Ohio State 56 – Michigan State 59
Last Saturday OSU traveled to East Lansing riding a 3 game winning streak and their first quality win. Every game against MSU will be tough to win especially at their home court. A lot will be written about the last play of the game where Shannon Scott made a blunder but this game was winnable all game long and several times the Buckeyes failed to capitalize on those chances. Most of the talk was centered on DT and his 28 points which equaled what the rest of the team scored. The real problem as I see it is that OSU had a starter (Amir Williams) with ZERO shots. They had another starter (Sam Thompson) with 2 attempted shots. How you can win games with 40% of your starters only taking 2 shots is a skill only Thad Matta has mastered but sometimes it leads to losing a game that OSU could have won so easily. To me this team is heading in the right direction with Thompson slowly losing his minutes to Shannon Scott and Amir and Evan Ravenel splitting time as well. If they can find a way to score some points down low in the post on a more consistent basis this team can dominate but until then they will struggle against bigger teams like MSU.
Iowa at Ohio State Tuesday January 22nd at 6:30 on BTN
If I told you today that OSU and Iowa had the same number of wins (13 each) and nearly the same number of losses (OSU 4 to Iowas 5). Yeah I was just as surprised. Iowa is coming off of back to back B1G wins over Northwestern and Wisconsin. Although Wisconsin is their best win on the season that is the same Wisky team that went into Bloomington and beat Indiana. Iowa is right now at the same place as OSU trying to prove they belong in the elite discussion and a win against OSU in Columbus would do just that.
Iowa is led by 6’6″ G/F Roy Marble (yes the son of former great Roy Marble) who is averaging 15 points a game and 4 rebounds. As well as 6’8″ Ohio native Aaron White who is averaging 13.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Iowa will put up a fight and if OSU doesn’t solve some of their issues it could be a long night but Thad Matta always has this team well prepared following a loss and tonight will be no different.
Prediction- OSU 64 – Iowa 52
Ohio State at Penn State Saturday January 26th at noon on ESPN 2
Penn St. is Penn St. they are bad at basketball. Currently they are 8-10 and 0-6 in the B1G. They are led by 6’4″ G DJ Newbill and is 15 pts and 6 Rebs. and 4 assts. per game. He is their do it all guy and will most likely be hounded by Aaron Craft all game long. Also leading the PSU team is 6’4″ Jermaine Marshall and his 15 PPG and 4 RPG and 2 APG. It is never easy to win a road game in the B1G but OSU has to take advantage of this game because it will most likely be their easiest road test of the year and every win counts and is needed come seeding time. They can’t allow a game like this one to slip away so they will have to do all they can to pull out a victory.
Prediction- OSU 80 – PSU 62
SYR, I think you need combat pay to write BB related articles. Hats off to you.
‘How you can win games with 40% of your starters only taking 2 shots is a skill only Thad Matta has mastered.. ‘
And yet, it led to a salary bump. Must be some value to it.
I see where the LV-entertainment-only handicap is 11.5, so your numbers are probably spot on. Let’s hope we’re in a better mood come Saturday.
@Ken- I wish El Kaiser felt the same way about the combat pay lol….
As for Thad I think he has earned his pay raise considering all he has done at a Football school. Who knows how well Matta could be if he tried to use multiple scorers 🙂