Buckeye Blogger NetworkWelcome to Wednesday, the first of May… it’s officially grilling season (unless you live in California, where it’s always that time). Here’s today’s soundtrack; if you don’t know why, then… well… keep reading.
Archie’d
Buckeye 411
Participating in the ACC/B1G Challenge, the Buckeyes traveled for their first ever game at Cameron Indoor Stadium against the Duke Blue Devils. The result was the ultimate game of runs as Duke put together a long come-back in the second half to pick up the 73-68 win. DeShaun Thomas finished with only 16 points, his lowest scoring output of the season so far. He was joined in double digits by Lenzelle Smith and Aaron Craft with 11 a piece. Duke’s Mason Plumlee lead all scorers with 20 points and a ludicrous 17 rebounds, and was joined in the double digit club by Rasheed Sulaimon with 17, and Ryan Kelly with 15.
The Buckeyes dominated the first half, finishing with a 31-23 lead to go into intermission. That was made primarily possible by the total lack of scoring from Duke, caused at least in part by the excellent Buckeye defense in their half-court man-to-man set. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes couldn’t connect on a number of open looks, and their shooting percentages were unfortunately low despite a rather poor defensive effort from the Blue Devils throughout the early going.
Everything changed in the second half. Mike Krzyzewski must have gotten into the Blue Devil’s ears in the half as they came out highly motivated on both ends of the court. It took some time, but they slowly chipped away at the Buckeye lead until they eventually claimed it with only 5 minutes left in the game. Duke’s rebounding on the defensive end improved, but most importantly they began to hit their outside looks when it mattered most.
Regardless of the outcome, this is a positive result for the Buckeyes. There’s no such thing as a moral victory, but there definitely are positives you can take away from a loss. The Bucks learned a number of things they have to start doing better. However, they also learned that they’re in a very good position already this season. Duke is a fantastic basketball team this year, and both teams put together a great game for us tonight.
The B1G went 4-2 in the B1G/ACC Challenge last night, and the B1G needs only to go 3-3 tonight for a win. Hopefully one of those wins comes for the Buckeyes as they take on the Duke Blue Devils
Joining us as usual – and special thanks to all of them for making these such a great success – are the other members of the Buckeye Blogger Network. Make sure to stop by their place and say, “hey”: Buckeye Ninja, Our Honor Defend, Men of the Scarlet and Gray, Buckeye Empire, Silver Bullet, The Buckeye Blog, Unscripted Ohio, and Fox Sports Ohio.
The Liveblog will tip around 9:00 PM EST, with the Basketball game starting at 9:30PM on ESPN.
Go Bucks!
Mike Krzyzewski signals his team against the Buckeyes.
After the November 29th game against the Buckeyes, Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski discussed the reasons he believed lead to his team losing the game.
“I thought Ohio State played a great game against us. They were a fresher team; I thought our team played tired. They are very athletic, together and they played with a great verve. Obviously they are deserving of the win, but they were a lot fresher than we were. We could never get into the ballgame.”
So Krzyzewski believes that his team was tired after their three games in as many days against Tennessee, Michigan, and Kansas last week in the Maui Invitational. That’s certainly possible considering the quality of the teams, the rate they played the games, and the chance of jet lag.
But is there any way we could tell for certain if they actually were suffering from exhaustion? You’re probably thinking I wouldn’t write this article unless there was, and you would be entirely correct.
There are three types of exhaustion that are common in college athletics: Physical, Mental, and Emotional. Physical is obvious – the sheer muscular failure that comes from overexertion. Mental and emotional are more of an enigma, but are just as easily seen in the results on the court. Overcoming these are one of the big tasks for any team trying to make a deep tournament run in March.
There are several different places to look for signs of exhaustion in a team. In some cases, a look at the stats can get the job done. One must keep in mind while analyzing stats for signs of wear that strong defensive play makes a difference as well. I will do the best I can to point out how to tell if the issue is with a strong defense as opposed to a tired team.
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If there was anyone in Buckeye Nation still questioning whether the Ohio State Buckeyes could compete with the top teams in the nation, tonight was a true testament to what Ohio State basketball is about when it’s clicking all cylinders. In tonight’s 85-63 win it became apparent that there is nobody as dynamic as the Ohio State Buckeyes when they are on their A game.
Whether it was scoring in the post, hitting the outside shot, or running the floor, The Buckeyes had it Tuesday night against the Duke Blue Devils. After starting the game on a 11-0 run, The Blue Devils fought back with a 13-2 tear of their own. It looked like we had one of the most competitive games of the season between these two teams.
Early in the first half though,tonight’s hosting team put on a clinic for NBA superstars Dwayne Wade and LeBron James in attendance. If anything could be learned in Columbus on Tuesday night, it was that the NBA’s elite were being taught a lesson from this electrifying college basketball program heading into the holiday season.
The key to winning ballgames isn’t taking your talent to South Beach. All you got to do is put together a team effort on defense, score in the transition, and grind out any type of opposing run with timely defense and control of the basketball.
And then of course it doesn’t hurt when you have a Tank with a heat seeking missile, a senior sharpshooting dagger, and a battering ram in the post.
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For tonight’s LiveBlog we have a special treat – the Duke Blue Devils themselves are gracing the court of the Value City Arena to take on our #2 ranked Buckeyes.
Chatting about it with us are our best buddies: Men of the Scarlet and Gray, Our Honor Defend, OSU Silver Bullet, Buckeye House Call, the Buckeye Blog, and Fox Sports Ohio.
Come say hello and watch your Buckeyes take on the Blue Devils with your favorite bloggers!
Go Bucks!
The now #2 ranked Buckeyes get set to take on the #3 ranked Duke Blue Devils in Value City Arena for their part of the B1G/ACC Challenge. Let’s take a look at the Dookies!
The Dookies!
| School: | Duke University |
| Location: | Durham, North Carolina |
| Founded: | 1838 |
| Student Population: | 14,248 |
| School Type: | Private |
| Division: | NCAA DIV I |
| Conference: | Atlantic Coast (ACC) |
| Stadium: | Cameron Indoor Stadium |
| Seating: | 9,314 |
| Built: | 1940 |
| Head Coach: | Mike Krzyzewski |
| Year: | 32nd |
As the NCAA Tournament and the 2010-11 college basketball season wound down these past few days (and boy did it wind down last night), the annual movement of coaches among the college ranks started to pick up. Teams are scrambling to fill vacancies with the best talent on the market, and while some coaches have indicated an intent to stay put despite recent attention (see Shaka Smart), others seem to have entertained the possibility of moving elsewhere (see Matt Painter). Then there are those coaches who have already put pen to paper and signed on the dotted line, thus sealing their future (at least for the next few years) as the new head coach for a program.
One such coach is Archie Miller, who just signed on as the new head coach for the Dayton Flyers. The Flyers’ former coach, Brian Gregory, made the decision to leave for Georgia Tech, leaving Dayton with an opening to fill and Miller as an attractive candidate. Miller, who is coming to Dayton from the University of Arizona, where he served as an assistant under older brother Sean Miller, may be a familiar name to Ohio State followers from his days as an assistant under Thad Matta for the Buckeyes. Miller was in Columbus for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons before joining his brother at Arizona. Going one step further, the Miller family in general has some connection to Thad and Ohio State by means of the following: Read More
