Men's Basketball
Butler Rips Buckeyes after Loss to Iowa
By John Porentas

OSU senior point guard Jamar Butler was steaming after his team lost to Iowa by a final of 53-48.

"The guys weren't ready to go from the tip. I could look in guys eyes and just tell we weren't ready to go," said Butler.

"Guys weren't ready to go, the effort wasn't there.

What had Butler so miffed was not so much the loss, but the way it happened. In his eyes, it was a game the Buckeyes (15-7, 6-3 Big Ten) could have and should have won. The Hawkeyes (11-12, 4-6 Big Ten) prevailed because Justin Johnson shot the lights out of the basketball from three point range for his team. Johnson hit eight of 13 three point attempts to score all 24 of his game-high 24 points from beyond the arc. What infuriated Butler was that his team didn't do what it took to deny Johnson open looks at the basket.

"I thought after we hit the third or fourth one we would catch onto it," said Butler.

"They kept pinning in our big man and I guess they didn't think the kid could shoot it. He went on to hit about five more," Butler said.

OSU Head Coach Thad Matta agreed with Butler's assessment of OSU's defensive effort.

"We weren't moving. We were not moving," said Matta.

"There were so many times I looked out there and we had two guys standing next to each other and that's not real good defense."

A lack of defensive intensity is never a good thing, but it's a particularly bad thing when your own offense isn't effective. The Buckeyes were stone cold from three point range making just 3-21 in the contest. The poor shooting combined with the lack of defensive effort was too much for OSU to overcome.

"I'm upset because I didn't think we played particularly well, but we're not the type of team that can go 3 for 21 and be in it," said Matta.

Cold shooting nights happen, but teams can have a cold shooting night and still win if they do the other things that win basketball games. What had Butler so upset is that the Buckeyes didn't execute in other phases of the game when their shots didn't fall. He pointed to a called play coming out of a timeout late in the game as an example. The play ended up with Butler throwing up a three as the shot clock expired. Butler missed, but what had him so upset was what happened after the miss.

"The play we set up, we didn't execute it. That busted the whole play. I had to get the ball and try to get it to the rim," Butler said.

"What surprised me was I put it up and all four of my other guys were standing at the three point line and nobody crashed the boards. With two seconds on the shot clock you've got to go get it. There's only one thing you can do. I have no clue what they were doing."

The Hawkeyes, who the Buckeyes routed by a score of 79-48 earlier this season in Columbus, pretty much controlled the game the entire way. Iowa led by five at the half and led the entire second half though the Buckeyes never trailed by more than eight. OSU actually closed to within three at 49-46 with 4:59 left to play, but scored just two more points the rest of the game to take the loss. Following the game, Butler was in no mood to handle his teammates with kid gloves.

"I'm done with that. I'm done with it," said Butler.

"I'm just going to start going at guys and tell them how it is.

"The (Big Ten) season is half way over with.

"If they plan on playing in March and if they care about playing in March, I don't know if it's possible to win the Big Ten now, but if they want to play in March they better pick their games up, that's all I can say.

"Last year's team it never would have happened, I can tell you that. Guys were mentally ready to go night in and night out. I guess it was just more important to us last year," said Butler with uncharacteristic frankness.

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