Archives for February 2013

That wasn’t very fun, now was it?

Ohio State played well for stretches of this game against Indiana, but were unable to string enough runs on offense while stopping Indiana on defense. It wasn’t any one person that beat the Buckeyes, even though Oladipo and Zeller combined for 50 points (it felt like 150). But when those two were not involved in a play, someone else stepped up and hit a clutch shot just when it seemed like Ohio State was clawing its way back in to the game. I seemed like no one was going to miss, ever.

It’s extremely hard to defeat a team that’s “hot.” Sometimes it’s not your day. Sometimes both of those things happen and there isn’t anything you can do about it. Indiana was the better team today and made the most of their opportunities. This is a good team and I still hate them oh-so-very-much.

Victor Oladipo is the worse kind of opponent — he’s so dang good but doesn’t do any of those things that make him easy to hate. He doesn’t preen, he doesn’t whoop it up after a made basket, he just gets the job done and gets back on defense. I don’t mind a player that is passionate, but so many take it over the top that it makes them easy to hate. But Oladipo is a heck of a player and may be the best player in the B1G. I really hope he considers ALL his NBA options at the end of the season.

Ohio State struggled all game long with a couple of refs with itchy whistle fingers and were taken out of their game early because of it. It was obvious they were going to be physical with Indiana and make them earn every open look off a screen. But when Buckeyes started getting in foul trouble they were forced out of that physicality and had to be tentative on defense, to the detriment of the physical play.

Deshaun Thomas led the way 26 but only Craft had more than 11, chipping in 16 of his own. LaQuinton Ross seemed to regress a little this game, which hopefully is only a blip and not a preview of things to come.

Indiana is a great team at the top of a really good conference. Ohio State played two of the top three teams in the nation and played toe-to-toe with both of them, proving they belong in the conversation. They’ll have one more chance to take the Hoosiers down in Bloomington, but it won’t be easy.

Time: 1:00 pm

Television: CBS

Place: Value City Arena

The #1 ranked Indiana Hoosiers travel to Columbus Sunday afternoon to take on the #10 Ohio State Buckeyes in a monumental B1G clash. Both teams are coming off of heartbreaking losses and are looking to bounce back with a quality victory. With Indiana’s loss to Illinois Thursday night, they are now tied for first place in the B1G with an 8-2 conference record. The Buckeyes loss to Michigan earlier in the week gave them their third conference loss as they are now second place in the conference with an 8-3 record. This will be the first time that these two schools will play each other this season, with the next game on March 5th in Bloomington, Indiana.

Amir Williams will be the key defensively with his match up against Cody Zeller. Zeller has had an up and down season where he either dominates or disappears. He is averaging 16.2 points per game along with 8.3 rebounds per game.  If there was any game where Zeller should dominate it would be against the Buckeyes. Williams needs to build on his solid outing that he had versus Michigan, if not, the Buckeyes will get destroyed inside.

Other than Cody Zeller, the Hoosiers are pretty balanced. Victor Oladipo, Christian Watford, Jordan Hulls, and Will Sheehey all average double figures and as a team they shoot %50 from the field. Hulls is the player that needs to be checked beyond the arc, as he leads the team in 3 point attempts and shoots %50 from three point land. The Buckeyes should be fine defensively on the perimeter, they just Williams to step up on Zeller and limit the amount of help/ double teams inside.

Offensively, Ohio State just needs to continue what they did versus Michigan. It was nice to see Thad Matta give LaQuinton Ross 23 minutes in a big game, he responded with 16 points on 7-10 shooting. One thing that bothered Buckeye fans though was the lack of touches that Deshaun Thomas received late in the game against Michigan. The best pure scorer in the conference needs to get touches for them to succeed as it is inexcusable for Thomas to be invisible offensively in clutch situations.

Prediction: Amir Williams plays his best game defensively as a Buckeye and disrupts Cody Zeller enough to win. The Buckeyes win a close one 71-69 with Indiana missing a game winning three at the buzzer.

Deshaun Thomas was named Indiana Mr. Basketball in 2010