#16 Ohio State vs. Cedarville, Wednesday Oct. 30, 7 pm, BTN+

[nomatta]

I mean, it is REALLY clear that Kaleb is our star and our hope and this season is basically riding on him. He goes out or something and I think we are looking at mediocrity that's only slightly better than what we looked like last season when he went out. I am not sure how many shot-makers we have this season without him but I'm thinking: not many.

Carton is potentially a second star but all we've seen so far is Cedarville so I'm not banking anything on that just yet.

Liddell, Andre, Walker, and Young look like they should be pretty solid role players this season.

After, that, um...

Duane really needs to find his groove and his identity out there. He seems a bit lost when his shot isn't falling, same for Ahrens. It's hard to know what to think about Luther given it was the tale of two seasons for him last season and he was terrible tonight. Have to hope he finds the mean, at least, and gives us consistently excellent perimeter defense without being an utter liability on offense.

Unsurprisingly, both Gaffney and Diallo look miles away from being ready to contribute at this level. Starting to think this Musa injury could really represent a missing option for us in the early season in terms of the combination of experience, length, and athleticism he could have added to our rotation.

Defensively we were good once we settled down.

It's an exhibition game during football season but, yes, our fanbase is sad. Places like IU and Illinois they are packing them to the rafters even for games like this, not getting out-cheered by the visiting team's fanbase.

 

[DZ83CK]

TBH Justin Ahrens and Alonzo played OK, just were role players out there as opposed to focal points or go-to guys. I do think Musa, should he return to health, would belong in the playing group ahead of those 2.

 

[ScriptOhio]

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

 

[wigmon]

Thanks for the video. Not going to come to any stark conclusions based on one exhibition game, but the frosh looked pretty much how I expected. Carton is ready and while he will make frosh mistakes, looks like he should be starting soon. Liddell will have a significant role and probably best scorer off the bench (I expect Young to keep his starting spot). Gaffney and Diallo just aren't ready. YOu can see there is something there to work with, but they aren't there yet so I expect the 4/5 rotation to be pretty tight with Kaleb, Young, LIddell and some Andre at the 4. I doubt either will end up red shirting, so they'll see a little time here and there, but it won't be much.

I am not going to call this a disappointment because it was just 1 game, but I didn't see much from Washington, Andre, Ahrens, Muhammad as far as game improvements from last year. It was just one game and all those guys were solid on the defensive end, but if those guys can't take an above average DII defender off the dribble and finish, I don't know how much we are going to see that from them in the B1G.

Kaleb looked good, especially if he is going to shoot like that from the perimeter. His lateral movement was clearly better and was a little quicker off his feet.

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

I'm getting the sense that there will be a scholarship open for a grad transfer big.

I won't name names but I don't think everyone's going to be happy with their situation as this season goes on.

mentioned during the summer that i thought the returning wings playing with and watching sueing might be given something to think about regarding their futures at osu. you go from knowing that a multi-year starter in andre will be graduating -- which opens up a ton of minutes for 2020-21 -- to finding out that an experienced, high-major transfer essentially assumes his spot. throw in liddell likely developing more small-forward skills in time as well as brown committing, and, well... things begin to get a little tight. regardless of how this season ends, i definitely think there will be at least one current player who will be asking himself some tough questions.

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

Gaffney and Diallo just aren't ready. YOu can see there is something there to work with, but they aren't there yet so I expect the 4/5 rotation to be pretty tight with Kaleb, Young, LIddell and some Andre at the 4. I doubt either will end up red shirting, so they'll see a little time here and there, but it won't be much.

small things like gaffney being confused with uncontested throws-in after some of cedarville's made buckets tells me that the game moves a bit too fast for him right now. probably has about about five different thoughts going through his head at all times. as stated before, think that the quicker he narrows his role, the quicker he adapts. rebound, understand defensive positioning, and make the occasional jumper. try to be a playmaker or try to block a lot of weak-side shots, though, and it will probably be difficult for him to leave the bench.