Ohio Bobcats Men’s Basketball Tickets
The Ohio Bobcats men’s basketball team is a Division I program for Ohio University. The team is located in Athens, Ohio and plays their home games at the Convocation Center. The Convocation Center has a capacity of 13,080 people and opened in 1968. The team has won more than 75% of its home games since the opening of the Convocation Center, attesting to the atmosphere created by the “O Zone,” the name of the student section. The team plays in the Mid-American Conference. The team is currently coached by Jim Christian. This is Christian’s first year as coach of the Bobcats.
The team played its first game in 1907, and since that point, has achieved a high-level of success for a mid-major program. The team won its first conference championship in 1921, and won three more in the 1930s, before a lengthy period of failures. Jim Snyder took over the reins of the team in 1949, and turned the team into one of the top mid-major programs in the country. During his tenure, the team made seven NCAA Tournament appearances, including Sweet Sixteen appearances in 1960 and 1964, and a trip to the Elite Eight in 1964. After moderate amounts of success for the rest of the century, in the 2000s, the Bobcats began to harness their skill. Under Tim O’Shea, the team reached a level of success it hadn’t seen since the 60s and 70s. After O’Shea left, former Ohio State assistant John Groce took the reins. Under Groce, the team went 85-56 and went 3-2 in the NCAA Tournament including a run to the Sweet Sixteen in 2012, where they were eventually eliminated in overtime against North Carolina. Ohio has featured twenty-one players selected in the NBA Draft, most recently Brandon Hunter in 2003 by the Boston Celtics in the second round.
Ohio’s main rival is Miami University (of Ohio). The so-called “Battle of the Bricks” is an annual matchup between the two teams. The Bobcats lead the series 98-91 in a series of very hotly contested duels. The Bobcats also list Marshall University as a rival, as games between these two in-state foes take on an extra bit of importance.
