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2013-14 Ohio State Men's Basketball (Official Thread)

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LitlBuck said:
I agree regarding ADV but disagree with regard to the bench. I think if you go 7 deep you are find. These guys are young and should not wear out. Other teams do not play their entire bench and make it pretty deep in the tournament.
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I think they have 8-9 guys that can easily contribute on a nightly basis with Loving, ADV, Thompson, and possibly even McDonald even coming into play. The problem I see is these guys didn't get the quality minutes in the early part of the year, so Matta has no faith in them. I don't see the benefit of playing the starters the majority of the time when you are blowing teams out.
 
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LitlBuck said:
Matta sees these guys every day in practice. All of them so I will go with whomever he puts on the floor at any given time despite what some people might think in this forum. I know everyone has their opinion but Matta has won more games than any of us including myself :lol:
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Although Matta is the man, not questioned, practice and game are totally different. There are guys who are practice players and there are guys who are game players. I'm not saying we have those guys but this argument isnt comprehensive. You don't always know what you've got til the lights come on and guys get bloodied on the field/court. That should be what the OOC games are for but evidently they don't get used that way in Matta's system.
 
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NCAA Tournament concerns, offensive ineptitude and lack of hunger: 10 observations from Ohio State-Penn State
Interesting read and some telling quotes from the article:
But it was Smith’s answer to my follow-up that may have revealed the most. What is this team missing right now?
“Toughness, character, camaraderie, leadership,” Smith responded. He didn’t hold back. It looks like making a jump shot is only one thing on a laundry list of issues for this team.
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Matta had a similarly long list. That shouldn’t be surprising given the Buckeyes managed only eight field goals in the second half and overtime combined.
“We didn’t rebound at the level we needed to and we made some key mistakes defensively down the stretch, things that we had covered," Matta said. "And we didn’t execute. It’s funny, every time we did the job we were supposed to, we did a pretty good job. And then offensively, you’ve got (eight) field goals in the (final) 25 minutes. You’ve got to score the basketball.”
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The second note in the article sort of blamed Craft for giving up the game-winning shot but I think Aaron had to be concerned about the guy getting past him and Newbill did make a very difficult shot.

Also, the Buckeyes have to get out of this perimeter offense where they just a little ball around the perimeter for almost 30 seconds.
 
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Bestbuck36 said:
Although Matta is the man, not questioned, practice and game are totally different. There are guys who are practice players and there are guys who are game players. I'm not saying we have those guys but this argument isnt comprehensive. You don't always know what you've got til the lights come on and guys get bloodied on the field/court. That should be what the OOC games are for but evidently they don't get used that way in Matta's system.
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Sorry I missed this post but are you saying that Matta does not know how to evaluate guys and how they perform in practice and how he thinks they would perform in game situations. I think his record would indicate otherwise. I know we all have our own opinions but to question Matta's evaluation of players or his system is not the answer.
 
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LitlBuck said:
Sorry I missed this post but are you saying that Matta does not know how to evaluate guys and how they perform in practice and how he thinks they would perform in game situations. I think his record would indicate otherwise. I know we all have our own opinions but to question Matta's evaluation of players or his system is not the answer.
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Didnt say that. You don't always know how a guy is going to play when the lights come on. It has nothing to do with how good an evaluator a guy is. If I am a little off playing against guys that I see everyday in practice and that's the only evaluation I get, sometimes I get labeled. Once or twice I get into a game and some other gear kicks in and I start to make more shots, jump a bit higher, make a few more rebounds..... it does happen. I can speak from experience. I sucked at practice in high school and college for the most part. Something happened in game situation. Stuff just became more clear and I found another gear and produced above my athletic ability. It happens. But regardless of how good an evaluator someone is, if a guy never gets off the bench in a game situation, they'll never see it. And, for the record, I never said diddly shit about Matta's evaluation. I was speaking towards guys never getting a shot.
 
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LitlBuck said:
Matta sees these guys every day in practice. All of them so I will go with whomever he puts on the floor at any given time despite what some people might think in this forum. I know everyone has their opinion but Matta has won more games than any of us including myself :lol:
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Agreed that Thad sees these guys every day in practice, and he's obviously more accomplished than any of us. But it doesn't take John Wooden to see that Scott just isn't getting it done right now. Switch things up a bit--even if it doesn't work, it's hard to believe things could get much worse than losing 5 of 6.
 
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The team is now 19-6, and 6-6 in the Big Ten. The winning streak is unfortunately over after last night, but the schedule sets up nicely for a strong finish going into the BTT:

@ Illinois
vs NW
vs Minnesota
@ Penn St.
@ Indiana
vs MSU

The Illinois game is key to getting back on track and finishing the season strong--this team needs to put last night's loss in the rearview mirror quickly. This team should close out the season no worse than 4-2, and 5-1 is a possibility. Even at 4-2, the team would be 23-8 and 10-8 going into the BTT.
 
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