Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Better in Game Two - Still Must Improve
By John Porentas
There were some changes in the Buckeyes in their 87-62 exhibition win over Walsh. For starters, there were the starters.
In the first exhibition game vs. Findlay the starting five was comprised of Jamar Butler, Ron Lewis, Jamar Butler, Matt Terwilliger and Mike Conley. Against Walsh Terwilliger, Lewis and Harris were replaced by Othello Hunter, David Lighty and Daequan Cook in the starting five.
Ohio State was never really threatened in the game. Cavaliers led briefly at 1-0 then again at 5-4, but OSU took the lead for good when Lighty hit a three pointer to put OSU up 7-5. The Buckeyes led by as many as 18 in the first half and 31 in the second half. OSU broke open the game with a spurt near the end of the half that was fueled by their fast break.
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Mike Conley
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"That's what coach wants us to do," said Conley. "He wants to get out on transition and breakaways," Conley said.
Transition basketball is starts with defensive rebounding, but for the second straight game OSU struggled to rebound. They were outrebounded by Walsh by a 39-29 count, but somehow it seemed like the Buckeyes were better on the glass. Nine of their rebounds were offensive boards.
"It seems like we got everybody out on transition and we didn't have the ball yet," Conley quipped.
"I think we did do a better job rebounding, and that's what's going to take us to success," said Conley. "We still got outrebounded, but we're working on it every day in practice. That's a big part of how we play."
"It's very important," said Head Coach Thad Matta. "We'd like to get out and go, I think we can. We were better today rebounding the ball from the standpoint that we were more active. They were four-of-20 from three so there's going to be some long rebounds but I thought today at times we were a conditional transition team. We had to have the perfect situation go get out and go. We talked at half time that we wanted to get out and go more," said Matta, "but it does all start with the rebound. We can't run if we're taking the ball out of the net like we were sometimes today."
Thad Matta was concerned about his team's off-the-ball defense after the Findlay game, but saw improvement against Walsh.
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"I think we did a better job just helping each other out," said Lewis. "We helped a lot on the post so we did a better job of that and tried to keep the ball out of the post a lot, so we did a better job of that than we did last time."
While the Buckeyes were more effective guarding the post, they were only marginally more effective at getting the ball down low to their own post players.
"It was a little better," said Lewis. "We got our post man a lot more touches than we did a last time, basically because the worked harder," said Lewis. "How they get the ball is to work harder in the post so we can give it to them. They did a better job today," Lewis said.
OSU was more fluid in the half court offense in their second outing, but the offense remains pretty vanilla at this point in the season.
"We put in more plays but basically we ran the same plays from last game trying to perfect those before we try to do more," said Conley. "We did a lot better with that," Conley said.
There were some areas where we got better from Wednesday night," said Matta.
"I thought offensively we did a better job of setting guys up and making extra passes. Defensively I thought we were a little bit more active. Our biggest challenge right now it getting all five guys defending together. There were too many easy baskets. We're seeing it, but we're not reacting enough," said Matta. Sometimes those are areas that take time to develop, but we're running out of time. We better develop quick," said Matta.
While OSU has a long way to go as a team, individually, the Buckeyes continued to be impressive and seemed to improve from game one to game two. OSU is extremely athletic, particularly when players like Cook, Conley, Hunter, Butler, Lewis and Lighty are on the floor. The Buckeye will run more this season to take advantage of that athleticism, but at this point are still tinkering with the best way to play defense. Against Walsh, they showed some matchup zone that seemed effective.
"I like it because it's a matchup. It helps us a lot because we're a quicker team," said Lewis, "but we're still small and we still have to rebound." said Lewis.
"We've got to continue to build our defense, continue to get our half-court execution down," said Matta. "I think we've progressed, we're making strides forward, but we still have a ways to go. I think all teams do right now," Matta said.
Individual Player Notes from Game Two:
Lighty - Had five steals while scoring 13 points and dishing out two assists against just one turnover. Of the freshmen at this point is the best defender and is also very smooth offensively. He was four-of-five from three point range in the game.
"To David's credit he's the last one to leave the gym and he's in there working on his shooting," said Matta.
"We've steadily seen his percentage rise," Matta said.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Daequan Cook
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Cook - Ran into foul trouble early in this game but was obviously working very hard on improving as a defender. He's not there yet, but you could see improvement and glimpses of progress on the defensive end.
"I was very pleased with his defense tonight," said Matta. "To his credit he's embracing what we're telling him and trying to do it."
Hunter- An impressive athlete who is also improving in terms of understanding the team defensive concept. Had three blocked shots and one very impressive dunk off an offensive rebound. Led the Buckeyes with eight rebounds. Had two steals to go with his 12 points.
Lewis - As much talk as there is about the freshmen and their athleticism, Lewis is perhaps the most athletic Buckeye out there and at this point the best basketball player within the OSU team framework. He was nine-of-12 from the field for a team-high 21 points. His shooting included three-of-five from three point range. Lewis also had two assists, no turnovers and a steal.
"I worked this summer on consistency in my three point shot," said Lewis.
Butler- Jamar is making the transition from point guard to shooting guard. He looked a bit uncomfortable at times in the first game, but was more at ease in game two. He was five-of-10 from three point range in putting up 15 points and also had time to dish out six assists against just two turnovers.
"I think it's going to take him some time, and quite honestly we haven't had that luxury of playing Michael and Jamar a whole lot together in practice. They've kind of gone head to head and I think it's made both of them better," Matta said.
Conley - Conley plays point guard like a veteran already. He had seven assists and just one turnover in the first game, then followed up with nine assists and no turnovers in this game. He is also showing an explosive first step that is getting him to the basket.
"That's new to my game," said Conley. "I've developed it more since I've been put in this system. The coaches run a lot of ball screens and it's just a move that comes to me at the time and I've developed it pretty well and like using it."
He scored 11 points and had a steal. The one thing he has yet to show is the ability to knock down the three with consistency. He was 0-2 from outside in game two.
"It makes me feel like I'm doing my job," said Conley of his nine-assist game. "That I'm doing my job, being aggressive and getting everyone involved in the game. I think that really helps the team win."
Matt Terwilliger - His offense seems better, but he still does not rebound well for his size. Defensively he seems to understand the team concept, but his lack of rebounding is a problem. Scored eight points in game two but had just two rebounds.
Ivan Harris - Ivan's game still consists of shooting the rock. When he's not hitting his shots, he's somewhat of a liability. He got up six shots, five of them threes, in his 23 minutes and made just one shot in game two. He did have four boards, but in all honesty at least two of them were uncontested rebounds that simply came his way.
Sam Payne - Payne did not dress for game two. After the game, OSU Head Coach Thad Matta revealed that Payne has left the team to concentrate on his academics. Payne is on an academic scholarship at OSU.
