2020-2021 OHIO STATE BASKETBALL

Being able to find a way to decently defend the post will be the key thing to keep an eye on going forward. If they can figure out how to consistently be halfway decent defending post-ups they're going to win a lot of league games down the stretch.

When Wisconsin started to make some outside shots down the stretch and closed the gap some, a pair of Ford's threes were of off guys helping off and digging in to help against Potter and Reuvers underneath. They're going to have to continue to iron out what help rotation to double inside leaves the least recovery exposure to spot up shooters.
 
Orin Swift said:
This can’t be true, SnS said he shouldn’t be getting any minutes.
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To be quite honest I think I forgot about what he does well and got a bit more fixated on what I'd like to see the PG be able to do in the few weeks he was out.

There's not much exciting about him but he's a defensive difference maker, he's pretty reliable taking care of the basketball, and he's nearly automatic from the foul line. He has a grown man's body and a good basketball IQ since he's been in college for five years and is nearly 24 years old. Good college teams seem to increasingly have old dudes like him that aren't flashy but have defensive physicality and can play a disciplined offensive style.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
To be quite honest I think I forgot about what he does well and got a bit more fixated on what I'd like to see the PG be able to do in the few weeks he was out.

There's not much exciting about him but he's a defensive difference maker, he's pretty reliable taking care of the basketball, and he's nearly automatic from the foul line. He has a grown man's body and a good basketball IQ since he's been in college for five years and is nearly 24 years old. Good college teams seem to increasingly have old dudes like him that aren't flashy but have defensive physicality and can play a disciplined offensive style.
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I agree - I like what CJ brings. He is probably the best on-ball perimeter defender OSU has. Solid ball handler and foul shooter. Good leadership.

Having said that, while he was out, the ball movement was better on offense - more passing and less dribbling. Hopefully he noticed that and Holtmann reminds him of that when he starts dribbling too much, which happens fairly often.
 
The Buckeyes definitely made it exciting last night, coming back from 8 down in the second half to beat Penn State. Hopefully, they play a little better against Michigan State and get a solid victory. MSU is down a bit this year.
 
Every Big Ten game is a war, and Penn State definitely played really hard. They will be tough to beat down the road.

Good things I saw from OSU:
- 19-20 foul shooting
- defense for most of the game was solid
- EJ Liddell improves every game - becoming a stud before our eyes
- Key 11 points in only 9 minutes
- Sueing's best all-around game; shot selection, rebounds, 5 steals, tremendous

Things not so good:
- 17 turnovers; too many from CJ and Duane
- Lots of bad fouls

In the end, we won a Big Ten game with Washington, Walker and Towns having bad nights, and 17 turnovers. Glad we could overcome all that.
 
HUGE game this Thursday at Iowa in a top-10 showdown on ESPN. Currently there's five teams within a 1/2 game of each other for second place behind Michigan in the conference.

This is a great opportunity for Ohio State to begin to create some separation and assert themselves into the upper tier of the league. Winners of 6 of their last 7 games, after Iowa their next three are against Maryland, Indiana and Penn State before a difficult last four games to end the regular season. If they can get over the hump on Thursday, they very well could be riding on a hot streak of 10 wins in 11 games heading into a monster Sunday afternoon home game against Michigan in a couple of weeks.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
HUGE game this Thursday at Iowa in a top-10 showdown on ESPN. Currently there's five teams within a 1/2 game of each other for second place behind Michigan in the conference.

This is a great opportunity for Ohio State to begin to create some separation and assert themselves into the upper tier of the league. Winners of 6 of their last 7 games, after Iowa their next three are against Maryland, Indiana and Penn State before a difficult last four games to end the regular season. If they can get over the hump on Thursday, they very well could be riding on a hot streak of 10 wins in 11 games heading into a monster Sunday afternoon home game against Michigan in a couple of weeks.
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I mostly agree, but my eyes are wide open - we will have a match-up issue with Garza. I won't be too surprised if we don't win that one.

As for Penn State, move that to the "tough game" column. They are much better than their record.
 
wolves82 said:
I mostly agree, but my eyes are wide open - we will have a match-up issue with Garza. I won't be too surprised if we don't win that one.

As for Penn State, move that to the "tough game" column. They are much better than their record.
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This is going to be a very tough matchup this week, but they've been red hot lately.

Almost all of them are tough in the league this year, but on paper they should beat all three of those teams. I look for a 4-1 mark over the next five games, splitting between Iowa and Michigan.
 
4-1 would be a great mark. 3-2 would be fine for me. Maryland, IU, and PSU are all capable of beating Ohio State, and Iowa and Michigan are matchup problems.
 
I would also be OK with 3-2 the next 5 games also. 4-1 I'm ecstatic.
- Garza matchup is tough, and Iowa scores like crazy. Can our defense slow them down a little?
- IU and Maryland should be W's but they have beat some good Big Ten teams
- Penn State always gives us fits, they are very aggressive/physical
- Michigan's big kid will be a problem for us
 
Extremely physical first half, even by Big Ten standards...and in typical Big Ten fashion, as should be expected, they are largely letting them play. Perhaps with the exception of banging on Garza to some degree.

Can definitely see why Garza is a college phenom with almost no NBA potential. Runs hard but is very slow defensively and in transition. Skills, physicality and effort already look like a well seasoned high-end European pro.

Meechie and Key with some big minutes in the first half. Can't complain too much being within one possession at the half...well, except for Garza getting an and 1 on the play where he crushed Liddell's face with his elbow.
 
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HUGE win and a true team effort,down by double digits came back strong late in the game.
 
Huge win, CJ struggled at the end there but they did enough to pull out the win. Incredible that they’ve won 6 straight against top 10 teams.
 
Probably can't be understated how big that was. I believe they just went ahead of Baylor for most Quad I wins as a part of the NET formula while winning on the road against the #6 team in the NET rankings. They now have four huge road wins in the last four weeks.
 
Great balanced scoring, won the rebound battle, contained Garza, only 6 turnovers. Great performance. Gutsy, when we got down 11 I thought we were in trouble.
 
I definitely thought there was a chance they might get snowballed when they got down by 11...things can go downhill quickly against a team that's as efficient scoring the basketball as Iowa is. Tremendous team effort both defensively and on the glass in the last 13-14 minutes of the game.
 
No comments about the road win at Maryland? Let's not take anything for granted in this league. There are no "gimme" wins. Even our imaginary sportswriter (Licking County Fan) didn;t do his write up. Maybe it was past his bedtime. But hey, at least he wrote about Sam Houston State and other games no one cares about.

Anyway, I was happy to lose a little sleep and see the boys take care of business. On a night where we got nothing from Sueing and Key, and EJ had zero at halftime, the depth and balance picked OSU up again. Kyle had a GREAT game, especially second half. Washington and Ahrens shot well in the first half and EJ picked it up a little in the 2nd half. Defense was solid after the first 5-10 minutes.

Main concern: Despite playing generally pretty well, CJ had 3 assists and 3 turnovers. Duane had 4 A and 4 TO. As our primary ball handlers, those ratios need to improve. Other than that, and the occasional shot selection problems, not a whole lot to squawk about with this game.

So excited to watch this team going forward. Getting better and better, and the chemistry seems genuinely great - the guys really are a team...
 
Stirred not Shaken said:
Not a good place, what a laugh, Holtmann inherited KBD and frosh Kaleb Wesson. Matta's last 4 years he was 39 - 33 with 11 of those losses in his last season. How many more years does Holtmann get before he actually wins something ? Make it to the 2nd weekend in the tourney something Matta did on a regular basis, lets hope so.
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Stirred not Shaken said:
LOL great trajectory another 500 BIG season yeah that is fantastic. CJ Walker was no big loss, I would rather have MJ at point, take his lumps this year and be ready to be the starting point guard next year.
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Just thought I'd share these brilliant posts again. Not aging very well at all. This guy has disappeared from the thread. Maybe he is applying his sports expertise elsewhere. But if the Bucks would lose a game in the B10 tourney or the NCAA Sweet 16 he'll quickly be yelling for Holtmann's job again. Brilliant.

Meanwhile all the national college hoops analysts think Holtmann is one of the best young coaches in the country. I've even heard a rumor he may be the choice to be offered the Duke job after Coach K retires. I sure hope not! But there are always a few genius Buckeye "fans" that think anything less than a national championship is a fireable offense.
 
Late night last night with a long road trip. Totally forgot about Ohio State's game since it wasn't on when I was briefly flipping through the channels when I got home.

Another good win. I believe that's now 9 Quad I wins. The team seems to be really gelling and getting on a roll now. As of today they'd have to be on the #1 line for tournament seeding.

Looking ahead, I'm kind of concerned about that game at Penn State next week that's wedged between Indiana and a big weekend matchup with Michigan. Penn State played OSU tough the first time around and has been playing pretty well their last 5-6 games. Some of the sloppiness with the ball last night has to tighten up as the Nittany Lions are in the top 2-3 in the conference in forcing turnovers.
 
eastisbest said:
ESPN moves them to the 1 line. How did they lose to Purdue twice?
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Matchups. Basketball is a matchups game. We don't have the size to handle the 7'4" kid and Trevion Williams inside. Plus:
- EJ Liddell missed the first game in December when he was recovering from mono.
- Purdue aggressively defended the perimeter and we did not have CJ Walker or Sotos the second game.
- We shot poorly both games.

That's basketball. Love to play them again in the B10 tourney. They still have the matchup inside, but our guys have really jelled.
 
wolves82 said:
Matchups. Basketball is a matchups game. We don't have the size to handle the 7'4" kid and Trevion Williams inside. Plus:
- EJ Liddell missed the first game in December when he was recovering from mono.
- Purdue aggressively defended the perimeter and we did not have CJ Walker or Sotos the second game.
- We shot poorly both games.

That's basketball. Love to play them again in the B10 tourney. They still have the matchup inside, but our guys have really jelled.
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seems reasonable. I walked through that Purdue Ag building a couple times, saw what they have in those rooms in the basement. They say they're recruiting these tall players but I'm pretty sure they're .... making them.
 
eastisbest said:
seems reasonable. I walked through that Purdue Ag building a couple times, saw what they have in those rooms in the basement. They say they're recruiting these tall players but I'm pretty sure they're .... making them.
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LOL. Painter always finds these monsters somehow.
 
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