Diebler Leads Buckeyes Past Falcons
The Ghost not shooting a three! (AP: T. Gilliam)Looks like someone is gaining confidence. After scoring 9 points (3/6 treys) in the opener, Jon Diebler led all scorers with 17 points as Ohio State slipped past Bowling Green 61-57 tonight in the Schott.
The sophomore who struggled mightily with stand-on-the-perimeter-and-launch-three-itis last year, looked to drive the ball early and often scoring 6 straight points off penetration (2 FG, 2 FT) to give OSU a 16-8 lead in the early going. Diebler also tallied 5 rebounds and 3 assists in a well rounded performance.
Complimenting Diebler’s effort, Evan Turner added 12 points and 8 boards but showed turnovers are still his achilles heel. He showed poor basketball IQ, especially late in the game turning it over twice in the closing minutes allowing BG to hang around before he and David Lighty each hit a pair of free throws in the final :28 to seal the deal. He’s killing me with those TO’s as he’s clearly the best all around player on this team.
The Buckeyes led 41-30 with 14 minutes to play but found themselves in a dogfight after surrendering a 20-8 BG run resulting in a 50-49 deficit with 5:20 to go. Enter Dallas Lauderdale and the defense.
Lauderdale fueled an 8-0 run over the next two minutes converting a conventional three point play with a dunk and free throw before a Diebler triple while the zone defense held the Falcons to 7 points (3/9 FG) over the final 5 minutes.
It wasn’t a pretty win, but for a young team finding it’s way, I think it’s safe to say plenty more of these tight games are forthcoming.
On the inside, Dallas finished with 8 points, 7 boards and 6 blocks in 30 minutes but BJ Mullens only saw 11 minutes of action producing 2 points and 1 carom. Unfortunately, I still have the same feeling about Mullens as I did after the open practice. He’s nowhere near a ‘project’, but he appears far from comfortable at the offensive end of the floor if matched up against a physical opponent, regardless of height.
Jeremie Simmons also had a rough night hitting just 2/9 shots (6 points) though he did add 5 boards and 3 dimes. Anthony Crater registered just 11 minutes of PT contributing 3 points and 1 assist. I still like this point guard combo but neither dazzled me running the offense against BG’s zone. Both struggled to get penetration and kick out resulting in a lot of standing around by the other perimeter players.
Some other random bits:
- Wil Buford had another strong performance with 9 points (3/6 FG) and 3 steals in 16 minutes. He also had a sweet steal and lay in that was negated by a phantom charging call. So far, I’m very impressed with how he blends into the offense. He quietly scored 7 of OSU’s 8 points during a 4 minute stretch of the second half in place of Turner after he took a shot to the face.
- Besides coming to an agreement with Time Warner, the best move the BTN has made is signing Gus Johnson to cover play by play. He’s by far my favorite hoops announcer as he can make even OSU/BG in November exciting. I love his shouts of “puuuure” on deep jumpers. Just an awesome guy to listen to.
- On the flip, as much as I love Jim Jackson, his color commentary leaves a little to be desired. I was waiting for someone in the production truck to inform him OSU was playing zone after he incorrectly referred to OSU’s man to man defense twice in the first half.
33 Responses
Trackbacks
- Game 5: Norfolk State at Michigan Pre Game | UM Hoops.com
- Spartans Weblog » Wednesday links
- Eleven Warriors » Preview: Ohio State vs. Samford
I like Gus as well. It also doesn’t hurt that he called the OSU v. Xavier (Ron Lewis) game. We rocked the IP that morning.
I remember a lot of patrons of this blog were writing off Diebler last season as a bust. The season is still young, but you almost knew that the wide-eyes he had last season as a freshman came from, figuratively, not being in Kansas anymore and not being at a level of competition where he was bigger, stronger and faster than everyone else. His sophomore season is still young, but I look forward to continued improvement from Diebler.
They obviously paired JJ up with Gus for a reason. That game with X is one of the greatest hoops victories I’ve ever seen even though they didn’t cover the spread in OT;-)
I was not nervous late in the game, but I’m not sure why (Thad…I guess). I didn’t get off work in time to see the first game but Buford looks nasty and Simmons/Crater will be fine. Overall, a win is a win, but too many 3s and rebounding might be an issue again. Diebs play is encouraging. When you can shoot like he can there is no reason he shouldn’t drive the hoop plus he’s a dead eye at the line. I’m very excited about this team. It seems like so much more firepower than last year.
on a related note, the crowd absolutely sucked tonight…
it was embarrassing to be there..
Lewis has been awesome – lets it go! hits it! OOOO! AND WE’RE GOING TO OVERTIME INNN LEXINGTON HA HA
Gus is my man
We need to develop something to break a 2-3 zone other than throwing the ball around the perimeter to either lob up a three or dribble penetrate. The players rarely cut in to the gap at the top of the key to set up offense. This looks like last year’s offense.
Too many Buckeye turnovers last nite,,,,, but Lighty made the baskets at the end— and that was the difference.
I agree, crowd did suck last night. What is with the seats at the end of the court opposite of the student section? There was NOBODY in those seats in the first half.
I think they should institute that in the 2nd half, all seats in the lower bowl are available if no one is in them. I think the upper bowl was more full than the lower, which is just pathetic. I don’t want to blame the students (I’d like to blame the university for not making more available), but for as big a university as OSU is, the ’student’ section only numbered in the hundreds, low hundreds.
St. John is just such a better BASKETBALL venue. The Schott is a nice arena, but leaves a little to be desired as a basketball venue, especially when students are only allowed on the one baseline.
They really need to stiffen their defense though. They allowed to much penetration in the first half. Even with Dallas having 6 blocks last night it was still easy for them to get in the paint and get easy shots off. They also need to work on rebounding. They gave up to many second chance points. They are still young though and taking down a veteran team like BG was a good win. Still much work to be done though. Mullens looked lost and to easily frustrated when something didnt go his way. One other thing on Dallas. He has a horrible looking shot. I thought he played a pretty good game last night but, his shot is ugly.
I really like what I’ve seen out of Buford. He’s fluid and exciting. I’m not sure who said it – a commenter here, or Corey – but he may well be the one guy on the roster who I could see as a “one-and-done.” He looks really good.
BJ sucks. I’m even lower on him than I was before the game last night. He needs a lot of work. I agree with Corey that he’s not a project, per se, but he’s certainly just a rung or two above that, at this point. Dallas is a much more dominating presence.
“I think they should institute that in the 2nd half, all seats in the lower bowl are available if no one is in them. I think the upper bowl was more full than the lower, which is just pathetic.”
I couldn’t agree more, and I have no idea why this hasn’t been made the case already. I don’t know what the university is thinking, especially around the holidays, when folks have things other than basketball on their mind. Ridiculous.
Great run-down, Corey.
Was it just me, or were too many buckeyes trying to be cute with the ball? I saw way too many stupid mistakes when they tried to do something cute. Trying to put moves on a guy, spinning around and losing the ball… they should stick to fundamentals. That’s why BGSU kept it so close, some OSU players kept trying to show off and kept turning it over… Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s just what I saw.
I didnt get a chance to watch the game, so great run-down Chris. Nice write-up. Glad to know I can still follow the team even if I cant see the games everynight.
Folks, there’s a reason Matta played Diebler for all but 3 minutes of the game. He’s about the only one that “gets it”. He understands what Matta wants to do and he works very hard, offensively and defensively, to accomplish it.
It’s not a coincidence that the lead vanished when he took out Diebler. They lacked someone to control Turner. How many turnovers did he have in that 3 minutes? 2 or 3? Also, as much as I like Lighty, the young man cannot dissappear like he does. When I looked at the box score and saw he was on the floor for 36 minutes I about fainted. It seemed like half that time.
Our crowd almost always sucks because the Schott sucks and because our richer fans take the good seats while the real fans are relegated to nosebleed. I wish Thad would make a public push to re-configure the seating at least to give the students a sideline section. I know crazy talk.
Buford is smooth and has a lot of potential. Would like to see Mullens play a little more so he can toughen up and get ready for conference play. Aside from having too many turnovers, this team needs somebody to step forward as the late game go-to guy.
Great to see the Buckeyes back in action and Matta has done a great job bringing in transfers, freshman, and Juco players. It might take a while for everyone to jel, but they should be good this year. And Lauderdale has improved so much from last year, who would have thought Mullens would be sitting behind him.
Are the students out of school right now? I am not surprised by the ho-hum crowd last night and I have no right to complain if I didn’t go, but why go to a hoops game and sit on your hands? I’m disappointed in the students if they are in school and didn’t go last night. They reworked the seats last year to allow them behind both baskets. I used to sit behind the basket, but was moved to 12 rows from the top, to make room for the seat change. I hope last night was a fluke, there needs to be more support for this team.
did anyone else laugh a little bit when gus johnson and JJ talked about their time spent at cedar point in UPPER sandusky during their childhood?
come on, JJ – youre better than that. quit being out of hound.
It will take me a week or two to transition from football mode to basketball mode. I watched last night and thought I’d see more of Mullens on the floor. He seems very athletic for his size and has a nice looking shot.
Any chance we go big at times during the year with Lauderdale at the 5 and Mullens at the 4??
now that everyone is bringing up seating it was pretty pathetic last night. I watched it from home but could see there was no one there. Or at least no one in the lower sections. Its kind of hard to have a home court advantage when no one shows up for the games to cheer you on and give you a little extra energy. Dont get me wrong I know its thanksgiving and all this week so there may not have been many students around but, these guys deserve a better crowd then what they got. You never see this at a N. Carolina or Duke game. Those seats are always packed. The fans are always going wild. Its time the buckeyes get the same thing, that could also help with landing more of the top recruits if we can show them the game environment is as big as those at a N Carolina or Duke game.
My observations from last night:
1. Simmons has not seen a shot that he does not like
2. Free-throw shooting will cost OSU at least 3 wins this year
3. Buford is really smooth
4. Turner cannot be trusted with the ball at crunch time
5. Mullins favors fade-away jumpers over power moves
6. Diebler will be great by his senior year
okay if mullens cant dominate against delaware state and BGSU, what makes anyone think he is going to suddenly kick ass in B10 conference play? his fade aways make me want to pull my hair out, and even when he tries to perform some sort of power move it usually involves him barreling into someone without any sort of idea of what he is going to do next.
diebler had a nice game, but lets not get crazy here. saying he “is going to be great” is a little premature. he is still questionable on defense and is still, at best, a streaky shooter.
buford is a special player. once he and turner learn to play together and compliment eachother, the future is bright. i am not worried about either one – they simply need time. they have all of the tools to be really special players.
yeah, our basketball “fans” are pathetic.
lighty still confuses the total crap out of me. 2-5 FT shooting is embarassing for a guard that is going to school for free.
thad is rad.
oh, and mark titus is going to make a serious push for 2nd team all big ten.
simmons, in defense of the students who didnt go…
i showed up and didnt have season tickets, and i got an email saying tickets started around 16 dollars. so i was like, whatever, ill just sneak into the student section with my friend…
so when i went to buy a ticket, the cheapest was 19 dollars! for a student! when half of the section wasnt even filled to begin with (yeah, that whole empty zone on the one side of the building was supposed to be students). i was sitting up in the nosebleeds for 19 dollars. Pathetic, OSU…
stepping off the soap box now…
I like how Lauderdale is still getting his blocks and deibler is more confident with his shots. i hope we can get BJ in there for more minutres…get him more comfortable.
“mark titus is going to make a serious push for 2nd team all big ten.”
The heck he will. If he does so, he tarnishes some of his greatness. We like him because he is, in fact, Mark Titus. We don’t need another Buford. We like one Mark Titus.
Mullens goes pro no matter what, so he’s avoiding contact to avoid inj’s.
Buford is the best player on the team, Turner is too careless.
Diebler shyed away from alot of three’s, thats what hes there for.SHOOT!!!
He will not earn playing time not shooting three’s when Buford emerges.
As with Diebler, the difference between D2 High School hoops and NCAA DI is tremendous. It is going to take time for Mullens to emerge and unfortunately he doesn’t have the outside shot like Koufos did last year.
I liked Diebler’s game last night. It is smart to drive to the hole early on, to get your shot going. If he continues that, he could have stellar season.
HAHA! You’re killing me, Joe! I’m going to have to start signing my name at the bottom of my recaps so you know it’s me!
Oh, and I know everyone’s in love with Diebler at the moment but I’d recommend tempering that love just a bit. He’s looked good so far against weak competition. I want nothing more than for him to excel because this team can use an effective Diebler but if I recall, he had some ups before major downs last season. Let’s give him some time to prove consistent.
Diebs has only played weak comp this year, but if I recall he had his highest output of his career against the Tar Heels, which last I checked was a pretty solid BBall school.
I am not sold on him 100% yet either, but he is starting to make me a believer. You can tell when he is on the court because he is going 110mph. I don’t know if that is lack of ‘natural’ ability to where he has to work harder than everyone else on the floor or just the player he is. But I think as he goes, so will the team. His outside shot can open up things in the lane for Swatterdale and Mullens, as well as for our guards penetration.
Diebler will be fine. If he averages 8ppg this year he will have contributed. They need consistency from him more than anything. Not sure why Mullens output has been so low, or why he was the top-ranked h.s. player according to rivals. Hopefully, he will get more comfortable in the next few games and start contributing something. The careless turnovers have to stop. Turner is a great talent, but if he’s going to be casual with the ball he’s really going to hurt them in key situations. Ultimately they are a very young team and will need time to develop. My hope is that they are better at the end of the season than last year’s team.