Random observations from watching the game with friends last night.

1. Andre, at least, was lights out shooting the ball. Too bad he didn't have much help. And, also too bad, it'll possibly be 4-5 more games before he hits double figures again because no one on this game is particularly consistent on a game-by-game basis. But last night, he was really good and pretty much the sole reason they were in the game as long as they were.

2. Kaleb, on the other hand, is purely lost right now on every level. While some of the fouls I've seen called on him are ticky-tick, some of them are stupid as hell on his part. The one where he was at the three-point line, put the ball down and tried to drive, flat-out running over a Purdue player was just mind-boggling in the "what the hell was going through your mind?!??" sort of way. Seems the instant he gets one foul, he'll get 2-3 more in quick succession and when you can't count on your supposed top player to be on the court for any length of time, you're in trouble.

3. It probably says a lot about where the team is now that my most enjoyable moment in the game happened on that one play late in the first half where Carson Edwards fired a pass to a teammate just beyond half court and that guy wasn't paying attention, so the ball ricocheted off his chest and went out of bounds. The look of pure disgust on Edwards' face as he stared at that guy for a full second before remembering he better follow the ball to make sure Luther didn't have a chance to make a play on it and get a lay-up was priceless.

4. The worst aspect: Long stretches where there is no flow on offense. Guys not moving without the ball and waiting around for something to happen, leading to too many turnovers and too many instances of someone having to try hero ball because there is 3 seconds on the shot clock and no options other than "force something up".

A turnover every 1.5 minutes isn't a good recipe, guyz!!!

Too many turnovers but they did regroup and get a quality road win. 70-60 over Nebraska.

I'm not too surprised they lost to Michigan

Realistically, what remaining games do they have a shot at? 

Rutgers - can win 

Psu - can win

@IU - maybe

Illinois - can win 

@MSU - loss 

Northwestern - can win

@Maryland - loss 

Iowa - maybe

@Purdue - loss 

@Northwestern - maybe

Wisconsin - maybe

Imho 4 winnable games, 3 losses and 4 tossups. If they can split the tossups,  they will finish 6-5 with a total record of 19-12 and a B1G record of 9-11. Not great but better than they looked when they lost 5 in a row. 

Do they have a shot to make the NCAA tournament if they can win a few games in the B1G tournament? 

posted by FatHobbit

I'm not too surprised they lost to Michigan

Realistically, what remaining games do they have a shot at? 

Rutgers - can win 

Psu - can win

@IU - maybe

Illinois - can win 

@MSU - loss 

Northwestern - can win

@Maryland - loss 

Iowa - maybe

@Purdue - loss 

@Northwestern - maybe

Wisconsin - maybe

Imho 4 winnable games, 3 losses and 4 tossups. If they can split the tossups,  they will finish 6-5 with a total record of 19-12 and a B1G record of 9-11. Not great but better than they looked when they lost 5 in a row. 

Do they have a shot to make the NCAA tournament if they can win a few games in the B1G tournament? 

Way I look at things, they have to win at minimum, three of the next four and preferably all of them. If not, there's no way they'll be getting those other toss-ups and they'd likely be toast. If they finish 9-11 in the conference, they're likely in the NCAA as long as they don't open the B1G tournament with an ugly loss. Without getting some sort of good win in there, it might be in a play-in game, but I'd think they'd be in in some capacity.

Overall, they looked good today. Avenged a loss and led by double digits (give or take) most of the way. Kaleb, Jackson and Woods all had good games, which is good since none of those three had been doing much for a while. Gotta build on that and keep winning for a while, as they're in a stretch of weaker opponents they need to take advantage of.

Just for kicks today I started looking at the schedules of the teams ahead of OSU to see if they have a chance to move up the standings. 

Minnesota 5 tough games. They have a chance to pass Minnesota 

Plays Wisconsin, @msu,  Michigan, Purdue and @Maryland. 

Iowa 2 tough games.  I don't think they can catch Iowa

Plays Maryland and @Wisconsin

Maryland 4 tough games, probably can't catch Maryland

Plays Purdue, @Michigan, @Iowa and Michigan

Wisconsin 3 tough games, probably can't catch Wisconsin

Plays @Michigan, MSU and iowa

Purdue 1 tough game, no chance OSU can catch them

Plays @Maryland

MSU 3 tough games, no chance

Plays @Wisconsin, @Michigan and Michigan

Michigan 4 tough games, still no chance

Plays Maryland, MSU, @Maryland and @MSU

Realistically, if the wheels don't fall off completely, they have a chance of passing Minnesota in the standings and that's about it. 

Squeaked by Penn st and Wesson fouled out again. I guess a win is a win...

didn't watch it, but son texted me saying "ugly, ugly win"...and as far as Wesson goes, he might not be getting any breaks like many have said, but he brings a lot on himself--he has the worst feet of any big man in recent memory (and that includes Amir Williams)

posted by vball10set

didn't watch it, but son texted me saying "ugly, ugly win"...and as far as Wesson goes, he might not be getting any breaks like many have said, but he brings a lot on himself--he has the worst feet of any big man in recent memory (and that includes Amir Williams)

It was ugly. We were fortunate that Young got back from his stress fracture (surprised me; the last I'd heard was that he was still a ways from being cleared), since he hit the go-ahead bucket. One of those "better to win ugly than lose to that team" games, since I'd pretty much have to kill off any remaining optimism if they lost at home to the worst team in the league on the night where they honored their football team (ie: should have been fired up, especially considering the success PSU had against them last year).

As for Wesson, I agree. To me, he doesn't anticipate well and does a lot of reacting, leading to him getting a couple stupid fouls per game and also getting called for a couple really ticky-tack ones. And after some of that, it gets in his head, compounding the problem even worse.

Good win at Indiana. Kyle Young's return to the lineup has been huge. He might not score a lot but he gives them energy and toughness around the basket at both ends of the floor.

Yeah, good road win against a team that I have no clue how to judge, as far as quality of win. Indiana has wins over three high-level teams (and those three wins place them among the best teams in the country as far as "best three wins of season" goes), but have been a .500 team outside of those three games. It's rare that you have a team with results that are so widely scattered over the spectrum to where you can't predict what'll happen on any night.

One thing I wish is that they could maintain prosperity in games. Against PSU, it looked like they'd blow them out of the gym early on and the game wound up being a nail-biter. Yesterday, it looked like they'd be on the verge of taking complete control multiple times, but let Indiana back into it each time and wound up in another nail-biter. When they gave up three 3s in 90 seconds to lose a 9-point lead, I was about 98% convinced they were going to blow it. Fortunately, they got a couple huge plays down the stretch (that Jackson 3 after Indiana took the lead was ice cold!) and were able to get the win.

I’d say it’s more of a “good not-loss” more than a good win. Those are the tough gMes you don’t want to lose, but it’s tough to call a win over a 13-11 team a “good win”

i watched the whole game though. Pretty entertaining game. That 3 CJ Jackson hit was about as clutch as it gets. 

IMO, in order to make the Dance this season, the Buckeyes have to finish no worse than 10-10 in conference play, and then make it to at least the semi's of the B1G Tournament...and no matter what kind of season Indiana's having, a win in Bloomington is still a pretty big deal--that place is as crazy a place to play as any gym in the country.

posted by FatHobbit

@MSU - loss 

Northwestern - can win

@Maryland - loss 

Iowa - maybe

@Purdue - loss 

@Northwestern - maybe

Wisconsin - maybe

After tonight I suspect they might win one of the northwestern games and that's about it 

posted by FatHobbit

After tonight I suspect they might win one of the northwestern games and that's about it 

Yeah. Before this 4-game stretch, I was expecting 3-1 and hoping for 4-0 and they got 3-1...but they did it in a very uninspiring way. Easy win over Rutgers, two ugly up-and-down performance wins over PSU and Indiana and this debacle last night. I know Illinois is playing well right now and they now have 4 straight wins, but that is a game they HAVE to win. Issues of being a young team with no true point guard. Can't count on guys on a night-by-night basis (Luther had been great recently and was a complete non-factor last night) and are plagued by too many turnovers every single game (Jackson, who is a shooting guard playing the point, had FUCKING SEVEN TOs last night! How in the... ?!?!)

C.J. Jackson led Ohio State with 17 points, but he also had seven turnovers.

...in addition to the EIGHT he had against PSU

  ....as Ohio State shot just 36 percent from the field, including 15 percent (2 of 13) from beyond the arc, while missing 10 layups.

 abysmal

Ohio State kept it close but cold shooting and sloppy play doomed the Buckeye chances.

'nuff said

OSU has scored only 12 points in the 2nd half with two minutes left.  What a joke.

posted by slingshot4ever

OSU has scored only 12 points in the 2nd half with two minutes left.  What a joke.

And they had 11 turnovers in the second half. 

I'm looking at the roster right now. OSU has 3 seniors, 3 juniors, 3 sophomores and 5 freshman. Assuming nobody goes to the nba and nobody transfers,  we're losing CJ Jackson and Keyshawn Woods so we'll need to find someone to handle the ball. Other than that hopefully everyone can improve and they will at least be more experienced. 

posted by FatHobbit

And they had 11 turnovers in the second half. 

13 points and 11 turnovers in the 2nd half....that's fricking crazy!

posted by FatHobbit

   we're losing CJ Jackson and Keyshawn Woods so we'll need to find someone to handle the ball. 

are you implying that these two can? IMO the guys we have coming in next year can handle the ball better RIGHT NOW, and they're still in high school!

posted by vball10set

are you implying that these two can? IMO the guys we have coming in next year can handle the ball better RIGHT NOW, and they're still in high school!

Not at all. I haven't followed who we have coming in at all, but they will be freshman so we'll see how they do at the next level. 

posted by FatHobbit

Not at all. I haven't followed who we have coming in at all, but they will be freshman so we'll see how they do at the next level. 

DJ Carton is regarded as one of the top PG recruits in the nation, so I'd guess he'd be an upgrade over Jackson/Woods at that position by default. Because when you commit a minimum of 15 turnovers a game with so many of them being the same forced passes and dribbling into traffic without a plan errors that you see game after game, something is definitely wrong as far as ball handling and basketball IQ go. Being a freshman doesn't matter to me, as if you look around the nation, there are a lot of freshmen who are the top player(s) on very good teams. For me, it's more a matter of his game translating to the college level enough to make him worth that hype.

I did not see that coming. I'm still expecting them to lose at Purdue. Then maybe win at Northwestern and then we'll see what they can do at home against Wisconsin