Ohio State Struggles, Then Pulls Away From Northwestern, Wins 69-59
Well, was I wrong about how this was going to turn out.
Pretty much like this, for 40 minutes.
Most of the time, in college sports, talent wins out out. Penn State’s basketball team is proof of that. Every once and a while, an underdog or a less-talented team has a game where they play beyond their means and suddenly find themselves in a dog fight against a team that should be beating them. The NCAA tournament is proof of this.
But let’s be honest about this. These are still college athletes at schools that still demand a certain amount of physical talent and basketball skill to play on. Northwestern isn’t a community college. These guys can still ball.
Ohio State came into this game coming off two hard fought losses and can’t be completely blamed for coming out less than inspired. But I don’t think they didn’t care or disrespected Northwestern. Northwestern came in focused, executed their offense with some great back cuts and timely three-pointers. Ohio State played lethargically for for the first fifteen plus minutes of the first half.
A baseline dunk by Sam Thompson with about five minutes to go in the first half sparked the Ohio State faithful and players to take a first half lead and playing from behind for most of it. It looked like they would go in at half-time, leading 27-30.
Then Northwestern hit a last second three to tie the game at the half, 30-30.
In the second half, Deshaun Thomas took the responsibility of scoring on his shoulder and was much more aggressive than he was in the first half, scoring 22. Northwestern, however, would not go away and stuck with the Buckeyes, taking the lead more than once.
Eventually, Ohio State would simply wear Northwestern down, force them into foul trouble and pull away late. Two emphatic dunks by Sam Thompson and free throws by Deshaun Thomas would lead to a misleading ten-point lead, which is how it ended, 69-59.
A win is a win. It wasn’t pretty, it was hopefully something this team had to “get out of their system” and they will be ready for their tilt against Wisconsin on Sunday. They won’t get away with playing like that against Wisconsin at their place.
(UPDATE: GAH, I pulled a Hoke and originally titled this post “Ohio Struggles…”. Self, I AM DISAPPOINT.)
Northwestern Live In Game Chat
I wholeheartdedly apologize for the lack of basketball content on the site this week. I have been busier than usual and have not fulfilled my writerly duties as I should have. SYR is going to publicly flog me and make an example of me to the other writers.
Why don’t you make the flogging less painful by joining us in the live chat for the Northwestern Game.
Oh you’ve got plans with your significant other/boyfriend/girlfriend? Oh, don’t worry, you won’t miss much. We should be up by 20 at the half.
Thad Matta lands no. 3 for 2014
With all the success of Urban Meyer and staff landing huge recruits in droves lately Thad Matta has gone quietly about his business of building a team for the future. With several roster spots opening up in 2014 and with small classes lately he has an abundance of schollies to offer and is really starting to fill them up. Clearly he has put an increased amount of time in building up the front court that is so depleted of talent right now and a detriment to the team currently. With that we give you the newest member and the 3rd commit in the 2014 class.
DAVID BELL
David Bell is a 6’9″ 215 lbs 3 star PF/C from Garfield Heights, Ohio. There isn’t a lot of info out on David so far but according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer “Bell, a 6-foot-7 forward, is averaging 17.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.6 blocks this season. He made the non-binding commitment one day after visiting Ohio State on Sunday for the Buckeyes-Indiana game.” Scout ranks David a 3 star and none of the other 3 recruiting services have any rankings on him yet. Based on his highlight film he is very athletic but needs to add some weight for sure. Below you can see some of his JR year highlights.
In Case You Missed It
In case you missed it is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s semi-weekly look at items that would interest the casual and hard-core Ohio State fan, be they news items, interesting blog posts or funny memes you probably saw on Reddit last week. It’s all here and it’s all for you. Have a tip that should be included in the next ICYMI? Send it our way!
DECISION FROM THE HEAD, NOT FROM THE HEART. This is a great story about the work that Urban Meyer and his staff put in to landing top safety Vonn Bell, who clearly has his head on straight and has a couple of parents raising him the right way:
“I’m old school and I told Vonn to look at this process like he would getting married,” Vincent said. “You go through the dating process, then you pick the one you want to be with and you stick to it. You don’t commit and then flirt with another program like some recruits do. You make a decision and then it’s over. That’s what a commitment means.”
It also highlights the lengths that this coaching staff is willing to go to show their commitment to a player they want on their sideline. Fans of other teams can moan about Urban Meyer’s “ultra competitiveness” and his drive to “win at any cost” but those poor fans and their teams are being left in the dust. This isn’t just about winning at any cost. This is about setting the bar high, aiming for the best and working as hard as you can to achieve it. This isn’t about some “honor code” or something about “doing it the right way.” Urban Meyer and his staff have evaluated the talent available and have worked hard to attract that level of talent. The rest of the Big Ten had better get on board and set their own sights higher or it’s getting left behind.
THE VILLAIN WITH A HEART OF GOLD. Evan Turner, all-time Buckeye Hero made an appearance at New Albany High School’s senior night for the varsity basketball team to surprise his friend Devon Pitts. It’s not much, but it’s little things like that that make cheering for guys like Evan Turner a little easier.
SPEAKING OF A GUY WHO’S EASY TO CHEER FOR. Aaron Craft is a finalist for the The Bob Cousy Award, which is given to the top collegiate male basketball point guard. MotSaG readers have made their voice heard as to who the best Point Guard in the Big Ten is, with Aaron Craft garnering over 64% of the votes in a head-to-head competition against Trey Burke. Craft has shown in both games against Burke that he can hang with the best and Craft has shown throughout the season that he isn’t going to be outworked by anyone he’s matched up against.
THE REAL JOHNNY FOOTBALL. We’ve mentioned this before, but now John Simon himself makes the case: Vote him and the Buckeyes as the cover athlete:
Indiana Defeats Ohio State, 81-68
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.
Indiana vs. Ohio State Preview
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
In Case You Missed It
In case you missed it is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s semi-weekly look at items that would interest the casual and hard-core Ohio State fan, be they news items, interesting blog posts or funny memes you probably saw on Reddit last week. It’s all here and it’s all for you. Have a tip that should be included in the next ICYMI? Send it our way!
RECRUITS, RECRUITS EVERYWHERE AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK. As you all are acutely aware, yesterday was National Signing Day, the day that I like to call my birthday-eve-eve, but it is a bonanza for those people who love to follow football recruiting, including our own Slyvester-Yon Rambo. SYR put in 10+ hours of work here around the site, for which we are eternally grateful. Among his work included following Mark Pantoni as he updated his twitter feed as Letters of Intent poured in. He posted new player profiles of Vonn Bell and James Clark, to HUGE gets from Urban and a repost of Ezekiel Elliot’s profile as he reconfirmed his commitment to Ohio State. Again, a HUGE thanks to SYR for his hard work.
On top of that, MotSaG’s multimedia editor, Kade, put together a video of a handful of the more exciting recruits that is basically 6 minutes of drool worthy talent, all coming to Ohio State. James Clark looks like his SPD is 99.
There were a lot of heroes on the OSU coaching staff on the recruiting trail, but Tom Herman’s work landing three great players from Texas was most definitely a coup for the Buckeyes, who usually don’t look to Texas very much for players. Kyle over at Eleven Warriors has a great write up of Herman’s work ethic and determination:
So what’s been Herman’s magic elixir in brining talented Texans more than 1,000 miles away from home to a less than desirable climate? Those three words: persistence, reputation and luck.
Man, I hope Urban can hold on to his assistants for as long as possible.
RECRUITING: WHO WORE IT BETTER, HOKE OR MEYER? Adam Jacobi over at the Bleacher Report compared the two recruiting classes from Michigan and Ohio State, looking to see who got better talent and who filled more talent holes. Spoiler alert: Meyer is better.
What makes this class truly great is what purpose it serves for Ohio State’s needs, however, and there it grades out at a near-perfect 4.22: six “A+”s, three “A”s. Every single signing makes sense in terms of pure talent and what Ohio State needs to accomplish in the coming years.
Ok, that’s not a spoiler, you already knew that.
“ENJOY THE BIG TEN!” That would be someone in Vanderbilt’s War Room after Von Bell announced his intention to sign with Ohio State.
Bell had Vanderbilt on his list, but it was not among the favorites. Franklin knew that, so he tailored his message to Bell when he met with him.
“Let me tell you,” Franklin said. “Ohio State would be a heck of a choice.”
A heck of a choice, indeed.
A GENTLEMAN AND A SCHOLAR. SCORER. SCHOLAR. WHATEVER. Congratulations to Deshaun Thomas for earning the Ohio State Student-Athlete Academic Achievement Award (awarded to student athletes who maintain a 3.0 GPA and while participating on a varisty team)
ON TO THE NEXT LEVEL. Seven Buckeyes have been invited to the NFL combine, held later this month in Indianapolis. Biggest surprise is that Travis Howard was not invited. WFNY has the list.
Ohio State Falls in OT to Michigan, Nothing is Right in the World.
After taking care of business against Michigan in Columbus, the Buckeyes, newly clad in new scarlet uniforms (to offset those nightmare highlighter unis that Michigan wore) looked to take both regular season tilts from the Wolverines.
The first half started out with a pretty steady pace. The first ten minutes were a game of runs. After Ohio State took an early 4-1 lead, Michigan ripped off 12 points. Ohio State kept it close and went on a 7-0 run themselves. It went back and forth with the half ending with OSU on top, 31-30.
Once again Aaron Craft asserted his alpha dog status among the point guards of the Big Ten, flustering Burke during the first half and holding Burke to shooting 2 of 6 from the field for a paltry 5 points. Nick Stauskas got hot early in the first half and Mitch Mcgary had a big first half with 10 points. The Buckeyes got a solid contribution from Q Ross who took it inside and out for 7 points. It looked like Ross was tentative at times but when he gets in a scoring mode, he really looks at ease.
Our biggest fears came true in the second half as players not named Burke started hitting shots. Tim Hardaway Jr. was absolutely en fuego, hitting 5 straight threes (although he pushed off on his last shot) and Stauskas pitched in as the Wolverines chipped away at an Ohio State lead.
Laquinton Ross and Amir Williams both had solid minutes during the second half with Ross really coming into his own.
And then there was overtime when the second half ended 72-all.
After a great 34 seconds of defense at the beginning of the overtime, Trey Burke hit a desperation 3 that gave them the lead. Ohio State then played four minutes of great defense, preventing a basket by Michigan but simply couldn’t convert on the offensive end. Ohio State didn’t score until Aaron Craft drove the ball into the lane with 50 seconds left. Craft then stripped the ball on the defensive end and had the ball taken away by Burke on the other end. With 20 seconds left, Ohio State had the ball and after a quick drive by Craft, Trey Burke blocked the shot from behind with 7.6 seconds left. Robinson was fouled and made one of two free throws. Aaron Craft raced the length of the court and was clearly fouled by Hardaway Jr. but there was no call.
Michigan wins, 76-74. Ohio State scored 2 points in overtime.
