Thad Matta Radio Show: Ohio State's 'Incredible Battles' With Michigan State, Stopping Miles Bridges and More

Ohio State's already slim NCAA Tournament hopes (if they even existed) all but went down the drain with Saturday's 86-77 loss at Maryland.

The Buckeyes are 15-11 overall and 5-8 in Big Ten play. With five regular season games remaining, Ohio State must get on a roll and win games in the conference tournament if it is to have any chance at making the 68-team field.

Thad Matta's team travels to Michigan State on Tuesday night. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. The head coach joined Paul Keels and Ron Stokes on 97.1 The Fan on Monday for his weekly radio spot.

NOTES:

• Monday's Coaches show was prerecorded as Ohio State traveled to East Lansing after practice.
• Tim Horton's Coffee With the Coach Question from Sam in Columbus: Is there one or two games against Michigan State in his tenure that stick out? Matta said Jamar Butler's and William Buford's shots that won games for the Buckeyes at the Breslin Center are two. Butler's was the first time Ohio State won up there under Matta and Buford's won the Big Ten Championship in 2012.
• Matta also brought up Denzel Valentine's game-winner a few years ago and Aaron Craft shutting down Gary Harris in Columbus: "Some incredible battles. Fantastic moments."
•  Matta noted that the best battles Ohio State has had over the years are against Michigan State and Wisconsin.
• During the game in 2006 where Butler hit the game-winner, Big Ten Player of the Year Terrence Dials stayed on the bench in favor of Matt Terwilliger down the stretch: "He said, 'Leave him in.'" Same thing with the game in which Buford's shot won it — Evan Ravenel played extensive minutes in place of Jared Sullinger.
• On difficult situations with families off the court like last week with JaQuan Lyle and Keita Bates-Diop: "There's nothing in my coaching manual that tells me how to handle that stuff."
• Lyle's sister is "miraculously" doing better. Matta said he has never had a situation where one of his player's brothers collapsed on the court like that: "That was scary."
• Bates-Diop's brother, Kai, is having surgery this week to have a defibrillator inserted into his chest. They are unsure if Kai, who is 16, will ever be able to play again: "That was probably the hardest thing he has had to deal with ... but he is feeling much better."
• Despite playing shorthanded against Maryland, especially at guard, Matta said for the most part he was pleased with how those guys still in the rotation got the offense started: "We had some mistakes but were able to get them back into things most of the time."
• Asked about the officiating at Maryland and some questionable calls, Matta said "I can't lie, that was tough. I still can't find where Trevor Thompson moved on a screen late in the game."
• He also brought up a 3-pointer that Kam Williams made against Rutgers on Wednesday that the officials eventually changed to a two even though his foot were clearly behind the line: "We still haven't heard why they took it away. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life."
• "You could drive a car between Kam and the three-point line."
• Elk & Elk Injury Report: walk-on Joey Lane is not cleared to play after a mild concussion. Matta kept talking like he was unsure if Lyle would be back for practice on Monday but he did return in time. His status remains unclear for Tuesday.
• Ohio State opened the Maryland game by missing 10 straight shots: "We kept looking at each other and saying, 'We have to make something, right?'"
• "I hope that going into [Tuesday's] game we'll take what we did the last week or so and build on it. Because it's going to take everyone to win that basketball game."
• Matta spoke about tough stretches where Ohio State narrowly missed a long rebound, then Andre Wesson stepped on someone's foot and fumbled the ball away on a backdoor cut before C.J. Jackson was called for a phantom foul: "Those are those tough times where we have to keep fighting the fight and pushing. Because when they snowball like that it isn't easy."
• Matta felt his post players — and shorthanded roster anyways — "held the fort" as well as they could with having three players foul out.
• Asked about Northwestern's upset victory at Wisconsin on Sunday: "There is no given. It is amazing what can happen on any given night. Northwestern has a very good basketball team but going to Wisconsin and winning is very, very difficult."
• Matta knocked on wood that his team continues to shoot free throws well: "Hopefully that keeps going because it really adds something to our offense."
• Matta said the staff has adjusted Jae'Sean Tate's follow through slightly on his free throws: "Overall, I think Jae'Sean is playing really great basketball for us right now."
• More on Tate: "He's one of those guys, he gives it. He doesn't take it ... I think he's playing at a really high level."
• On handling the backcourt pressure Maryland presented: "We did a good job when we did what we were supposed to do ... It's a little bit different when C.J. was out and we had some guys back there that were a little bit out of place."
• On Michigan State: "It starts with transition defense. The first four minutes, they're going to try and have you down 12-0."
• Matta on Sparty: "You know what you're going to get ... they're a very help-oriented team and rebound the ball well. I think our guys have a pretty good feel from watching tape that they're going to face."
• Matta called star freshman Miles Bridges "a terrific athlete" and noted his monster game against Ohio State in Columbus where he scored 24 points: "He's obviously one of the better freshmen in the country."
• On the quick turnaround from traveling on Saturday night to playing another road game on Tuesday, Matta said the team had a lengthy video session on Sunday and practiced for about an hour. It was a "light workout" but specific to game planning before a bunch of shooting drills.
• Matta said teams are averaging nine made 3-pointers against Ohio State in Big Ten play. That is where the team misses the length of Bates-Diop: "He's just so long and guys have to shoot over him. I think we're getting better defensively but we've gotta keep hammering that home."
• Matta said Ohio State's players still lift their upper bodies during the season two or three times a week depending on the game schedule. Flexibility and more conditioning as the year drags on is more important: "At this point in the year you want to have all your bullets ready."
• On Kam Williams's recent rise: "Still would like to get him to the foul line a little bit more but I like the way Kam is playing right now." Williams is averaging 12.4 points per game in Ohio State's last five contests.
• "The one thing about Kameron Williams: You'll never have to worry about work. He is in the gym as much as any player I've ever coached." Matta said he stressed with Williams the need to improve his ball-handling after last season.
• Do long distance shooters have preferences for where they shoot? "I think shooters can shoot. It doesn't matter where."
• Matta joked that the NBA has the "$9 million dollar corner," because teams will pay you $9 million a year if you can hit the corner three.
• Matta said he got to see Braxton Beverly play last week in Virginia: "He had 31, just a tough little point guard. I'm excited to get him in here."
• Kalen Wesson is having "an incredible season" at Westerville South.