Ohio State 54 Butler 51 (Final)

[buckeyes_rock]

Thad, please get out of that friggin zone defense. I don't know if they are protecting someone or what but it is now working and just spreads the floor so that other teams can penetrate. In addition, it calls for a lot of reaching because you have a tendency to stand still and guys get an initial step on their defensive player on the way to the basket. It also makes it very difficult for our big man underneath the basket to get out into the corner. I guess it would be different if we were playing a 2-3 rather than a 1-3-1 "match-up.

My thoughts exactly. I think we do well in the zone. But when you have one player who is beating you in the zone that badly like #20 was today...what the heck? This Butler team was not a great team. If we had simply put a guy on their shooter, it's a blowout.

I can't help but wonder why Thad won't even attempt man-to-man? Even after a make or coming out of timeout once in a while just to give it a look. Just seems strange.

Lighty played much more confidently. That was nice to see.

The offense was very out of sorts in the second half.

Sloppy game, but at least we came out with a win!

Moving on...next!

 

[billmac91]

lets also keep in mind this was an 8-0 team. Now 8-1.

 

[PtownBuckeye]

I can't really complain about the D when Butler only had 3 players who actually had a goal from the field, but with my extremely limited basketball knowledge..wouldn't a Box and 1, with the 1 on Hayward have been more effective? Thad probably has a tad higher bbll IQ than me so I won't question it.....I'll just take the W.

 

[Jake]

I can't help but wonder why Thad won't even attempt man-to-man? Even after a make or coming out of timeout once in a while just to give it a look. Just seems strange.

I didn't see the game but a 54-51 win doesn't suggest to me that defense was the problem. In fact, it's right on our average in points allowed per game, which happens to be one of the best in the nation.

I'm guessing that's why Thad hasn't felt the need to go man to man.

 

[osugrad21]

DDN

Buckeyes barely hold off Bulldogs

Despite scoring just four points over the final 6:49, sluggish OSU improves to 6-0.


By Rusty Miller
Associated Press

Sunday, December 14, 2008

COLUMBUS ? When Thad Matta's old team went up against his current team, it all came down to one flick of the wrist.
Gordon Hayward misfired on a lunging, off-balance 3-pointer with a second left, preserving No. 21 Ohio State's 54-51 victory over Butler on Saturday, Dec. 13. It was the 11th straight win for Ohio State (6-0), counting last season's run to the NIT title.
Matta, a 1990 Butler grad, played and was an assistant at Butler and then went 24-8 in his lone season as head coach of the Bulldogs. He's 111-22 in his fifth year at Ohio State and 213-66 at Butler, Xavier and OSU.
"When you've been so many different places, for me Ohio State is home," Matta said. "I really didn't think about Butler as much as I thought about what a great basketball team they have and we're going to have to play really well to win the game. I've never been a guy that this is personal. If we were playing the Celtics today, I would have just wanted us to play our best basketball."
Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

CPD

Defense helps Ohio State overcome sluggish second half of 54-51 win over Butler

by Doug Lesmerises/Plain Dealer Reporter Saturday December 13, 2008, 4:50 PM

Jay LaPrete/Associated PressDavid Lighty, left, drives to the basket against Butler's Gordon Hayward during the second half of Saturday's game. Lighty finished with 10 points in Ohio State's victory.

COLUMBUS -- Ohio State's offense vanished, lost in the foul trouble of leading scorer Evan Turner, rimmed-out 3-pointers and the doldrums of finals week, the Buckeyes playing Saturday for the first time in seven days. "We showed no confidence," said Ohio State coach Thad Matta, who could see his players' minds wander as they took the court after timeouts. "I felt like we played at times on our heels."
Over the final 15 minutes against Butler, Ohio State made 2 of 15 shots, 7 of 16 free throws and committed four turnovers while a 13-point lead evaporated. Yet the No. 21 Buckeyes walked off the court as one of 15 undefeated teams among the 347 that play Division I basketball thanks to a defense they know isn't going anywhere.
Their 54-51 win against the formerly undefeated Bulldogs wasn't secured until Gordon Hayward missed a leaning 3-pointer at the buzzer after making 7 of the previous 10 3-pointers he attempted. But like the season-high 19 turnovers committed by the Bulldogs (8-1), that wasn't a coincidence.
"It wasn't a great look," said Butler coach Brad Stevens, "but with the way they play that zone, it's tough to get a great look right there."
Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

Scout Free--Defense Keys Cagers To Win Over Butler

Riva;s Free--Bucks hang on for tough winRivals Free--Bailout plan

BN free--Buckeyes Hold Off Upset-Minded Butler

BN Free--Bucknuts TV: Matta After Butler Win

BN Free--Bucknuts TV: Lauderdale, Turner After Butler Win

BN Free--Photo Gallery: Ohio State-Butler

BN$--Final Analysis: Ohio State 54, Butler 51

 

[osugrad21]

Dispatch

No. 21 Ohio State 54 Butler 51
Defense doesn't rest
Undefeated Buckeyes survive despite an uneven offense, second-half slump
Sunday, December 14, 2008 3:33 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

NEAL C. LAURON Dispatch
Ohio State's Dallas Lauderdale, right, and teammate Evan Turner work together to thwart Butler's Shelvin Mack.




Some sweet perspective is needed in the wake of what was a hard game to watch in Value City Arena yesterday. When the Ohio State men's basketball team was done playing Butler a year ago, it was 4-3, had scored in the 40s twice in four games and lost those games by 19 and 23 points. It never recovered until it was too late to make the NCAA Tournament.
Yesterday, in their sixth game of the season, the No. 21 Buckeyes struggled to score 50 points against Butler. They are averaging 60 and their half-court offense is going nowhere when the ball is out of Evan Turner's hands.
But they are 6-0 after weathering another second-half swoon to beat Butler 54-51 and hand the previously undefeated Bulldogs their first loss in nine games.
"Right now in college basketball, maybe things aren't as pretty as you want them," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "But the big thing is getting wins.
"I don't know what Butler was today, but RPI-wise, this was a heck of a basketball game for us. They've got a great shot to win their league and win 25-plus games this year."
Last season, the Buckeyes finished 3-9 against ranked opponents, 2-10 against teams in the top 50 of the Rating Percentage Index and had one road win over teams in the top 100 of the RPI. It cost them an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
This season, they have beaten both ranked teams they have played, the University of Miami and Notre Dame, and away from home no less. And in Butler, they took down what was the No. 3 team in the RPI before yesterday's games.
"Did we play as well as we're capable of playing? No," Matta said. "Maybe they had something to do with it.
"But as I told our (players Friday) when we broke from practice, at 2 o'clock tomorrow, somebody's walking out of the (Schottenstein Center) with a loss and somebody's going to remain undefeated. That's what we wanted."
Turner led Ohio State with 14 points, three of its six assists and four of its seven steals.
Freshman Gordon Hayward led Butler (8-1) with 25 points, including seven three-point baskets. He missed a three as time expired that would have forced overtime.
Ohio State, which led 43-30 with less than 15 minutes left, had one field goal and missed 7 of 14 free throws in the last 12 1/2 minutes. Turner was on the bench with four fouls for a third of that span.
Cont...

 

[Best Buckeye]

A win is a win as they say and I hope the team uses this game as a very good learning game. Youth can have it's not so good moments just as it has very good ones so I'm just happy we won and I'll leave the coaching to Thad and the playing to the team.

 

[brutus2002]

The Buckeyes have a B10 championship defense. The defense is definately something that you can always count on. This defense will keep us in every game this year. We have one of the top 3 defenses in the country...at least from what I have seen. When these young pups get more experinece it will get only better.

Butler is not a joke. They had a 10 game winning streak aginst ranked BCS conference foes...we broke that streak. They will win the Horizon conference.

With the 3 point line being moved back IMO it allows teams that play great defenses to pack it in and play zone. Butler only scored 51 points!!!!! Thats stinkin awesome. If we would have played better on offense we would have beat these guys by 15-20. We will get better on offense. The defense was awesome and wasn't the problem. We let them settle for 3 pointers. Their FG % from 2 point range was horrible. Matta let them take three especially with the line being moved back.

The 3 point line being moved back is helping even the college game out. Teams will have a harder time shooting their way back and it helps teams that run half-court offenses because the run and gun teams will have a lower 3 point %.

IMO this helped the B10 more than any other conference. We should have won the B10/ACC challenge. Teams like Duke are missing threes more than ever. I have seen Duke come back from 20 point defecits because of the three. This will get tougher for some of the elite teams.

If we can get better on offense throughout the season we will be a tough out in the NCAA's. It will take a huge effort for a team to put 70 on us. IMO we will win 25+ during the regular season.

 

[LitlBuck]

The Buckeyes have a B10 championship defense. The defense is definately something that you can always count on. This defense will keep us in every game this year. We have one of the top 3 defenses in the country...at least from what I have seen. When these young pups get more experinece it will get only better.

Butler is not a joke. They had a 10 game winning streak aginst ranked BCS conference foes...we broke that streak. They will win the Horizon conference.

With the 3 point line being moved back IMO it allows teams that play great defenses to pack it in and play zone..

The three-point line being moved back will not affect outside shooting this year. Guys were shooting from the current three point line last year. Now if they shot from the NBA three-point line I might say that outside shooting might be affected this year but the amount they moved it back this year is almost negligible.

I will wait until the Big 10 season begins before I start to judge this team as a possible 25 win team. That is really going out on a limb. Butler is not that great of a team this year. I mean they had three freshmen in their starting lineup yesterday. I know they were undefeated before yesterday but who have they really played. The Horizon League is now one of your powerhouse leagues in the country.

We will see a lot more about how good our defense is when we play West Virginia and get into the Big 10. I did know that we beat Notre Dame and that was a very good win but I don't like to see our zone defense stretched out so much. I know our defense is ranked #3 in the country right now but I still would rather see a little bit of man-to-man.

 

[brutus2002]

IDK but I watched the Tennessee and Temple game. Temple beat them because Temple packed it in and forced Tennessee to shot three and from 15 ft. Tennessee would have made more shots from three with the line where it was.

It will affect the game. It helps half court teams. We have two big guys that can block shots. I have watched every B10 team and we can beat all of them. Wisky is actually disappointing. Purdue is hot and cold. MSU may have scored 100+ on Alcorn but then again who couldn't.

Defense is not the problem. Offense is. The better we get on offense the more dangerous we become. We have 4-5 games to work on this. We have the best defense in the B10 BY FAR.

 

[MaxBuck]

Whoever says our defense needs to change must be watching the games on radio.

What the Butler game proved above everything else, IMO, is that on offense we are utterly and completely reliant on Evan Turner. We have no flow at all when he's out of the game, and he seems like the kind of guy that needs to be on the floor for 40 minutes to be optimally effective.

 

[LitlBuck]

Whoever says our defense needs to change must be watching the games on radio.

I guess that would be me and I would like to thank Marconi for allowing me to do that I will back off a little and wait for West Virginia and the Big 10 season and see what happens then. I know a little bit about zone defenses and you might want to check out Ray Mears autobiography to see why.

What the Butler game proved above everything else, IMO, is that on offense we are utterly and completely reliant on Evan Turner. We have no flow at all when he's out of the game, and he seems like the kind of guy that needs to be on the floor for 40 minutes to be optimally effective.

On this I can totally agree with you but I don't think that he even uses total package yesterday. Over the radio:), they said that both Lighty and Turner had significant height advantages over the guys guarding them but I don't think they posted up their defenders enough. However, at this point in the season, Turner is the key to our offense and maybe it's because the other 4 guys have not really stepped up. I am very surprised with David. I thought that he would be much more aggressive on the offense and take the ball to the rim more often this season. We all have our own opinions and I am just expressing mine and I might have to eat my hat during the Big 10 season.

 

[Meyer]

I just think we weren't on our best game yesterday, however we still found a way to beat a 8-0 Butler team and that's all that really matters.