Ohio State defeated the Michigan Wolverines, 56-53 in a hard fought basketball game that looked like it was going to end up like some other close games this year — Buckeyes dominate early, let their opponent claw their way back into the game and then go cold at the worse opportune time possible. This time it was the Buckeyes time to close out a close game against one of the better teams in the country.

I’d like it was a reverse psychology move on my part, doubting Aaron Craft’s skills and wondering if Trey Burke was perhaps the better point guard. It was only one game, but it was definitely Aaron Craft’s defense that flustered and smothered an obviously motivated Burke. Burke came out swinging, hitting the first three pointer of the game and looked like he was going to set the tone for the rest of the day. But the Buckeyes fought back, took a sizeable lead and never looked back.

Craft hounded Burke all game. Burke scored 15 points but it took 4-13 shooting to get that. Burke also had four turnovers. For whatever reason, either the Buckeyes play Tim Hardaway Jr. well or he simply struggles against the Buckeyes. He pitched in 12 but also was 1-6 from three point range and 5-15 overall. Deshaun Thomas played Glenn Robinson III as well as I think could be expected and made him a non-factor. His three at the end of the second half was clutch but other than that big shot, he really didn’t hurt the Buckeyes.

Speaking of Thomas, Deshaun was clearly motivated today to play well and even gutted through some pain near the end. When Deshaun is getting floorburns, you know it’s been a dog fight. Deshaun led all scorers with 20, hitting a couple important threes but his put back under the rim near the end was just as important.

This was a great game to watch, much more enjoyable than that debacle against Illinois. Thad Matta had his team ready for this Michigan game, had a clear defensive game plan to stop Burke and company and got his guys up for the game. This is just the start of a tough road through the Big Ten, but this was a huge win for both Craft’s confidence and this team as a whole moving forward.

Ohio State @ That Team Up North – Shootyhoops live chat

This “Michigan is getting good at sports again” thing is starting to make me itchy.

Sure, there football team is about to go through some major growing pains without the Magical Time Wizard Denard at the helm, but all signs point to a better, stronger Michigan team next year.

And yes, this isn’t the Fab Five that Coach Beilein is putting out on the court this year, but Burke, Hardaway Jr, Robinson III and company are an extremely dangerous team.

They are catching the Buckeyes at crossroads. After a severe beatdown at the hands of Illinois, the Buckeyes bounced back to take care of business against Purdue early this week. And today Michigan comes to the Schottenstein Center looking to impress voters and fans on national television, definitely eyeing that #1 spot in the polls after Duke went down to NC State (a previous foe of Michigan’s, by the bye).

The gameplan should be relatively simple — hound and get physical with Trey Burke (Aaron Craft, check!), prevent easy shots around the basket (Amir and Ravenel, check maybe?) and pray that someone in yellow and blue doesn’t get hot from beyond the three point line (the game is on Sunday, so check?).

Oh, and Deshaun Thomas and someone else needs to put points on the board.

(Interesting side-story here: Shannon Scott was the player Thad Matta added the same year Trey Burke was looking to join a team. Ohio State did not recruit Burke for a variety of reasons (already had Craft in the fold, Scott was interested) and the Ohio boy went up North while Scott signed with Ohio State. So while Scott was apparently Matta’s first choice, Burke has been enjoying relatively better success than his other counterpart. It will be interesting to see these two matched up from time to time, which should happen in this game.)

This game has all the fixins for a great home crowd for the Buckeyes and that should give them the boost they need (the fans have clearly spoken in our poll as to who the best point guard in this game is [Aaron Craft was winning at the time of posting, FYI]). A few high-flying dunks by Sam Thompson, a great shooting day from Thomas and this game could easily go Ohio State’s way.

A some hot shooting early by Michigan or a dominant performance from Trey Burke could spell doom for Ohio State.

I’m going with the former. How do you see this game going?

Week of 12/30- 1/5 Review

Ohio State 70 Nebraska 44

Finishing off of a solid, yet unimpressive 10-2 non-conference schedule, the Buckeyes began B1G play on January 2nd versus the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The ‘Huskers traveled to Value City Arena with an inflated 9-4 record and ranking in the bottom half of the country in almost every single statistical category. The Buckeyes came out hot and displayed their best defensive performance of the season, allowing only 17 points in the first half and 44 for the game. Deshaun Thomas led all scorers with 22 points and actually outscored the Cornhuskers all by himself 18-17 at the half. Once again, their perimeter defense was excellent, holding Nebraska’s shooters to only %28 (6-21) from beyond the arc. Aaron Craft had a solid night distributing the ball with 8 assists and 0 turnovers, but shot 0-4 from the field and finished with 0 points. He needs to be an option offensively for this team to succeed, or we will be seeing his defender start to sag off of him, clogging the passing lanes and daring him to shoot. With a showdown in Champaign, Illinois on the horizon, the Buckeyes took care of business like they were supposed to and sent the ‘Huskers back to Lincoln with a bad taste in their mouths.

Ohio State 55 Illinois 74

Illinois fell to Purdue in their B1G opener and it seemed like the perfect time for the Buckeyes to take advantage of a team that was coming off of an upset. Think again. The Illini handed Thad Matta one of his most lopsided losses of his career and it was not even as close as the scoreboard indicated. The Buckeyes have not won a true road game this season and do not have one quality win on their resume. This will become a problem come selection Sunday with the B1G being the strongest conference in all of college basketball. Brandon Paul led the Illini with 19 points and their 6-11 center Nnanna Egwu had a great game with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Deshaun Thomas dropped 24 points on 9-21 shooting, but struggled against the Illini defense to really find his shot. The Buckeyes have massive offensive troubles and if Thomas is struggling they really do not have second and third options like years past. This needs to be figured out quickly with Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Minnesota all on the horizon.

Week of 1/6- 1/12 Preview

Tuesday January 8th

The Buckeyes are hoping to bounce back after their blow out loss against Illinois by traveling to Purdue, the same team that defeated the Ilini the game before. This gives the Buckeyes a chance to get their first real road victory of the season against a .500 team who plays pretty well at home. The Boilermakers are one of the better rebounding teams in the country, averaging 41 rebounds a game, which could translate into a problem for the Buckeyes who have struggled on the glass in their losses. Ohio State can limit Purdue beyond the arc as they are shooting a modest %28 from three point land. The Boilermakers are very young but they are scrappy on the boards with freshman 7 footer A.J Hammons who averages 10 points and 6 rebounds a game. Offensively the Buckeyes need to worry about Terone Johnson, he led Purdue with 25 points in their upset win over Illinois. This is a good game for Ohio State to get back on track before they host the #2 Michigan Wolverines on Sunday.

Week of 12/23-12/29 Review

It wasn’t a very busy week for the Buckeyes with Christmas they only had one game and it was just a final cupcake primer in leading up to the start of the Big Ten season.

The only game of the week was at home against a 3-12 Chicago St. Cougars program that gave up little resistance. The game started off pretty slow for OSU with the team shooting woefully starting just 1-8 from behind the arc. They were not playing very good defense either and found themselves in a game that was too close early on. When they started attacking the rim and playing more of a inside out game the shots started to fall and the defense started to pick up and the Buckeyes never looked back in blowing out the Cougars 87-44. The Buckeyes ended up shooting 57% and 47% from 3 point range. they also out rebounded the Cougs 44-18 which helped a ton. Deshawn Thomas led the Buckeyes in scoring with 17 points and was one of 5 players with double digits. Evan Ravenel led the team in rebounds with 10. While it was a great game to work on some issues in the end it won’t do much for their Natl. reputation. This leads us to the start of the B1G season after going 10-2 in Non-Conf games.

Week of 12/30-1/5 Preview

Wednesday January 2nd

The Buckeyes open up B1G play by hosting 9-4 Nebraska Cornhuskers. Nebraska as a team has not been very impressive so far with no signature wins and some really horrible losses. They are scoring 61 points a game while only shooting the ball 43%. They avg 32 rebounds a game and 11 assists. They have 3 guys averaging 13 points a game but after those 3 guys not much to talk about.

Saturday January 5th

The Buckeyes on Saturday will face a tough road test as they head to Champaign, Ill. to take on the 13-1 Illinois Illini. The Illini are a surprising team who came into the season unranked and have played extremely well under first year head coach John Groce and have worked their way up to being ranked 12th in the country. The Illini are led by All B1G player Brandon Paul who I am sure OSU fans remember for scoring 42 points against OSU last year. Paul is scoring 18 points a game this year on 43% FG%. He also leads the team in rebounds per game at 5.1 RPG. The team has 6 guys scoring 8 points a game or more so they have depth and will use it. They like to run a lot and try and control the pace of the game. As a team they avg 77 points per game while shooting 45%. They avg 36 rebounds and 12 assists per game as well. Should be a great match up and a chance for OSU to state their case as an elite team in the B1G.

Kansas Review

12/22/2012: Ohio State 66 – Kansas 74 (8-2, 0-0 Big Ten)

Here we sit on the eve of conference play which the Buckeyes will begin without a “signature” win. The Buckeyes fell to Kansas yesterday in a game that was similar to the ebb and flow of the Duke game. The Buckeyes were strong in the first half, but Kansas took control in the second half and the Buckeyes could not recover. It is the third loss to Kansas in the last 12 months. It is apparent that this year’s team still needs to figure out how to close out games. Deshaun Thomas did not have the stand out game that I was anticipating. While hed led the Buckeyes in scoring, he took three shots in the last 14 minutes and missed all of them. That is not a recipe for success. Still waiting for Deshaun to breakout with a performance similar to what we saw in last year’s NCAA tournament.

Like I said in the preview, this one loss is not a make or break. That being said, it clearly demonstrates that there is work to do if this team wants to compete for a B1G championship. I know we all hate to look for moral victories, but can we agree that it is easier to find them in basketball (especillay in non-conference games)? There were a couple positive outcomes of the game. Coach Matta was pleased with the effort:

“I thought we battled. I thought we played with an element of toughness and tenacity we needed to,”

Then, he quickly summed up the loss in one sentence:

“But a lot of it just comes down to you’ve got to put the ball in the basket in a game like this, and we couldn’t do it, and it became contagious throughout.”

The buckeyes shot 30% from the field. Simply not going to get it done against an opponent like Kansas.

From a players standpoint, the best performance was turned in by Shannon Scott. Scott’s stat line – 15 pts, 6 reb, 4 asst, 2 stls. He continues to improve and IMO is quickly becoming the best point guard on the team. His play is making it difficult for Matta to keep him on the bench. If you ask me, that is bad news for Smith, Jr. and Ross because I think Matta is beginning to favor the back court duo of Scott and Craft. It will be interesting to see how this continues to develop as conference play begins. Matta has built the reputation of shortening his bench in conference games. He has stated that he feels more comfortable with his depth this year, but it remains to be seen if he will use 8 to 10 players or the typical 7 that we have been used to in the past.

Week in Preview

12/29/2012 @ 4:30 PM (BTN) Chicago State (3-11, 0-0) vs Ohio State (8-2, 0-0)