The Villain is The TruthEvan Turner kicked off the 2009-10 campaign with the second triple-double in Buckeye history in a 100-60 dismantling of Alcorn State tonight in The Schott. The Villain joined Dennis Hopson as the only other Buckeye to accomplish the feat with a gaudy stat line of 14 points, 17 boards and 10 assists in 30 minutes. He threw in 2 steals and 2 blocks for good measure against only 2 turnovers in his first game as the team's legit point guard.
This certainly wasn't a one man beat down as five Buckeyes reached double figures led by Jon Diebler's 22 on 7/10 from the floor including 6/9 from downtown. Wil Buford added 19 points (8/14 FG, 3/7 3FG), Jeremie Simmons chipped in with 12 (5/8) and Walter Offutt 11 in 13 minutes of action.
Playing his first game since a broken foot sidelined him 7 games into last season, David Lighty showed no ill effects playing his usual all-around game adding 8 points, 8 assists and 4 boards in 22 minutes.
The perimeter heavy Buckeyes flashed unselfish ball movement all night against an over matched Braves squad creating assists on 29 of 38 field goals. As expected, OSU pushed the ball at every opportunity (ie: Madsen, Z or Kecman didn't grab the defensive board) typically forgoing an outlet pass with the rebounder relentlessly pushing the ball up court. From there, OSU lined the wings with shooters launching 33 of 73 shots from beyond the arc for the game including 19 triple tries on 40 1st half field goals. Obviously the three is going to be a major weapon for the Buckeyes this season but I would've liked to have seen a few more aggressive dribble drives, especially in transition. A minor critique, but something to keep an eye on. With no bigs on the roster with the ability to average more than 6 or 7 points a game, there's no question plenty of threes will rightfully be hoisted this year but they shouldn't give up on trying to get in the lane, draw some fouls and get to the line once the competition steps up. But, hey, why stop shooting them if you are making 8 of 19, right?!
This one was over at the 13 minute mark of the 1st half as OSU built an 18-5 lead behind Turner's 4 points, 6 boards and 3 assists in the opening 7 minutes. It would get even uglier after a 17-2 run fueled by a Buford triple, two threes from Diebler and two dunks from Turner, swelled a 27-15 lead to 44-17 with 5:16 left in the half. The Buckeyes would take a 56-28 lead into the locker room as Deebs (16), ET (12) and Buford (11) combined for 39 points on 14/23 shooting. Again highlighting the ball movement (and hot shooting), OSU assisted on 18 of 22 first half FG's.
The newly installed man to man defense had zero troubles with Alcorn's guards as the Buckeyes held the Braves to 34% the floor, created 13 turnovers and converted 8 first half TO's into 15 points. I must say, though, I have a hard time believing OSU can play straight man all year long mostly based off what we saw from the bigs. Dallas showed last year he has the propensity to draw fouls far from the hoop and while Zisis isn't a stiff but he's not exactly agile and I would expect better opponents to continuously run high ball screens to initiate the offense and force our bigs to hedge and recover. Until I see it, I am a little skeptical of how effective Dallas, Z and Madsen will fare in that situation. Though he wasn't asked to hedge, Z did pick up 2 fouls in less than 2 minutes in the first half. Madsen is clearly more polished but less physical preferring to face the basket and shoot spot up jumpers from the baseline. He chipped in 7 points and 4 boards with zero turnovers in 21 minutes tonight. One good thing about Madsen, he seems to be fully aware of what he can and can't do.
Overall, it was a great start to what should be an exciting season. This team, with its talent on the wings and an uptempo style of play, will be incredibly fun to watch. The next chance to catch the highlight reel comes Thursday @ 7pm in the Schott against James Madison. Tune in to the BTN. You can do it. As a bonus, you'll get to see the 'stache on Titus, live. It's dominant:
Comments
Won't be the last triple-double from the Villain this year
Totally agree.
"The Villain" is not under 11W terminology... where does that come from?
sorry, it's Villian, isn't it?
If you were to ask a wise, old Native American cleric, he'd tell you the term was coined by The Trillion One. However Wikipedia gives us the credit. And I think we all know Wikipedia knows all, right?
Just added it. Thanks for the heads-up.
I can't find the actual post but Titus is indeed the birth canal for "The Villain"
http://clubtrillion.blogspot.c...
naw..it's "villain"
The CRICKETS Good Shizzy link is A++++
Just having too much fun with this. At least Michigan fans know their place lately. There's no cure for the false bravado coming from State College.
The real question is, did Titus get the trillion?
also how does The Villain manage to get so many boards? 17 is crazy for a PG, I don't cate who you're playing
No. Titus blew his shot at a trillion. He got in with about 2 minutes left, and picked up a defensive rebound that caromed right to him.
I could've sworn I heard what was left of the crowd boo him.
This is from a sportsillustrated.com article:
2. With Lighty's glue-guy abilities (and his rebounding skills) back in the lineup, the Buckeyes are a legit Big Ten contender. And as long as Dallas Lauderdale (who's recovering from a broken finger) is at full-strength by next week, OSU is my pick to upset North Carolina and Cal and win the Coaches vs. Cancer tourney in New York.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c...
Now, I loved watching us turn out against Alcorn and all, but beating NC and winning the early tourney in NY??? I would do backflips! I just don't think we are big enough. Thoughts?
As you can see being "big" isn't all that important in NCAA BB. UNC won it all with smaller guys and KU did it as well. I like our chances to go deep into the tournament.
I think I'm scarred from when we played Georgetown in the tourney a few years back and were just completely undersized.
I dont see us beating UNC this early either but anything can happen. We do have a veteran lineup and if we get hot from 3, we can beat anybody. The key will be matchups come tourney time because or lack of inside scoring and ability to defend inside and control defensive rebounds can be exposed by the right teams. I see Matta trying to negate that by pushing tempo all year long. If we can control tempo (track meet!) against teams like MSU we can beat them. As I wrote last night, I'll still be very interested to see if we can stick with man to man all year. I have to imagine some zone will be employed to protect Dallas from cheap fouls.