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Ohio State 71, Iona 53 (final)

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Good win for the very young Buckeyes. Nice poise late in the game. Buford played well. Crater played well. Diebler and Turner looked to gain some control over the team late which seems very very important.
 
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Definitely not a very pretty win against a 5 - 6 team , but considering that we gave a lot of playing time to the freshmen I thought we did well. The Bucks had to start relearning with new personel. I didn't think we did near as good as we should in the rebounding dept or shooting 3's.
I am happy about the way the youngsters seem to improve in confidence.
Simmons seemed to penetrate better and Buford started hitting shots after he missed his first few.
Go Buckeyes
 
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Stats

Shooting
FG- Ohio State 20-41 (48.5%) Iona 20-55 (36.7%)
3PT FG- Ohio State 5-17 (29.5%) Iona 9-26 (34.1%)
FT- Ohio State 26-35 (74.9%) Iona 4-9 (44.4%)

Rebounding
Offensive- Ohio State 9 Iona 18
Defensive- Ohio State 20 Iona 18
Total- Ohio State 29 Iona 36

Turner 21 Points 6 Rebounds 2 Blocked Shots
Diebler 16 Points 3 Rebounds 4 Steals
Buford 10 Points 5 Rebounds
Mullens 9 Points 4 Rebounds 2 Blocked Shots
Simmons 8 Points 5 Rebounds 4 Assists 2 Steals
Lauderdale 7 Points 2 Rebounds Blocked Shot
Crater 2 Assists
 
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Decent all around effort today...

See lots of potential in everyone on the floor...But

Turner and TO's...

Lauderdale and being out of position...

Mullens and putting the ball on the floor or forcing it with double teams...

Simmons with pressure defense on him...

Buford with some quick looks, and being out of position on defense...

FT shooting...

Defensive rebounding...

The one guy without much to complain about is Diebler...He is playing a very steady game of ball right now...Taking shots with in the offense...Got to the line today and is playing great in the zone defense, and always hustling...Just a smart kid out there on the floor...

Thought Mullens played great for that stretch, then for whatever reason after he turned it over at the beginning of the second half we didn't see him again...Nice moves on the back downs tho...and he did pass out of the double team a couple times today...JO mentioned conditioning the other day about some guys, and he looked gassed after his good stretch he had in the first half...

Turner is a very good player, but the TO's are ugly...you can't put the ball between the legs when you have 2 guys on ya, but the spin move was a little more under control today and the floater in the lane looked good...He didn't look like he was awake in the first half...The two blocks in the second half really got us going...

Really thought Buford and Crater looked good out there together...They just kinda went with the flow, and seemed to try and push the ball some and move it up the court quicker...

Not sure why Matta won't let this team get out and run a little more...They look great doing it off of turnovers, but when they beat the press and have a 4 on 3 or or 3 on 2, they just seem to let the other team get back and set up defensively...

Simmons looked pretty good in the open court today a couple times...Also thought he sorta stepped up and took on more of a leadership role today, which is good coming from the pg and the fact he is a junior...

Sort of an up and down game in terms of seeing the potential and then seeing the bad...But we are a very young team...Things are only going to get better...Not a huge fan of playing Turner 39 minutes against a team like Iona...
 
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One nit on Diebler would be he forces passes sometimes.

At least twice today he forced a pass that ended up in a turnover. I like that he's trying to make the extra pass, but I think he's trying to hard and as a result he's forcing things though. He's much better when he lets the game come to him instead of forcing things(this is why I think he was struggling so much last year shooting was because he was forcing things).
 
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Napoleonbuck;1360158; said:
One nit on Diebler would be he forces passes sometimes.

At least twice today he forced a pass that ended up in a turnover. I like that he's trying to make the extra pass, but I think he's trying to hard and as a result he's forcing things though. He's much better when he lets the game come to him instead of forcing things(this is why I think he was struggling so much last year shooting was because he was forcing things).
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Not real sure if I would say forcing, or the guys not being on the same page...The no look to Turner was a thing of beauty, as he had the whole zone moving right and then he threw it into Turner in the lane, who ducked as he was not looking, and the other was the pass to Lauderdale in the post, who for whatever reason didn't have his hands up, either he was pushed in the back which it looked like or he wasn't ready for the pass...

But There are at least 3 passes in the 2 games before today where he lobbed it when Lauderdale or Mullens had their guys pinned and led to easy dunks...
 
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Mark didn't get to play but Offutt did. I'm glad to see that. I always like to see walk ons like Mark get in , it is the moments they live for. Besides that he has a classic bit on his thread .
 
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OHSportsFan9;1360067; said:
No atmosphere or energy at this game at all.
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Hard to get the crowd excited when you play as poorly (and as boringly)as we did the first half. Also doesn't help when only THREE ROWS of students show up for the game and the band doesn't attend. I know it's winter break and all, but that's a little rediculous. The real student fans showed up today and kudos to them. They weren't loud, but they were mighty.


To add to CB40's post:

This team played FLAT in the first half and for the first 2-4 minutes of the 2nd half. Pulling Lauderdale and Mullens for the extra guard and Kyle Madsen gave this team the effort and energy to pull away in the 2nd half. I say give Madsen the game ball. When he was in, we were actually getting rebounds, getting down the floor quicker on both ends, and playing with that extra spark.

Evan played a terrible first half. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I counted 2 points and 3 turnovers in the first half. I'm glad he decided to turn it on in the 2nd half. He seemed to be the most affected by Lighty's injury. Put a whole lot more pressure on him to perform. Hopefully we can get more players (like Buford, Mullens, Madsen, etc.) to step up and take some of that pressure off of Evan.

Diebler is playing like we all expected him to play last year on offense. That said, I'm awfully proud of how he's performing on defense. He still needs to work on rebounding and blocking his man out, but his hustle is really paying off with steals and contesting shots. He's only going to see more time out there with Lighty out and how he's playing right now. Good to see him shooting the ball confidently too. I don't want to jinx him, but he looks like he could develop into a leader down the line here.

Mullens is still playing like he's been playing all year. He shows flashes of brilliance (almost exclusively on the offensive end), followed by reminders that he's only a freshman (the majority of which are on the defensive end). He looks like he's feeling a lot more comfortable in the zone, but he's a step slow. He's letting the forwards that he's guarding have the baseline, he can't contest the long jumpers and 3's, and he's only half the defensive presence that Lauderdale is down in the blocks. That said though, we need to find more ways to get him the ball down low on offense. Iona didn't have an answer for him when he got the ball.

I need to watch Buford more. He's got a beautiful looking shot. He hasn't "gotten it" yet on D, but he works really well with Evan and Diebs. When we're in four guard sets, it's hard to put a body on everybody, especially when Evan or BJ demand a double (or triple) team whenever they touch the ball inside the arc. When he finally "gets it" on D, I think you'll see him being be a better NBA prospect than Evan.

Dallas has GOT to work on his free throws!! He's physical enough that he's going to get fouled a lot this year when we start Big Ten play. If he keeps missing (and missing horribly, at that) like he is, teams are going to use the "Hack-A-Shaq" method of defending Dallas. That could be the difference between a W and an L in the Big Ten championship race.

In all seriousness, Madsen needs to get in the game once a half. The energy that he brings to our team is contagious. You might not see the stats he gets outside of rebounds, but Madsen was the only big man on the floor when we started pulling away from Iona. I said it once in the exhibition game thread, but Madsen is the most improved player this year from last year. He's gone from a bench-warming program player to a glue guy, role-playing spark this team needs off the bench. Kyle had the 2nd loudest ovation when he was subbed out of the game tonight (next to Evan's curtain call).

Next to rebounding, this team needs to work on defending that 3-point shot. Too many times we left that guy wide open in the corner. Lauderdale had the unenviable task of guarding #30 (a supposed "7-footer") who could hit the three. His release point was so rediculously high, there really wasn't anything that even Lauderdale could do. You just had to hope he missed it. Besides that situation, there were WAY too many threes let off uncontested.

Want to see more out of Crater. Iona left him WIDE open for stretches of the game, especially early. He needs to prove to the other team that he can hit the jumper and be be a dangerous threat with the ball so that teams won't be more apt to double team Evan or Mullens. Down the stretch, we're going to need more than 2 assists from him. That said, both of those assists were beautiful. He can really put the zip on that ball to get it through traffic.

I'd love to see all of our guards drive to the hoop more and create more chances on offense for fouls, dishing to our big men, pull-up jumpers, popping it out to the swing man for 3, etc. It's something that we're really missing and will continue to miss even more with Lighty out.

Overall, I think there's still a lot left to be desired. This game came at exactly the right time. If we would have played a ND or Miami today, we would have lost. Looking forward to seeing us progress without Lighty against UNC Ashville and get that momentum going into the West Virginia game.

Thad is doing amazing stuff with these guys. Considering that Groce is no longer helping him coach on the sidelines, it makes what he's doing just that much more impressive.
 
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BuckTwenty;1360207; said:
Hard to get the crowd excited when you play as poorly (and as boringly)as we did the first half. Also doesn't help when only THREE ROWS of students show up for the game and the band doesn't attend. I know it's winter break and all, but that's a little rediculous. The real student fans showed up today and kudos to them. They weren't loud, but they were mighty.
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Yeah. My "no energy" comment was towards the team and the "no atmosphere" was in regards to the fans. Obviously they led to a bad combination as they each fed off of each other's apathy.

I don't know. Probably about as bad as an 18-pt win could be.

Maybe I'm being too tough, because there were quite a few good signs out there, but just a very lazy game. Oh well. Go Bucks! :)
 
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BuckTwenty;1360207; said:
I know it's winter break and all, but that's a little rediculous. The real student fans showed up today and kudos to them. They weren't loud, but they were mighty.
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#1 students are kicked out of the dorms after finals week, so that makes several thousand (if not tens of thousands) students that might attend the games over winter break homeless in Columbus

#2 heaven forbid that kids go home to see their families for the holidays, calling people out for choosing to be with their families rather than attend a game against Iona, especially when most of them have no place to stay in Columbus (the ones in the dorms) is the thing that is ridiculous in my opinion
 
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Sounds to me like you are describing a young team , just not in a nutshell. They are freshman and sophomores, not NBA'ers . Give them time to improve, especially since we just lost David. Today we started 5 who never have played together before so it stands to reason they have to get used to getting their game together.
 
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