• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

South Carolina State vs. Ohio State, Sunday, 6 PM, BTN

LitlBuck

Kevin Warren is an ass
Breaking down the Bulldogs: South Carolina State has lost three in a row against Duquesne, St. Bonaventure, and most recently East Carolina ... Junior guard Eric Eaves leads the Bulldogs with 14.3 ppg ... Sophomore guard Ed Stephens is shooting 42.5 percent from 3-point range this season ... South Carolina State is shooting 42.9 percent from the floor this year, and allowing opponents to shoot 45.4 percent ... The Bulldogs are 278th in the country in field goal percentage defense ... Eight different players have started a game for the Bulldogs this season ... The Bulldogs score 72.5 points per game this season, while allowing 75.5 points per game ... South Carolina State is ranked No. 314 out of 351 teams in Ken Pomeroy's efficiency ratings.
http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index....hich_channel_is_the_7.html#incart_river_index
 
I love our bigs. I'll count Mitchell as a big and Thompson and Giddens makes 3 really good young basketball players. Some real "big man" skills underneath and they all play with fire! Love it.

I really can't see how Harris is not the starting PG going forward. Kid just gives everything on both ends of the court and everyone else around him benefits while he's out there. KBD is a stud. He'll be all conference this year if he stays healthy. Great player. Kam is finally getting himself some looks and I think he'll only improve and get more consistent by the end of the year.

Couple other guys are either trying to do something they aren't capable of doing from time to time or they just haven't quite figured their roles yet at this level. Tate plays hard as crap but seems too out of control a lot of times. Loving just flat quits sometimes out there and I have no idea why he does that when he's the elder statesman of the whole group. I think Lyle needs to be a 6th man type of player. Start the games faster and develop a rhythm with Harris and then bring in Lyle to look to continue scoring. Obviously I don't see what is happening during practices with chemistry and whatnot but from an observing point only, I'd like this starting 5:

Harris
Loving
KBD
Tate/Mitchell
Giddens/Thompson

Lyle off the bench and Kam. That's 9 legitimate players and at least 6 that are pretty interchangable. Not too shabby.

The defensive effort is finally really showing up. They actually are starting to get more assists as well too. Let's see how they do against a few BiG teams and then I would say they are truly improving or not and not just terrible competition that they are playing.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
I love our bigs. I'll count Mitchell as a big and Thompson and Giddens makes 3 really good young basketball players. Some real "big man" skills underneath and they all play with fire! Love it.

I really can't see how Harris is not the starting PG going forward. Kid just gives everything on both ends of the court and everyone else around him benefits while he's out there. KBD is a stud. He'll be all conference this year if he stays healthy. Great player. Kam is finally getting himself some looks and I think he'll only improve and get more consistent by the end of the year.

Couple other guys are either trying to do something they aren't capable of doing from time to time or they just haven't quite figured their roles yet at this level. Tate plays hard as crap but seems too out of control a lot of times. Loving just flat quits sometimes out there and I have no idea why he does that when he's the elder statesman of the whole group. I think Lyle needs to be a 6th man type of player. Start the games faster and develop a rhythm with Harris and then bring in Lyle to look to continue scoring. Obviously I don't see what is happening during practices with chemistry and whatnot but from an observing point only, I'd like this starting 5:

Harris
Loving
KBD
Tate/Mitchell
Giddens/Thompson

Lyle off the bench and Kam. That's 9 legitimate players and at least 6 that are pretty interchangable. Not too shabby.

The defensive effort is finally really showing up. They actually are starting to get more assists as well too. Let's see how they do against a few BiG teams and then I would say they are truly improving or not and not just terrible competition that they are playing.

Agree with everything, especially in regards to Loving. The three things I really want to see:
better shot selection from Tate - NO MORE THREES!
better decision-making and shot selection from Lyle
better everything from Loving....he can't disappear like he did for the first 30 minutes tonight. He's the best shooter on the team and was AWOL for most of the game.

Other than a stretch of about 6-8 minutes in the 2nd half, the defense was excellent again. That paired with a string of offensive rebounds allowed at the same time was not a good period.

Really, really can have those long stretches with no points. I think they scored 4 points in the first 8 minutes of the 2nd half? Any decent team will kill you during a run like that. Too many turnovers and bad shots during that run.

AJ Harris was awesome tonight. That block was phenomenal.
 
Upvote 0
better shot selection from Tate - NO MORE THREES!
You seem unaware that Tate has the second-best % on the team from behind the arc at 36%.

Couple of other observations:

  1. Mickey Mitchell leads the team in rebounds per minute (yes, it's in very few minutes - interesting to see how this develops). But his passes, though inspired, are more often than not eluding their intended recipients, which means he needs to tone things down a bit.
  2. Team is starting to really understand the value of floor burns. Great to see.
  3. AJ Harris - whoever said this kid isn't good enough to play B1G hoop is nuts.
  4. The past few years with lousy big-man play are only a memory. Really looking forward to seeing Thompson and Giddens develop, and Bell also for that matter. All of them have a streak of nasty in them.
  5. Jae'Sean Tate - his rebounding is a matter of "want the ball" and not much else. In that regard, he reminds me of Charles Barkley.
 
Upvote 0
I agree with @Fungo Squiggly I do not care if Tate as the best shooting % from the three-point arc or not. If he takes one a game from back there, that is enough for him.

Also, @MaxBuck you seem to have a man crush on Mike Mitchell. I will admit that he is a pretty good basketball player but I do not see him as one of the top 7-8 guys on this team as of yet.

I am also in the fold regarding more playing time for Harris but I just cannot see bringing Lyle off of the bench. I do not think that he would be a very happy camper but now that I said that I guess who cares what he thinks. If Harris is going to give us more quality minutes which he seems to be doing, he deserves more playing time than Lyle.

Loving seems to go to sleep too much and I would like to see more PT for Kam Williams. KDB could slide into Loving's position and Williams could play KDB's role. I do not think that Williams should start but I just want to see him getting more minutes going forward.

The game yesterday sent me gave me more hope for the upcoming season and as long as they keep their turnovers down and play Matta's defense they should win their share of Big Ten games.

I just hope that Matta does not have to go off on them like he did at the beginning of the second half or the poor man will have a stroke. I had seen his face red before but never as red as it was yesterday and he was an angry coach.
 
Upvote 0
Definitely was unaware of that and find it very surprising. Regardless, I reject your reality and substitute my own.

giphy.gif
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top