Coach Saul Phillips won Summit League tournament championships in 2009 and 2014 to land North Dakota State in the NCAA Tournament, but he doesn’t have a textbook for success to hand to his Ohio players before they play in the Mid-American Conference tournament.
“But I did tell them to forget every sports movie they have seen because no one is going 22-for-22 from the field,” Phillips said. “This isn’t 'Hoosiers' in Hinkle Fieldhouse. Magical things can happen, and you can’t control them all.”
The second-seeded Bobcats (20-10) will walk into Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland as one of the hottest teams in the MAC, having won seven of their last nine games.