Ohio State 54 Butler 51 (Final)

[Best Buckeye]

The next test for the Buckeyes will come next Saturday when they host Butler Univ.
Game Time is slated for 12 noon and is scheduled to be shown on the BTN.

Butler is 7 - 0 on the season after beating Youngstown St.

 

[Bestbuck36]

Payback.

 

[LitlBuck]

Payback.

and and it could be big-time:). Butler is not that good this season. I am not saying that the stink but they are not as good as they have been in prior years.

 

[DaytonBuck]

and and it could be big-time:). Butler is not that good this season. I am not saying that the stink but they are not as good as they have been in prior years.

Best win to date has been Northwestern or Horizon favorite Cleveland State. Forward Matt Howard is their best player and he's be averaging 13 and 6. They have 2 freshmen as their 2nd and 3rd leading scorers to go alone with a true freshman point starting.

Young team that we should have no problem taking care of at home.

 

[Ttown]

I'm thinking we should hit the 80's in this one since we are improving a lot.

 

[DaytonBuck]

Their backcourt consists of 2 freshman and they haven't played any team capable of ball pressure and defense like the Bucks so I suspect we could force a lot of turnovers.

 

[BuckTwenty]

Best win to date has been Northwestern or Horizon favorite Cleveland State. Forward Matt Howard is their best player and he's be averaging 13 and 6. They have 2 freshmen as their 2nd and 3rd leading scorers to go alone with a true freshman point starting.

Young team that we should have no problem taking care of at home.

I hope you're right. Whether they're good or not this year though, having that game in the win column will look impressive to the pollsters after the year they had last year.

 

[DaytonBuck]

I hope you're right. Whether they're good or not this year though, having that game in the win column will look impressive to the pollsters after the year they had last year.

I think they're a good team that can compete in the Horizon league but I don't see them winning a game in the tourney

 

[TimTaylor75]

Payback.

+1

 

[bkochmc]

Pomeroy Rankings as of 12/7:
Ohio State: 6
Butler: 37


Ohio State Stats (rankings in parentheses):
Strength of Schedule: 138
Avg. Number of Possessions: 65.0 (267)
Offensive Efficiency (points scored per 100 possessions): 105.5 (89)
Defensive Efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions): 73.9 (2)
"The Dallas" Defensive Block Percentage: 23.4 (2)

A lot of the defensive stats look very good right now... which should be no surprise the way this team is playing on that side of the ball.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

I got to watch a bit of Butler's game last week against a much more athletic Cleveland State team. They dropped into a tight zone on defense and collapsed on penetration, daring the Vikings to make a shot. CSU couldn't and Butler won 50-48.

I expect this game to be ugly like the BGSU game. The flow on offense through Turner has worked against the man-to-man defenses of ND and Miami, but I haven't seen much flow against the zone defenses OSU has faced this season. Hopefully they can get it sorted out and not rely on shooting 20+ 3's to win.

 

[Bestbuck36]

I hope they do pack it in some. The way Dieblers shot is looking right now and our severe size advantage will get us some open looks and offensive putbacks I would hope. The key is getting Turner, Lighty, Simmons and Crater to drive the zone and dish like they need to. If they do that its blowout city cause we're definitely going to run them out in transition.

 

[crazybuckfan40]

I got to watch a bit of Butler's game last week against a much more athletic Cleveland State team. They dropped into a tight zone on defense and collapsed on penetration, daring the Vikings to make a shot. CSU couldn't and Butler won 50-48.

I expect this game to be ugly like the BGSU game. The flow on offense through Turner has worked against the man-to-man defenses of ND and Miami, but I haven't seen much flow against the zone defenses OSU has faced this season. Hopefully they can get it sorted out and not rely on shooting 20+ 3's to win.

It is hard for teams to collapse against us and dare us to shot, because they know we have shooters...They are still going to have to extend, especially if we are knocking down our shots, and we are going to need to rely on Turner and Lighty at the high post and Lauderdale/Mullens inside...Hopefully Diebler, Buford, Simmons, and Lighty can hit their 3's as well...

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

It is hard for teams to collapse against us and dare us to shot, because they know we have shooters...They are still going to have to extend, especially if we are knocking down our shots, and we are going to need to rely on Turner and Lighty at the high post and Lauderdale/Mullens inside...Hopefully Diebler, Buford, Simmons, and Lighty can hit their 3's as well...

See, I'm not yet convinced we have the shooters to shoot someone out of a zone. Diebler is still streaky. Lighty has not yet shown me the ability to knock them down with any consistency. Simmons is shooting 36% from 3, but seems to have the propensity for taking long 3's early in the shot clock. Buford's shot looks good, but he's only made 2 3's in his entire collegiate career (yeah, all of 5 games - nice misleading stat, jerk :p). Turner's only attempted 4 this season after shooting just 33% last year.

EDIT - I know you see the guys outside of game situations and have more confidence in their shooting than I do, I just haven't seen enough to be convinced yet.

If I'm defending OSU at this point, I collapse the zone, refuse Lighty and (especially) Turner penetration and hope that Diebler and Simmons aren't shooting lights out. The only time the offense has looked really good is with the ball in Turner's hands and he is penetrating. When he does that, he can score, he can feed the big guys, he can kick it for an open jumper. Keep Turner out of the lane at almost any cost.

BG did a nice job of it, I thought.

 

[MaxBuck]

...I'm not yet convinced we have the shooters to shoot someone out of a zone...

We certainly have more shooters who have established range than we've had in my memory.

Diebler, Buford, Simmons, Turner and Lighty have all demonstrated the ability to hit the trey when necessary, so I'm really not all that concerned about zone busting. I'd much rather have 5 guys all of whom have demonstrated 33% than one guy who hits 48% (averages here). Not all of them are likely to go cold the same night.