Block O Table, Shooty Hoops Edition

OSU LogoWe’ve been invited to sit with the adults at the Block O Table. Finally, we don’t have to eat turkey with the five year olds. This week we’re looking at OSU hoopage. Questions come from Vico over at Our Honor Defend.

01. Evan Turner was not named the Big Ten Player of the Year. This is A) highway robbery B) petty theft or C) no big deal (I didn’t need my wallet, car keys and shoes anyways, sir)? Really though, do you feel Turner was jobbed? Why?

This is a tough one. I’m saying “no big deal.” In other sports (baseball most prominently), the MVP (aka PotY) is often expected to be on a “contender.” Whether that’s fair or not is up for debate, but if we hold the players in the running to this standard, the argument could be made the Lucas “deserved” it more than Turner because Michigan State won the regular season Big Ten Title.

That being said, there were a couple games when Turner took too much on his shoulders, tried to do too much and perhaps cost his team chances to get back into the game. He was obviously the Buckeye’s most valuable player, but was just a couple games short of Big Ten’s.

02. You might have noticed, but the women’s basketball team has been on quite a roll recently. They won their 5th straight Big Ten title and won their second Big Ten tournament. They’re destined to play their first two games in Columbus and will, by all logic, be on ESPN/ESPN2 for it. Do you plan to follow them as well or am I really the only one who cares about this team?

No and most likely. I’ll watch an occasional womens tournament game, but it’s an extremely rare occurrence. I’ll stop if they’re playing Michigan, but that’s just out of respect. If there’s absolutely nothing else on, maybe. That includes repeats of Damon Zex.

03. The single biggest thing Ohio State’s men’s team needs to do/change/get in order to turn this team back into a national title contender is ______________. Why?

Get kids to stick around for more than one year. You’re 2008-9 starting five could have been Conley Jr., Cook, Turner, Koufos and Oden. Could you even imagine it?

It’s hard to blame these kids for leaving early, but it’s obvious some of them (Conley Jr. and Koufos) could have used a season or two of growth.

04. The person on the mens’ team that has been most disappointing this season is _______________________. Explain.

Tough call here. I initially was going to say Mullens, but it’s hard to pile on a kid that has dominated at every level of play up to this point and has struggled adjusting his game. I’ll give him a pass, but he’s on the board for next year. I’m going with Dallas Lauderdale, who at this point has become a liability. He may have erased a mulititude of sins with his block against Northwestern, but the guy should have been a rebound machine all year long but wasn’t. His offensive game is non-existent and the pleasure he takes in fouling the opposition has become tired.

Plus his free throw motion bothers me.

(I don’t have a dog in the fight from #5)

How would you answer those?

Comments

  1. Lauderdale IS a huge disappointment. The big men are in general. I don’t know much about basketball, but I know your big guys are supposed to bang around under the rim and get rebounds — who does that on this team? Diebler and Turner probably have more rebounds than the big men. It isn’t a good thing.

    I think the entire game of college basketball is suffering due to the one-and-done rule. It should either go back to no college time required, or three years after HS (like football). Until something changes, I think we can look forward to the entire game taking a long, slow, frustrating slide.

  2. lancelott says

    buckeyes beat wisconsin, i’ll take it. we showed some true grit, both at the end of the first half and at the end of regulation. huge win for us moving forward.

  3. Walking boot off.

  4. @Miller – I think we saw against MSU what kind of team this can be when the big men assert themselves. I hope we see it against Sienna.

    The one-and-done rule definitely needs revisiting.

    @lancelott – the win against Wisky was nice, but the Michigan State game was much more enjoyable 🙂

    @kade – wrong thread, but thanks for the update.

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