tOSU -6.5 at Minnesota (ov/un 127.5) Tue 9 ET, ESPN

[Fremont Buckeye]

So what would have made us "deserve" this win then?

I believe the score board at double zero tells you who "deserved" to win the game.

 

[Mac]

Good win tonight Bucks! It's not exactly a gimmie winning up there.

 

[Jake]

Buford and Sully leading the way with 12 apiece. That needs to become a trend.

Second half?

Buford 12
Sully 11

When those two go off for 20+ in the same game good things happen.

Bucks win, 78-66. :cheers:

 

[scarletmike]

Great game tonight, Bucks!

 

[Best Buckeye]

I was disappointed in our play in the second half because I expected us to play the same way in both halves after the last game. I don't know if we deserve to be as highly ranked as we are.
I'm not sufficiently impressed for the ranking because we should be more constant this far into the season. Matta needs to work them harder.

 

[DZ83CK]

Too many missed open 3s by OSU, not just WB but others were missing or not taking open 3s. That is going to be a problem in the future if they play against more zone defenses. Not very good to shoot 31% on 3s when they're leaving you wide open most of the time - should've been more like 50%. Buford was hitting the tough shots and missing the open ones - maybe he didn't feel that he was being challenged enough when he was wide open :)

I liked seeing Amir get in there to give Sully a break. I think he can be productive, he just needs to be going up against big guys so he can stay in the paint and not have to guard guys on the perimeter. So against the bigger teams, I think it makes a lot of sense to play Amir a little.

 

[LitlBuck]

I was disappointed in our play in the second half because I expected us to play the same way in both halves after the last game. I don't know if we deserve to be as highly ranked as we are.
I'm not sufficiently impressed for the ranking because we should be more constant this far into the season. Matta needs to work them harder.

We put a 20-0 run on them in the first half. Minnesota is not that bad of a team that you put those types of runs against teams the entire game. I will agree that we are probably ranked a little higher then we should be but it really does not matter during the season. You might want to take a look at where the boys from Durham are ranked this week
:(

Too many missed open 3s by OSU, not just WB but others were missing or not taking open 3s. That is going to be a problem in the future if they play against more zone defenses. Not very good to shoot 31% on 3s when they're leaving you wide open most of the time - should've been more like 50%. Buford was hitting the tough shots and missing the open ones - maybe he didn't feel that he was being challenged enough when he was wide open :)

I liked seeing Amir get in there to give Sully a break. I think he can be productive, he just needs to be going up against big guys so he can stay in the paint and not have to guard guys on the perimeter. So against the bigger teams, I think it makes a lot of sense to play Amir a little.

Agree with you regarding the three point shooting but don't know what can be done about that. Buford is very streaky this year for some reason. Don't know whatever happened to Thomas' three point shooting but he looks like the rifleman when he does shoot. Also, you can bet your bottom dollar that we will see a lot of zone this coming Saturday so we better shoot our 3's a lot better.

Amir looked decent in his limited time last night but right now I think he is only good in certain situations. Minnesota's big men are not very mobile or very good. I don't see him matching up very well with guys on our remaining schedule.

 

[bkochmc]

... but it really does not matter during the season.

Rankings are like the human appendix... everybody has one and none of them really matter.

 

[LitlBuck]

Postgame Minnesota

- I asked Matta about the obvious letdown after building a 21-point lead in the first half. Minnesota rallied in the last four minutes to cut its deficit to 12. I suggested that the Buckeyes settled for too many three-point attempts after the Gophers switched to a zone defense out of a timeout with 7:55 left. Matta took issue with his team's defense.

"We started doing some things . . . I?m not exactly sure what we were doing," he said. "It?ll be good to get back to take a look at the film and ask so they can explain what they were doing.

"The threes that we missed, I thought they were good looks. The first half, I thought we had some really, really good shots at the basket."

Regardless, Ohio State made three of 10 threes in the first half, and six of 19 in the game. Four of the six missed threes in the first half came on consecutive possessions in the last 3 1/2 minutes.

Aaron Craft agreed that the Buckeyes stopped attacking on offense.

"They went zone, we stopped being aggressive, stopped attacking," he said. "We did a better job of adjusting and attacking their zone the second half."

They shot 41.4 percent in the second half and 44.6 for the game. Fortunately for them, they got to the free throw line 28 times and made 22.

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/blogs/hoops-and-scoops/2012/02/02-15-12-postgame-minnesota.html

 

[MaxBuck]

All the people who were whining about free throw percentage a few weeks ago might want to look at the Buckeyes' performance the past several games to see we're a pretty good team from the line. We've shot nearly 78% over the past 6 games, and we've been no less than 75% in any game since Penn State.