#15 Indiana 81, #18 Ohio State 79 (final)

[BuckNutty]

I have a quick question for all the basketball experts out there and I'll let you know up front I'm not second guessing Matta. The guys has probably forgotten more about basketball than I will ever know.

With less than 4 seconds(3.6, IIRC) left the chances of needing a rebound or put back are fairly slim. Those would be the only reasons I would think of to have a kid like Terwilliger out there on the floor. Is there some other reason I'm not thinking of? If the reasons I gave are actually correct why is he standing outside the three point line?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Golferdow01]

I have a quick question for all the basketball experts out there and I'll let you know up front I'm not second guessing Matta. The guys has probably forgotten more about basketball than I will ever know.

With less than 4 seconds(3.6, IIRC) left the chances of needing a rebound or put back are fairly slim. Those would be the only reasons I would think of to have a kid like Terwilliger out there on the floor. Is there some other reason I'm not thinking of? If the reasons I gave are actually correct why is he standing outside the three point line?

Thanks in advance.

Your guess is as good as mine. A possible put back in case the trey missed, a target in case we couldn't inbound the ball, who really knows. All I know is that Matta wanted a trey because OT would have put us at a huge disadvantage with our foul trouble.

 

[coastalbuck]

I think the kids will learn from this and be better for it. They deserve credit for the effort, very rough place to play in the Big Ten. It could have been worse.

 

[Bestbuck36]

Twig was supposed to be the screen man and he missed. We got no one open so Twig stepped out to get the inbounds. I was looking for Lewis or Sullinger on the alley oop from out of bounds and we had JJ throwing the ball in?! Not sure I understand that one. We had no one moving away from the ball most of the day and that seems to be echoed from most games this season. We drove the ball to the basket late and got some looks but were maybe a little bit too unselfish in there especially Sylvester. The bottom line is we had them beat and let up the intensity and concentration. Couple those things with piss poor officiating and execution and its an L. This team shows a lot of skill though and its safe to say we're in the whole enchilada this year if players step up.

 

[Bestbuck36]

Oh god look at my post count.

 

[Bestbuck36]

I'm not superstitious or nothin. :susp:

 

[BrutusMaximus]

You're entitled to your opinion. However, I think that blowing a 17 point lead goes way beyond lack of execution by the players.

Wow, are you serious? I will make a little statement here to stir up the hornet's nest. If Obie were coaching this game, we'd have lost by 25

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it son :p

 

[crazybuckfan40]

First off I want to say what a game. It was a game of runs, made by both teams.

Second I want to say I will not blame a game solely on the refs, but they played a large part in IU's victory today. There isnt anyone out there that could honestly say that if we didnt run into the foul trouble we had, we wouldnt of won the game. (Dials-5, Syl-5,Twig-4, Sull-4, But-early 2). They were not letting us bang with them on D, but they were letting them bang with us. Also the two calls that made you just say what the Fuck, was the one that was called on SYl when Dials was standing straight up and they called a reach or something on him. Then the last charging call. The dude was setting a pick. Is the point of a pick to make contact with someone. Well he got ran over by a truck, that shouldnt be a foul, if he has the balls to set a pick he is asking for contact. Very bad job of officiating by the refs today. The calls really didnt go our way.

As a team, we didnt hit the clutch shots down the end, we had 2 good looks on one possession with about 1:30 left that didnt go down for us. We also struggled more than I would like to see from the line, but we did cut down on the To's today.

For the person who said they blame this game on the coaches, that it is just a ridiculous statement. If we make 3 of our freethrows or maybe one more three we win, it isnt like we got wiped off the floor, the gameplan was there, we just didnt make the shots we needed.

As for individual play:

Dials- is a stud, if he stays out of foul trouble he goes for 35, I am sick of the nickel and dimer fouls. Lets these kids play.

Butler- it is obvious to me that the offense is so much better with him in there, he missed his 3 today, but he has really improved his shot this year so that is no problem, and I love his penetration that he continues to use more and more.

Foster, Lewis, Syl, Sullinger - all played a good hard game today, and hit some nice shots.

Harris - I thought played good today and had a nice stickback.

Twig - he showed his age today, but he has really improved this year and he was playing some stiff competition. No reason to get down on him, if there is anyone to get down on in this situation it is Dials for not staying out of foul trouble.

Mayes - really disapointed in some of his forces today. He was going way out of his way to force shots. The shots are there for everyone in the offense, he just needed to let them come to him.

Bell - I honestly think Matta should of put him in for Twig, I think he could of at least gave it a try while Twig was struggling.

As for the last play of the game, I would of not called the TO and let Butler just try and go the length of the floor, you know they arent going to foul and he could of looked for a guy on the wing or pulled up for a jumper. When we called the TO it put us in a horrible position to inbound the ball b/c of the angle, and then no one got open putting Twig in a very bad spot. He tried to do something, but it isnt his fault.

Well on to Purdon't.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

scout.com (free)

1/8/06

Game wrap-up by Steve Helwagen.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

link

1/8/06

Ohio State suffers first defeat

Sunday, January 8, 2006

[FONT=Verdana, Times New Roman, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Writer[/FONT]

AP DARRON CUMMINGS Ohio State’s Terence Dials hears it from Indiana fans after fouling out late in the Buckeyes’ 81-79 loss Saturday. Hoosier fans heard a lot from Dials before that, though; he led OSU with 25 points.
​

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Marshall Strickland prepared himself for a crash landing Saturday — and he made it look good, too.

With 9.8 seconds left and the score tied, Indiana’s 195-pound guard let 260-pound Terence Dials run over him as he tried to set a pick.

Strickland crumbled to the court, then bounced up, made two free throws with 5.7 seconds left and stripped Ohio State’s Matt Terwilliger on the final possession to give No. 16 Indiana an 81-79 come-from-behind victory.

No. 18 Ohio State (11-1) had been one of six Division I-A unbeatens.

“There was no acting,” Strickland said, smiling. “I’m feeling it now. I felt all 260 pounds running over me out there.”

Strickland saved his award-winning performance for when it mattered most.

He tied up J.J. Sullinger on a rebound, giving Indiana possession with 25.3 seconds left. And when the Hoosiers (10-2, 2-0) called time-out to set up a last shot, Coach Mike Davis called on Strickland to set the pick that sent him tumbling.

Strickland, a senior and the Big Ten’s best free-throw shooter, didn’t even give it a second thought. He finished with 15 points, four rebounds and three assists, leading the Hoosiers to their sixth straight win.

“Marshall played 40 minutes and he was the best conditioned player out there. He never got tired,” Davis said. “He was great.”

Only Marco Killingsworth, who had 26 points, topped Strickland’s effort.
But as good as Strickland made the next-to-last play appear, Dials thought it was more act than foul in a rugged game that featured 43 fouls and 50 free throws.

“I knew the cross screen was coming, I just tried to get over it and I hit him and they called a foul,” Dials said. “I couldn’t avoid it.”

When Dials did avoid fouls, he was terrific. He finished with 25 points and eight rebounds. Je’Kel Foster and Ron Lewis each added 13 points, and Foster had six assists.

Ohio State controlled the game early, limiting Indiana to 38.7 percent shooting in the first half and bolted to a 38-21 lead — the Hoosiers’ largest deficit of the season.

But the Hoosiers got themselves righted in the final three minutes, carried that over to start the second half and shot 65.0 percent in the final 20 minutes to rally.

“The thing that hurt us was foul trouble, it crushed us,” Buckeyes Coach Thad Matta said. “They’re a prolific shooting team, and if we left our assignments for a second ... ”

The Hoosiers made them pay.

Indiana’s rally began with a 9-0 run near the end of the first half, which got them within 40-32 at halftime.

Robert Vaden kept it going when he opened the second half by hitting a 3-pointer. Strickland followed that with back-to-back 3s, and then Killingsworth put in a short jumper and completed a three-point play to give Indiana its first lead, 46-45 with 17:11 left.

The Buckeyes answered with three straight 3s to retake a 56-49 lead before Indiana charged back again. This time, it was a 9-1 run that ended with Lewis Monroe’s second 3 to give Indiana a 66-64 lead.
That’s when Dials asserted himself.

“You just want to go out there and leave everything on the court,” Dials said. “I think we showed the country today that when we play our best, we can play with anybody in the country.”

He scored 12 of the Buckeyes next 15 points, twice giving Ohio State the lead, the second time on a putback with 1:52 to go.

But Monroe’s free throw with 1:31 left tied the score at 79, and then it was Strickland’s stage.

“I told our guys there is no way we are losing this in our house,” he said.
Strickland made sure the Hoosiers didn’t. When Dials missed a short jumper with 25 seconds left, he wrestled the rebound away from Sullinger and forced a jump ball. Then he set the pick on Dials, crashed to the ground and hit both free throws.

Finally, after Matta called a play, the Hoosiers defended it perfectly. The inbound pass went to Terwilliger and when he turned, Strickland jarred the ball loose and heaved it into the air as the buzzer sounded to preserve the win. “I had set a screen on him earlier and he plowed right over me,” Strickland said. “So I felt if he did it again, I was going down. I knew he’d try and body me down.”

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

link

1/8/06

NO. 16 INDIANA 81 | NO. 18 OHIO STATE 79

OSU won’t cry foul

Buckeyes refuse to use referees as excuse after losing big lead
Sunday, January 08, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

</IMG> DARRON CUMMINGS | ASSOCIATED PRESS Indiana’s Marco Killingsworth, left, and Ohio State’s Ron Lewis chase a rebound during the first half.

</IMG> DARRON CUMMINGS | ASSOCIATED PRESS Ohio State’s Terence Dials, left, goes up strong against Indiana’s Marco Killingsworth during the first half.


BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — If there were any question before, there is no more. The personality of coach Thad Matta, a positive thinker who resolutely moves on and never looks back, undoubtedly has rubbed off on the Ohio State men’s basketball team.

So if they were frustrated by how events transpired yesterday in Assembly Hall, the coach and his players took pains not to show it. If they thought they were treated less than fairly by the officials in an 81-79 loss to No. 16 Indiana, none used it as an excuse.

They had chances to win at the end and they didn’t. Simple as that. They are unbeaten no more.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game and a challenge for us to keep competing every play, if we got a foul called or if we didn’t," guard Ron Lewis said. "It doesn’t matter. That’s how the game goes."

Seventeen points ahead late in the first half, No. 18 Ohio State (11-1, 1-1) fell victim in the second half to center Terence Dials’ foul trouble and an Indiana offense bent on taking advantage of it.

The Buckeyes lost when Dials, who scored a season-high 25 points in 25 foul-hindered minutes, fouled out after he ran over IU guard Marshall Strickland with 5.7 seconds left. Strickland set a back screen on Dials to free center Marco Killingsworth, who led all scorers with 26 points.

"I knew he was coming and I knew he wasn’t going around me," said Strickland, who is listed on the roster as weighing 65 pounds less than Dials. "I knew if he hit me, I was going down."

Strickland, the Big Ten’s best free throw shooter, made both free throws to give the Hoosiers (10-2, 2-0) a two-point lead. The margin held up when Ohio State botched an inbounds play in front of its bench with 3.6 seconds remaining and Dials’ replacement, Matt Terwilliger, was stripped of the ball as he attempted to get off a desperation three-point shot from the right wing.

"It was indicative (of the way the game went) that I get a foul called on me and they win the game on that. It was just one of those nights where I didn’t play smart enough," said Dials, who picked up his third and fourth fouls on foolish reach-ins in the second half.

"You knew he was a great free throw shooter, and that’s what really (ticks) me off, that I sent a 90 percent free throw shooter to the line."

Strickland, whose 10 points in the last two minutes of the first half and first two minutes of the second helped the Hoosiers erase their 17-point deficit, made the decisive plays on each of the last three possessions of the game.
After Dials missed a shot on Ohio State’s next-to-last possession and J.J.
Sullinger rebounded it, Strickland tied up Sullinger and the alternate-possession arrow gave the ball to Indiana with 25 seconds left.

After Strickland drew Dials’ fifth foul and his two free throws put the Hoosiers ahead, he stripped the ball from Terwilliger after Sullinger inbounded it to him. Matta said the ball was supposed to go to Je’Kel Foster or Lewis but that Sullinger was "a little too quick" with the pass instead of waiting longer for Foster or Lewis to break free.

"We switched all our screens. It threw them off," Strickland said. "(Terwilliger) turned toward me and I just knocked it out."

Ohio State was called for 27 fouls, 10 more than Indiana, and had Dials and forward Matt Sylvester foul out. The Buckeyes averaged 14.7 fouls per game in winning their first 11 games and did not have a player disqualified.

The foul trouble "crushed us," said Matta, who addressed the issue carefully after the game. "We’re a team that doesn’t foul a lot (and) we come on the road and commit 27. We lose the game on a foul. We’ve got to get that corrected."

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

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1/8/06

COMMENTARY
When officials start pointing at Dials, Ohio State finds itself in a heap of trouble
Sunday, January 08, 2006

BOB HUNTER

</IMG>


BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — After the game, Ohio State’s route to the Final Four seems ridiculously simplistic: Keep Terence Dials out of foul trouble.
If Dials stays out of foul trouble, the Buckeyes beat Indiana. If he stays out of foul trouble, they probably can beat just about anybody.
So why doesn’t the 6-foot-9 senior simply treat opposing players like a smelly piece of Limburger cheese? Why doesn’t he avoid those unnecessary swipes he sometimes takes when he knows the risks?
Well, because it’s not easy, at least for him.
"It’s a constant battle because you’re the last line of defense," Dials said. "You’re the big guy who’s supposed to be controlling the paint, making sure they don’t come in there. You try to do your job, and at times you just get careless and pick up ticky-tack fouls and you beat yourself up for that."
Dials beat himself to a verbal pulp after Ohio State’s 81-79 loss yesterday to Indiana, which wasn’t at all fair. He was the best player on the floor when he was out there, which was long enough to score 25 points and grab eight rebounds in a place where a lot of great Ohio State players have withered like a thirsty flower in the desert.
Yet Dials attributed his torrid stretch run — he scored the Buckeyes’ last 10 points — to his own humiliation in sitting out so much of the game because of foul trouble. When he was in the game, the Buckeyes were clearly better than the Hoosiers — but he only played 25 minutes.
"I told my team I owed them something," Dials said. "I think I had a lot of ticky-tack fouls, just being dumb and stupid, and I think I cost my team the game. They needed me in and I wasn’t there, so when my time came the last seven or eight minutes, I just tried to make something happen and tried to will my team to victory."
That Dials almost did it tells you something. This man is enormously talented. He was too much of a load for Indiana behemoth Marco Killingsworth to handle, and when Dials is that kind of a load, the Buckeyes’ sharpshooters have a field day from three-point range.
But Dials always has had a tendency to get into foul trouble, and sometimes his fouls are exasperating. Yesterday, his third and fourth fouls were reach-ins.
Foul No. 3 came 1:40 into the second half with the Buckeyes leading 44-38. It put him on the bench for almost seven minutes, and when he re-entered, OSU’s lead was two. Only 36 seconds later, he fouled Roderick Wilmont, who was going in for an easy layup. When he returned 3½ minutes later, OSU was down by four.
Why did he do that?
"It’s just temptation," Dials said. "You see the ball, you see somebody who’s going to get an easy layup and you want to try to strip them. I should have known that was going to be a foul called. He just had an easy layup, and I have a hard time letting those go."
Hindsight is 20-20. Dials had about a millisecond to decide, and sometimes he knows it’s a mistake before he has a chance to catch himself.
Have you ever locked your keys in the car and knew it the instant you closed the door? Same thing.
Still, there is no denying the Buckeyes need him out there, especially in a hostile environment like Assembly Hall. Sophomore Matt Terwilliger is behind him, and until Terwilliger gets stronger and more experienced, the dropoff is considerable.
"That’s really what it is," Dials said. "I know I’m the focal point of our offense and I’m the focal point of opposing defenses. I just have to play smarter. I kind of blew the game."
Dials’ last foul — the one that fouled him out with 5.7 seconds left in the game — resulted in the two Marshall Strickland free throws that were the difference in OSU’s first loss after a 11-0 start.
Dials didn’t see Strickland in time and basically ran into him while he was trying to set a screen.
"It happened so fast," Dials said. "I know he was trying to set a pick for Killingsworth to come across. We already had the play. We knew what they were going to run. I knew the cross screen was coming, I just tried to get over it. I don’t know if he flopped or whatever, I didn’t mean to bowl him over. I don’t think I hit him that hard. But it was a foul, game over."
Game over. Season on.

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch .

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[ohiostate=life]

Bottom line in my opinion, you gotta let the kids play with five seconds left on the clock. Under very seldom circumstances should the result of a game be decided on the foul line. Someone should have to get HAMMERED. Refs shouldn't play a part in the game. Period. However as usual you can't blame it all on the refs. No excuse for blowing a 17 point lead. Unless your reason is the refs.