2015-2016 Ohio State Men's Basketball (Official Thread)

[LitlBuck]

It's a close call, I tend to think they have just enough talent and depth to make it, but I don't think it's a given obviously. They just need to find a way to get a few wins against tourney teams at some point in the season (and avoid losing more than a couple games against teams they are expected to beat). One good thing for OSU is they have a couple months against mostly cupcakes to improve individually and as a team, and will still have several opportunities for those quality wins after that. Having a relatively soft nonconference schedule, aside from a few tests, is more suitable for this team than it was in past years when they had veteran teams which should have been able to take advantage of their experience advantage in early season competition.

I think it is really going to be difficult for the Buckeyes to go Dancing in March. Maybe I will have a better idea after they play Memphis and some of the other opponents that are not cupcakes. I think they will probably finish somewhere in the middle of the Big Ten and I do not know if that will be enough or not. I think you are correct when you say it is going to probably boil down to how many quality wins they get once they start conference play. I think their youth while talented is going to cost them. They really do not have one go to guy and I think the 30 second shot clock is going to hurt them. Too bad they could not have delayed that until next season.

 

[buckeydoptimist]

I think it is really going to be difficult for the Buckeyes to go Dancing in March. Maybe I will have a better idea after they play Memphis and some of the other opponents that are not cupcakes. I think they will probably finish somewhere in the middle of the Big Ten and I do not know if that will be enough or not. I think you are correct when you say it is going to probably boil down to how many quality wins they get once they start conference play. I think their youth while talented is going to cost them. They really do not have one go to guy and I think the 30 second shot clock is going to hurt them. Too bad they could not have delayed that until next season.

I don't know why the 30 second clock would hurt this team more than others. I disagree as I think the bigs are more mobile than Amir/TMcD were and the 8-man rotation will allow a bit more running and less half-court play. Our Fs all seem much improved and as the core of the team that is a great thing.

I am now pretty optimistic that they'll go dancing this season despite the uber youth and lack of experience. The C play will be better and keep getting better as they mature. Lyle and Harris seem a bit more mature than most frosh - particularly Lyle. With Tate at 2G he is our shortest starter, which means we'll not be outsized too often. KBD seems capable of guarding 3s still and Tate 2s which was a question mark coming in. The Fs look like they will score in bunches and Tate has upped his outside game a lot.

I know it was only one game and MSM's isn't super tough but we handled them as well as MD did and they are a T5 team. Tate's ankle is still a bit off and he still had 21/9 and the other two Fs had double-doubles. The rebounding looked SOLID for the first time in years! We just need the PGs and Cs to develop some and everything else is in place, IMO! There will be ups-and-downs and the road will be tough for this young of a team. But they may well progress and be pretty good by tourney time. I like Lyle's game and IMO TT and Giddens have a lot of talent to work with. If they don't hit "the frosh wall" we could see a good team come March!

I think all 3 Fs can be GO-TO level players. Tate will Probably lead in scoring and floor burns and is a great lead-by-example player. Middle of the B1G should get them dancing anyway!

 

[nomatta]

Having a relatively soft nonconference schedule, aside from a few tests, is more suitable for this team than it was in past years when they had veteran teams which should have been able to take advantage of their experience advantage in early season competition.

relatively soft? soft relative to what? yeah, there are still some cupcakes on the schedule, which is always gonna be the case for any team, but this OOC schedule is not relatively soft, not if we are talking relative to how a lot of high major teams schedule. Memphis, @UConn, UVa, UK, and La Tech should be a good team this year, too. that ain't a soft schedule.

 

[DZ83CK]

relatively soft? soft relative to what? yeah, there are still some cupcakes on the schedule, which is always gonna be the case for any team, but this OOC schedule is not relatively soft, not if we are talking relative to how a lot of high major teams schedule. Memphis, @UConn, UVa, UK, and La Tech should be a good team this year, too. that ain't a soft schedule.

Let's be honest, over the last several years, OSU leads the B1G in quantity of guarantee games, and once again this season they have a few more than most teams have. They are the premier team in the conference when it comes to scheduling patsies, that is reality.

 

[Bestbuck36]

20 wins yet again. Depends on just how many other teams with big road wins reach 20 wins whether the Bucks make the dance.

KBD and Kam look awfully good early on. The youth will just have to mature faster and the guys will have to really be tough and get over mistakes. They'll be fun to watch though, no doubt!

 

[wigmon]

IF we get 20 wins in the regular season I have little doubt we will be in the dance. IT will mean that we were either 10-8 in the B1G with no bad non-conf losses or 9-9 in the B1G with a couple of good OOC wins (2 of Memphis, UConn, KY, VA) and no bad losses. I think either of those scenarios would pretty much guarantee a tourney bid.

I think we will have difficulty getting to 20 wins with our youth and other deficiencies.

 

[Jagdaddy]

Would love to see Giddens develop into a defensive intimidator. Hate it when a big man can't shoot FTs though, and the dude make Deandre Jordan look like Mark Price at the line.

 

[LitlBuck]

I don't know why the 30 second clock would hurt this team more than others. I disagree as I think the bigs are more mobile than Amir/TMcD were and the 8-man rotation will allow a bit more running and less half-court play. Our Fs all seem much improved and as the core of the team that is a great thing.

I do not know what I was thinking when I said that the 30 second shot clock would hurt us this year because even though we have some big guys who are more mobile we probably will have to rely more on the quickness of the team to score. I would like to see them play more up-tempo but they are young and that might hurt us.

 

[Bill Lucas]

I like this young team but I also have a tough time envisioning them making the NCAA tournament.

 

[wigmon]

I don't know that the 30 second shot clock will end up hurting or helping us, but I can think of a few things that might make it less beneficial for us:

1. We are young and inexperienced, so I suspect there might be times that it takes us longer to recognize the defense and get into the correct offensive set. If that costs us 5-7 seconds on a handful of possessions, that could lead to some rushed shots at the end of the clock.
2. We don't have an interior scoring presence. Dumping the ball into the post doesn't take a lot of time to set up, so teams with an interior scoring presence will have a slight advantage with a shorter shot clock.
3. Not completely sure on this one yet, but I don't know that we have anyone we can hand the ball to at the end of the shot clock to break down the defense one on one and create their own shot or a shot for others. With the shot clock being 5 seconds shorter, there are likely to be more of these situations occurring than last year and we probably aren't quite as equipped to handle it as some other teams.

 

[nomatta]

Let's be honest, over the last several years, OSU leads the B1G in quantity of guarantee games, and once again this season they have a few more than most teams have. They are the premier team in the conference when it comes to scheduling patsies, that is reality.

"leads the B1G in quantity of guarantee games"

there's a pseuo-stat of opinion if I ever saw one. OSU doesn't schedule all that differently from a lot of the teams in the conference--maybe sometimes little weaker than the average, however you want to measure that. this year's schedule is a strong one, I dunno what you are talking about there.

 

[DZ83CK]

"leads the B1G in quantity of guarantee games"

there's a pseuo-stat of opinion if I ever saw one. OSU doesn't schedule all that differently from a lot of the teams in the conference--maybe sometimes little weaker than the average, however you want to measure that. this year's schedule is a strong one, I dunno what you are talking about there.

No, it isn't a stat of opinion - maybe if you tried to do a little research you would know what the truth is. It is true that, over all the seasons starting 2010-11 to now, the Buckeyes lead the Big Ten in home games that they do not return in nonconference play. I have counted them up, and it's not like it's only one game more than any of their colleagues, either - it is fair to say they lead the league in scheduling cupcakes that they don't play on the road. One thing a lot of teams do is have neutral site tournaments where they play a few games, OSU obviously doesn't do that. Another thing is many of these teams will play a mid- or low-major program on the road, whereas OSU refuses to do that - when they play the cupcakes on the road, the home game is no longer a guarantee game.

Personally I believe a program of OSU's caliber should have 5 nonconference games against power conference teams (or power teams that rule their mid-major conference like Gonzaga) or more every year. But they want to maximize revenue so they schedule as many home games as they possibly can, and they do not seem to care about the quality of those teams.

 

[DZ83CK]

And nomatta, judging by the poor attendance at the season opener, I have to say OSU fans who aren't tired of watching them load up on these cupcake games are few and far between. There's no excuse for having 1/4 of the arena full for the season opener. I know they always go based on paid attendance figures, but the actual attendance was like 5,000 people, if that.

 

[MaxBuck]

And nomatta, judging by the poor attendance at the season opener, I have to say OSU fans who aren't tired of watching them load up on these cupcake games are few and far between. There's no excuse for having 1/4 of the arena full for the season opener. I know they always go based on paid attendance figures, but the actual attendance was like 5,000 people, if that.

I don't think you know what an arena that is actually only 1/4 full really looks like.

Attendance wasn't great, but I bet there were at least 10k there.

 

[surly]

The cupcakes-at-home approach maximizes revenue, gives the new players confidence and experience that comes from playing time, allows the coaches to assess what the new players can do under game situations, and is fun for fans who are curious about the new players, and want to follow their progress from the very beginning. What's not to like about all that? I think Coach Matta and AD Smith have a very sound plan.