NIT: #1 Ohio State vs. #3 Dayton, Wed. 9 pm at the Schott ( ESPN2)

[Tlangs]

...
I agree with you that home-court advantage is huge in this game but Matta will not play a box and one on Roberts. Ohio State has played against some very good players this year and Matta has never changed his defense and will not change just because of one guy.

I agree 100% with you that Matta will not change defenses. The only problem is that he should change defenses (assuming Roberts is hitting from 3 point range). Sticking to that zone defense when it wasn't working has been the fatal flaw of OSU all year. Remember the Iowa game where that dude hit 8 or 9 3's on us.

If Matta mixed up the defense earlier in the year, OSU would have been in the NCAA and not the NIT.

...
I think you have forgotten that Ohio State played in the Big 10 and beat Michigan State and Purdue. Michigan State is still in the dance and where is Pittsburgh. Louisville's season has been up-and-down with all the injuries that they have had so it depends when Dayton played them.

Keep in mind that the Big 10 was the 6th rated conference and the Atlantic 10 was the 7th rated conference (by RPI). This season there wasn't much difference between the two. OSU and UD were very similiar this year in that they both beat good teams (Purdue, Michigan St, Louisville, Pitt) and lost to some flat out bad teams (Iowa, Michigan, George Washington, Duquesne). If UD and OSU could have won the easy games this year, they would both be in the NCAA.

I'm just calling it like I see it. I have seen every game that Ohio State has played and every game that UD has played. The bottom line is, control Roberts and beat UD. The best way to control him is to trap him or play a box and 1. If you let him get his shots, he can dominate a game. You could say the same for OSU, control Butler and control the game. It should be one heckuva game.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

I agree 100% with you that Matta will not change defenses. The only problem is that he should change defenses (assuming Roberts is hitting from 3 point range). Sticking to that zone defense when it wasn't working has been the fatal flaw of OSU all year. Remember the Iowa game where that dude hit 8 or 9 3's on us.

If Matta mixed up the defense earlier in the year, OSU would have been in the NCAA and not the NIT.

The guy from UMBC hit what.....8 or 9 also........the one complaint I have had this year is when a guy gets hot.....why not switch up the defenses for at least a few possesions.....give them a different look....change the tempo......

 

[IronBuckI]

Obviously he hasn't or he would know that DaytonBuck was being sarcastic. London Warren is the worst shooter I have ever seen in my entire life.

Obviously. I just found it comical that he took exception to DaytonBuck's comment without having any facts.

 

[DaytonBuck]

 

[buckeyesin07]

They beat Pitt by 20+ points and beat Louisville on the road. UD was 14-1 and number 14 in the country until 2 of their top three scorers broke their foot. Both are back now.

Are you aware of the Louisville's injuries when they played Dayton? Just wondering, because you use injuries as an excuse for Dayton's fizzling down the stretch, yet you conveniently ignore them when attempting to bolster Dayton's record by pointing to the Louisville win.

 

[DaytonBuck]

Are you aware of the Louisville's injuries when they played Dayton? Just wondering, because you use injuries as an excuse for Dayton's fizzling down the stretch, yet you conveniently ignore them when attempting to bolster Dayton's record by pointing to the Louisville win.

Louisville has way more depth than Dayton. It's apples and oranges. Louisville with out Padgett is still a good team.

 

[Tlangs]

The guy from UMBC hit what.....8 or 9 also........the one complaint I have had this year is when a guy gets hot.....why not switch up the defenses for at least a few possesions.....give them a different look....change the tempo......

That drives me crazy. However, now it looks as if Matta is trying to change up the tempo by utilizing full court pressure throughout games. We did it in the first meeting against MSU to get back in the game ....... and then we didn't see it again for 7 or 8 games. He let the dogs loose against Cal though.

 

[Tlangs]

Louisville has way more depth than Dayton. It's apples and oranges. Louisville with out Padgett is still a good team.

Louisville still had Character and Williams in the lineup.....and the game was @ Louisville.

OSU's "good wins" were all at home.


The stretch where UD lost Little and Wright killed their season. before Wright's injury, he was averaging 13 points and 7 boards. Charles Little was averaging 9 points and 5 boards. You subtract 21 points abd 12 boards from your front line and you are going to have problems.

 

[shetuck]

Springfield News-Sun: UD-Ohio State is a hot ticket

Just for a little color... 14K+ tix in 3.5 hrs! That's more than one every second!

UD-Ohio State is a hot ticket

Comment: Have you been able to get tickets to the University of Dayton game at Ohio State? Tell us about your experience

Staff Report

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Ticket sales for the Dayton-Ohio State men's basketball matchup have been brisk today.

An Ohio State spokesman said that tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. and by 1:33 p.m. a total of 14,023 tickets had been sold.

"They're going well and there's a line," OSU's Dan Wallenberg said this morning.

cont'd...

 

[leroyjenkins]

Louisville still had Character and Williams in the lineup.....and the game was @ Louisville.

OSU's "good wins" were all at home.


The stretch where UD lost Little and Wright killed their season. before Wright's injury, he was averaging 13 points and 7 boards. Charles Little was averaging 9 points and 5 boards. You subtract 21 points abd 12 boards from your front line and you are going to have problems.

I get what youre saying, but did their replacements not score or rebound??

PS- and i think you meant 22 pts.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

Springfield News-Sun: UD-Ohio State is a hot ticket

Just for a little color... 14K+ tix in 3.5 hrs! That's more than one every second!

Just got 2 for section 408, row U. Top row, I think.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Just got 2 for section 408, row U. Top row, I think.

damn....you better bring some tissues.....

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

damn....you better bring some tissues.....

I'm used to the altitude. My season tickets were top row, too.

 

[Tlangs]

I get what youre saying, but did their replacements not score or rebound??

PS- and i think you meant 22 pts.

UD was ok rebounding but scoring was definitely a problem. Teams could lock down on Roberts and no one really stepped up their game until Marcus Johnson put a string of double digit performances together towards the end of the season.

 

[cincibuck]

This'll be tough to watch. I grew up listening to the exploits of Coach Tom Blackburn's Dayton Flyers. I received a radio for Christmas when I was nine. Dad built a small bookshelf above my bed for books, alarm clock and my radio and I was allowed to listen to the games after bedtime.

The UD program has had it's share of heartaches. I was there the night a freshman player died on the court during the final minutes of a freshman game. Then came the saga of Roger Brown, the greatest basketball player you never heard of, never got to play for the varsity Flyers. He had been introduced to a gambler while in high school and though never indicted and never shown to have gambled was banned by the NCAA. His teammate, Bill Chimilewski, would later lead the Flyers to an NIT championship at a time when the tourney was fairly close to even with the NCAAs (the NCAA field was limited to 16 teams then). Big Bill impregnated a girl from Oakwood, the 'old money' section of Dayton and had to get married, ending his Flyer career.

Still, over the years it has been a clean program and most Dayton folks love their Flyers.