• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Men's Basketball Buckeye Tidbits 2007-08 Season

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
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.
Click to expand...
I would think if we can do that and win two games in the Big 10 tournament we would be a lock for the dance.

The reason for the confusion over the Wisconsin date is because TV did not make up their minds until a few weeks ago on what date the game was going to be played.
 
Upvote 0
LitlBuck;1089334; said:
We play Wisconsin Sunday, February 24... that's all.
Click to expand...
Cosign... here's the remaining schedule:

2/13 @ Northwestern
2/17 @ Michigan
2/24 Wisconsin
2/26 @ Indiana
3/1 or 3/2 @ Minnesota
3/4 Purdue
3/9 Michigan State
3/13-16 Big Ten Tournament @ Indianapolis

OSU plays Wisconsin and Penn Sate only once this year, every one else twice.
 
Upvote 0
I think ya gotta like our chances for winning next two for sure...We might struggle at Michigan and if we lose we don't deserve to be in the tourney probably...

Will we be grown up enough by the time Wisky comes to town to beat them??? At this point unless they show some growth in the next two I am going to say no...

@ IU...Probably not, unless we play our best, which I don't see happening, especially on the road...Probably a double digit lose...


@ Minny...A game we can win for sure...But it isn't going to be a cake walk, by any means, but I hope the 4 games before this get us some confidence...I will say W...

Purdue...Should have revenge on the mind...Will the pressure get to Purdue, they have been kinda the underdogs, but this late in the season, they might be feeling a little pressure...Should be a solid crowd, and we should have beaten them at Purdue...Gonna need a good one, but I think we can get it done...I will say W...

MSU...If the talk is about us really needing this one to get in the tourney I think we will play hard as Thad will motivate them...Hopefully we are playing well at this time...Probably not...I will say a L...But I will also say that I truly believe 1-1 in the last two and they could go either way...Don't see 0-2 nor 2-0...


Let me add one thing...This is about as pessimistic as I get with these predictions...This makes us 20-11...We will for sure need a win in the tourney with that record, maybe 2...But I think that our schedule with a 21-12 record could get us in...

I think 21 is the magic number...IF we get there we get in...

With that said I still hold out hope for this team...Honestly if you look at our talent, our ability if we were to get hot, if we were to start playing better together, and hate to use the cliche, but if it were to click, there isn't a team on the schedule left that is head and shoulders above us and we could win out...We could go 6-1...Just never know...All guys Diebler, KK, Turner, Lighty, Hunter, Butler have shown that they can score double figures...Each has had a game of 15 this year I do believe...We just need them to score on the same night...
 
Upvote 0
I agree 100%. These guys obviously have the talent, but if they could all channel it together in one game, we'd be #1.

Hunter- Jonny D. - Kosta- Butler- Lighty- Turner-

IMO, our best guys. They all have a LOT of talent, but sometimes they just don't use it. It seems any night Hunter is a beast, Kosta is a retarded baby.

I don't know what Butler was up to Sunday, he wasn't traveling the floor as if it was a pee-wee game though, like it usually seems for him.

He to me- is a pretty pure point. The only thing that doesn't make him a pure point, is his shooting ranges and abilities. They seem deeper than most Points. Butler is a great ball handling 2 guard, or a deep range point.

If these guys could come together before this next matchup- which they need to, we can be a force in the Tourney, do damage, and possible get to the E8. I just don't know how they haven't done that yet though. It's not coaching, cause Thad is one of the most underestimated, but also one of the best.

From what you guys have brought to me- it seems like we can get there, and I know we have the potential, but it has to come together.
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch

Men's basketball: OSU Insider

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:56 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
0212_osu_men_sp_02-12-08_C3_RN9B6HL.jpg
NEAL C. LAURON Dispatch
So-so performances like the one against Indiana are piling up, whereas past Thad Matta teams at Ohio State have had a history of taking shape this far into the season.




Coming up: Northwestern and Michigan

Cont...
 
Upvote 0
CPD

OSU MEN'S BASKETBALL



Matta disrupts the flow



Wednesday, February 13, 2008 Doug Lesmerises

Plain Dealer Reporter
Columbus -- Players like to flow. Attempting to steer his inconsistent team in the right direction, Ohio State coach Thad Matta has been interrupting that flow lately.
First, he wouldn't let his players practice the day after Sunday's home loss to Indiana, limiting Monday's in teraction to a film session so the Buck eyes would have to stew in the juices of defeat a day longer.
"It caught everyone by surprise," OSU freshman Jon Diebler said. "I think a lot of people were looking forward to practice, and after the film, he said, I want you to keep this bitter taste in your mouth.' "
@StoryAd
Ohio State's coaches have also been calling more offensive sets from the bench since the second half of last Tuesday's win over Michigan.




Cont...
 
Upvote 0
Canton

Ohio State hoping to keep NCAA Tournament hopes alive
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
By Mike Popovich
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

Ohio State's basketball players wanted to put a disappointing loss to Indiana behind them 24 hours later. A pretty good practice, they thought, would follow Monday's film session.

Head Coach Thad Matta, however, threw a curveball. He gave the Buckeyes more time to think about what happened against the Hoosiers.

"Coach said he gave us a day off to kind of leave that bitter taste in our mouth," freshman guard Jon Diebler said Tuesday.

"He said we should have a heck of a practice today, just because we should be anxious and ready to go and ready to play Wednesday. I think our guys are kind of looking at it like that."

The Buckeyes will play four of their next five games on the road beginning with tonight's contest at Northwestern. At 16-8 overall and 7-4 in the Big Ten, Ohio State is starting to look like an NCAA tournament bubble team. What's important now is for the Buckeyes to keep their season from bursting.

Cont...
 
Upvote 0
Canton
MILESTONES AHEAD Senior point guard Jamar Butler needs just six assists to break Kelvin Ransey's Ohio State career record of 516 set from 1977-80. Butler averages 6.3 assists a game. ... Butler and forward Matt Terwilliger will tie the school's senior class wins record if the Buckeyes beat Northwestern tonight. Current holders Richard Reasbeck and Douglas McDonald won 98 games from 1960-63 during an era when freshmen were not eligible. Ohio State now recognizes four-year players in its program. Forward Othello Hunter, the other senior on the team, began his career in junior college. ... Matta is just one win away from the 200th of his career and three shy of his 100th at Ohio State.
 
Upvote 0
osugrad21;1090772; said:
Canton
MILESTONES AHEAD Senior point guard Jamar Butler needs just six assists to break Kelvin Ransey's Ohio State career record of 516 set from 1977-80. Butler averages 6.3 assists a game. ... Butler and forward Matt Terwilliger will tie the school's senior class wins record if the Buckeyes beat Northwestern tonight. Current holders Richard Reasbeck and Douglas McDonald won 98 games from 1960-63 during an era when freshmen were not eligible. Ohio State now recognizes four-year players in its program. Forward Othello Hunter, the other senior on the team, began his career in junior college. ... Matta is just one win away from the 200th of his career and three shy of his 100th at Ohio State.
Click to expand...
Kelvin Ransey....my first "favorite" Buckeye bballer. Happy for Jamar and all records are made to be broken, but I always liked Kelvin.
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch

February 13, 2008

How much does it hurt?

Coach Thad Matta has occasionally, in his four years at Ohio State, questioned whether the modern college basketball player is bothered by losing as much as players were back in the day.
Players nowadays are products of a different culture in which there is always a game or three the next day. When the high-school season ends, the AAU season begins. There are tournaments or camps seemingly every week of the spring and summer in which teams, win or lose, play a guaranteed number of games.
Matta did something Monday to make the loss to Indiana on Sunday bother his players. He didn?t let them practice to get past it. He made them watch the video of the game and then sent them on their way.
?I think it kind of caught everybody by surprise,? guard Jon Diebler said. ?I think a lot of people were looking forward to practice. But he said after films, `I want you to keep this bitter taste in your mouths.? He said, `Don?t like to lose. You need to refuse to lose.??
Matta said before the Buckeyes left for Northwestern yesterday that he was anxious to see how they play tonight. They need ?good wins? to enhance their NCAA Tournament resume, but they also need to avoid any more ?bad losses? like the one at Iowa a week and a half ago.
?He said we . . . should be anxious and ready to go when we play (tonight),? Diebler said. ?I think our guys are looking at it like that.
?We lost on our home floor, and that really hasn?t happened much in coach Matta?s career here (Matta?s record in Value City Arena is 59-5). We?re trying to win a Big Ten title, and now we have to win every game we can. One of the things in winning the Big Ten is you have to win all your home games, and we obviously slipped up Sunday.?
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch

Buckeyes aren't only Big Ten team in zone

Sunday, February 17, 2008 3:35 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

For 30 years, a cornerstone of the Big Ten's reputation as college basketball's roughest, toughest conference was its teams' man-to-man defense.
Bob Knight set the iron bar at Indiana, and his rivals tried to reach it. Blood, black and blue ensued.
"We all think sometimes that we're not macho if we're not playing in-your-face, man-to-man defense," Michigan coach John Beilein said.
And yet, he added, "You probably should study the history of the game and how guys like John Chaney and Jim Boeheim get to 700 wins playing zones."
Eight years after Knight's eviction, the Big Ten landscape has changed. Every school except Michigan State has replaced coaches, some twice. New attitudes and ideas have been introduced. And this season, a zone defense has proved to be, statistically at least, the most effective in the conference.
"They're very good at what they do," Beilein said of Ohio State's matchup zone, which Michigan will try to solve today for a second time in 12 days.

Continued......
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top