Preview: Ohio State vs. #16 Minnesota
 Ohio State 16-5, 6-4 Big Ten Roster | Schedule |
February 7, 2009 8:00 PM ET – BTN —— The Schott Columbus, OH |
 #19 Minnesota 18-4, 6-4 Big Ten Roster | Schedule |
Minnesota limps into Columbus Saturday to face off against streakin’ Ohio State, sending the winner into third place in the conference.
The Gophers took down OSU 68-59 back before the Fiesta Bowl was played and just five games after the Lighty injury.
After starting the season 16-1, Tubby’s squad has lost 3 of 5, including a 76-47 stomping at the hands of Michigan State on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Ohio State has won 3 straight by an average of 12 points, scoring almost 87 points a game in their last two.
However, the Bucks have allowed four of the last five teams to shoot at least 47 percent.
| # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST | POS | # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Jeremie Simmons | 7.7 | 1.7 | 3.1 | G | 0 | Al Nolan | 8.2 | 3.7 | 5.1 |
| 33 | Jon Diebler | 11.0 | 3.2 | 2.8 | G | 20 | Lawrence Westbrook | 13.9 | 2.6 | 1.7 |
| 21 | Evan Turner | 17.0 | 7.4 | 3.2 | F | 34 | Damian Johnson | 9.8 | 4.3 | 2.1 |
| 44 | William Buford | 11.9 | 3.4 | 1.1 | F | 45 | Colton Iverson | 5.8 | 3.6 | 0.7 |
| 52 | Dallas Lauderdale | 5.2 | 4.3 | 0.3 | C | 50 | Ralph Simpson III | 6.8 | 4.3 | 0.9 |
Opponent
Minnesota comes in scoring 63.5 points a game in B10 play, connecting in 41.4 percent of their FG attempts, which ranks 10th in the league. They aren’t much better from deep, hitting a 9th best 32.4 percent. The Gophers still play some of the best tough-nosed defense around, limiting opponents to 63 points and 40 percent shooting. In the first match up, their switch from man to zone halfway through the first completely befuddled the young Bucks.
The Gophers will run 10-11 guys into the rotation, bringing waves of fresh defenders to help press Ohio State’s weak ball handling and cut off driving lanes. Blake Hoffarber and freshman Devoe Joseph will lead off the bench, while Jamal Abu-Shamala and Devron Bostick will also see 10+ minutes. Joseph matched a season high 11 points on Wednesday, but Hoffarber hasn’t reached double digits in his last 10.
Minnesota’s offense has definitely slowed the last five games, failing to score more than 67 points or shoot better than 47 percent. They were 8-20 from beyond the arc in the first meeting and did a good job of exposing the weak spots of OSU’s zone. If the Bucks aren’t careful, their loose rotations could lead to an offensive resurgence.
Buckeye Breakdown:
Ohio State has raised their league scoring average to 68.8 points a game, second only to Michigan State. Their shooting has been remarkable the last couple of weeks, now hitting over 50 percent of their B10 shots, but it makes you wonder how long they can keep it up.
Their performance in Minnesota could be a season worst, getting 4 total shots from Mullens and Lauderdale, while Simmons and Buford combined to shoot 2-14. Simmons was a no-show Tuesday and the bigs were absent 2 games ago, so the concern of consistency from the role players is still in question.
Luckily Turner and Buford look like they can’t be stopped. Turner, the reigning POW, is scoring 26 a game over the last 3, while Buford has hit for 50 in the last 2. If those two can get some help from Mullens and Diebler, the Bucks should come away with a victory. PG play is a huge concern tomorrow against the pressure D, so don’t be surprised to see Turner at point a little more, as he had success against Purdue from that spot.
It will obviously be another hard fought B10 battle, but Thad’s squad isn’t cooling off just yet, using a balanced attack to pull away 76-68. The Buckeyes will take a week off after this one, traveling to Whisky next Saturday for an ESPN primetime tilt.
Buford has been SMOOOOOOOTH here lately. I think he has now become my favorite Buckeye to watch. If Turner could eliminate the TO’s, it would be no contest. For about every 2 of his WOW moments there is one of those WTF moments.
I just love the midrange game of Buford, and it seems Thad is running a lot more baseline screens for him, where he can curl into the lane for that 12-15 foot J or flare it out to the corner and drop a bomb. He’s smooth…..
You are right Scott, Buford has the lost art of the mid-range jumper. I often wonder how much he would have played if Lighty didn’t get hurt.
I can live with Turner’s turnovers to a certain extent. Until Buford came on, he was the only play maker the Bucks had and there were times when he has had to do it all. If he didn’t rebound and assists so well, the TO’s would be maddening to me.
To Corey and the gang: if you liked baconizing the internet, you should check out Cornify:
http://www.cornify.com/
Because Unicorns and Rainbows are even awesomer. It actually was started by a graduate of Ohio State’s design school. And it’s the most popular site in cyberspace. You should probably add the button to the sidebar.
Go Buckeyes.
Dispatch is reporting the OSU-USC game this year will be a night game. Not a big surprise, but I hope the whine and cheese SC fans can hang and don’t whine like the Horns fans.
There has never been more Khaki’s worn in the ‘Shoe than that Texas game.
disappointed that i graduate and miss out on being in the stadium
I don’t know about you guys, but nothing makes me happier than looking at our stats ans seeing 3 guys in the double figures in scoring. I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that.
You’re right Wil and if BJ played with consistency, they would have 4. Watch his post-ups tomorrow, they are done without any force and position on the post is given up way too easily.
logical question – who do you think we will lose to the draft this year?
Titus, unfortunately.
Titus=Skillz
I still think Mullens could go first round, but hes really hurting his chances with his recent play, and sucky FT shooting.
If Buford continues to progress, he may go ahead of BJ.
Who will have the better overall career, Buford or Daequan Cook??
I think at this point, Buford is the better shooter, but Cook may be a bit more athletic. What may set them apart is who decides they want to play defense more….
I think you’ll see Mullens leave for sure and then the questions come for Turner and Buford. Turner’s game is best suited for the NBA, as he can handle the ball, take it to the hoop strong, rebound, play above satisfactory defense (do they play that in “The League”?) and has a decent jumper. I see him as a late first rounder next year who could be a lottery pick the year after. Buford’s jumper is as smooth as I have ever seen, but I think one more year will suit him well to bulk up.
I have to show you guys this……
http://www.maizenbluenation.com/2009/02/michigan-to-play-deleware-state-on-oct.html
Yes, Deleware State is the team with an almost identical jersey to that of Michigan.
It’s like the varsity playing the junior varsity……wouldn’t it be great if Michigan turned out to be the junior varsity!
No, that’s actually the Blue Hens of Delaware with those ugly copycat uniforms.
Apparently after losing to a MAC school and FCS school once in each of the last two years, Michigan is running out of teams to fill its typical cupcake OOC schedule
Dammit my day is ruined, I was wondering if they were Delaware or Delaware State……I was just so excited that I typed “Delaware State Football” into Google Image and the 1st thing I saw was the vomit covered uniforms and didn’t look close enough to notice that it just said Delaware and not Delaware State..
I almost made the same mistake. Michigan’s are still uglier
Rob Schoenhoft plays for Delaware, useless fact of the day.
Good question Morgan! This has entered my mind as well, with the recent play of Turner and Buford.
I don’t think any of them should leave, for selfish reasons and skill wise.
Each one of them would benefit from another year of college to develop their skill sets. Turner needs to work on ball handling and perimeter shooting. Buford needs strength and defense. Mullens needs to develop strength in order to hold his post position, because he can’t create his own shot like Koufos could last year. If he can’t hold it against B10 teams, there is no way he will against the Bigs of the NBA.
Now for selfish reasons, Thad has NO recruits lined up for next season, instead stacking the deck for 2010. If any of these three leave or God forbid, two or all of them, who will score next year? Thad will have to once again scrounge the JUCO ranks to fill out his roster. Think about it, all three leave and your starters will be Simmons, Hill, Lighty, Diebler and Lauderdale.
shudder…
i think buford and mullens are probably gone, and turner is teetering on “maybe” right now. just a personal opinion. i hope they surprise me.
This is why college basketball sucks. The fact that we are even talking about these freshman leaving is stupid. No one on ohio state will start in the nba next year or in the near future. Mullens has the best chance to be a starter because he’s a 7 footer that can move but Buford is way too soft right now and needs atleast another year to hit the weights and learn how to play d. Turner could be a good pro but he will have to be a jump shooter in the nba and that is his weakness. Really they all need atleast one more year if not two but who can say no to seven figures. I know I wouldn’t.
If they left, Mullens is a sure top 15, Buford probably 15 to 32 or whatever, and Turner shouldnt be a first rounder this year.
So it makes sense for Mullens, could work out for WB, and Evan should hang out at least one more.
Draft Express still has Mullens at #12.
It must be an awfully thin year for big men.
Im sorry but Im still salivating at the thought of this year’s recruiting class. The Buckeye’s offensive line is going to be Scary good. And athletes like Corey Brown and Storm Klein are just a dream to think about what could be. It is going to take one hell of a team to stop these guys in a couple years.
I wholeheartedly agree with your entire comment here. The last 2 recruiting classes were exceptional.
Since I can’t reply to your Schoenhoft comment, make sure you look at his stats. I’m not sure you can qualify it as “playing”, LOL! I honestly thought he would do well there.
Im excited about last years class. Stoneburner will be a beast along with Sabino. We have more speed then ever on both sides of the ball. Boom, Berry, Saine, Hyde gives us plenty of backs all with different styles. I have a feeling we will see alot of 5 wide with all the wideout we have. I still think inside the redzone pryor is deadly lined up at wr. TP could be a pro bowl wr in the nfl. That is scary. Bauserman should be a really solid backup. We should be thankful we have a guy like him backing up TP.
This is way to early to start talking about this shit. GO Bucks
Why do people keep mentioning Saine? What has he done?
I was thinking the same thing. I really want to see him do well, but in his limited opportunities, he’s had Lydell Ross disease.
We’ll have to see if these kids can play, but we should have enough fire power to make another BCS game – probably 10-2 something like that. It is the next season we should be in a position to make a run at the top 2. This next year we have a completely new line (which I know is good, but still they are young and will struggle for a while). Pryor needs to learn how to pass over the next year so that when he is a junior we are a legitimate top 5 team.
Just my thoughts … next year will be good, but the following year is the one to target.
Ultra I think we will be nasty next year. The whole d-line is back with the exception of Nader. We are fast and deep up front and history shows if you have a great d-line you win alot of games.
Offensively we will be light years ahead of last years team. We should score points in bunches and switch from run first to pass first type of offense. I look for us to compete for a national title next year. The biggest test being USC however they will be losing alot on d and have a new qb.
This is one of the fastest teams we have ever had at Ohio State. The d-line will be the key difference and we should hold teams in check. If we get by USC we will be playing for the title.
I’m all for being optimistic but even if we beat USC we could easily be upset
I’m bullish on this year’s team because of the d-line as well. The offensive line will be better as well.
http://www.bucknuts.com/news/articles/2009/2/6/enthusiastic-hill-is-driving-force-for-buckeyes
Here is some PJ Hill fluff for all you closet PJ Hill fans out there.
Don’t start getting me excited
Notre Dame. Getting molested by UCLA.
I’m SO FUCKING AMPED for next year because we replace three starters on a bad offensive line, break in a basically new corps of WRs, debut a young yet talented RB and we’re starting a true sophomore QB. That spells offensive EXPLOSION to me.
And it’s so OBVIOUS Bollman and Tressel will TOTALLY REVAMP the offense so we won’t look like LIMP-DICKED PLATYPUSES against teams with a defensive pulse. SO FUCKING AMPED
I don’t think you had trouble makin’ friends as a kid cause you were fat…more cause you’re kind of a douche….yeahhhhhh….
Douchiness leads to a surprising amount of friends actually.
But seriously folks, where are all of you that were calling for Bollman’s firing mere months ago? You didn’t get what you wanted, but you still think the offensive line, and the offense in general, will be better than it was last year?
Don’t most offenses play better when they’re packed with seniors? We had six senior starters (Rehring, Boeckman, Boone, Person, Robiskie, Nicol) on last year’s offense and you think we’ll get better as we get younger, while the coaches stay the same?
This makes me dangerously curious as to what a limp-dicked platypus looks like.
Probably like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/omfgwtfbbq/3121566857/
I wasn’t actually sure if platypi had sex organs, and I knew I couldn’t trust anything from wikipedia