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Does the BBall Team Play Down to the Competition?

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Cornerback6

Cornerback6

Optimism Lover
Sometimes it feels this way...sometimes it just seems like a very young team is out there showing their immaturity. With the close wins lately and the multiple blown 20 point leads...I think a lot of us could be asking the same question.

I personally feel like it's a combination of both. Sort of reminds me of Florida's football team until they played us last year as they were always winning close games against inferior competition.

Do you think the team is playing down to the competition or do you think the competition is just that good? The Big-10 is no cupcake conference, but as the #1 team in the nation, we should be blowing opponents out much more often or at least be winning more convincingly.
 
Regardless the important thing is that they are winning. Hopefully are are improving, learning, and coming together as a team in the process. However, they do seem to be able to win a close game, (i.e. be able to do what is necessary at the end of the game to win).
oaklandraiders_1936_4196294
 
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The obvious answer is yes...our problem is this...Oden and Conley are used to jsut having each other...Cook is used to being the only one on his team and butler and lewis are used to being the go to guys...all that together will take a while for everyone to understand where exactly their place is on this team...Personally I would like to see Lewis come off the bench and give cook a chance to start and get hot if it isnt working then put lewis back in who scores regardless...also with teams playing the zone against us i really like how cook was used up high instead of oden allowing oden to keep his presence by the basket and try to gain position inside...when possible we need to get the ball to him and let him figure it out from there
 
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I actually don't think OSU is playing down to the competition all that much. For several of reasons.

1) The #1 ranking is misleading. I'm not convinced that OSU actually is the best team in the country. But even if they are, that's largely because all the top teams have been fairly inconsistent. There really isn't a team in the country that's played at a championship level week in and week out. My point here is that, while OSU is better than the opponents mentioned above, the difference is not as drastic as we'd like to think it is.

2) OSU has, in fact, had several very convincing wins in recent weeks, they just don't do it every time. That is, in part, because...

3) Some of the opponents mentioned above are actually pretty good, albeit very inconsistent, basketball teams. I'm thinking principally of IU, MSU, and Purdue. When OSU thrashed Purdue in West Lafayette, that was partly because OSU played well, and partly because PU played poorly. The same is true to a lesser extent when OSU won in a game that wasn't a blowout, but was never in doubt, at East Lansing. Those teams, along with Indiana, are capable of playing good basketball, which they did in Columbus.

4) Like the win at the Breslin Center, some of those games, while not numerical blowouts, were never in serious doubt.

5) Penn State is the strongest argument for OSU playing down to the competition. I chalk that up partly to the fact that sometimes teams matchup with each other in ways you wouldn't expect based on their records. But OSU did play fairly poorly against Penn St. for two halves in two games, and that was largely due to a letdown by OSU. I think that example overrated the trend, however.
 
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Golferdow01;759993; said:
Yes they do play down to the competition, however, they are the only team in the NCAA that has not lost a game they shouldn't have, and that's worth something.
Click to expand...

A very good point that I agree with. And you're right about it being worth something which I would say is our #1 ranking.
 
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Last night when they showed our key wins i realized that the best teams we ahve beat are Indiana, MSU (2), and Tennessee...that's not that impressive...with that said we really need a win this weekend to solidify things
 
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