Men's Basketball
The-Ozone Hoops Pregame Note and Quote Book
By John Porentas

Stopping the Stars: The Tennessee Volunteers will be trying to figure out a way to neutralize Greg Oden on Thursday, and the Buckeyes will be doing the same with Tennessee standout Chris Lofton, at least that's what the conventional wisdom says. OSU Head Coach Thad Matta, however, believes that the stars will not be the ones who ultimately determine the outcome of the game in San Antonio.

"Against a team like Tennessee every match up, one through nine, is important," said Matta.

"I think when you get to this stage of the season every match up across the board is vitally important. I don't think we could go in and say the winner of Chism vs. Oden is going to be the winner of the game because they have so many guys and hopefully we do that can have a big game," Matta said.

Like the Buckeyes, the Volunteers have nine men on the roster who have seen significant minutes this season. Matta is hoping that if Oden and Lofton cancel each other out, the Buckeyes will win enough of the other match ups to come out on top. The task of at least containing Lofton will fall to OSU junior guard Jamar Butler. Butler has tremendous respect for Lofton.

"He's a guy who you can't be surprised where he shoots from. He's a great shooter. He'll shoot it from anywhere," said Butler.

"He's hard to guard. He's coming off all those screens, he knows how to use screens well. He uses on-ball screens as well," Butler said.

"He has a very quick release and he'll shot it from anywhere. You can't just have your hands on him or he'll let it go.

"You're not going to hold a player like that scoreless. You just try to contain him," Butler said.

Re-heating Cook: OSU freshman guard and sixth-man Daequan Cook had a tremendous start this season, but Cook has cooled, at least as a scorer, of late. The one thing that has not cooled is his confidence. Cook continues to put the ball up, obviously believing that the end of his shooting slump is just one shot away.

Though he has been slumping, Cook took and made a critical three-pointer in the OSU overtime win against Xavier last week. Cook was 0-6 from the field when he let go a three-point attempt in overtime that found the bottom of the net and pretty much sealed the win for the Buckeyes. The shot was not the kind of shot taken by a guy lacking in confidence. Another guy who is still confident in Cook's ability as a scorer is OSU Head Coach Thad Matta. Matta had no problem with Cook's shot in overtime despite the fact that it came early in the shot clock and the Buckeyes had a lead at the time.

"He (Cook) was so open. The thing that I've been on Daequan about is that when he gets his legs under him and really gets the rhythm on the lift of the shot, I've got great confidence in him shooting the ball," said Matta.

"Obviously time/score/situation, there may be incidents where we don't want to shoot it as quick, but I thought that was a tremendous look for us and he had a clean look at the basket and his feet we set and he got great push, so I had no problems with the shot at the time."

Matta would like nothing better than to see Cook break out his current slump.

"Make no mistake about it we need Daequan to play well for us. We're a much better basketball team when he does that. I think that he's shown at all levels that he can play. We need him to be knocking down his shots and rebounding the basketball," said Matta.

Matta said that Cook's shooting mechanics have been off during his slump.

"It's more of just shot preparation," Matta said.

"Going back to the Wisconsin game he had a couple of shots where I didn't think his feet were completely set and then he gets one in the second half and got equal push and knocked the thing down."

"It's really just having his feet set and driving his legs into his shot. You go back to the two he hit against Central Connecticut State and he was eight feet off the ground when he shot it and that's what we talk about with equal push. He drove his legs and that gives him more rhythm"

Like Cook, Matta still believes that Cook will come out of his slump. He hasn't lost his mojo, he just has to get his mechanics straightened out.

"I wouldn't say that he's pressing," Matta said. "I think that he has a mentally that I like for him, a scorer's mentality. I just want him to make sure that when he's attempting to score that he's doing the right mechanics to get his shot off."

While Cook's shot may not be what it was early in the season, neither is his defense, but that it turns out is\ a good thing. According to Jamar Butler, Cook has made huge strides defensively since coming to Columbus.

"He (Daequan) has come a long way since that first practice," said Butler. "He was a little lost that first practice. He's come a long way."

Speaking of Defense: Jamar Butler snickered a little when he mentioned Daequan Cook's problems on defense early in the season, but then admitted that defense was not something that was important to him, either, when he arrived at OSU.

"Honestly, no. In high school I played no defense. I just shot the ball, that's all I did," Butler said.

Butler said the message that he had to play defense was delivered to him early in his OSU career.

"Coming in my freshman year Coach Matta said if I didn't defend I wouldn't play, and I knew I didn't have to score like I did in high school. I was surrounded with top talent so I could spend a lot of energy on defense," Butler said.

"I had it in me, I knew could play defense, I just didn't do it. Once I got here my freshman year and got started I knew I had to play defense," Butler said.

Matta said that Butler also had a very good mentor on the issue of playing defense in college.

"The greatest thing that happened to Jamar Butler's defense was that he teamed up with Je'Kel Foster for his freshman year, and Je'Kel taught him how to compete, and he taught him what toughness was all about," said Matta.

Butler is now considered a defensive stopper and will draw the assignment of guarding Tennessee star Chris Lofton. Butler says he likes that idea.

"I love challenges. If you don't like a challenge you're not a player," said Butler.

"Anytime your coach puts you on the best player it gives me confidence. He believes I can defend."

Butler said that his defense actually improved this year because of the presence of Mike Conley as OSU's point guard. With Conley out there, Butler doesn't exert himself quite so much at the offensive end, and that leaves him more juice at the defensive end.

"Playing the point and defending is tough," Butler said.

"It takes a lot of energy out of you."

Instant Fame: OSU guard Ron Lewis made a huge shot against Xavier and found out that he was famous when he got back to Columbus. Lewis said that people in the Mall now ask for his autograph, something that didn't happen before "The Shot". Lewis also graduated this week and was somewhat surprised when he actually got an ovation at the graduation ceremony.

"I graduated. It was fun. Yeah, they gave me a little ovation, and Archie Griffin also gave me a little shout out so it was fun," said Lewis of his notoriety at the OSU commencement.

When asked if he had a chance to see a tape of the shot, Lewis admitted to watching a replay...over and over and over.

"More than ten times," Lewis said when\ asked how many times he had watched the shot.

"I actually got a DVD after the game was over to go back and watch it again," Lewis said.

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