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Men's Basketball Buckeye Tidbits 2007-08 Season

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Dispatch
Men's basketball: Buckeyes hope to fix holes in zone
Teams have tested energy level, flow of defense
Friday, February 8, 2008 3:05 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH



David Lighty did not act surprised by the fact Michigan scored only eight points in the last 12 minutes, 52 seconds. "We put in kind of a new defense today," Lighty said Tuesday night after the Ohio State men's basketball team beat the Wolverines 65-55 in Value City Arena.
"When you see Coach put his fist up, that means you've got to get a stop."
Coach Thad Matta smiled when asked if it was that simple.
"I wish," he said.



Cont...
 
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Dispatch

February 4, 2008

Why stay in the zone?

Several readers wondered in e-mails the past couple of days why coach Thad Matta didn?t get out of the zone defense at Iowa on Saturday night and man up at least on Justin Johnson, whose eight three-point field goals accounted for nearly half of Iowa?s points in the 53-48 win.
A caller to Matta?s weekly radio show on WBNS-AM tonight asked Matta why he didn?t switch to a box-and-one and put David Lighty on Johnson. Matta said he considered it. Here?s what else he said:

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Dispatch

February 7, 2008

Now, for a word about the offense

There?s been a lot said about the wisdom of coach Thad Matta continuing to stick with the matchup zone defense. It intensified after Iowa?s Justin Johnson burned the Buckeyes with eight three-pointers in the Hawkeyes? win last Saturday. I blogged about it briefly a couple of days ago and addressed it more extensively in a story to be published Friday in The Dispatch.
My take for most of the season, however, is that defense isn?t this team?s problem. Offense is.
Most of the time, Jamar Butler has been the only scorer Matta can count on, and to a lesser extent Kosta Koufos, who has been good for 10 or 12 points a game most nights in the Big Ten. It appeared for a while that Evan Turner was going to be the third scorer, but he regressed the past two games and wasn?t even on the floor the last 16 1/2 minutes against Michigan on Tuesday night.


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Several readers wondered in e-mails the past couple of days why coach Thad Matta didn?t get out of the zone defense at Iowa on Saturday night and man up at least on Justin Johnson, whose eight three-point field goals accounted for nearly half of Iowa?s points in the 53-48 win.
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Interesting to know that they had just started practicing a box and one but he was too uncomfortable to go with it during a game. That is some comfort to me that he gave some thought about getting out of the zone. Answers some of my questions.
 
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Dispatch

Ohio State men
Buckeyes look to take dance steps
OSU still has NCAA Tournament hopes
Sunday, February 10, 2008 3:13 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Coach Thad Matta would prefer his players be as nearsighted as he is. One of his favorite bromides is, "I just want to be better today than we were yesterday."

Players aren't like coaches, though. They see the floor better.
Five weeks before the NCAA Tournament selection committee chooses whom to invite to its 65-team dance, at least one and probably more members of the Ohio State men's basketball team are, like everyone else, gauging their chances of crashing the party and pondering what they must do to get in.
"I look at our schedule and our record. I really can't find a key win on there," guard Jamar Butler said. "The only one I see is Syracuse. I think we need more than that."
The Buckeyes will have their chances.

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Being Realistic

Tourney... We kinda need a signature win, and Indiana would've certainly gotten some of that. Granted this is a rebuilding year, but I still love so see us do well- no matter where this season meets an inevitable end.

Where do you guys think we are? Is it NIT bound? Or a bubble team?

I know we can do some damage come tourney time, after holding on to a damn good Tenn. team, UNC, and even our crawling back against MSU.
 
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Canton

OSU notebook: Quality win needed to lose bubble status
Monday, February 11, 2008


COLUMBUS A third straight trip to the NCAA tournament may come down to Ohio State finding a way to beat at least one more Top 25 team.

That's providing the Buckeyes also take care of business against the lower echelon Big Ten teams they have to play on the road.

Success in Sunday's game against Indiana could have pushed Ohio State further away from being a bubble team. However, March still remains cloudy after a 59-53 loss to the Hoosiers.

The Buckeyes have beat just one ranked team all season. The win came in the Preseason NIT against Syracuse, and the Orange have fallen out of the Top 25 since then.

Not making the NCAA tournament a year after playing for a national championship remains a possibility for Ohio State (16-8 overall, 7-4 Big Ten).

But the Buckeyes are not solely focused on where they may or may not end up in the postseason.

"As of now, we're not thinking about the NCAA tournament," freshman center Kosta Koufos said. "We're just taking it a day at a time and a game at a time.

Cont...
 
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Dispatch

OSU men's basketball
Bob Hunter commentary: Lackluster effort leaves Matta lost for answers

Monday, February 11, 2008 3:09 AM
By Bob Hunter


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
0211matta200.jpg
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"It's hard to explain. But we just ... I don't know, it's hard to explain, and you can, I don't want to sound like some Buddhist ... " ? Thad Matta




There are seven games left in the regular season, and an inescapable conclusion has slipped through the doors in the Schottenstein Center: A promising, young Ohio State basketball team might not be growing up fast enough to get into the NCAA Tournament. The thought sat down with me yesterday and stayed throughout the Buckeyes' 59-53 loss to Indiana. The Buckeyes might be improving, but that wicked learning curve they've been negotiating doesn't have much of a guardrail. To be blunt, the curve is getting sharper and they're running out of time.
Yes, this team has had its moments; it has had games where all that potential coalesces into an impressive all-around performance. But sometimes those moments are gone so fast that you wonder if they were real. Then the shell of a team that's left is the one that showed up yesterday, one that didn't seem to have the energy, emotion or experience to be successful in an important, nationally televised game with Indiana.



Cont...
 
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I'd say the Bucks are a bubble team on the outside looking in at this point because of the lack of a signature win. The next two games (@NW, @UM) are MUST wins and then they need to win at least 3 of the next 5 (Wisc, @IU, @Minn, Purdue, MSU). If they accomplish that they'll be 21-10 and will have at least 2 quality wins for their resume. If that doesn't happen it will depend on how well they play in the Big10 tournament.
 
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bkochmc;1089168; said:
I'd say the Bucks are a bubble team on the outside looking in at this point because of the lack of a signature win. The next two games (@NW, @UM) are MUST wins and then they need to win at least 3 of the next 5 (Wisc, @IU, @Minn, Purdue, MSU). If they accomplish that they'll be 21-10 and will have at least 2 quality wins for their resume. If that doesn't happen it will depend on how well they play in the Big10 tournament.
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they play Wisconsin two times in that span, both at home.....
 
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chille37;1089181; said:
I believe you're looking at the schedule wrong. It shows us playing Wisconsin on back to back days at home because they're not sure what day we'll be playing.
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are you sure?

The schedule also has Iowa and Michigan State doing the same thing, with TV announced for both games (the Saturday game will be on the BTN and the Sunday game on CBS) supposedly allegedly....
 
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BuckeyeMike80;1089190; said:
are you sure?

The schedule also has Iowa and Michigan State doing the same thing, with TV announced for both games (the Saturday game will be on the BTN and the Sunday game on CBS) supposedly allegedly....
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Not sure, but I think they've selected the Sunday start on CBS.
 
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