ET didn't get enough help tonight (AP: Gilliam)Hosting Purdue in front of a rare sellout crowd with first place on the line, Ohio State came out flat as Calista Flockhart and though they made a second half comeback they couldn't recover in a 60-57 loss tonight in the Schott.
Trailing 43-31 after an E'Twaun Moore jumper with 15:08 to play, the Buckeyes stormed back with a 15-5 run fueled by eight straight points from Evan Turner then seven in a row from Wil Buford cutting the deficit to 48-46 with with 9:49 remaining. The blitz showcased vintage Turner as he got it started with a hoop and harm off a spinning drive before hitting a triple and another layup in traffic. Four possessions later he drove the lane then dished to Buford for a triple as the defense collapsed on his penetration.
After Buford's final bucket of the run prompted a well-timed Boiler timeout, the Buckeyes appeared to have shot the wad during the furious comeback as their shot selection and execution over the next five minutes went AWOL allowing Purdue to rip off an 8-2 run increasing their lead to 56-48 with 4:06 to play. The decisive stretch saw the Buckeyes launch quick shots hitting just 1/6 including 0/4 from distance as Turner, Buford, Jon Diebler and David Lighty all rushed shots with Lighty adding a turnover. At the other end, Purdue got buckets from four different players including Robbie Hummel's first of the night pushing the deficit to eight.
Still, the Buckeyes showed some moxie with one last gasp after a pair of free throws from Moore gave the Boilers a 60-53 lead with 1:12 remaining. First, Dallas Lauderdale made his lone contribution of the night tipping in a Diebler miss then Chris Kramer gave OSU life clanking the front end of a one and one. Turner responded with a short shot off the bounce cutting the deficit to 60-57 with 50 ticks left. From there, Moore missed a layup with :15 left triggering an OSU breakout. Apparently unaware of the situation, Buford streaked up court and attempted a layup which Kramer swatted into the hands of Diebler. Following a quick ball exchange to Turner, Diebler dribbled to the top of the right circle and got a good look at a three but it caromed off the rim dropping the Buckeyes to 10-4 in conference. It was a spastic yet valiant effort to defend the home court but like the team, I refuse to be satisfied considering the pathetic first half, 14 turnovers, a horrendous performance from Lauderdale at both ends and only sporadic offensive help for Turner.
For the second time against the Boilers this season, OSU dug themselves a huge whole trailing 36-23 at the half. The opening 20 minutes unfolded like a horror show as Lauderdale got abused by JaJuan Johnson at the defensive end while Turner little help on the offensive side of the court. Lauderdale, coming in playing his best ball as a Buckeye, scored one point with 0 rebounds, assists and blocks while Johnson lit up the Buckeyes with a monster first half stat line reading 14 points (7/9 FG), 4 reb, 3 asst and a block. Meanwhile, even with Matt Painter rotating fresh bodies on Turner, the Villain managed 13 points (6/13) and five boards, albeit with four turnovers. Unfortunately, only Diebler offered help scoring seven points (2/3) meaning the rest of the Buckeyes scored three points on 1/8 shooting.
Diebler managed 10 points for the game and Buford pitched in with 11 second half points but shot just 4/12 on the night with four boards. After his struggles in the first Purdue tilt, I didn't expect much from Lighty and he delivered with just four points (1/6) and three turnovers to go along with four boards and three dimes. Regardless, the most disappointing effort belonged to Lauderdale as he produced three points and three rebounds in 31 minutes while Johnson blew up for 24 points and seven boards.
Feeling the weight of limited help, Turner actually looked tired for maybe the first time all season as the offense went through him virtually every time down the court in the second half. Naturally, the should-be-undisputed national player of the year answered the call with 29 points (11/21), seven boards and five assists. To his credit, he bounced back from a four turnover first half with just one in the second. How bad was his help tonight? Turner hit 11 of OSU's 20 field goals scoring 51% of the points while recording five of team's lowly six assists.
The defense certainly wasn't as sharp tonight as its been of late allowing Purdue to shoot 60% in the first half and 50% for the game but it wasn't as bad as the numbers indicate if you factor out Johnson's schooling of Dallas. The rest of the Boilers combined to shoot a more realistic 42% led by a solid night from Keaton Grant (13 pts, 5/8).
The loss drops the Bucks to one game behind the conference leading Spartans (11-3) who happen to host the Buckeyes this Sunday at Noon in the Breslin Center. My advice to Matta is tell the team to forget about this one and give them plenty of rest. Oh, and one last thing...While I don't think it particularly favored either team, that was some of the worst officiating I've seen this year. What a surprise, Ted Valentine was part of the crew. He is an absolute joke as the poster boy for refs that are more worried about being all demonstrative on TV than they are about officiating a legit game.
Comments
Matta on the last shot:
"Honestly, I had one eye on the shot clock and one on Buford bringing the ball down the court. I couldn't have drawn up a play to get [Diebler] a better shot. He had a great look; it just didn't go in."
I can't agree more with the officiating. I have to wonder why Matta waited so long to take a time out when it was clear they were tired and kept firing up 3 balls. Also, why doesn't Thad call a time out during the last second run....set up a play instead of having guys scramble. Unbelievable. How can a team come out flat in a sold out house with first place on the line? They better come out focused in East Lansing in a game that is definitely winnable.
I agree. I wanted a timeout once we got the last possession but having watched Matta over the years, good or bad, I knew he wasn't going to take one. Lucky for him Diebler got a great look...but it wasn't to be.
Agree with the officiating...atrocious. It was also hard to watch right after we made that run and instead of getting set up, fired 4-5 threes within 4-5 seconds of getting the ball over half court. Lets hope we do better up in Lansing
The threes were painful.. but they were there. The players had open looks, and you have to at least take some of those. If they'd gone in no one would have been complaining.
Tonight just felt wrong. The officiating was awful, OSU's shots wouldn't drop, and it seemed like no matter what crap Purdue threw up in the first half it went in. There was almost no rebounding in the first half because they were shooting over 70% from the floor!
Just a frustrating game. I'm happy we kept fighting and got it back to being so close - it gives me some more hope for the tournament. But man it still sucks.
I was at the game today and I have never heard the Shott so loud. The stands felt like they were shaking and contributed to a few of Purdues miscues.
Their shots were on while ours were off period. Turner's jump shot was awful today but he made some spectacular drives (MVP). The officiating was terrible in the first half as all of you know but we did get some good calls in the 2nd half. We defiantly should have called a timeout on that last play.
The officiating was awful without a doubt, but our whole first half was sloppy. The whole team the first half just did not seem to be on the same page. We need for more of our key players to get going to win big games. Turner in my mind is the best all around player in the country, but he can only do so much. Im looking forward to see how we react next game from this lose.
I've been to just every home game the last 2 years and the schott was a different venue tonight. Even when we were down 13 @ half there was still a buzz. People would look for any reason to stand and scream and go nuts. Props to C-Bus. On the other hand Jon hit the nail on the head. Those shots were bad. What goes thru Lighty's mind that he thinks he has a green light for a pull-up 3 in transition? I love the kid to death... he holds this team together... one of my fav players in recent years but man you can't shoot yourself in the foot like that. It's like we all wanted to make that gamebreaker shot when the situation didn't quite call for it yet. Frustrating, but it's something to build on.
Need more consistency out of Lighty and Buford. You never know if they are going to score 20 or 4, especially Lighty. He doesn't seem mentally tough and lets poor officiating affect his game.
I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem that officials in the Big East or ACC inject themselves into the game as much as Big 10 officials.
Off Topic.................is it mandatory to wear a clown suit while snowboarding?
Charlie wrote: "What goes thru Lighty’s mind that he thinks he has a green light for a pull-up 3 in transition"
Possible Answer - perhaps he is considering OSU's lack of inside offensive presence. Oh sure Dallas can be a beast on defense (with this evening's game being an exception) however neither he nor Madsen provide any consistent low post offensive threat.
So in the end, Lighty feels he has to decide between the lesser of 2 following evils
1. Taking the 3 himself...or
2. Passing the ball down low to Dallas
Hopeful Alternative for Next Season: In the unlikely event that ET comes back for his senior season - the addition of Sullinger should make things completely different in the low post and therefore Lighty and the others would have an option to attempting the type of questionable 3's like we saw this evening.
But wait there's more. This could benefit Dallas as well as the post play could focus on Sullinger, which would leave Dallas open for easy dunks and / or put-backs.
i see what ya mean. very valid points. my only counter to that is: why force up a 3 5secs into the shot clock when we can take that anytime we want? [plus, there are 2, probably 3 better 3pt shooters than him] if nothing opens on the break we can run an offense... and if that also fails, then we take the contested 3...
^thats me lol
Because as part of Matta's philosophy he wants to keep his players positive and confident and never has restricted them from taking a 3 if they felt they could make it (regardless of the shot clock).
Matta has always been unique in that he doesn't overcoach.
Remember all those coaches in the 80's and 90's who would pull a player after one bad shot and that player may sit for longer than what was truly necessary.
When those players finally made it back onto the court they were afraid and nervous to touch the ball that if they did shoot they had to hope and pray they'd make it or face getting pulled and re-benched.
Not saying that all the shots that Lighty or others took were good shots, but all the shots (made or missed) didn't result in a tongue lashing from Matta, which in his coaching philosophy keeps his team positive and believing in themselves.
So with that said...the shot clock doesn't factor into their approach to when a shot is taken (unless they are trying for the last shot of the half or at the end of the game).
Bad officiating? Yeah, I totally agree. ET got away with 2 charge calls, and Lauderdale got credit for a block when he hacked the crap out of J.Johnson late in the game.
Purdue's just a better team. Simple as that. PU now has 4 wins against AP top 10, and 6 wins against RPI top 40. (TN, WF, WVA, WIS, MSU & OSU) I'm not sure if there's even a team out there with a resume as impressive as Purdue.
Stop crying about the officials. How many times in the second half did we come down and take one shot and that was it. Poor shot selection + no offensive boards = defeat. You guys that cry about the calls are the ones that ruin sports.
Sad to say he ad a uge turnover late in the game.
I wasn't necessarily saying the bad officiating was all against the buckeyes. It was sloppy, period.
I do feel it benefits Purdue a little bit more, just because of the style of defense they play. Guys rough you up, and I mean that as a compliment.
I disagree that "Purdue's just a better team." Both games came down to the wire, with each team getting it done on the other team's floor. Seems like the two teams are pretty even to me.
agreed^, "the better team" will be decided in the B10 tourney when we meet up for the rubber match. to say one way or another right now is ridiculous, like every purdue homeboy on the espn message boards right now. until then, were even. p.s pat forde is a schmuck, not like we dont know that already, but his comment @ halftime calling last nights crowd not boisterous or w/e is asinine. the d-bag needs to get exiled from this country already.
sorry rant over/ that felt nice.
Amazing how many people miss the point on the officials.
It's not that they favor one team or another, it's that they are inconsistent with the calls, the timing of calls, the dances they sometimes perform and their overall arrogance. They should not be part of the game, but they want to be part of the game.
I completely agree with Matt. Purdue is the best team in the Big Ten. OSU has the best starting five but Purdue is the most proven. I think OSU is probably 2nd best ahead of MSU though I think it'll be mighty tough to win win Breslin on Sunday.
You are dead on, TLB.
+1
We should be in good shape for a run in the B10 Tourney and the NCAAs. We cannot have games this from Lauderdale and Lighty if we hope to have success. Lauderdale needs to give us 8-10 and Lighty the same. I would rather have more contributing consistently than have Turner put 29 on the board. Poor shot selection has been part of Thad's teams for, we become one dimensional and that is trouble in the tourney. We need to have a hot hand in the tourney and if we do we will be very tough to beat. If not we don't advance past the second round.
I couldn't disagree with you more on some of Lighty's shot selections in particular last night, he has a big time tendency to force things that aren't there. Of course it has no reason as to why we lost the game but I know exactly what three point attempt Charlie was talking about and I thought it was just a bad shot selection... at that point in the game we needed to slow down the tempo a bit and try to run some offense, and get a good look at a 2 point shot... the way he ran down the court and chucked that three at a critical point in the game.. well you would have thought he had made up his mind before the inbound that he was going to shoot that shot..
+1.
-Inconsistent
-Timing
-1....I like the dances
This was a horrible game. It looked like typical ohio state to me. One horrible half a game. This time they couldnt bounce back. They cant continue to come into a game and play $hitty for one half and expect to win. this has happened four times now against top competition. It happened against N. Carolina, W. Virginia and purdue twice. if it happens again this weekend against M. State we will lose. they have the size to give all sorts of problems. Oh, and why the hell are we tossing threes when we were only down 2. Buford didnt have his shot all night. He makes a three to cut it to two and then decides to get crazy behind the line. Turner had his night by scoring more points then the rest of the team combined is pathetic.
I understand why Thad lets the guys be 'gunslingers', and as mentioned that's just his philosophy, and I'm usually cool with that. I was scratching my head though (read: dropping F-bombs) during the first half when Purdue went Ivan Drago on us and no timely TO's were called. Why not slow the `mo when your getting your ass handed to you? When a team is draining buckets to the tune of 70% a couple TO's to settle the guys down and maybe damper the hot hand seems logical. Am I missing something?
Regardless, you can't have the other starting 4 in la-la land the entire 1st half of any game and expect good results. 2 City's looked especially awful in the paint last night. Still, we only lost by 3 whilst looking like crap 80% of the time.
Yes, I agree also that it was very inconsistent, both ways. I also agree that they let players get a little more physical which gives a big advantage to Purdue. Man, I gotta give mad props to ET. He's the best player in cbb, and best NBA prospect in my opinion. Purdue was able to contain some big time NBA prospects like Aminu, Ebanks, D.Butler, Chism, and Lucas to name a few but ET was unstoppable. Purdue practically threw an entire kitchen sink at him, and he was still dominant. I think he got a bit tired towards the end but had he gotten some rest along the way, I think he would've hit some long jumpers which could've changed the outcome of the game. I realize it's not unusual for him to play all 40 mins but I doubt he ever played 40 mins of defenders like Barlow, Grant, Jackson, and Kramer hounding him all night.
I still think OSU still has the best starting 5 but it sure didn't make a strong case for it last night.
Best 1: OSU - E Turner
Best 2: UM - Harris & Sims
Best 3 - PU - Hummel, Moore & Johnson
Best 4 - PU/OSU/MSU - it's a toss up
Best 5 - OSU
umm if you read all the comments i don't think anyone has blamed the officials for the loss..?? please get the facts straight before making accusations. we did, however, agree that the officiating [most notably ted valentine] was a joke last night. i felt it benefited Purdue more, but i'm not blaming the loss on that. we had our opportunities. where are you getting this from??
i only like it when ed hightower dances... he certainly doesn't leave baby in the corner.
but on a serious note, the b10 officials are getting out of hound and need to reigned it. it's becoming comical. truly hurting the game and spirit of competition.
As the saying goes, you live by the 3, you die by the 3.
Love Thad but he's about as creative as a cereal box when it comes to offense; although, I didn't mind him not calling a timeout during the final seconds of the game. Sure a timeout could have gave us a better look at a shot, but would've also gave Purdue a chance to set up their D. The lack of a timeout caught Purdue off guard and their D was indeed a bit all over the place. Diebler had a good look and I give him credit for shedding the two defenders to get the shot off.