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LGHL That Team Up North: Top five Ohio State-Michigan men’s basketball games of all-time
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That Team Up North: Top five Ohio State-Michigan men’s basketball games of all-time
justingolba via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
When thinking about all-time OSU-Michigan all-time hoops games, everyone jumps to Evan Turner’s buzzer beaters.
From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about Ohio State’s rivals. Michigan is the defending national champions, but there has been a lot of change in Ann Arbor. What does that mean for the season, the Big Ten, and the Buckeyes? You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”That Team Up North” articles here.
When people think about the greatest Ohio State and Michigan games of all time, most of the ones that stick out are on the gridiron. However, the court has seen some solid matchups as well — especially in the 2010s — with John Beilein and Thad Matta going to battle year in and year out.
But which games are the best? One is an obvious top pick, but some of the other games might be surprising.
Mar. 12, 2010: No. 7 Ohio State 69, Michigan 68
No one expected this game to be close at the end, but it ended up being one of the more memorable finishes in Ohio State basketball history.
In the Big Ten Tournament, No. 1 seeded Ohio State faced No. 8 Michigan, and it looked like Michigan was going to pull off the huge upset until Evan Turner drilled a half-court three-pointer two in the game. We were all Jon Diebler and Thad Matta at the end of this video.
Mar. 29, 1992: No. 15 Michigan 75, No. 3 Ohio State 71
This has a greater impact because it was an Elite Eight game, and the Fab Five faced off against Jim Jackson.
Ohio State, led by Jackson, was a No. 1 seed in the 1992 NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes won both regular-season matchups with No. 6 seed Michigan, which was led by the Fab Five. Those teams collided in an Elite Eight classic at Rupp Arena. Jackson scored 20 points, and Ohio State had a chance to win at the end of regulation, but a jumper from Chris Jent missed.
The Wolverines pulled away in overtime behind Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.
Feb. 5. 2013 – No. 3 Michigan 76, No. 10 Ohio State 74
This was almost a huge upset for the Buckeyes, as Michigan came into this one 20-2. Tim Hardaway scored 23 points, and Trey Burke added 16 to give the Wolverines a slight edge over Ohio State. Mitch McGary added 14 points and six rebounds off the bench.
Ohio State, who entered this game 17-4, got 17 points from Deshaun Thomas and 16 points from LaQuinton Ross in their quest for an upset.
Feb. 27, 1971: No. 18 Ohio State 91, No. 12 Michigan 85
In the 2010s, this game would have been a norm for the Buckeyes and Wolverines. However, in 1971, this was the first ranked matchup between the two teams.
Jim Cleamons led the Buckeyes to a victory at Crisler Arena, and it was a great season for both teams. Ohio State won the Big Ten that season, and Michigan finished second. Western Kentucky ended the Buckeyes’ season in the Elite Eight.
Mar. 15, 2014: No. 8 Michigan 72, No. 24 Ohio State 69
This one was a Big Ten conference tournament game and a Shannon Scott masterclass. Scott scored 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting, six assists, five rebounds, and three steals. However, Nik Stauskas, Caris LeVert, and Glenn Robinson combined for 46 points to lead Michigan to the win, spoiling the Ohio State bid for an upset.
Continue reading...
justingolba via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
When thinking about all-time OSU-Michigan all-time hoops games, everyone jumps to Evan Turner’s buzzer beaters.
From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about Ohio State’s rivals. Michigan is the defending national champions, but there has been a lot of change in Ann Arbor. What does that mean for the season, the Big Ten, and the Buckeyes? You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”That Team Up North” articles here.
When people think about the greatest Ohio State and Michigan games of all time, most of the ones that stick out are on the gridiron. However, the court has seen some solid matchups as well — especially in the 2010s — with John Beilein and Thad Matta going to battle year in and year out.
But which games are the best? One is an obvious top pick, but some of the other games might be surprising.
Mar. 12, 2010: No. 7 Ohio State 69, Michigan 68
No one expected this game to be close at the end, but it ended up being one of the more memorable finishes in Ohio State basketball history.
In the Big Ten Tournament, No. 1 seeded Ohio State faced No. 8 Michigan, and it looked like Michigan was going to pull off the huge upset until Evan Turner drilled a half-court three-pointer two in the game. We were all Jon Diebler and Thad Matta at the end of this video.
Mar. 29, 1992: No. 15 Michigan 75, No. 3 Ohio State 71
This has a greater impact because it was an Elite Eight game, and the Fab Five faced off against Jim Jackson.
Ohio State, led by Jackson, was a No. 1 seed in the 1992 NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes won both regular-season matchups with No. 6 seed Michigan, which was led by the Fab Five. Those teams collided in an Elite Eight classic at Rupp Arena. Jackson scored 20 points, and Ohio State had a chance to win at the end of regulation, but a jumper from Chris Jent missed.
The Wolverines pulled away in overtime behind Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.
Feb. 5. 2013 – No. 3 Michigan 76, No. 10 Ohio State 74
This was almost a huge upset for the Buckeyes, as Michigan came into this one 20-2. Tim Hardaway scored 23 points, and Trey Burke added 16 to give the Wolverines a slight edge over Ohio State. Mitch McGary added 14 points and six rebounds off the bench.
Ohio State, who entered this game 17-4, got 17 points from Deshaun Thomas and 16 points from LaQuinton Ross in their quest for an upset.
Feb. 27, 1971: No. 18 Ohio State 91, No. 12 Michigan 85
In the 2010s, this game would have been a norm for the Buckeyes and Wolverines. However, in 1971, this was the first ranked matchup between the two teams.
Jim Cleamons led the Buckeyes to a victory at Crisler Arena, and it was a great season for both teams. Ohio State won the Big Ten that season, and Michigan finished second. Western Kentucky ended the Buckeyes’ season in the Elite Eight.
Mar. 15, 2014: No. 8 Michigan 72, No. 24 Ohio State 69
This one was a Big Ten conference tournament game and a Shannon Scott masterclass. Scott scored 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting, six assists, five rebounds, and three steals. However, Nik Stauskas, Caris LeVert, and Glenn Robinson combined for 46 points to lead Michigan to the win, spoiling the Ohio State bid for an upset.
Continue reading...
LGHL You’re Nuts: Which Buckeyes would have been great if they weren’t blocked by someone else?
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- 0 Replies
You’re Nuts: Which Buckeyes would have been great if they weren’t blocked by someone else?
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports
There have been some great hoopers to come through Columbus, but was that at the expense of some others?
Congratulations to Carmen’s Crew, which has officially advanced to the Elite Eight of The Basketball Tournament for the first time since the team won the title in 2019. A balanced scoring attack led by Jared Sullinger and Kaleb Wesson carried Carmen’s Crew to a 74-70 victory over the reigning TBT champions, Team Heartfire, on Wednesday night.
Last week, Connor and Justin both picked one player that’s never played for Carmen’s Crew that they would like to see suit up in scarlet and gray soon. Justin picked Jamison Battle, who recently signed with the Toronto Raptors after going undrafted in the 2024 NBA Draft. Connor picked Evan Turner, who coached Carmen’s Crew for the last few years, but has never suited up — even after retiring from the NBA in 2020.
20% of the readers sided with Justin and his pick of battle. The other 80% picked Turner, whose name hangs in the rafters at the Schottenstein Center.
Connor- 79
Watching former Buckeyes get buckets on TV has us thinking back about Ohio State teams of years past. Some Ohio State teams have been so deep that great players were relegated to a backup role, despite being more than capable of starting if the opportunity was there. Some of those players wound up transferring elsewhere, and found success when more minutes became available to them. Others broke out in a big way once the player they were “backing up” graduated.
Here are two examples...
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25546396/usa_today_12269948.jpg "NCAA Basketball: Ohio State at Purdue")
Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports
Absolutely nobody should be surprised to see LeDee listed here, since he finished as a Second-Team All American last season at San Diego State, was named the Mountain West Player of the Year, and won the Karl Malone Award, given to the nation’s best power forward.
Before all of that happened, LeDee was a TCU Horned Frog. Before he was a Horned Frog, he was a Buckeye.
LeDee was a four-star recruit out of Texas in the 2018 cycle, just outside the top-100 prospects in the country. He was part of Chris Holtmann’s first “full” recruiting class at Ohio State, along with Luther Muhammad, Duane Washington, and Justin Ahrens. Ironically enough, three of those four players wound up transferring from Ohio State at some point.
As a freshman, LeDee appeared in 26 of Ohio State’s 35 games, averaging three points per game in just under seven minutes per game. He wasn’t the “five-star center” that Ohio State fans have been demanding for the past 15 years, but LeDee was tall, lean, had good footwork around the basket, and was a good free throw shooter considering his size.
After his freshman season, LeDee transferred to TCU. The rumor was that LeDee, who is originally from Texas, wanted to be closer to home.
It took until his sixth year of college, but LeDee did eventually have his breakout season, as stated above. He averaged better than 21 points per game for San Diego State last season, helping take the Aztecs to the Sweet Sixteen where they lost to the eventual national champion UCONN, 82-52. Even with that loss, LeDee’s Aztecs still advanced farther in the tournament this past season than Ohio State has in the past 11 years.
Everyone enjoyed doing the whole “revisionist history” thing with LeDee this past season, pointing fingers and reminding anyone who would listen that Chris Holtmann could’ve played LeDee more, but chose not to. This ignores the fact that Jamie Dixon also could’ve played him more at TCU and also did not, as well as ignoring the fact that LeDee being a great player in his sixth college season does not mean that LeDee would’ve been great at Ohio State early in his career, even if he was given the minutes.
However, a huge barricade to LeDee getting minutes as a freshman was Kaleb Wesson, who is one year older than him. Wesson arrived at Ohio State in 2017 as an exciting local recruit from nearby Westerville and earned an important role for the Buckeyes starting his freshman year. Wesson eventually turned into an All-Big Ten caliber player who was — at times — Ohio State’s only offensive threat, especially during that 2018-2019 season.
Wesson developed an outside shot during college, and left Ohio State as a 40% three-point shooter. However, he was never a player who could operated primarily on the perimeter at 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, which meant he and LeDee weren’t going to co-exist on the floor.
Clearly, Jaedon LeDee had a ton of talent — it just took some time and the right situation to really allow him to show it. If he was at Ohio State and Wesson wasn’t, I think there would’ve been a much larger opportunity for LeDee. Perhaps the San Diego State breakout would’ve actually happened in Columbus if he wasn’t blocked behind another talented center. *shrugs*
When it comes to players that have been positionally blocked at Ohio State, guard Shannon Scott immediately comes to mind.
He attended Ohio State for four years, three of which were behind Aaron Craft. His senior season was also D’Angelo Russell’s freshman season. They were two of the best guards in the history of the program. Tough draw.
Scott spent four years in Columbus, played in 143 games, and only started in 57 of those. 34 of those 57 starts came in his senior year when he was the starting point guard, and Russell was the starting shooting guard. However, often throughout that season the offense still ran through Russell most of the time.
Scott was the No. 32 ranked recruit in his class, so he was a high four-star prospect and showed great potential when he arrived in Columbus. Scott was a two-time Big Ten All-Defense and was elite on that side of the ball, but he played alongside one of the greatest defensive guards in the program’s history, so his efforts on that end got overwhelmed, too.
In 143 games over four years, he averaged 5.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game. This was with the offense never being run through him or for him. He could have fairly easily been a double-digit scorer, but his role was defensive and not as a main scorer. It also made him slightly inefficient because it was hard for him to get into a flow.
Scott did not have a bad career in Columbus, but because of who he played behind and next to, it was hard for him to reach his full potential.
I don’t consider LeDee to be on this list because he wasn’t positionally blocked to me; He just wasn’t on the right team or in the right situation. He went to TCU as well, and that was not right for him either. He found the perfect spot at San Diego State, and that was awesome to see. I am not sure he would have ever reached his potential at OSU, but not because of who was ahead of him.
Continue reading...
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports
There have been some great hoopers to come through Columbus, but was that at the expense of some others?
Congratulations to Carmen’s Crew, which has officially advanced to the Elite Eight of The Basketball Tournament for the first time since the team won the title in 2019. A balanced scoring attack led by Jared Sullinger and Kaleb Wesson carried Carmen’s Crew to a 74-70 victory over the reigning TBT champions, Team Heartfire, on Wednesday night.
Last week, Connor and Justin both picked one player that’s never played for Carmen’s Crew that they would like to see suit up in scarlet and gray soon. Justin picked Jamison Battle, who recently signed with the Toronto Raptors after going undrafted in the 2024 NBA Draft. Connor picked Evan Turner, who coached Carmen’s Crew for the last few years, but has never suited up — even after retiring from the NBA in 2020.
20% of the readers sided with Justin and his pick of battle. The other 80% picked Turner, whose name hangs in the rafters at the Schottenstein Center.
After 162 weeks:
Connor- 79
Justin- 63
Other- 16
(There have been four ties)
Watching former Buckeyes get buckets on TV has us thinking back about Ohio State teams of years past. Some Ohio State teams have been so deep that great players were relegated to a backup role, despite being more than capable of starting if the opportunity was there. Some of those players wound up transferring elsewhere, and found success when more minutes became available to them. Others broke out in a big way once the player they were “backing up” graduated.
Here are two examples...
This week’s question: Which Buckeyes would have been great if they weren’t blocked by someone else?
Connor: Jaedon LeDee
Absolutely nobody should be surprised to see LeDee listed here, since he finished as a Second-Team All American last season at San Diego State, was named the Mountain West Player of the Year, and won the Karl Malone Award, given to the nation’s best power forward.
Before all of that happened, LeDee was a TCU Horned Frog. Before he was a Horned Frog, he was a Buckeye.
LeDee was a four-star recruit out of Texas in the 2018 cycle, just outside the top-100 prospects in the country. He was part of Chris Holtmann’s first “full” recruiting class at Ohio State, along with Luther Muhammad, Duane Washington, and Justin Ahrens. Ironically enough, three of those four players wound up transferring from Ohio State at some point.
As a freshman, LeDee appeared in 26 of Ohio State’s 35 games, averaging three points per game in just under seven minutes per game. He wasn’t the “five-star center” that Ohio State fans have been demanding for the past 15 years, but LeDee was tall, lean, had good footwork around the basket, and was a good free throw shooter considering his size.
After his freshman season, LeDee transferred to TCU. The rumor was that LeDee, who is originally from Texas, wanted to be closer to home.
It took until his sixth year of college, but LeDee did eventually have his breakout season, as stated above. He averaged better than 21 points per game for San Diego State last season, helping take the Aztecs to the Sweet Sixteen where they lost to the eventual national champion UCONN, 82-52. Even with that loss, LeDee’s Aztecs still advanced farther in the tournament this past season than Ohio State has in the past 11 years.
Everyone enjoyed doing the whole “revisionist history” thing with LeDee this past season, pointing fingers and reminding anyone who would listen that Chris Holtmann could’ve played LeDee more, but chose not to. This ignores the fact that Jamie Dixon also could’ve played him more at TCU and also did not, as well as ignoring the fact that LeDee being a great player in his sixth college season does not mean that LeDee would’ve been great at Ohio State early in his career, even if he was given the minutes.
However, a huge barricade to LeDee getting minutes as a freshman was Kaleb Wesson, who is one year older than him. Wesson arrived at Ohio State in 2017 as an exciting local recruit from nearby Westerville and earned an important role for the Buckeyes starting his freshman year. Wesson eventually turned into an All-Big Ten caliber player who was — at times — Ohio State’s only offensive threat, especially during that 2018-2019 season.
Wesson developed an outside shot during college, and left Ohio State as a 40% three-point shooter. However, he was never a player who could operated primarily on the perimeter at 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, which meant he and LeDee weren’t going to co-exist on the floor.
Clearly, Jaedon LeDee had a ton of talent — it just took some time and the right situation to really allow him to show it. If he was at Ohio State and Wesson wasn’t, I think there would’ve been a much larger opportunity for LeDee. Perhaps the San Diego State breakout would’ve actually happened in Columbus if he wasn’t blocked behind another talented center. *shrugs*
Justin: Shannon Scott
When it comes to players that have been positionally blocked at Ohio State, guard Shannon Scott immediately comes to mind.
He attended Ohio State for four years, three of which were behind Aaron Craft. His senior season was also D’Angelo Russell’s freshman season. They were two of the best guards in the history of the program. Tough draw.
Scott spent four years in Columbus, played in 143 games, and only started in 57 of those. 34 of those 57 starts came in his senior year when he was the starting point guard, and Russell was the starting shooting guard. However, often throughout that season the offense still ran through Russell most of the time.
Scott was the No. 32 ranked recruit in his class, so he was a high four-star prospect and showed great potential when he arrived in Columbus. Scott was a two-time Big Ten All-Defense and was elite on that side of the ball, but he played alongside one of the greatest defensive guards in the program’s history, so his efforts on that end got overwhelmed, too.
In 143 games over four years, he averaged 5.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game. This was with the offense never being run through him or for him. He could have fairly easily been a double-digit scorer, but his role was defensive and not as a main scorer. It also made him slightly inefficient because it was hard for him to get into a flow.
Scott did not have a bad career in Columbus, but because of who he played behind and next to, it was hard for him to reach his full potential.
I don’t consider LeDee to be on this list because he wasn’t positionally blocked to me; He just wasn’t on the right team or in the right situation. He went to TCU as well, and that was not right for him either. He found the perfect spot at San Diego State, and that was awesome to see. I am not sure he would have ever reached his potential at OSU, but not because of who was ahead of him.
Continue reading...
