Sophomore Deshaun Thomas is expected to move into the Ohio State starting lineup this season.
One?s attention span improves with age, ideally.
At the moment, though, that philosophy is of no solace to Ohio State men?s basketball coach Thad Matta, whose roster will include 10 freshmen and sophomores when the Buckeyes play host to Wright State tonight in the season opener for both teams.
Despite Ohio State nearly doubling the score of its opponent on Sunday in a 95-49 exhibition win over Walsh, Matta said yesterday that he did not see the improvement he wanted from a scrimmage against Ohio University the previous weekend.
?We weren?t as good as we needed to be,? Matta said. ?We?ve really challenged our guys (this week) in a lot of areas. I hope they?re looking (at the game videotape) and saying, ?Wow, we didn?t do what we were supposed to do all the time.?
?That?s the big challenge, understanding the standard you?re trying to compete at. Those are things we?ve got to get corrected.?
Ohio State is ranked No. 3 in the preseason ratings but returns only three players ? senior William Buford and sophomores Jared Sullinger and Aaron Craft ? who played major minutes in a 62-60 loss to Kentucky that ended last season in an NCAA Tournament regional semifinal.
A fourth projected starter tonight, Deshaun Thomas, played three minutes in the game. None of the other sophomores on the team got out of his warmup.
?Everybody is predicting us to be good,? Sullinger said, ?but (from) what we see in practice, we?re far from where we need to be to be ready for March Madness. We have a long way to go.?
