SF David Lighty (Most Career Buckeye Wins, ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne Basket - France)

[fourteenandoh]

Those Gators were some of the best rebounding teams I have seen in recent college basketball. Bucks haven't shown me that kind of grit yet.

I wish Lauderdale could be the equivalent of Horford (sp?) but I'm not seeing it...

 

[jimotis4heisman]

Screw that. If there is something Tressel and Matta are and have always been about, it's about the health of the kids they coach. I will NEVER question them, especially from the "[strike]OSU[/strike] FAN perspective". The OSU perspective is to fucking EDUCATE these guys. the FAN perspective wants Lighty to risk further injury and perhaps his career to come back for some games they may or may not even play in. That's a STUPID risk.

i agree. now if you want to talk about babcock requiring his players to run sprints on the freeway, im all for that..

at the college level a kids health is important. now being "tough" is important. it is also important to know the difference between hurt and injured.

 

[BrutusBobcat]

The OSU perspective is to fucking EDUCATE these guys. the FAN perspective wants Lighty to risk further injury and perhaps his career to come back for some games they may or may not even play in. That's a STUPID risk.

I don't see anyone in this thread asking for Lighty to come back and play before he is healthy and ready. Get down off of your high horse. Fans, particularly fans here on BP, support the coaches and the best long-term interests of kids. Quit talking down your fellow Buckeyes like they're a screaming mob.

Also, how could he risk a career ending injury in a game that Ohio State never plays?? That's a non-sequitur.

 

[OState29]

I said contend for the Final Four, I didn't claim they'd certainly make it or anything like that. They obviously have a lot better chance with Lighty than without him. If you think there are a bunch of teams out there that are a lot better than OSU with a healthy Lighty, you're wrong. UConn suffered a key season-ending injury, so did Marquette and UNC. Pitt lost to Providence. Oklahoma lost to Arkansas. Duke is having another late season slide. It's pretty wide-open this year.

You never know what the future holds ... when you have guys going pro left and right, it's best to do everything you can to make your team better when you have one of your better teams instead of just waiting back and hoping guys aren't going to go pro. Why go into a fight with one hand tied behind your back if you don't have to?

Redshirting Lighty seems to be in Lighty's best interest and generally is not in OSU's best interest (if he is healthy enough to play well in the NCAA tourney this year). For 2010-11, Diebler, Offutt, Sibert and Thomas could reasonably be expected to handle the 2 & 3 positions (with Thomas possibly also spending some time at the 4) and Sullinger playing the 4 & 5 along with Big Z and Lauderdale - that's a solid group right there, even assuming Smith and Wright (and Kecman) won't contribute much. If Lighty were a PG, it'd make a lot of sense to R/S him from OSU's perspective. But the way it is, he could make a lot more difference on this year's team than he would on the 2010-11 team because the 2010-11 team will already be plenty good without him & a guy like Sibert would be allowed to play and develop rather than be forced to the bench. As we've seen, playing freshmen isn't a problem when they're 5* type recruits like Sibert and Thomas. They still would have the veteran presence of Diebler and Offutt.

Speaking of needing a point guard could we still get one in the '09 class or is it too late in the process to replace the hole left by Noopy? Or will we have to resort to another JUCO transfer furthering our weakness as jucOSU?

 

[Mike80]

I don't see anyone in this thread asking for Lighty to come back and play before he is healthy and ready. Get down off of your high horse. Fans, particularly fans here on BP, support the coaches and the best long-term interests of kids. Quit talking down your fellow Buckeyes like they're a screaming mob.

Also, how could he risk a career ending injury in a game that Ohio State never plays?? That's a non-sequitur.

He could injure that foot again in practice. Hell he could injure it again getting out of bed. They WILL practice again I assume. If they don't make the NCAAs they are a virtual lock for the NIT again. At this point you try to limit his exposure to situations that may re-injure the foot and if that means he's going to redshirt the rest of this season, so be it.

And you, to your credit, didn't trot out the "OSU perspective" which is why I didn't respond to you. The "OSU perspective" in this type of situation, especially when it should be more aptly termed the "OSU FAN perspective", is completely and totally without merit.

This isn't Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce acting like they'd been shot with a Barrett .50 Cal when they tweaked a knee which turned out to be nothing. No one has ever questioned Lighty's toughness. Foot injuries can linger for years, just ask Bill Walton.

As JO put it, it's the difference between hurt and injured. Lighty is injured.

 

[crazybuckfan40]

I don't see anyone in this thread asking for Lighty to come back and play before he is healthy and ready. Get down off of your high horse. Fans, particularly fans here on BP, support the coaches and the best long-term interests of kids. Quit talking down your fellow Buckeyes like they're a screaming mob.

Also, how could he risk a career ending injury in a game that Ohio State never plays?? That's a non-sequitur.

So you jump on a high horse to try and get him down...He was responding to DZ who has continued to push the issue here with getting Lighty back the second he was injured, not just a one time thing...

And anyone who thinks that the 2010 team will be better without a 5 year Lighty than a 5 year Lighty is beyond crazy...

You get Leadership, defense, hard play, and by that time a very much improved offensive player. As a 5th year player Lighty would start on pretty much any team in the country, and if not start be the 6th man...He will be that good...

 

[generaladm]

What are the odds that Lighty could be in game shape by the start of the NCAAs? I don't think it would even be 50/50 at this point. Last I heard, he hadn't even tested his lateral movement since the injury. Getting him back at the same point where he left off would be great, but it's not a realistic option right now.

 

[Bill Lucas]

What are the odds that Lighty could be in game shape by the start of the NCAAs? I don't think it would even be 50/50 at this point. Last I heard, he hadn't even tested his lateral movement since the injury. Getting him back at the same point where he left off would be great, but it's not a realistic option right now.

Why? At that point of the season the medical redshirt is a given. Why give that up for a game or two? Realistically that's all we're going to get in the NCAA tournament. The draw is guaranteed to be tough at this point. Sweet Sixteen would be the peak IMO.

 

[generaladm]

Why? At that point of the season the medical redshirt is a given. Why give that up for a game or two? Realistically that's all we're going to get in the NCAA tournament. The draw is guaranteed to be tough at this point. Sweet Sixteen would be the peak IMO.

I wasn't saying he should come back. I was responding to the earlier poster who said it would be better for the team (possible final four run) if he did. My point was, even if he does manage to come back for a couple games (probably not until at least the 2nd round of the NCAA), he won't be the same player as before the injury, due to conditioning. In that scenario, the only reason to do that is if we were desperate for warm bodies to eat up minutes. David's not going to step in to his first game back and have the same impact he did when he was in game shape.

 

[Tlangs]

Lighty is done for the year. Lets discuss something a little more important. I say we switch from zone to man...


discuss

 

[OState29]

Lighty is done for the year. Lets discuss something a little more important. I say we switch from zone to man...


discuss

Agreed a zone is great as a change of pace. But once you figure out how to beat it the D can't really stop you. The D doesn't seem to have the ability to adjust the same way it would if it was a man. I'd love to see us split it 50/50 man/zone on D in the near future. I don't understand if Thad is trying to hide a specific weakness on D or he just loves it. But most of these rebounds wouldn't occur in man pressure or if Mullens had an agressive streak in him.

 

[leroyjenkins]

If Only Lighty Could Show The Way
3-2-09 by Jeff Rapp

The Ohio State men?s basketball team needs a miracle.

The Buckeyes need a savior ? something or someone who can immediately and definitively brighten the landscape and offer hope for a postseason that still theoretically lies ahead.

They need a fully functioning David Lighty.

The fear is we will never know how good this team could have been at season?s end with the 6-5 Lighty in the lineup. Now that fear is perilously close to becoming a reality. In fact, despite what head coach Thad Matta has said publicly for weeks now ? comments that show the team has left the door open for a Lighty return this season ? it appears to be an almost surety that Lighty either won?t fully recover from a broken foot in time or has no real intentions to do so, preserving his third season of eligibility.

Versatile, heady and brimming with an ability to command the attention of his teammates, Lighty was off to a very nice start to his junior season, averaging 9.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game even thought he played out of position at power forward for the majority of the season?s first seven games. Ironically, he put together a career effort in the game in which he suffered a fractured metatarsal in his left foot as he produced 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals in an 81-68 win over Jacksonville on Dec. 17.

Continued......


Ohio State Buckeyes College Football Recruiting, OSU Big Ten Football, OSU Basketball - Bucknuts.com

 

[LitlBuck]

Being unable to access my PC for a while, I thought my favorites were all messed up and that I was on Bucknuts when I thought I read someone say that we should bring Lighty just to play in the NCAA tournament. I guess that I missed the joke.

 

[Buckskin86]

Ohio State basketball: What should David Lighty do?
by Doug Lesmerises
Tuesday March 03, 2009

David Lighty practiced Sunday, "not everything, but the majority of it," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said.

Then Matta was curious how Lighty would handle practice on Monday, coming back on consecutive days. The report from a team spokesman was that Lighty took part in halfcourt drills only, nothing full court, on what was a light day of practice anyway.

Matta said Monday that his junior forward, out since breaking a bone in his right foot on Dec. 17, will not play tonight at Iowa.

As for Sunday's regular-season finale against Northwestern?

It may come down to a choice for Lighty.


Matta said Monday that he and Lighty hadn't discussed his potential return at length, though they had talked about it. If Lighty is healthy enough to return, will he return? Or will he sit out the rest of the season and anticipate getting an extra year of eligibility because of a medical redshirt?

"I don't know," Matta said. "Obviously, he wants to play. But Dave is a cerebral kid, and he knows that we may have five or six games left, so junior year he'd play a total of 12 games, whatever it is. I think that's the question he has to decide."

It may not come to a choice. Lighty has experienced expected soreness around the screw placed in his foot. And if he didn't take part in fullcourt drills in practice Monday, is he really ready to play in a game on Sunday?

But if it comes down to a choice, it is complicated by the fact that the Buckeyes are struggling on defense and lacking experience in this stretch run toward an NCAA Tournament bid, and defense and oncourt leadership is exactly what Lighty would provide.

Frankly, they really need him. Especially if the Buckeyes lose at Iowa tonight, a little bit of Lighty on Sunday and in the Big Ten Tournament could be the difference between making and missing the NCAA Tournament.

So here are Lighty's two choices.

Ohio State basketball: What should David Lighty do? - Ohio State Buckeyes Football & Basketball Blog (OSU) - cleveland.com

 

[crazybuckfan40]

So what you get him for one or two big ten tourney games and 1 or 2 tourney games?

Not worth it, especially when he is not 100% yet and isn't in game shape...There are basically 3 weeks left in the season and 6 or so games...It would take him till the tourney to be cleared to play for sure, and then how long to get into game shape?