I know Matta has his system and he usually only plays 7-8 guys a night but im so sick of hearing about how crazy good this kid is on the court. I know Matta is concerned about him playing defense, but has he been watching Deshaun Thomas play defense? We have no shooters on the court. Give the guy a chance. He can't be any worse than the likes of Shannon Scott, Sam Thompson or Evan Ravenel.
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I hear that, give him a shot. We need some kind of spark off the bench. The other guys piss their pants if they have to shoot!
Tough times never last, tough people do
Ravanel is worthless. He doesnt score and cant play defense.
- Respect the Rivalry -
I was thinking in last night's game Thad was really going to the bench and doing so early and went pretty deep. Amir, Ravnel, Thompson, Siebert, and Scott all saw time and pretty early in the game. I was thinking WTF is Ross?
If I was the coach I would start Amir Williams at Center, Sullinger at his true position at power forward. Bring Thomas and Ross off the bench for scoring with Ravenel giving the big guys a blow, Scott subbing for Craft and Thompson for Bufford/Lenzell. We need that shot blocking presence down low!
Tough times never last, tough people do
I like where your head is at SnooDogg-- I'd love to see some of those adjustments to the lineup/rotation.
If you ain't a Silver Bullet, you're a target
I think its the perfect lineup. Sullinger struggles against the center for Illinois and the Anthony Davis of Kentucky kind of players. Let long arms Amir Williams deal with them and give Sully a break! We need bench scoring and we know that's what Thomas does best. Let's see what Ross has too!
Tough times never last, tough people do
And damn......Scott needs to look at the rim. It's 4 on 5 when we are on offense!
Tough times never last, tough people do
I am not sure that removing Thomas from this offense is the right decision. If we used your hypothetical rotation, we would have 2 scoring threats, Buford (questionable) and Sully. That is just begging teams to double or triple down on Sully and watch Craft, Smith, and Thompson just brick shots all day. Thomas has to be on the floor to keep opposing defenses honest. Now if Ross were to find his stroke and started instead of Thompson or Thomas, then sure lets go for it.
"Who cares? Go Bucks." - Aaron Untch
My starting lineup is
C Amir Williams
PF jared sullinger
SF deshaun Thomas
SG william buford
PG Aaron Craft
I think we could be the best in this lineup because we have two athletic bigs and 1 shot blocker plus buford can rebound too. I think if Amir played more he could be A LOT like Anthony davis of kentucky.
" I went for two cause I couldn't go for three."
-woody Hayes
We usually only have 1-2 guys who you can count on for offense...too many nights we have no scoring threat out of Smith, or Craft. Thomas is a complete wild card and even Buford is off half the time. I can't believe we are this far into the season without having developed a scoring threat off the bench. Every year we watch Izzo risk losing early games by letting the bench guys get valuable and meaningful minutes in order to have guys ready to step-up with the confidence you do see from anyone coming off our bench. Mich St is always in a better position to make a deep tournament run. Thad's a great coach, that we're luck to have here, but this bench development seems to be his one blind spot. It's not like we're talking about Mark "the Shark" Titus, we have McDonald's All-American's not sniffing the court during most games. Williams, Scott, Ross, Thompson and Weatherspoon should have way more minutes under their belts this year...they should all be playing a few "real" minutes in virtually every game.
D. Anthony
Built's proposed line-up works if tOSU switches to the 'Cuse 3-2 zone... Unfortunately Buford and Thomas will never be good enough on-ball defenders at the SG and SF positions in the B1G (or anywhere) to play man2man the way Matta wants to run the D.
It is too bad that the All-Americans aren't getting more PT... These guys could be running a full-court press every game by going 10-deep on the bench.
Keep Calm and Ignore the Trolls.
I agree with this post. Let the kid play. Give us an X factor in the tourney.
Class of 2010.
A lot of people complain about Matta not going to the bench at all. I think it is a concern, before he didn't have that much talent on the bench but the past 2-3 years he has had the talent. I think he just needs to adjust and I think next year should be the year to do it. Sullinger and buford will be gone and maybe thomas but I hope not. So next year he will have to play a lot of unproven guys like Ross,sibert,Weatherspoon,Thompson. Next year he should have a 8-10 man rotation.
2013 starting lineup
C Amir Williams
PF Maybe Trey Mcdonald, or if he gets Tony Parker
SF Thomas if he stays, Ross if he goes
SG Smith Jr
PG Craft
Then you have the rest of the guys come off the bench like Weatherspoon,scott,Thompson, Sibert
What does anyone else think. And if Thomas does leave I think it leaves OSU very thin on scoring threats. Those are our top 3 scorers leaving.
Where are we at with recruits for next season? I know we might only lose two but on the rivals top 100 I didn't see us with any guys. Ross was the highest ranked player of this years class so the dude has to have some skills. Based on the guys we have now I could see craft, ross, smith, Thomas and Williams starting.
Tough times never last, tough people do
Also, Michigan, Michigan St. And Indiana have great classes coming in. Has me a little worried about next season.
Tough times never last, tough people do
The only guy Matta might get in 2012 is Tony Parker a 6'9 like 270 guys to play post like sullinger. I don't think he recruited that hard because he only has 1 for sure scholarship opening up with buford gone. 2013 look for him to grab some more guys he already has a commit in that class Marc Loving 6'8 200lbs SF who is ranked in the top 60 atm.
The only two guys left that Matta offered in the 2012 class are
Amile Jefferson 6'7 190Lbs #4 PF
Tony Parker 6'9 270 #7 C
As far as 2013 these are the kids he has offered as of now
Julius Randle
PF
Dallas, TX
Prestonwood Christian Academy
6'9'' 225
Jabari Parker
SF
Chicago, IL
Simeon Career Academy
6'8'' 220
Marc Loving
SF
Toledo, OH
St. John's High School
6'8'' 200
They are all top 60 players with Loving commited already for like a year
I saw some footage of Loving. He looks like a shooter that is much needed! If this years bench guys don't drastically improve before next year we are in trouble.
Tough times never last, tough people do
My lineup woud be:
C Williams
PF Sullinger
SF Thomas
PG Craft
SG Smith Jr
Bench Buford, Ross, Ravenel, Scott, Thompson, and Weatherspoon in that order. Buford is playing terrible and he needs to have a message sent his way.
I understand your thinking on benching Buford but I'm afraid that could really kill his confidence. Granted he is playing very bad but we all know we need him if we have any shot going far in the tourney. He is just so hard to figure out. He needs to learn that when his shot isn't going down he needs to take it to the bucket. We have to figure out a way to get some scoring from the bench. When these guys do get in, they won't even look at the rim.
Tough times never last, tough people do
They don't look at the rim becasue they don't play that much, and when you don't if you take a shot and miss Coach gets mad at you. And what happend to Sibert he was pretty good and now he doesn't play at all. I thought he could have been a good outside shooter. Everyone is just streaky, Smith Jr,Buford, Thomas, Sullinger is the only one and sometimes they don't even give it to him like yesterday at michigan.
For all the people calling for Williams to start:
You do realize that Sullinger can't guard the 3 point line well at all and that he is likely to get killed on the perimeter, right? Thomas is a liability out there... Sullinger would be a disaster. And MOST PFs in the Big 10 are perimeter oriented guys who are far quicker and more athletic than Sully.
MSU: Draymond Green
Wisconsin: Ryan Evans
Indiana: Christian Watford
Michigan: Evan Smotrycz
All these guys can shoot, dribble drive and get Sully into all kinds of foul trouble - Best case scenario, Sully stays out of foul trouble but they get open shot after open shot. And, yes, Sullinger would have an advantage at the other end, but I suspect that if we played a big lineup with Amir and Jared, MOST teams would counter with some sort of zone to avoid 1-on-1 post matchups.
NOT TO MENTION: You really want Deshaun Thomas guarding a legit guard? Here's who he would be guarding now:
MSU: Brandon Wood
Michigan Tim Hardaway Jr
Wisconsin: Gasser/Brust
Indiana: Victor Oladipu
You're asking those players to manage defensive assignments that they are incapable of managing - This will mean either A) easy points for the opponent, or B) lots of fouls for our guys.
I agree Brian. Thomas cannot guard well at the 4 position. Putting him at the 3 would be a disaster. Additionally, I don't think Amir Williams is near ready to be a starter. I do think he should see some more minutes.
Lastly, has Matta EVER had a big starting lineup? The Greg Oden team had four smaller bodies around the big man (Ivan Harris at 6'7" isn't small, but not a true PF). Matta never uses a true Power Forward and he probably never will. So I highly doubt we see Amir on the floor with Sullinger.
2013 Starting Lineup
C Ravenel
PF Ross
SF Thompson
SG Smith, Jr.
PG Craft
in 2013 [assuming we dont get tony parker and sullinger leaves] this is my starting lineup:
C Williams
PF Ross
SF Thomas
SG Smith JR.
PG Craft
Thomas starts because who will score other than Ross? Ravenenel and thompson will come of the bench soon assuming that williams and thomas/ross get in foul trouble.
" I went for two cause I couldn't go for three."
-woody Hayes
I don't see Thomas coming back next year. I'm surprised he returned for this season.
I agree Brian, but look at it the other way around as well...
Can a 4 guard Sullinger? Highly unlikely.
Can a 3 guard Thomas? Highly unlikely.
It would be an offensive game, which Matta doesn't want I suppose.
With the current situation of the team I predict sweet 16. Sully will get abused once we start playing teams with athletic big men. Bufford might as well not even show up anymore. Somebody please tell him the WNBA not the NBA is calling his name. Thad needs to start playing his athletic players on the bench more. The only way they are improve on defense is to throw into the wolves and let them compete. Thad has plenty of timeouts or make subsitutions to correct the guys that are messing up. You can't win it all with 7guys. Till Thad learns this concept from the likes of his collegue Tom Izzo, Buckeye fans better be use to Big 10 Championships and sweet 16 at best.