Ohio State 46 Butler 65 (Final)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

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Preview: Ohio State at No. 16 Butler

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | November 30, 2007 |

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Thad Matta may never have gotten the chance to lead Ohio State to last season's national championship game if it weren't for the opportunity he was given at Butler seven years ago. One of his assistants back then was Brad Stevens.
Matta returns to Hinkle Fieldhouse for the first time since he was Butler's coach when the Buckeyes visit Stevens' 16th-ranked Bulldogs on Saturday.
The 40-year-old Matta is a Butler alum who coached the Bulldogs to one of the program's most successful seasons in 2000-01. Butler went 24-8 and lost to eventual Final Four participant Arizona in the second round of the NCAA tournament before Matta left to coach Xavier.
In his lone season at Butler - his first as a collegiate head coach - Matta hired Stevens as his director of basketball operations. Stevens spent six seasons as an assistant with the Bulldogs and elevated to head coach before this season due to the departure of Todd Lickliter to Iowa, becoming the third-youngest coach in Division I at the age of 31.

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[FireMedic75]

Should be a great game! For those that haven't been to Hinkle Fieldhouse you truely are missing out on something every hoops fan should enjoy. It gets my votes as coolest gym in the country. If we don't get out on the shooters it'll be a long day for our Bucks. I played against AJ's brothers and have played pick up against him, the kid can flat out stroke the ball. We just need to be patient on defense with thier cuts and screens and be as phyiscal as possiable.

 

[Panthersfan]

We need this one, coach. Never shoulda lost to UNC. I sadly have to put that one on Mr. Matta. Half time adjustments shoulda been "Don't get sucked into yourselves."

But on any count .500 won't make the tourney.

Come on boys, let's get this one.

 

[Bestbuck36]

A win here, on the road, against a ranked opponent will go a very long way towards which direction this season winds up going. Of course, a blowout loss could decimate these young guys. Play hard, play smart and progress from game to game and we might yet see something special from these guys.

 

[crazybuckfan40]

Not going to be a long write up but I do have a little bit...

Really there are 2 guys that really fuel this team...

Those 2 are AJ Graves and Mike Green...They are both smaller guards, but a very quick, can penetrate and get shots for each other, and the rest of their teammates...Green is the better creator of the two, but Graves can and will create...They are both dead eye shooters as well...We can't leave them open, and that can be said about anyone on their team...The key to the defensive game is going to be holding these two down and to not let them get the long rebounds...

Peter Cambell is their best big guy, but is only 6'7''...He is the third leading scorer and can also put points up in bunches, but I am hoping that our length will give him problems...

We will have a huge size advantage as they we will be bigger at every position besides on the wing at one position where they will match with 6'5''...But they will use their 5 guard type lineup to open up the lane for penetration and finding open shooters on the perimeter...

I think that KK will have a big game if he forces his way to get the ball and looks to crash the boards on the offensive end as the rebounding oppurtunities will be there...Same goes for O as well...

With all that said Butler is a very good team, and deserves to be up there where they are...They will take a shit ton of 3's and they will make some of them, but we need to contest all of them, and hopefully we can force them to miss more than normal, and find ways to get easy looks on the offensive end as we will have mismatches down low, and then find ways to get open looks from the perimeter and knock em down...

This win could be a great way to propel the teams confidence...

 

[Best Buckeye]

Did you forget Jukes the forward 40? 26 pg is pretty good I would say but since he is only 6' 8 or 6'9 I look for us to shut him down about 20 that would give us the win. we have the talent to win big JMO.

 

[themongoose32]

On the jukes thing, ESPN has been making a typo all year on who has been averaging that 26 points. Jukes is 6'8 transfer from Alabama that came over in the middle of the semester change last year. He is not eligible too play until he has finished finals which aren't until the 17th of December. So Ohio State will not have to worry about him being down low. The player those stats should be attributed to is AJ Graves.

The big guards of Ohio State will have to get out and put hands in the shooters faces if they want to slow down the three point shots because butlers three guards; Graves, Green, and Campbell(although he is 6'7 you will rarely see him down in the paint posting up too shoot it inside the arc) are all shooting over 50 % from the three point land. Green usually only shoots it if he is wide open but Graves and Campbell will shoot it whether they have a hand in their face or not, and a majority of time it goes in. Ohio State just has too keep going at them and hope to get them frustrated.

Butler rarely turns the ball over and they can use the shot clock to its fullest if they have to so Ohio State is going to have to capitalize on every possession that they get because they are gonna come few and far between. This means Jamar Butler is going to have to have another good day of handling the ball and not making silly turnovers. That goes for the rest of the team as well. If Ohio State gets down early and starts putting up quick three pointers and aren't hitting them, Butler will know exactly how to put them away.

Right now Butler has been playing like a team possessed and Ohio State seems to be having trouble finding any consistency. Chances are Butler is not gonna keep up with their pace of hitting 14 three pointers a game for the last 4 games so I don't see Butler maintaining their 75 point average. My guess is it will be a lower scoring game. Ohio State will need to play a solid 40 minutes if they want to come out with victory.

Hopefully it will be a good game because I'll be there and I'm finding it hard to pick who to cheer for. I was raised a buckeye fan in Columbus since just after birth and parents have been season ticket holders to football and basketball games my entire life but i am now in my Fifth of Six years of school at Butler University. So what I am going to hope for is that it is an entertaining game and that neither team gets embarrassed.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

CPD

OHIO STATE MEN
Butler serves as Matta homecoming

Saturday, December 01, 2007 Doug Lesmerises

Plain Dealer Reporter

Columbus -- Thad Matta remembers practicing at Hinkle Fieldhouse as former Butler coach Tony Hinkle watched from the stands in the building named for him. Hinkle coached at Butler from 1926-1970 and is credited with inventing the orange basketball, a true legend of the game.
He died in 1992, but not before he watched that future Butler coach earn three letters as a starting guard for the Bulldogs, Matta serving as a team captain in 1989-90. Matta then worked for three years as an administrative assistant at his alma mater, and three more as a full-time assistant before earning his first head coaching job with the Bulldogs in 2000.
Today, he returns to the place where he met his wife, where he became a coach, where his mentor and former Butler coach Barry Collier now serves as athletic director, where the movie "Hoosiers" was filmed before Matta arrived on campus. It is Matta's first time coaching as the opponent in the gym he once called home. (Cue emotional music).

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

IndyStar

Local link brings Buckeyes
Matta's ties to Butler beget rare visit by a BCS school to a mid-major

By David Woods
[email protected]
College basketball teams from the six Bowl Championship Series football leagues aren't eager to play the so-called mid-majors.

Oh, they'll do it. If the BCS team can play at home. Or if it can't be avoided, such as tournament pairings.
Losing to a small school can be embarrassing, unless it has the national stature of a Gonzaga. If Butler can keep it up, perhaps it can achieve similar scheduling consideration.
Ohio State meets the No. 16 Bulldogs at Hinkle Fieldhouse tonight because of the relationship Thad Matta has with Butler. The Ohio State coach has been a player, assistant coach and head coach at Butler.

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

OSU men's basketball: Butler's home court holds special appeal

Saturday, December 1, 2007 3:10 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A great time to be in the building where Brad Stevens works is early in the day, when the sun's rays stream through the windows of Hinkle Fieldhouse as the Butler men's basketball coach takes his morning jog.
But that's only the second-best time, he said.
"The absolute best time," Stevens said, "is when it's jam-packed to the roof."
Tonight, he said, "it should be." Ohio State, which has played in two other venerable venues, Madison Square Garden and its own St. John Arena, in the past 10 days, visits the nearly 80-year-old arena on Indianapolis' north side to take on No. 16 Butler.

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

OSU-Butler preview

Saturday, December 1, 2007 2:55 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Game preview

OHIO STATE VS. NO.16 BUTLER

7:30 tonight
? Where: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
? TV: ESPNU
? Radio: WBNS-AM (1460), WBNS-FM (97.1)
? Records: Ohio State 4-2, Butler 6-0
? Matchup to watch: Ohio State has to be active in its zone defense to contest Butler's three-point shooting. Nine Bulldogs have made at least one three; the team is averaging 12.8 per game, the best in NCAA Division I, and is shooting 47 percent behind the arc. They set a Great Alaska Shootout record with 47 threes in three wins. Ohio State opponents have shot only 27.1 percent behind the arc.

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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

cnnsi.com

Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Ohio State (4-2) at No. 16 Butler (6-0)
Another unusual example of a BCS conference team playing on the road against a formidable mid-major. Thad Matta agreed to take his Buckeyes to visit storied Hinkle Fieldhouse (you do know the final game in the movie Hoosiers was filmed there, right?) as thanks to his alma mater for giving him his first head coaching job eight years ago. Unfortunately, Matta's Buckeyes are extremely young and going up against a Butler team that starts five seniors, all of whom can drill threes if necessary. You won't see a better offensive performance this season than the one Butler put on its win over Texas Tech in the Great Alaska Shootout. Moreover, the Bulldogs take great care of the basketball (they've committed 20 fewer turnovers than their opponents through just six games), which will limit Ohio State's transition opportunities.
Butler 77, Ohio State 70

 

[coastalbuck]

Great place to play basketball and another learning experience for the Buckeyes. Another plus is that I have EspinU. I'll be able to watch the Bucks and the Okie Missou game both. Should be a great game.

 

[jimotis4heisman]

major key to the game: the team who scores more points will win this game...

 

[BuckSenator]

Anyone know of a bar in town that actually plays OSU BBall Games ???

I don't want to go to a sardine can like BW3s

I can only imagine how it will be on a saturday with big football match ups on...

" GO Sooners! " is everywhere...

Seems to me that even though the bucks are not playing football, that other games that could influence where they land for their bowl, will take precedence against an actual Bucks game live on TV..

I bet that will happen if I go out..