Findlay just played their asses off and you have to give them credit. Down the stretch the Buckeyes really picked up their defensive intensity and from about 12 left until the end I thought the d was actually pretty good. The thing is those players from Findlay were hitting some tough clutch shots down the stretch and several seemed to come with little to no time left on the 35 second clock.
Again talking about the last 12 or so minutes I thought it was a positive to see the bucks playing some aggressive man to man d against such a quick team. You just won't see very many teams hit that many tough clutch shots like Findlay did tonight.
Hunter's foul trouble really hurt our rebounding. KK is not there yet and it is clear that Matta and the staff are going to be working over time to get him ready to play d and rebound at a big ten level.
It was a tough night for the post players because early on Matta switched to a 4 guard lineup with just one post player in at a time. It was the right thing to do to match up with Findlay's quickness but it sure cut down on the minutes for the post players all of whom need the work.
I loved seeing a couple of nice individual defensive efforts and Turners block off the glass was maybe the best of the night.
I don't remember Matta running a single play for KK until late in the game. When they did start going to him he just had his way most of the time. Butler showed he has his 3 ball ready. Diebler hit a couple and I'm sure he will have it going lights out when the bell rings next Monday.
There is just no way you can expect a talented D1 team like Ohio State to come in with the kind intensity that Findley played with tonight. For them it was the highlight of their season. Give them credit. They are a very good team and they were ready to seize their chance tonight.
I'm sure Matta was far more interested in working his team, challenging his team, testing his team, and teaching his team than he was worried about the score. In some sense he was asking his team to play with one hand behind their back tonight. He did not work to exploit the tremendous height and strength advantage until just those last few possessions. Rather than coaching to exploit weaknesses and negate the quickness advantage Findlay had Matta challenged his taller team to play Findlay man to man.
My confidence in this team is still high. I'd rather have seen them win tonight but am not worried a bit. This will round into a very good team in short order.
My one real concern is how poorly Hill played. He was very good in that open scrimmage and has looked worse each time out since. I don't mind his herky jerky manic style. That is his game and he can play that way and be effective. It just looks awful and makes things seem worse when he has a bad night like tonight. To me it looks like he was pressing. I always joke that I want players to play within their limabilities! (limitations, ability). -my own word by the way-
Hill just needs to play within his limabilities and he will be okay. We don't need a lot of minutes out of him this year. He just has to 1)TAKE CARE OF THE BALL, 2) Calm down and play solid D without trying to overplay and do too much getting himself out of position. He did neither very well tonight. He will seldom be challenged any more than he was in that open scrimmage going head to head with Butler and he was up to the task that day so we know he can do it.