Turner and Buford must tickle the twine
Ohio State
17-7, 7-6 Big Ten
Roster | Schedule
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February 22, 2009 1:00 PM ET - CBS —— The Schott Columbus, OH |
#16 Illinois
21-6, 9-5 Big Ten
Roster | Schedule
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The Buckeyes welcome Illinois to the Schott for a national TV clash on the heels of back to back road losses against Northwestern and Wisconsin dropping them to 7-6 in conference play.
The Illini arrive in Columbus holding on to third place in the Big Ten standings at 9-4 with their most recent outing resulting in a dismal 38-33 loss, at home no less, to Penn State. The loss snapped a three game win streak as Bruce Weber's squad shot 30% from the floor with 15 turnovers triggering the lowest offensive output for the program since 1947.
This will be the second match up between OSU and Illinois this season after the Illini took Ohio State behind the woodshed thrashing the Buckeyes 67-49 in Champaign on January 20th.
The win snapped a five game losing streak against the Buckeyes as Illinois handed OSU their worst loss in conference play since a 19 point beat down at the hands of the Illini back in 2005.
| # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST | POS | # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Jeremie Simmons | 7.3 | 1.6 | 2.9 | G | 3 | Chester Frazier | 5.4 | 4.8 | 5.3 |
| 33 | Jon Diebler | 11.3 | 3.3 | 2.6 | G | 32 | Demetri McCamey | 11.8 | 2.7 | 4.8 |
| 21 | Evan Turner | 17.2 | 7.3 | 3.5 | F | 1 | Trent Meachem | 10.0 | 2.3 | 2.5 |
| 44 | William Buford | 11.4 | 3.3 | 1.2 | F | 24 | Mike Davis | 10.6 | 7.8 | 1.8 |
| 52 | Dallas Invisidale | 4.9 | 4.0 | 0.3 | C | 54 | Mike Tisdale | 11.0 | 4.0 | 0.6 |
Opponent
Chester Frazier and company completely shut down Evan Turner in the first contest holding him to a season low four points on 2/7 shooting while forcing the Buckeyes into more turnovers (20) than field goals (19). The key for Weber was employing heavy ball pressure on the lackluster OSU point guards making it extremely difficult for them to initiate the offense while Frazier took nest in Turner's shorts allowing him a season low two field goals. Surely, the best scoring and field goal percentage defense in the conference (55.6) will use the same game plan in an effort to disrupt the league's best field goal shooting team and second best scoring offense (67.0) on Sunday.
Offensively, Illinois attacked the OSU zone at foul line extended and in the short corners led by 7'1" Mike Tisdale's 15 points. Ball movement around the zone allowed Illinois to place four in double figures and with four guys averaging double digits on the year, it will take a a more inspired effort from Buckeye defenders if they plan to pull a very necessary mild upset at home.
Demetri McCamey hurt OSU with a 13 point, 7 assist outing and besides Tisdale the front liners need to keep an eye on the athletic Mike Davis and Dominique Keller, a 6'7", 230 lb reserve who took advantage of OSU's lack of a true four man on defense to take a season high 10 shots, making six, in a 12 point, six rebound performance in only 20 minutes.
Buckeye Breakdown:
I expect some home cookin' will be the remedy for what was a lackluster effort in Evanston both on the court and the sidelines but it's going to take more than playing hard to secure what would be a huge boost to the resume. I know plenty of folks think an NCAA bid is all but secured however I think this could easily be the swing game of the season.
A win would stop a two game slide (admittedly roadies) and give the Buckeyes a much needed jolt of confidence which is of increased importance considering this game is the first of three critical match ups in seven days with Penn State coming to Columbus on Tuesday and a trip to West Lafayette slated for Saturday.
Conversely, a home loss would send the Buckeyes limping into two crucial games riding a three game losing streak combined with the increasing no-brainer that is Lighty won't be back to help right the ship.
As usual, an Ohio State victory will hinge on whether or not Evan Turner goes off and gets some legit help from at least one and a half other teammates. Jon Diebler was that second scorer against Northwestern blowing up for 28 but those came against arguably the league's worst defense. Of course, Illinois shut down Diebler in the first game holding him to six points on just five shots and I think it's logical to predict he'll be a non-to-small factor scoring wise on Sunday.
Truth is, Diebler has a penchant for going off against the Big Ten's garbage defenses. His four best scoring outputs in conference are against the three worst defenses: 28 on Northwestern, 27 on Iowa and 21 and 17, respectively, on Indiana.
The good news is it can also be argued Diebler is streaky which could carryover to Sunday but I have a hunch it will be Buford, not Diebler, who steps up against the athletic Illini.
If nothing else, Buford is due to break out of his three game shooting slump and he'll likely have to take plenty of shots since he's one of two Buckeyes who can create his own. Buford hit only 5 of 14 in the loss at Assembly Hall but one thing I don't worry about with him is confidence.
B.J. Mullens went for 14 and seven but struggled with the physicality of the Illini defense committing four turnovers back in January. Still, he's a guy that could be a major factor. He did a good job of attacking the bucket in the first game but that was rendered irrelevant thanks to a 2/9 performance from the stripe.
For all the flak he takes, Mullens has averaged 11 and 8 over the last three games and reached double figures in 10 of the last 12 Big Ten games. Plus, he doesn't totally shrivel against the league's top three teams. In four games against Michigan State, Purdue and Illinois, he's averaging 14.8 points and 6.5 boards. Certainly not otherworldly but decent.
As for the other big, I'm not even discussing the regression that is Dallas Invisidale until there's a worthy reason. Obviously, Matta's actions speak for us - Dallas has seen no more than 13 minutes the last three games after averaging over 22 minutes in each of the previous 10 conference games. Disappointing. And my expectations of 7.5 ppg and 6.5 rpg seemed so realistic back in November.
Quickly, other keys to this one include better ball handling from Turner and the gruesome twosome of Hill and Simmons yielding more field goal attempts and the obvious need to improve defensive intensity on the glass and in swiftness of rotations.
I admit this could be a homer pick but something tells me OSU avoids the three game losing streak thanks to home court and the fact they need this one significantly more than Illinois and they know it.
OSU 66 Illinois 64
Comments
Talk about a must win situation. OSU needs this game BADLY!!! BTW, in the Illinois loss to PSU, the Illini had NO free throw attempts the entire game and they were the home team. You mean to tell me that Weber's team forgot how to dump the balll down low to their big men and draw contact?
Lauderdale needs to snap out of this funk he is in and start dominating like he did to start the year. A double double out of him would be nice.
One word comes to mind when I think about the way this team has played as of late. SOFT!!
Zone should be effective but we can't afford more than one starter to play like shit. So that means everyone except #2.
We need to just accept that this team is not very good. Our big guys can't score except on the occasional putback and the occasional alley-oop, we have absolutely no point guard play, and our best player turns the ball over on more than one out of every five times down the court. And that's to say nothing of the defense, giving up wide-open three-pointers left and right (37.5% of the points our opponents score come from threes, third-highest percentage in the country). Let's just hope they make the tournament and don't get embarrassed.
I completely disagree. There is a lot of talent on this team. Likely three NBA players, but they don't play with intensity or leadership. Getting outrebounded is not a sign of a lack of talent. It is lack of effort. Same for our recent defensive woes. You don't have to be a good basketball player to be a good defender or rebounder, but you do have to commit yourself to it.
Jack, I disagree that this team simply isn't "very good". We have three future NBA first round draft picks on the roster.
It comes down to coaching. While I think Matta is a great recruiter he lacks in the X's and O's dept. Playing a zone vs Northwestern was a very bad choice and cost us the game. When your playing a bunch of slow white boys that can shoot from the outside but can't drive the ball for shit you don't play zone.
The coaching staff should take some of the blame for what is happening on the court. If guys aren't playing up to their ability you have to let them know about it.
That said the bucks bounce back with a big win today 65-57.
I hear you...Matta is definitely a great recruiter but in game adjustments are basically unheard of. The perfect coach for OSU would be a hybrid of Jim O'Brien's X's and O's with Matta's recruiting. O'Brien was the king of out of bounds plays and plays out of timeouts.
I know I sound like a broken record, but I think this team was playing better than it really was for that 4 game winning streak. The last 2 games pretty much proved that to me. They did play well enough to beat Wisky, but blew an early 2nd half lead to NW. They seem to be about 2 players short of being a very solid, consistent team. I realize there are 2, maybe 3 NBA players on the team, but you have to have 5 solid guys on the floor, plus a few dependable bench players to reach that consistency.
Don't forget that there's no real point guard on the team (which is the most important position on the floor, IMHO), Evan Turner is a great talent but is prone to turnovers (I'm confident he'll grow out of that), the entire team is very young and could use another year or 2 of playing together to get better, and there's not a very deep bench. Add in the fact that David Lighty is out for what looks to be the rest of the year, the Big 10(11) is most likely the 2nd best conference out there, Crater transferred at the worst possible time, and I think the team has played better than could be expected under the circumstances.
Given all this, I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out this season. It's better than I thought it would be. Especially when you look at Indiana's year. I know, OSU isn't Indiana, but did anyone think their program would be this bad a few years ago? Not me.
Agreed Tom. Depth has hurt this team all year and Lighty's injury and Crater's ill-timed departure hasn't helped.
I'm really hoping that Thad can start landing good point guard recruits to help us run some semblance of an offense that doesn't consist of Turner spinning and making a great athletic play or giving the ball away.
To say Matta lacks in the X and O department is completely ABSURD!!!!!
What gives you any reason to say that?? He was a head coach for 4 years before coming to Ohio State and the only NBA level guy he ever had was David West, and he was a SKIP PROSSER recruit. He won 26 games in all three seasons he was there, with mediocre talent.
He took Butler to the second round only to lose to eventual champ Arizona, name a blue chipper off that team.
The first major recruiting class he ever had won 35 games en route to a national runner-up finish, bet you guys weren't saying he lacked chalk board skills that year!
Without a true PG quarterback, a young offense will often look confused, giving the illusion a coach may not be simplifying the gameplan enough.
And the zone defense is only out of necessity, he's said it himself.
I say just be patient, Thad will get the players he needs, and this team will be making deep runs once again. In the meantime, look at what he's had to overcome with this years team and you will realize what a fantastic job he's done.
Matta's fault for not having a point guard on the team. Even if Crater had stayed, he would have been the only one and from what we all saw he was not Mike Conley. And this is year 2 since Conley left, so why only one true PG on the team?
If this team loses this game they will have the opportunity to defend their NIT title.
IU has been living on tradition for more than 10 years.
How patient must we be. The Big 10 is an average conference, player-wise, but above average coaching-wise. He gets outcoached almost everygame. Coaching in the conferences where he was before was not nearly as good.
If he is recruiting such great players, why can't they play defense? Why must they play all zone all the time?
No PG, all his fault. He has had 2 years to recruit one, only recruited one and that one was not very good and a quitter.
All Matta's fault.
Don't say 10 years because they were in a championship game within the last 10 years w Jared jeffries
I'm just saying I think he's a better recruiter than he is a strategist and that O'Brien was a better X/O guy.
Hey, disagree with me all you want, but please point out anything I said that was inaccurate.
I don't give a crap how much "talent" Buckeye fans think the team has. They play like -- and therefore, are -- an unranked, 7-to-9-seed that might win a first round tournament game and will get obliterated in the second round. If that means they are "very good" to you, then we have very different standards.
Having or not having talent is one thing. But losing key players and trying to build a team on the fly is very difficult, especially in strong conference. I think Buford is above average frosh talent, and Mullens hasnt lived up to the hype. Besides, I never said he's recruited GREAT talent except for Oden, and you see what he did with that. Conley had Oden his whole career and look where he is without him. The only other decent recruit so far is Cook, and he still hasnt really overly impressed.
The zone did NOT cost us the NW game, it was lack of hustle and heart. But hey, we're talking like we've UNDERACHEIVED this year, but I think we've done the opposite.
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combine stuff:
beanie took a billion tries to stick the landing, but went for a very good 10'7" in the broad jump when he finally got it done
robo ran a 4.51 in the 40, that's definitely a good development for him
boosh, 4.49 for robo's second run, good lookin out
Yeah, Robo is a solid second rounder with his 40 performance - the only thing that mattered ... everyone saw that he has the best hands and body control of any WO this year.
Beanie ran the 40, right? I've been scouring the internet for a good 20 minutes and come up with bunk.
Online stream here..
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/...
does anyone know of any higher quality stream? how about that justin.tv address that plays buckeyes? I'm in Houston and they are playing the villa syra game on cbs
RBs haven't done their 40s yet, right now they're doing vert jumps
http://www.nfl.com/combine/liv...
Thanks for the link...No justin.tv stream today.
TAMPA -- your son is blowin up so far! 24-22 illinois...
My attitude towards Diebler is really changing, he and PJ seem like the only players who go 100% all the time. Some of the other guys look like they been hangin' with Noopy and Mike Phelps.
Statistically PJ and Simmons are even, but PJ definitely has the edge because of intangibles.
HI DEF Stream of the Combine
http://www.justin.tv/stickinit...
Running backs are getting ready to Run, that means BEANIE!!
I was just thinking the same thing about Deebs...solid first half from a dude who struggles against the better D's in conference.
Hill did have a nice first half. The three pointer was ill advised out of a timeout but he did spark the 10-2 run that got us back in it...
the diebster has definitely stepped up his game lately, just nailed a three, albiet a super wide open three
turner on the other hand looks like he's regressed, i don't know what his deal is with the turnovers
This Davis cat is killing us
Beanie just ran a 4.57
bleh, not a good first 40 out of Beanie, 4.57
AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CAN WE LEARN HOW TO DEFEND TO THREE AT SOME POINT?!? GOOD LORD
thanks for deciding to show up with like a minute and a half left in the game, evan
Injuries and turtle speed drop him to the 2nd round for sure.
ugh game over, dammit
Is it groundhog day?
Stupid.
Somehow the mere sight of an OSU jersey turns opposing teams into world class sharpshooters.
Im calling 20-8 (10-7) this year, wasnt good enough last year, will the big early season wins be enough to send us dancing this year?
And Beanie with a 4.54 for his second run, He was faster than Moreno on both 40 times and that's good enough.
seriously? you are brilliant
Exactly. 4.5 is fine for a running back. No one thought he was a 4.4 guy, especially at his size. He's only solidifying in the first round, not dropping
We can't end up the record you mentioned mathematically... Nevertheless, we need 3 of 4 to go dancing. Tall order.
we can't end up WITH..
I starting to not believe its lack of hustle or heart. This team is wearing down due to lack of depth. You can see it with some of the fouls Turner picked up late today. We lack a spark to get us over the hump lately and that is depth more so than Xs & Os I think.
Im pretty sure we'll go dancing this year guys. Too many good wins--the loss to Illinois wont really hurt us but it doesnt help us. The Big Ten is EXTREMELY competitive this year and to expect a young team like OSU to come out everygame and be world beaters is bit too much. That said, Thad should put Titus in instead of Mullens considering Mullens drops the ball every time he touches it.
At the end of the day though, I think OSU wins from here on out. Either way, they're have a sold resume with numerous big wins and only one "bad" loss against Northwestern (although they beat MSU and almost beat Illinois too).
was anyone surprised that beanie put up 225 as many times as moreno? i assumed he would be one of the first or second strongest backs that lifted.
Looks like all are slow. None of them cracked 4.4
http://www.nfl.com/combine/top...
But that Hayward-Bey dude can fly