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#2 UCLA vs. Ohio State, Dec 17, 2016

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I legitimately love the way UCLA plays.....they had a talent advantage yesterday, but then they get the added bonus of playing a style that is very difficult to defend. And that has kinda been my frustration watching the Buckeyes play for years now...going back to David Lighty even.

We've been consistently undersized at the 4 for years, and continue to be...not that that is a huge issue in today's basketball. It's our predisposition to play half-court basketball while accruing tons of turnovers in that style of play that creates really average teams.

You look at a team like Golden State in the NBA, who is the best comparison to UCLA basketball right now in terms of style, and you'll see GS has a relatively high turnover rate for a successful team. But at the pace they play and score, turnovers are going to happen and don't have as dramatic of an effect.

There's nothing prettier than wide-open spacing with multiple ball-handlers and shooters on the perimeter though, which UCLA has. I thought tOSU battled well and kept it as close as they could. Our style of play with our talent, that was like taking a hammer to a gun fight. UCLA is going to have a helluva year with Aaron Holiday running the show and the shooters they have. I won't pick them to win the tourney because all it takes is one really bad shooting game and they're in big trouble, but I think I'd take UCLA and that style in a best of 7 against anyone in the country right now.

With that style of play...their recruiting is going to be amazing as well. Extremely attractive to really any recruit in country.....
 
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NFBuck said:
Problem is, the turnovers have been an issue for a few years now. We have just had some really sloppy teams the last 3-4 years, so that doesn't inspire much confidence it's gonna get fixed.
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I hear you, I'm just hoping this group of players can turn that around. But turnovers and bad free throw shooting appears to be systemic under Matta lately, so not a ton of faith that they do.

Jake said:
I'm not dejected because I expected to lose. That's kind of the problem, though. We've gone from the Thad Five, to the ET Sweet 16 teams, to the NIT.
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The decline is undeniable and I'm definitely not accepting this as our new standard. I am just trying to enjoy watching this season with realistic expectations. I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that Matta is likely out unless there is a huge turnaround and we make a run in the tourney. Love him to death but we have have just regressed too much over the past 4-5 years.
 
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My "favorite" part of the this game was the at least 2 times where we got a defensive rebound and then made a immediate lazy pass that ended up right in the hands of a UCLA defender for a easy layup.

It just seems like total lack of effort at times that leads to these slap dick turnovers
 
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RB07OSU said:
The decline is undeniable and I'm definitely not accepting this as our new standard. I am just trying to enjoy watching this season with realistic expectations. I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that Matta is likely out unless there is a huge turnaround and we make a run in the tourney. Love him to death but we have have just regressed too much over the past 4-5 years.
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I think you and the rest of guys that want to get rid of Matta need to talk to some basketball coaches around the country and guys associated more closely with the program to see what they think of Thad. You are not going to get a much better, if any better, basketball coach at Ohio State other than Thad Matta.
 
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While I agree with that sentiment, it's also hard to stomach that we're looking at a very real decline.

I thought this season we might turn the corner. So far, we still seem dead-set on not exceeding and possibly not even meeting expectations.

It has been 3+ years of losing the big games, minus the UK game last season. A small prize for a season that ended 2 games into the NIT, and saw us got blown out multiple times.

But the FAU loss was worse than our bad losses that season, and this with an experienced roster who vowed to never let that sort of thing happen again.

I can forgive us losing to #2 in Vegas. But that FAU loss really wrecked my hopes for this team.

They seem incapable of playing smart, tough, consistent basketball. And they have to because they aren't talented enough not to. And we won't be talented enough in the coming seasons, either. So our players and our staff are failing on multiple levels.
 
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Not just the FAU loss, nomatta, but the display against Fairleigh Dickinson. Call it a let-down game after Virginia, they weren't up enough, whatever....we won 70-62 on our home court. The Cincinnati Bearcats, whose level we should be playing at, just beat that same team by 51-points, leading at half 65-26. The effort looks there, sometimes the shots are falling, we have multiple offensive weapons. We just can't put it together. We're good enough to hang with everybody in the country, but bad enough to keep some of the worst teams right in the game to the end. :sad3: :shifty:
 
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HabaneroBuck said:
Not just the FAU loss, nomatta, but the display against Fairleigh Dickinson. Call it a let-down game after Virginia, they weren't up enough, whatever....we won 70-62 on our home court. The Cincinnati Bearcats, whose level we should be playing at, just beat that same team by 51-points, leading at half 65-26. The effort looks there, sometimes the shots are falling, we have multiple offensive weapons. We just can't put it together. We're good enough to hang with everybody in the country, but bad enough to keep some of the worst teams right in the game to the end. :sad3: :shifty:
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Yea these guys love to play down to their competition, The NC Central and FDU games being perfect examples. It's going to be a roller coaster rest of the season. I dont think anyone in the B1G is particularly great this year but i'm not sure these guys can take advantage of that fully, seems like a team that would go out and beat Wisconsin and then lose to Penn State a few nights later
 
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LitlBuck said:
I think you and the rest of guys that want to get rid of Matta need to talk to some basketball coaches around the country and guys associated more closely with the program to see what they think of Thad. You are not going to get a much better, if any better, basketball coach at Ohio State other than Thad Matta.
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Do you have any links to anything they've said about Thad the last 3 years or so? Thad was one of the best.
 
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buckeyemania11 said:
Yea these guys love to play down to their competition, The NC Central and FDU games being perfect examples. It's going to be a roller coaster rest of the season. I dont think anyone in the B1G is particularly great this year but i'm not sure these guys can take advantage of that fully, seems like a team that would go out and beat Wisconsin and then lose to Penn State a few nights later
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Perfect summation of this team which is why I think they're probably a better team than last year despite the flaws. Last year we had a very clear ceiling and would have gotten beaten by 50 against UCLA. This year we're capable of hanging with any team in the country if we play well and quit with the damn turnovers. I'd honestly feel much more positively about this team had we not lost to FAU. I think they have the talent but they're just missing that player that can put it all together. They kind of remind me of the '08-'09 squad when they were missing Evan Turner and how they turned into one of the best teams in the country when he returned. It's water WAY under the bridge but I would have really liked to see what this team would have looked like if D-Russ stayed a couple of years.
 
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Systems_id said:
Perfect summation of this team which is why I think they're probably a better team than last year despite the flaws. Last year we had a very clear ceiling and would have gotten beaten by 50 against UCLA. This year we're capable of hanging with any team in the country if we play well and quit with the damn turnovers. I'd honestly feel much more positively about this team had we not lost to FAU. I think they have the talent but they're just missing that player that can put it all together. They kind of remind me of the '08-'09 squad when they were missing Evan Turner and how they turned into one of the best teams in the country when he returned. It's water WAY under the bridge but I would have really liked to see what this team would have looked like if D-Russ stayed a couple of years.
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They might be a bit better, but I think the same result is in store, which is the NIT. The same nagging issues, bad turnovers and bad FT shooting are bound to doom them ultimately.
 
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buckeyebri said:
What has happened to Lyle? This is a guy who was looking at being gone early and now is just so so. I really thought he was going to be the next big time player.
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Systems_id said:
He's the same player he's always been imo. One night he'll drop 30, next night he'll go 1-8.
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Plus he tries to for some things when it is crunch time and we need a score. I do not know if sometimes he thinks he is the only guy on the team that can score but he just seems to try and force himself when the space just is not there.
 
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wigmon said:
Do you have any links to anything they've said about Thad the last 3 years or so? Thad was one of the best.
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No I do not have the links but I have heard it on TV a number of times.
He was in a roundtable discussion with Seth Davis, Bill Self, Tom Izzo, and Larry Brown a couple years ago and I do not think he would be in that company if he were not highly respected. They could have gotten plenty of other coaches to participate in that roundtable discussion.

Also, besides Izzo name me one coach in the Big Ten that you would rather have then Matta.
 
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