There's something psychologically about this team, if they struggle offensively, they get into a tailspin and can't recover. If they can't score 72 points, they basically always lose. They have only won once this season while scoring less than 72, the fourth game of the season vs. ND. In their 11 losses, there were only 3 games they scored 72.

I hate to say it, but Bennett Stirtz made his case to be selected all-B1G first team over Bruce Thornton today. I guess we will just have to hope that somehow voters will give Bruce the nod over either Jeremy Fears Jr or Braden Smith, who have lower scoring numbers but higher assist totals on better teams.

Monster game coming up this weekend at home vs. Purdue. OSU needs a marquee win BADLY & must rebound from a poor performance at Iowa. It's not an elimination game for OSU, but it's the notch below that in terms of must-win territory.

Iowa bench scoring advantage 21-3. Won by 17. OSU actually played their bench more minutes than Iowa.

buckeyemania11 said:

He's so bad on defense that the defense that had been improving immediately regressed when he got back on the floor.

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One of the biggest things Iowa succeeded with today was getting Folgueiras isolated in the paint against smaller defenders. This underscores why ideally you want to have guys who can play interchangeably on defense as much as possible.

buckeyemania11 said:

Mobley is just not a good player overall. He's awful on defense and if he's not on he turns into a total liability on offense too.

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I mean you just described John Deibler's first few years here as much as I loved him. There was just massively more talent around him.

OHSportsFan said:

Layup/dunk contest now. Good effort.

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Good effort on D? I didn't see much resistance to the hawkeyes' drives to get easy layups.

DZ83CK said:

He's a great shooter, but ultimately on a better team he's probably a guy who comes off the bench and is the instant offense guy.

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He's so bad on defense that the defense that had been improving immediately regressed when he got back on the floor.

buckeyemania11 said:

Mobley is just not a good player overall. He's awful on defense and if he's not on he turns into a total liability on offense too.

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He's a great shooter, but ultimately on a better team he's probably a guy who comes off the bench and is the instant offense guy.

Mobley is just not a good player overall. He's awful on defense and if he's not on he turns into a total liability on offense too.

They aren't firing McGuff especially this year

Don't think they are recovering from this one good chance they lose out now

Iowa 73% from the field in the second half.

Iowa by 23. Just put in walk-ons at this point.

Looks like OSU is conceding, taking Bruce out down 17.

OHSportsFan said:

I’m close to this…but willing to give the upgraded talent a chance next year.

But it won’t matter if this is the culture they walk into. These guys all ACT like they know basketball is the little brother at Ohio State. I just sense it even with the players this is just a hobby. No winning attitude at all.

Bruce tries. Everyone else seems like they’re just happy to wear the jersey and get some cool gear.

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I think they do need a major roster overhaul, but that requires NIL $, which they have not been competitive with for this basketball team. There needs to be an emphasis on getting a team that can play just as physical as the top teams in college basketball, and you've got to upgrade big-time in terms of size, strength, length, quickness and athleticism. Obviously you want to keep guys like Mobley, Royal and Bynum, but beyond them there aren't any guys you would lose any sleep over transferring.

OHSportsFan said:

I’m close to this…but willing to give the upgraded talent a chance next year.

But it won’t matter if this is the culture they walk into. These guys all ACT like they know basketball is the little brother at Ohio State. I just sense it even with the players this is just a hobby. No winning attitude at all.

Bruce tries. Everyone else seems like they’re just happy to wear the jersey and get some cool gear.

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I just don't think Diebler is very good at actually being a head coach.

And talent might not even upgrade overall next year. Thompson is nice but he alone doesn't even come close to fixing the issues. With Bruce gone if the portal results aren't an upgrade from this year and last next year's team might actually be worse overall.

I gotta say, I was not anticipating an Iowa 19-point lead in this game.

Just gotta nuke the whole program and rebuild it from the ground up

Ahiacitian said:

I don’t like changing the K/9 category to just strike outs because then that stat becomes an accumulator stat which encourages constant adding and dropping of pitchers. Whereas the K/9 stat reflects the quality of pitching each team has in a given week. In the current format, there are different strategies that managers currently employ. Some guys go reliever heavy in chasing saves, holds, and K/9, while others go more balanced or starting pitcher heavy in chasing wins, ERA, and WHIP.

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Maybe I’m not understanding, but pitchers are streamed ad nauseam in this league.

What pisses me off the most is Bruce will score 30 vs Purdue only for them to lose another close one under 5 points.