Tournament was in 1964 when they made it to the final 8. Ohio is also 4-4 in the post-season NIT.

• Ohio won the 1994 pre-season NIT. 

• Ohio University is the oldest school in the MAC and was the first college west of the Appalachian Mountains.

• Ohio University is thought to be the most haunted college campus on the planet and one of the scariest places anywhere. That's not just for the football and basketball coaches who are unlucky enough to be hired to lead the Bobcats! Many of the buildings on OU's campus have haunting stories. Apparently one of the buildings, Wilson Hall, is even built on top of the old cemetery for the Athens Mental Health Center. Even OU's arena, The Convo, is said to be haunted, and there are stories of haunted closets, doors that open and close by themselves, and a murdered dormitory RA who walks the halls and makes sure the doors are locked each night. I've been to games there three different times and frankly, OU's students are enough to earn them the distinction of scariest place on earth, so it's hard to disagree with the "experts."

Pre-game comments from Tim Buckley and Peyton Stovall