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tOSU -10.5 at NW'ern (ov/un 142.5) Sat 6 ET, ESPN2

BB73

Loves Buckeye History
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Bookie
'16 & '17 Upset Contest Winner
The Buckeyes travel to Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston.

Watch for Northwestern to use a 1-3-1 zone, with 5'10" Juice Thompson running the baseline (and he's actually shorter than that listed height).

There will be some interesting moments when he bodies up on Sullinger, who will need to be careful to avoid charges inside.
 
In addition to their defense, it will be interesting to see how guys like Craft and Sullinger respond to the Northwestern pass and cut offense. The upper class guys are used to it to a certain extent but I believe that we played zone in the past couple years against Northwestern so it could be an interesting game.

Northwestern did not have a very good shooting night Wednesday against Minnesota in the barn so hopefully they did not get that out of their system.
 
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Looks like we might not need to worry about Shurna.

Northwestern's John Shurna needed six stitches to close a gash on his chin after getting shoved into the basket support at Minnesota on Wednesday.

And that's not the end of it.

Coach Bill Carmody told the Tribune on Thursday that Shurna also suffered a concussion that leaves his status up in the air for Saturday's game against top-ranked Ohio State.
Late in the first half, Shurna grabbed a loose ball and dribbled down the court on a fast break. As he went up for a layup, Minnesota's Ralph Sampson III put his hands on Shurna's back and gave him what appeared to be a moderate push.

No foul was called, and Carmody said his staff had sent video of the play to the Big Ten office to be reviewed.

Shurna slammed into the padded basket support, immediately grabbed his head and stayed down for about a minute. His head snapped back upon impact. He walked off the Williams Arena floor with a towel pressed against his chin.

Shurna lobbied to return to the game and did, scoring five points in the second half on 2-for-6 shooting over 18 minutes.

"They stitched him up and we asked him if he was OK," Carmody recalled. "He said, 'Yeah, I'm fine.' He didn't have any symptoms."

But afterward, while NU's traveling party waited out a delay in an airport lounge, Shurna told his coach that all was not well.

"He said he just didn't feel right," Carmody said.

Shurna did not lift weights with the team Thursday. Northwestern did not make him available for comment, as per a university policy regarding injured players.

Carmody said he expects to learn the severity of the concussion Friday and whether his top scorer (19.0 points per game) can face the Buckeyes on Saturday.

"They don't know yet whether it's real bad because it hasn't been even 24 hours," Carmody said Thursday before NU's afternoon workout.

It has been a rough season for Shurna, who was getting mentioned for All-America honors after his blazing start. Through nine games, the junior from Glen Ellyn averaged 24.4 points on 62.5 percent shooting from the 3-point line.

But since spraining his left ankle against Mount St. Mary's on Dec. 23, he has averaged 14.1 points and shot 40.9 percent from long range.



LINK
 
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Sad news about Shurna; hope he's able to play tomorrow.

With respect to shoves in the back, there seems to be an epidemic of that in the Big Ten. I'm getting a little tired of seeing lazy players seeking to improve their rebounding position by shoving their opponent just above the beltline. Officials need to be on the lookout for that IMO.
 
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MaxBuck;1864816; said:
Sad news about Shurna; hope he's able to play tomorrow.

With respect to shoves in the back, there seems to be an epidemic of that in the Big Ten. I'm getting a little tired of seeing lazy players seeking to improve their rebounding position by shoving their opponent just above the beltline. Officials need to be on the lookout for that IMO.
Missed the first half of the Northwestern/Minnesota game but when I tuned in for the second half I noticed that Shurma had a big piece of gauze under his chin. Now I know why. I also couldn't understand why he was not playing very well or taking many shots and now I understand that also.

I agree with you that there is too much crap going on when guys almost have a breakaway layup. It's going to take someone to get seriously injured before they finally clamp down on that sort of stuff.

The Illinois/Indiana game last night looked like a pickup game and sometimes the officials would blow their whistles that sometimes they would just let the same thing go. Valentine was part of that crew.
 
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Shurna has still not been cleared to play....

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110128/sports/701289834/

Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said Friday afternoon that leading scorer John Shurna, a former Glenbard West star, has not been cleared to play after suffering a concussion Wednesday.

Shurna, the leading scorer for the Wildcats, did not participate in the team’s final practice prior to Saturday’s 5 p.m. home game with No. 1 Ohio State.

“I think it’s going to be decided tomorrow,” Carmody said. “He saw the doctor today. He said he’s improved… they’re pretty conservative about it in a good way.”
 
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I'd hate to be the negative one, but something tells me the Bucks are going to be in for a fight for a decent amount of this game....

It's all about tempo. If the Bucks can run it, things will be ok. If it becomes a NW/Wisconsin type of game, it'll be much closer.
 
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Buckeyes hoops are tough for me to figure out. It seems every year Matta's teams pull out the Jim Tressel plunger treatment on some good teams (Purdue) and they struggle to beat some bad teams (Iowa). It's probably just the nature of playing in a tough conference, but I'm never very confident with road games. I'd have to say Bucks win this one, but I have no clue if it will be by 4 or 40.
 
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Here is more stating of the obvious: Big Ten road games are greasy and dangerous, regardless of who the opponent is. Maybe it's one of my many character flaws, but I can never relax going into a place such as Northwestern.
 
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