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F DeShaun "The Diesel" Thomas (Panathinaikos - Greece)

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DZ83CK said:
Yeah, that kind of summarizes DT in a nutshell, and why I'm skeptical of whether he'd be a 1st round pick in the NBA draft. He is a tremendous scorer in college, but he is a mediocre defender for a 3 in college, and that would only be magnified in the NBA. The effort is not always there, either. I'm skeptical that an NBA team would spend a high pick on a guy that they know was often a liability defensively in college.
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Just infuriating to me to see that at THAT point in the game. You want to be a winner or just a scorer?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpnLL_2DLO0"]Vintage Cameron: Duke vs. Ohio State - YouTube[/ame]

There's another play at about 1:30 where Deshaun takes the easy way out and gets 'lost' under a flare screen for Kelly, who nails a 3 out of an out-of-bounds play.

I've been a HUGE fan of Deshaun since his HS days (check my posts in this thread), but no excuses for him anymore if he wants to really lead Ohio State.
 
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Play occurs at about 1:40
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Williams was the weak side help on that play. All Thomas could have done was commit a foul. Smith bit badly on the play as well. If you're going to criticize Thomas for the play then criticize the two other players who blew their defensive assignment on the play as well.
 
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Q&A: Ohio State?s Deshaun Thomas

Written by Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer
posted on
12/14/12

If Ohio State is going to return to the Final Four, Deshaun Thomas knows he must carry a big load. And he embraces that responsibility playing in a loaded Big Ten that most feel is the best conference in America.

So far, so good this season. The No. 7 Buckeyes are off to a 7-1 start, with the lone loss coming at Duke, which is No. 2 in the nation. And Thomas is leading the way with a Big Ten-best 20.8-point average, following a 31-8 mark and regular-season crown in 2011-12 under Thad Matta. I caught up with Thomas as Ohio State prepped for a game this Saturday against UNC Asheville which airs on BTN/BTN2Go.

The junior is shooting 48 percent from the field and has hit 22-of-50 from 3-point range (44 percent) to go along with 6.3 rebounds per contest. Bottom line: The 6-7, 215-pounder has been one of the Big Ten?s best players through the early portion of the 2012-13 season.

Q: What did you work on over the summer to improve at?
A: Handling the ball, coming off pick-and-rolls, coming off screens ? stuff like that. The details of the game. Also, knowing when to put it on the floor when a defender is flying at me, just working on my handle. I also worked on my shot. I want to be able to knock down big shot when we need them.

Q: With Jared Sullinger gone, do you feel like you have had to step up and fill a leadership void?
A: Of course, yes. I was a returning guy off a Final Four team. I had to lead some last year. I learned in a positive way what it takes to reach that goal as a leader and I want to do it again.

Q: What are some things you think the team is doing well and what are some thing it needs to work on?
A: We know we aren?t where we need to be at right now. We have seen a few spurts in practices and games where we look like a heck of a team. One of the things we are doing well is we are trusting in the system. We are playing well as a team. And we are sharing the ball well, too. We just need to take it to another notch. And that?s having the passion and heart for the game.

cont...
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http://btn.com/2012/12/14/qa-ohio-states-deshaun-thomas/?cmp=user+shared+twitter
 
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After his team lost to Ohio State earlier this month, Northern Kentucky coach Dave Bezold said he would have liked to have used six or seven defenders on Deshaun Thomas.

Even playing by the rules and using five or fewer, the Norse limited the Buckeyes’ leading scorer to season lows of five field goals and 14 points, on 14 shots from the field. It came three days after Duke had nullified Thomas with extra attention in the final eight minutes of its game against Ohio State and rallied for a win in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

It was then that Thomas, an Associated Press preseason All-American, truly found out what it will be like this season as his team’s No. 1 scoring option and what he had to do to cope.

“He’s just got to work a little bit harder,” coach Thad Matta said then.

Nearly three weeks later, it is apparent to Matta that his junior forward heeded his advice.
“I think he’s playing about as solid as he possibly can,” the coach said yesterday.

Thomas leads the Big Ten in scoring with a 20.3-point average, but that’s only part of the story. He had 17 rebounds in two games last week and has six assists in the past three games, doubling his season total.
Meanwhile, the supporting cast that couldn’t make a basket when it mattered at Duke has begun to blossom during a series of home games, the next of which is tonight against Winthrop.

“The thing we talk about (with him) is efficiency as a player and being a complete player. I think I’ve seen great growth in terms of the little things we’re looking at,” Matta said.

“I felt like when he was playing his best basketball last year at the end of the season (leading the NCAA Tournament in scoring average), he and Jared (Sullinger) had a connect. They were probably playing as well as two players could play together on a team. With Jared not being here, I’m pleased with how he’s kind of incorporated himself with the other guys and what he’s doing in regards to that.”

Thomas said having others around him score diverts attention from him and “frees me up” to make plays.
Matta said before the recent stretch of games that what Thomas had to do represented “the next step” in his development.

“That’s what great players do. ‘OK, this has been taken away. What’s the next thing I need to be able to do?’ ” Matta said. “He’s got to continue to move, continue to find the (open) areas.
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More Dispatch
 
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He was hard to see at times against Kansas because the Jayhawks wrapped him up and hid him like it was Christmas Eve. Until the Buckeyes can make opponents pay for taking that tack, it will continue. Granted, not many teams have an athletic defender like Trevor Releford to match up with Thomas, or a 7-footer like Withey to help double-team him in the post. But those that do will try what the Jayhawks did, or stay with Thomas off screens, as Duke did, until his teammates prove capable of making open shots. Against Winthrop, Thomas made seven of Ohio State’s 22 field goals and assisted on four others, a career high.
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The Thomas Watch
 
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Saturday might have been Thomas? best passing game at Ohio State in terms of seeing the floor and anticipating an open teammate. He tied his career high, set only two games earlier, with four assists, and he could have had six or seven. ?It?s just me being a player and growing, knowing when to make the extra pass,? Thomas said. ?Teams are going to double-team me, they?re going to reach and foul. It?s just me looking up and seeing the open man. I trust in (my teammates) and I?m going to give the ball up to them and they?re going to knock it down.?
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Insider
 
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DZ83CK;2284391; said:
Having the tag "Ivan Harris 2.0" is an insult to DT. He is a lot better than Harris.
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Thought some emphasis would be worthwhile here.

Loved Ivan, great Buckeye, but he couldn't carry DeShaun's jockstrap from an oncourt performance standpoint. Thomas is an All-American talent.
 
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With the competition and stakes rising, Ohio State?s best player needs to be a rock on which his teammates can lean. At times Saturday, Thomas appeared to let the moment, and maybe Ohio State?s growing deficit, get the better of him and he took too much upon himself. It?s understandable in a way because how long do you stay within the structure of the offense when the game is getting away and no one else can make a shot? On the other hand, he can?t lose his head and give up points at the other end. His inattentiveness to helping guard more than his man was part of the reason Illinois was so effective scoring close to the basket.
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Dispatch
 
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Thomas has scored at least 20 points in all four Big Ten games, continues to lead the conference in scoring (20.3 per game) and was named its co-player of the week yesterday. But after Thomas limited Michigan’s No. 3 scorer, Glenn Robinson III, to eight points on Sunday, Matta was reminded that he said a couple of years ago that he referred to Thomas as “Shaun” because he had no “D.” Matta smiled and said Thomas had a high “defensive awareness” against the Wolverines. “There was a play late, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him lower in a stance, where he was hedging a ball screen and got back to his man and then swiped (for the ball) again,” Matta said. “That’s what we need from him.”
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http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2013/01/15/osu-mbk-insider-1-15-gukl70vn-1.html
 
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