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Men's Basketball
Past Week Exemplifies Current Buckeyes
By Brandon CastelOn Sunday, Ohio State hung 72 points on Illinois in a 19-point victory at Assembly Hall in Champaign.
Wednesday they managed only 57 points in a three-point loss to No. 4 Purdue at Value City Arena in Columbus.
Both games featured two teams fighting for first place in the Big Ten, but the contrasting outcomes are indicative of the team Thad Matta has put together for the 2009-10 season.
When the Buckeyes, who are currently ranked ninth in the country, are on like they were at Illinois, they look like a team that can play with—and possibly beat—any other team in the country. But when they’re off—specifically Jon Diebler and William Buford—like they were in the first half against the Boilermakers, the Buckeyes look like a team that could be headed for another early exit in the NCAA Tournament.
Losing to the fourth-ranked team in the country on the heels of a nine-game Big Ten winning streak is hardly cause for panic. Only four of the team’s seven losses have come with Evan Turner in the lineup, and only two of those have come since Turner returned to the playing form he showed before injuring his lower back in December.
Any time he’s on the floor, the Buckeyes have a chance to win, and yet his 29 points weren’t good enough Wednesday night to come away with a W. Neither were his seven rebounds, five assists or two steals.
He went 11-of-21 from the floor, but the Buckeyes shot just 42 percent as a team thanks to an 8-for-25 night from Diebler, Buford and David Lighty.
With the way the Buckeyes play, much of their success comes down to those three players. Sunday they got 18 from Diebler and 17 from Lighty as the two wings combined to shoot 12-of-19 from the floor and 9-of-16 from behind the arc.
“When we’re hitting shots like that we’re tough to beat,” Diebler said after going 6-of-11 from behind the arc in Champaign.
He’s right.
If even just one of those three is knocking down shots consistently in a game, the Buckeyes are tough to beat with the way they share the basketball (Wednesday night not included) and the way Turner can take over games in the second half. If two of them are hitting in the same game, well Illinois found out what it was like to get blown out on their home floor in a game that would have put them into a tie for first place in the conference.
But Wednesday night the Buckeyes found out what happens when Turner is forced to play one against five because his teammates aren’t hitting shots. The Buckeyes lack a traditional post presence, and while Dallas Lauderdale is leading the Big Ten in field goal percentage this season, he more often than not disappears against a talented big man like JaJuan Johnson.
Johnson was hitting some ridiculous shots at the one end, but that doesn’t account for Lauderdale’s three points and three rebounds in 31 minutes against the Boilermakers. The Buckeyes also got zero points and zero rebounds from backup Kyle Madsen—who had been playing well— in his nine minutes off the bench, but the other four starters played all 40 minutes Wednesday night.
Without a bench, the Buckeyes are forced to count on the same couple guys to hit shots every single night. There is no Jeremie Simmons off the bench to stick a big three in the corner (although he did do that against Indiana) when the other guys are struggling. Lighty is more of a slasher, so when he goes 1-for-6 from the floor shooting jump shots against Purdue it’s no less likely than him going 3-for-5 from behind the arc against Illinois.
“We wanted to keep Lighty in front of us,” Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter said.
“We were terrified about him getting inside to the basket.”
Lighty will have his nights every so often where he is sticking his jump shots. Give him credit, he has come a long way in that department in a very short period of time. What it typically boils down, however, if Lighty can’t get to the rack is Diebler and Buford. Their ability to hit shots and spread the floor for Turner is what will make this team dangerous come tournament time.
It could also make them an easy out if shots aren’t falling.
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