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tOSU @ Penn State, Thurs 2/27 @ 7p ET, ESPN2

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NFBuck said:
Refs were garbage, they always are in the B1G. But that is NOT why they lost. Ped Aggy had plenty of head scratching calls on them too. They lost because they once again played down to a team that, on paper, is inferior from a "talent" standpoint. That has been a disturbing trend this season. This time they just didn't have the second half rally.
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You have made some excellent points in the majority of your posts on this page but I think that the officiating was horrendous. One of the worst officiated games I have seen this year. Please see my post about 2 posts about this one.
 
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Regarding Smith's last shot I think he thought we might have been down by 3 points or why would he try a step back three. If he knew we were only down by 2, he should have taken the ball to the basket. He would either have gotten fouled or he would have had a pretty easy layup.

I am not that worried about seeding because it is not going to make much of a difference and I really do not think about it during the season because sooner or later in tournaments you are going to have to beat the supposedly better teams.
 
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LitlBuck said:
You have made some excellent points in the majority of your posts on this page but I think that the officiating was horrendous. One of the worst officiated games I have seen this year. Please see my post about 2 posts about this one.
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It was horrendous, but it went both ways. The reason we lost this game was the inability to generate any kind of consistent offense. Outside of the quick start, there was no cohesiveness at all. Pedtrads did a nice job defensively in shutting down what tOSU is good at. That, and probably the head-scratching last 15 seconds. I have no idea what was up with those calls.
 
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NFBuck said:
As for the confidence and tournament...well, I thought they were certainly NIT bound earlier this month when they went into that swoon. But, they bounced back pretty well. It's a resilient bunch...just not overly good. The tourney, as usual, will totally depend on the matchups. There are guys...LaQ, Sam, Smith, even Craft, that can get hot on any given night. Problem is, there are nights when it seems the whole team goes cold for extended periods. If they can get some guys going, they could make a small run and get to another sweet-16. But, I think that's their ceiling this year.
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Agreed. Unless OSU loses to both Indiana and MSU, it should be the better seed in the first round game. The first round game should be a win. But I think one more win is as good as it gets. And to get there, the Buckeyes absolutely have to avoid getting an 8 or 9 seed, because I don't see an upset of a #1 seed in the second round with this group. Splitting the Indiana and MSU games coupled with at least 1 win in the Big Ten tournament should be enough to get at least a #7 seed (OSU would then be 24-9, 10-8 in conference, assuming a loss in the next round of the BTT).
 
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NFBuck said:
It was horrendous, but it went both ways. The reason we lost this game was the inability to generate any kind of consistent offense. Outside of the quick start, there was no cohesiveness at all. Pedtrads did a nice job defensively in shutting down what tOSU is good at. That, and probably the head-scratching last 15 seconds. I have no idea what was up with those calls.
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When OSU called a timeout down 1 with 15 second to go and the ball, I felt pretty confident. I'm not sure how the play was drawn up, but throwing the ball into Craft running towards the hoop was a horrible way to start the play, as doing so leads to a quick shot. Even if it goes in, PSU has the ball back down 1 or 2 with plenty of time to win the game. I would've thrown the ball into the backcourt and tried to get something for Ross, making sure no one put up a shot with more than 3 or so seconds to go--it goes in, great and if not, you have a chance for a tip in. Either way, if you score, PSU virtually has no time left to do anything else. As much as I love Thad, sometimes his end of the game drawing up of plays does, as you say, leave you scratching your head.
 
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buckeyesin07 said:
When OSU called a timeout down 1 with 15 second to go and the ball, I felt pretty confident. I'm not sure how the play was drawn up, but throwing the ball into Craft running towards the hoop was a horrible way to start the play, as doing so leads to a quick shot. Even if it goes in, PSU has the ball back down 1 or 2 with plenty of time to win the game. I would've thrown the ball into the backcourt and tried to get something for Ross, making sure no one put up a shot with more than 3 or so seconds to go--it goes in, great and if not, you have a chance for a tip in. Either way, if you score, PSU virtually has no time left to do anything else. As much as I love Thad, sometimes his end of the game drawing up of plays does, as you say, leave you scratching your head.
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The second last play was supposed to go like this
Thad Matta drew up a play for Ross on Ohio State’s first chance, but Ross said the Nittany Lions defended it well, preventing him from getting a clean look at the basket.

“The play was Craft to fake a dribble handoff to Shannon (Scott) and Shannon to screen for me,” Ross said. “If I was open, take (the shot) or drive it to the hole because we were only down one (point) and we only needed a two (to win) … I’m assuming something else happened and Craft just threw it to Lenzelle and he shot it.”
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http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2014/02/ohio_state_buckeyes_penn_state.html
 
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NFBuck said:
Couple of points:

1. and 2. are conflicting issues. This team plays infinitely better when they go uptempo and attack. Problem is, they lack the athletes and shooters to properly neutralize a good zone defense.

3. When the whole team goes cold, as they too often do, this is their best offensive play, unfortunately...

4. This is also an issue and has been all season. When they try to run designed plays/set offense, they run into a brick wall and end up chucking the ball around the perimeter for 30-32 seconds then settle for a contested/ill-advised jump shot. Or somebody goes flying into the lane out of control. We just don't have the athletes/scorers to get open and create their own shots.

As for the confidence and tournament...well, I thought they were certainly NIT bound earlier this month when they went into that swoon. But, they bounced back pretty well. It's a resilient bunch...just not overly good. The tourney, as usual, will totally depend on the matchups. There are guys...LaQ, Sam, Smith, even Craft, that can get hot on any given night. Problem is, there are nights when it seems the whole team goes cold for extended periods. If they can get some guys going, they could make a small run and get to another sweet-16. But, I think that's their ceiling this year.
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I was going to go into a long post but you nailed it. All I have to add is that getting swept by Ped State is incredibly embarrassing. While I have tempered my expectations to an all-time low, I still didn't count on this happening. This is tantamount to getting swept by Indiana in football (if we played them twice). That being said, this team does not lack leadership or resilience...it simply lacks talented scorers. No real way to scheme around that consistently.
 
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ORD_Buckeye said:
Weak team. Inconsistent team. No go to star. That's why we lost. The pedsters should never be close enough in a game with Ohio State for the refs to come even remotely close to determining the game.

Swept by the pedsters.
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You forgot the lack of a quality big man which led to poor free-throw shooting amongst other things and unforced turnovers.
 
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LitlBuck said:
The second last play was supposed to go like this
http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2014/02/ohio_state_buckeyes_penn_state.html
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Thanks for posting--I hadn't seen that article. With 15 seconds, though, it's hard to believe OSU couldn't have thrown the ball into the back court and set up the desired play. There was no reason to throw the ball into Craft, who was racing towards the hoop. That's a recipe for a quick shot that still gives PSU a shot to win in regulation, even if Smith hits that quick shot.
 
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This is the strangest season of basketball for Ohio State that I have witnessed in quite along time. Why did we have to depend on our shooting from outside the 3 point arc? . And another thing I witnessed was, we did not put enough air under the ball, when we did shoot our 3 pointers. A lot of them were very flat. The hoop is 18 inches in width, the ball is 9 inches...............go figure.

Then again I have to take into consideration, how the players can become, short winded, in the wanning minutes and seconds of the game. These observations of mine, may be old fashioned. I am aware that the game is much, much faster than when I played, but at some point, basic fundamentals have to come into play. Maybe our teams in the past were a lot better in shooting the 3's and from that, we just seemed to rest on our laurels in that part of the game.

I admit that Penn State played pretty good defense and they forced us out of
our normal shooting range when the shooting clock was coming close to expire. A lot of teams seem to put us in that way when defending against us. Anyway, it's back to the chalkboard, and trying to figure out a better game plan I guess........... Go Bucks.
 
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