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Men's Basketball Buckeye Tidbits 2007-08 Season

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CPD

Ohio State men's basketball team knows road to NCAA postseason is paved with Big Ten wins



Tuesday, January 22, 2008 Doug Lesmerises

Plain Dealer Reporter
Columbus- Ohio State has built up its r?sum?, now it's time to win some games.
OSU coach Thad Matta said Monday he doesn't think about the big picture, and he doesn't even talk to his team about winning and losing.
"We talk about playing our best basketball," Matta said.




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Dispatch

Men's basketball: OSU Insider

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 3:13 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Coming up: Illinois and Minnesota
Where: Value City Arena
When: 9 tonight and 8 p.m. Saturday
TV: Big Ten Network
Radio: WBNS-AM (1460), WBNS-FM (97.1)
The week that was

Not often do back-to-back losses produce so much optimism. After falling behind Michigan State 32-11 last Tuesday, the Buckeyes seemingly invoked the spirit of Network nuthead Howard Beale and decided not to take it anymore. They rallied as close as three points early in the second half but could not get over the hump without anyone supporting Jamar Butler as a scorer. With much better scoring balance, they did get over the hump at Tennessee, turning an early 10-point deficit into a seven-point second-half lead. But the Buckeyes' shallow rotation ultimately was unable to rein in the Vols' runs. "The whole thing today was nine guys against about seven guys," Vols coach Bruce Pearl said. "Look at the difference in the bench scoring. They didn't have a point off the bench and we had 26. That was the difference."

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Dispatch

January 17, 2008

Untimely trip

During Thad Matta?s first four seasons as coach, the Buckeyes have filled one of their two bye dates during the Big Ten schedule with a nonconference game. They played at LSU his first year, played host to Florida A&M his second, won a thriller over Tennessee last season in Value City Arena and will return the trip to the No.6-ranked Volunteers on Saturday.
Matta loves the exposure a nationally televised network game against a Tennessee, or a Florida, or a North Carolina, brings to his program. A home-and-home series with Memphis has been rumored for the next two seasons. But don?t expect the game to be in January or February unless there?s no other time to play it.
Why? The 18-game conference schedule the Big Ten reinstituted this year is tough enough, Matta said, without throwing another heavyweight into it.


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crazybuckfan40;1072342; said:
One thing I can't figure out and maybe someone could help me is why Butler takes the ball OOB against another teams press...
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Thought about the same thing. I have to believe that Matta believes he will make the best inbounds decision but with his free-throw percentage you would think late in a game they would want to get the ball in bounded to him. During the first 35 minutes of the game I really have no idea. I would like the guy closest to the ball when it goes through the net inbound to Butler.
 
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LitlBuck;1072422; said:
Thought about the same thing. I have to believe that Matta believes he will make the best inbounds decision but with his free-throw percentage you would think late in a game they would want to get the ball in bounded to him. During the first 35 minutes of the game I really have no idea. I would like the guy closest to the ball when it goes through the net inbound to Butler.
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The only thing I continue to think is that maybe he feels that the other guys can see over the trap a little better as Butler is the shortest guy on the court when he is in, unless PJ is in...

But the other guys don't get themselves open well enough at times, and when they do they get into bad spots...
 
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When I played ball (PG, best ball handler :biggrin:), I used to take the ball out in order for me to get the ball back (while in the middle) against the press.

Most presses trap in the corner. As a PG I would inbound the ball, step in (under the basket, or thereabouts) and provide a good option for a pass back. If the Defense denied the pass back under the basket, I would then just flash to the middle. With Two Defensive players occupied in the corner, I could then attack the press two-on-one against the 3rd defender in the back court and another offensive wing (the one I didn't inbound the ball to).

So the play goes:

1. Inbound to Player A (hopefully not too deep in corner), PG steps back onto court with a good passing lane/angle.
2. A good pass against the trapping D back to PG, making them commit to you, but still quick enough to not be in an all-out trap.
3. PG now has another wing player to swing the ball around to or and he's in the middle of the court ready to attack.

that's the best explanation I've got. It's gets the ball back to Jamar in the middle of the court (provided the guy in the corner gets rid of the ball efficiently) with numbers attacking. It does require a guard ready to handle a trap, but the payout is good if the Jamar has the ball back in his hand with numbers, even if it's just 4 on 3.
 
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Canton


Ohio State tries to recover from a difficult schedule
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
BY Mike Popovich
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

Head Coach Thad Matta does not think many teams have gone through what his Ohio State Buckeyes have already experienced this season.

Their recent three-game road trip, which featured matchups with a pair of top-10 teams, only scratches the surface. You cannot forget about playing on back-to-back nights early in the Preseason NIT, facing then-No. 1 North Carolina, and the games against nationally-ranked Texas A&M and Butler.

?That?s part of it,? Matta said. ?Now we have to take what we?ve learned and keep moving forward and getting better.?

Tonight?s game against Illinois at Value City Arena gives the Buckeyes (12-6, 3-2 Big Ten) a shot at getting their season back on track. Ohio State has lost three games in a row after winning eight straight.


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OHSportsFan9;1073011; said:
When I played ball (PG, best ball handler :biggrin:), I used to take the ball out in order for me to get the ball back (while in the middle) against the press..
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Well, that sure did not happen last night so perhaps you should give Thad a call:)

I would think having one of the 6'5"+ guys taking the ball out would be better because they can see over the defender's head and as 40 as mentioned Butler tends to move a lot more to try and get the ball while that is being inbounded. The other guys seemed to just stand around especially last night and other nights. I really don't have any insight and I certainly trust Thad more than any of us.
 
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Dispatch

Men's basketball: Buckeyes could use run of wins
NCAA at-large bid might need a boost
Thursday, January 24, 2008 3:23 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The committee that decides the lucky 34 recipients of at-large bids to the NCAA men's basketball tournament weighs variables such as "quality wins" and "bad losses."
No matter how many points Ohio State had beaten Illinois by Tuesday night -- the 15 the Buckeyes led by with six minutes left in the game or the six they won by -- it would not have been considered a quality win. The game was at home, Illinois is in a free-fall, having lost seven of its past eight games, and it was playing without leading scorer and rebounder Shaun Pruitt, suspended for the game because of an undisclosed disciplinary matter.
It could have been a bad loss, though. But after the Buckeyes had helped the Illini close to three points in the final minute thanks to imperfect ball-handling, decision-making and free-throw shooting, David Lighty rescued them with a huge offensive rebound and two clutch free throws to all but finish off a 64-58 victory in Value City Arena.

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Dispatch

January 25, 2008

Pregame chit-chat

Some comments from coach Thad Matta after his day-before-the-game interview session this afternoon:
-- Matta said earlier this week that teams were doing more to try to keep the ball out of point guard Jamar Butler?s hands. One thing Ohio State might do to counter that against Minnesota on Saturday night is not have Butler inbound the ball against a press, but rather be on the receiving end of the inbounds pass. ?We?ll have a different alignment, probably,? Matta said.
-- One reason it?s important to have the ball in Butler?s hands, especially late in games, is because he?s one of the best free-throw shooters in Division I basketball. Butler, who has made 46 of 48 (.958), ranked No.1 nationally earlier this week. But because the NCAA ranking requires players to make at least 2.5 per game, he dropped off the list after not getting to the line Tuesday against Illinois. ?The big thing is getting him to the line as much as we can,? Matta said.

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The problem was when he was not taking the ball out of bounds against Minny's full-court press we were having problems inbounding the ball and then Butler misses two free throws. Hope he did not fall from #1.
 
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LitlBuck;1076900; said:
The problem was when he was not taking the ball out of bounds against Minny's full-court press we were having problems inbounding the ball and then Butler misses two free throws. Hope he did not fall from #1.
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Yeah I saw that, but and I really thought that angles we were getting in terms of passing lanes, and the spots on the court that we were getting too, were bad in terms of being able to beat the press...

You never want to get caught in the corner and we got caught there like 3 or 4 times...

Also when they were running their 2-2-1 press we had a even man front breaking the press i thought we should of had a 1-2-2 set up, because you always have an odd man front against a an even man press...
 
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