Preview: #4 North Carolina vs. #15 Ohio State
Buford needs to bring the heat.
 #15 Ohio State 2-0, 0-0 Big Ten Roster | Schedule |
November 19, 2009 9:30 PM ET – ESPN2 —— The Garden New York City, NY |
 #4 North Carolina 3-0, 0-0 ACC Roster | Schedule |
After stomping 2 inferior teams, it’s time for the Big Boys, as the Buckeyes travel to NYC tonight to take on the defending National Champs at Madison Square Garden in the 2K Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
Both teams come in undefeated, taking down lesser opponents with pretty good ease, although UNC has shown their team is still trying to adjust to each other, after losing most of their scoring punch and leaders from last year’s squad.
There is no doubt this should be an exciting game, an up and down affair similar to the early season game played by these 2 schools in 2006, when UNC took down the Greg Oden-less Buckeyes, 98-89.
| # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST | POS | # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Evan Turner | 19.0 | 17.0 | 7.0 | G | 1 | Marcus Ginyard | 11.3 | 2.0 | 4.0 |
| 33 | Jon Diebler | 15.5 | 3.0 | 2.5 | G | 11 | Larry Drew II | 8.3 | 1.7 | 6.0 |
| 44 | William Buford | 14.5 | 3.0 | 2.5 | F | 13 | Will Graves | 6.3 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
| 23 | David Lighty | 11.0 | 2.5 | 5.0 | F | 21 | Deon Thompson | 17.7 | 8.3 | 1.7 |
| 52 | Dallas Lauderdale | 2.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | C | 32 | Ed Davis | 11.7 | 8.3 | 1.7 |
Opponent
North Carolina has beaten their foes by an average of 25 PPG this year, although Valpo lost by just 11 on Sunday. The Heels will be lead by Deon Thompson, the silky smooth 6′8″ senior, who has posted 20 point games in 2 of the 3 played. Also across the front line will be sophomore Ed Davis, a 6′11″ athletic center, who has hit 74 percent of his shots thus far. Throw in Tyler Zeller, a 7′ sixth man, who comes in averaging 12 points and the Buckeyes could see trouble inside the lane.
The back court will be just as lethal, with senior Marcus Ginyard and sophomore Larry Drew II controlling the pace of play. Like OSU, North Carolina will look to push the ball up the court, looking for quick scores. The Tar Heels have scored 88, 89 and 88 points in their 3 games and average 40 total boards and 12 offensive caroms a game. The achilles heel thus far have been TO’s, recording 26 in their first game, 19 the second and 14 against Valpo.
The Heels will go at least 10 deep, with 9 players averaging more than 10 minutes a game and 2 more getting just above 9 minutes of time. Plain and simple, they push the ball up the court, look to get offensive rebounds and continue to come at you in waves. I like the depth and athleticism the Buckeyes have this year, but it will take their best effort to pull the upset tonight.
Buckeye Breakdown:
Mark Titus put it best yesterday via Twitter, “Y’all need to call Batman cause The Villain’s about to take over Gotham City.” Evan Turner has been unstopable this year and will get his chance to shine in America’s greatest basketball arena, against one of the most talented teams in the country. Obviously, he won’t be able to do it alone and the game will come down to the scoring abilities of Diebler, Buford and Lighty. If these 3 guys can each get close to 15 points a piece tonight, the Bucks have a chance.
One key tonight will be if they can get to the bucket. With the height of UNC’s front line, they can’t be intimidated to drive the ball inside and end up settling for the outside jumper. They have to take it right to the Heels front court and worst case, get their bigs in some foul trouble. Chucking up nothing but 3 pointers could spell doom, of course unless they are draining most of them.
Another key for tonight, as has been the case for the last 2 years, is rebounding. The Heels will have at least 2 players above 6′9″ in the game at all times and there aren’t too many teams that crash the boards better then the Heels. This should be Lauderdale’s first start of the season, but we still don’t know what his conditioning level will be and if he gets into early foul trouble because he is laboring up and down the court, Madsen and Big Z have to log most of the minutes, which doesn’t give me the warm fuzzy I would like to have going into this game.
The last key for pulling off the upset tonight will be the play of PJ Hill and Jeremie Simmons. Hill has yet to show his shooting stroke he worked so hard on over the summer, going 0-7 this year, including 0-6 from behind the arc. Simmons is averaging 10 points a game, but scored just 5 in the last contest and has dished out only 2 assists on the season. The pace should be so frantic, that these 2 have to give Thad some quality minutes off the bench.
The aspect that will be most interesting to me tonight, is the pace the Buckeyes will play at. Will Thad let them run like they have thus far and take his chances on outscoring the Heels? Or will he try to slow the pace just a bit and run some set offensive plays in the half court? Regardless, it should be one of the best games this season, so get an after work nap in, if your normal bedtime is before 9:30.
On a side note, we would like to help promote a worthy cause over at ClubTrillion.com and more importantly, A Kid Again. For those of you that don’t know, A Kid Again was recently known as Adventures for Wish Kids, a charitable organization that helps kids with life threatening illnesses feel like, well a kid again. I personally got to know the foundation this past summer, as my company helped publish their fundraising book and quite simply, they are amazing people with huge hearts, who volunteer all their time to these kids in need. Now it’s ClubTillion’s turn.
We make no bones about the fact ClubTrillion is one of our favorite blogs and now when you visit his site, you can make a $25 donation to A Kid Again and you’ll receive a free ClubTril tshirt. The shirts appear to be made by our friend Ryan over at Homage, who always puts out quality work on super comfy shirts. Now do your part and follow 11W’s lead, by making a donation towards this worthy cause and filling Columbus with ClubTril shirts this hoops season.
Etc
- UNC leads the series 9-2 and has won the last 4.
- Turner ranks 4th nationally with 17 rebounds a game.
- Ohio State will play either #24 Syracuse or #12 California tomorrow at 5 or 7:30.
- Luke will be liveblogging the game around these parts at 9:00. Feel free to stop on by.
basketwhat? check back on sunday.
No way man, this (and Friday’s game) is a perfect primer for Saturday. How often can you see the the basketball team knock off two Top 25 teams and the football team beat Michigan in a three-day span?
sorry, i just can’t put my heart in to bball right now.
i don’t get many of the games on tv out on the left coast anyways.
I’m with you, Joe. Tonight’s game is going to be epic and a fine tune-up for Saturday.
BTW, the Villain is going to put up a 29-15-11 line tonight.
Dallas needs a big game inside and stay out of foul trouble. The Villian will get his, but needs a lot of support.
From a Michigan fan in North Carolina……..Go Bucks
I can only imagine the kind of crap you hear in North Carolina about basketball.
Ya and everybody is a darn Tar Heel fan. I used to hate Duke back in the Dunleavy, Wojo days but once youve lived here you have to root on the Blue Devils.
TO ALL THE BUCKS FANS IM SIGNING OUT TODAY. IT WAS FUN BICKERING TODAY! ILL BE ON TOMORROW THO! CANT WAIT TO HEAR FROM YAS!
I live in USC country, that has to be worse than dealing with Tar Heels.
Dude they are only fans half the time tho…..
there aren’t many usc car flags right about now :)
where’s your stupid peace hand sign now, douchers?
Thats cuz they pushed a button and the USC football flag turned into a UCLA bball one……
that’s pretty accurate actually. funny how that works.
Yeah, a guy who once worked for me was USC all the way until they lost to UCLA…pretty funny. The same douche actually gave me the gator chop after we lost the b-ball championship to them…a week after they got blown out by 25 to the gators.
I’m pumped for this game…Let’s get the weekend going right!
This game will be great and kicks off this weekend for me:
Tonight: Hoops
Tomorrow: Hoops/Phish show in Cincinnati
Saturday: The Game
Saturday Night: Phish show in Cincinnati
I don’t think it gets any better.
oh my. phish. i don’t know if i can visit 11w anymore.
Don’t be too hard on us, my musical taste doesn’t apply to all of us.
Phuck yeah! I’m going too Corey. I emailed my friends a few days ago and told them the same thing. A Saturday that contains a curb stomping of the LOLverines and Phish doesn’t get much better. Detroit’s setlist was solid, albeit unspectacular.
Working with hippies is kind of fun. Especially when Corey busts out the hacky sack around the 11W offices.
i bet your ultimate Frisbee team is top-notch!
next you are going to say you were indulging in the wacky tobacky in the 11w offices whilst partaking of that other counter culture past-time. before you do, let me remind you – in some way you represent ohio state and bc of that you are fair game to the very real ghost of wayne woodrow. tread lightly, gentlemen.
Lest I remind you our players get pot leafs on their helmet to not only reward outstanding team play but also to promote decriminalization.
may god have mercy on your soul
Heading down to MSG in an hour. Hopefully they can put together another run at the garden, like back in ‘08..
Go Bucks,
Jim Marshall, is running the wrong way…
The perimeter shooting has to step up big, we’re gonna get killed down low. Thompson and Davis probably woulda went top 15 last year!
Why has #36 jersey not been retired? Spielman is on the Mt. Rushmore of OSU football.
If anyone is intrested in writing about Buckeye Basketball for a blog please contact me by email or comment back. Thanks!
No
There is a rumor going around that Chris Spielman’s wife has passed away. I do not know if this is true, but if it is may his family be in all our prayers.
So, so sad. I hope the players sport a pink wristband or something. I think it would be neat.
The Spielmans need to be together right now as a family. But, somehow, some way, JT needs to get Spiels involved. Even if it’s something as small as a note or an email. Very few players understand quite like Spiels the family concept of OSU and why this university is worth fighting for.
Yeah, I’m not one that really gets too emotional about people that I don’t know, but Spielman seems real to me on the radio and TV and for those of us old enough to remember him quitting NFL football because of his wife, well, he’s just a man. simple as that.
If this “rumor” is accurate, I actually feel bad for someone I don’t know. Weird.
The buckeyes must do something for the game, and I have no doubt JT will do it. As much as he may be outta step with offense, the man is right on in class.
its not a rumor. being reported nationally at this point
RIP Stephanie Spielman…….
Horrible news about Stefanie. My heart breaks for Chris and his family.
This breaks my heart. May she rest in peace.