Ohio State Basketball Official Thread

• FatHobbit

  

  Need a win at home Sunday against northwestern to keep any hope alive.
• wildcats20

  

  I have 2 tickets to tomorrow's game if anyone is interested?
  Section 101 row R.
  
  Obviously would have to meet today or sometime tomorrow morning.
• Azubuike24

  

  If Ohio State could get Chris Mack after this season, would the fans support that?
• wildcats20

  

  And a home loss to Northwestern.
• Azubuike24

  

  Huge win for Northwestern. Barring an epic collapse, their NCAA cherry will be popped.
• Heretic

  

  wildcats20;1833672 wrote:And a home loss to Northwestern.

  I'm pretty sure they're going to finish this season somewhere around 3-20 in games decided by 5 or fewer points. They're the undisputed kings of sticking around, playing close and losing it at the end in one way or another. It'd have been nice if they weren't complete shit from the line down the stretch yesterday.
• vball10set

  Heretic;1833781 wrote: It'd have been nice if they weren't complete shit from the line down the stretch yesterday.

  This has always been an enigma to me--Matta's teams have been notoriously bad from the line throughout his years at OSU--why is that?!?
• Heretic

  

  I have no clue. They'd been pretty good the last few games, with a lot of 70-80% performances. Yesterday, they were down at barely 50% and they had a lot of their misses in clutch time. I'm pretty sure all 6 of Tate's tries were late in the game and he was 1-6. Loving missed an "and 1" late. The team lost by 2.
• vball10set

  http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball/2017/01/79517/thad-matta-radio-show-ohio-state
  

  Matta said the timely turnovers and missed free throws decided the game against the Wildcats: “We run some great offense, you get the ball at the rim, get fouled and we came up empty. In a tight ballgame, those are the plays that you have make down the stretch."
  
  Does Ohio State need to change how it prepares and practices free throws? "I don't know ... some guys get it figured out on their own. But what it comes down to is guys need to just make the free throw."

  ...they ain't figuring it out, Coach
• wkfan

  Interesting article in the Dispatch....Rob Oller says lack of talent is the issue....
  
  http://www.dispatch.com/sports/20170122/rob-oller-lack-of-talent-is-main-reason-for-ohio-state-mens-basketball-woes
• Mulva

  

  Rob Oller is right.
• wildcats20

  

  Mulva;1834002 wrote:Rob Oller is right.

  Yup. And that falls 100% on Thad's shoulders.
• vball10set

  wkfan;1834001 wrote:Interesting article in the Dispatch....Rob Oller says lack of talent is the issue....
  
  http://www.dispatch.com/sports/20170122/rob-oller-lack-of-talent-is-main-reason-for-ohio-state-mens-basketball-woes

  Mulva;1834002 wrote:Rob Oller is right.

  wildcats20;1834013 wrote:Yup. And that falls 100% on Thad's shoulders.

  Absolutely
• Classyposter58

  

  Which begs the question why is it gone? I mean OSU isn't getting any top talent and looking at recruiting right now other than Wesson we have no top 100 players.
  
  I mean this is fucking Ohio State, how the hell can we not get at least decent talent in this day and age
  
  
  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
• Heretic

  

  Classyposter58;1834016 wrote:Which begs the question why is it gone? I mean OSU isn't getting any top talent and looking at recruiting right now other than Wesson we have no top 100 players.
  
  I mean this is fucking Ohio State, how the hell can we not get at least decent talent in this day and age
  
  
  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  1. Because Ohio State is generally known as a football school where basketball is second fiddle and is surrounded by programs that currently have both more of an emphasis on basketball and coaching stability. Some of his best recruiting was out of Indiana when the Hoosiers were in disarray. But now, it seems most major (and even lesser like Xavier and Dayton) have had good systems in place for a few years, a larger focus on basketball. In football, they can simply say "We are OSU". In basketball, they can't. So many other programs in the area have either (or both) a more decorated history or more success in the last couple/few years.
  
  2. He's recently sucked at getting Ohio's best kids. Luke Kennard's been Duke's best player this year, for one example of an Ohioan who left the state. And I'm sure it wouldn't take long to research a couple more that could really help this year. Just look at the rosters for, I don't know, MSU, Michigan, Purdue, other B1G teams. There's ALWAYS a good player from Ohio on a couple of those teams every year.
  
  3. Now that he's focusing more on Ohio, the state isn't really churning out super-good talent like it has in the past. To tie in with #2, Ohio has 3/100 of ESPN's top recruits with Wesson the best at #78. The two below him went to Butler and WVU. So he's stuck with 3-star guys who may or may not become actual quality contributors, but it won't be an overnight process for this to happen.
  
  4. The NBA pipeline has vanished. Oden-Conley-Cook all were 1-and-done and NBA bound. Turner and Sully stuck around longer, but also made it. And then...just Russell (who was a foregone conclusion). DeShawn Thomas, LaQuinten Cook, Aaron Craft, etc. wound up in the D League or overseas, but for kids looking to get boosted to NBA stock, the recent track record sucks. And...
  
  5. The recent lack of improvement by most players. Shannon Scott never developed a consistent shot. Craft was a defensive demon with a great first step on drives, but never got outside shooting down to a science. Sam Thompson was a physical freak who never became a complete player. Or a guy like Loving, who just never has looked to be dialed in consistently effort-wise. He'll kick ass in one game and then go 3-4 more where he's sleepwalking.
• Heretic

  

  To add on to that, right now, the program is just (more or less) regressing to the norm of being a marginal NCAA team that may or may not reach the dance. Over the last 30 years or so, they've had periods of legit success (Elite 8 or better, conference titles), but a lot of marginal teams through the Miller (174-120), Williams (59-41), Ayers (124-108), O'Brian (132-88) eras, also. Matta started out great, but the results have gradually dwindled in recent years to where they've fallen back to that point.
• Classyposter58

  

  I said the same thing to my dad Heretic about Indiana. Not only Indiana, but all 4 big schools are consistently ranked lately which has really affected our ability to draw from the state.
  
  Also while OSU doesn't have the pedigree of MSU and Indiana schools like it and UM are just big sports powerhouses that you would think could draw some top basketball talent. That's what's really so strange about both OSU and UM, they've completely fallen off with the same coaches that had incredible success with them recently
  
  
  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
• vball10set

  http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball/2017/01/79537/ohio-state-junior-guard-kam-williams-challenged-teammates-following-sundays-loss-to-northwestern
• Azubuike24

  

  You either get great talent or you turn solid talent into great talent/players. Most programs don't get the great talent, but maintain a high level due to their continued development of players and consistent system. We could find examples of 25 other schools who get comparable talent to OSU and do more with it. There's the problem.
• Heretic

  

  Man, is the B1G mediocre or what? Not many big non-conference wins and right now, Ohio State is in a six-way tie for eighth at 3-5. Despite being really bad in the non-league part of the season, Iowa and Nebraska are two of those teams they're tied with, while Rutgers is the only team sucking in conference play.
  
  Makes it really depressing how the Bucks have lost so many close games. With the way the conference is, if a few breaks had gone their way and they'd fucked up less in key situations and they'd be considered a contender.
• Azubuike24

  

  Crushed by a shitty Iowa team without the Big Ten's leading scorer. Will be very interesting if both IU and OSU have open jobs this off-season.
• vball10set

  Not a fan of Dakich, but he was just ripping on OSU's lack of execution, preparedness, hustle, and most of all...heart...loved ya', Coach Matta, but the clock has struck midnight in Columbus.
• Heretic

  

  Yeah, that was the single worst effort I've seen in forever. Hardly anyone even looked like they wanted to play. Hell, Thompson was going out of his way to not play, committing stupid fouls the second he'd get back into the game.
• vball10set

  it the grand scheme of things it didn't mean much, but a win over ttun, on their own floor, is always a good thing
• wildcats20

  

  vball10set;1835647 wrote:it the grand scheme of things it didn't mean much, but a win over ttun, on their own floor, is always a good thing

  It was a good win. It also hurt their chances of making the dance too, which was an added bonus. Let's see if they have a let down against Rutgers on Wednesday.