Buckeye Blogger Network
Thomas was pretty excited – you should be too.
I couldn’t believe an entire basketball season had passed us by and I hadn’t yet written a Buckeye Basketball Breakdown. It just goes to show you what the final year of a graduate studies program can do to your soul…and your free time. But those are similar really.
Given how the NCAA Tournament wrapped up, I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about what we saw this year from the Buckeyes, and what we might have to look forward to in the future.
I will be the first to admit that I was particularly worried about this team going into Big Ten play. Seeing the Buckeyes meltdown against Duke, struggle with Kansas at home, and generally perform lackadaisically in the first half of every game, I was quite pessimistic on the night of January 4th. I knew the team was growing, I could see their development, but I was extremely worried by what I had seen to that point.
And then the first Illinois game happened the very next day.
Surprisingly, my opinions of the team improved dramatically after that. They fought hard and picked up a pair of wins in that four game stretch, including a huge win against Michigan. They started to clue in to how to play proper basketball, but they were still missing something.
And then Wisconsin happened.
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Urban Meyer has led his Buckeyes out onto the field in Cincinnati and celebrated the return of spring. We’ll be watching the replay and discussing the event in nothing but glowing terms.
Join us and The Buckeye Blog, Buckeye Empire, Men of the Scarlet and Gray, and Buckeye Ninja as we get our brief taste of football in the midst of the dry season! The chat will kick off around 6:45 PM Eastern, with kick-off on the BTN at around 7:00 pm.
Special thanks to Fox Sports Ohio for graciously helping with these livechats all year long!
The greatest day in brainstorming.
Friend of the BBC and draft aficionado Jeff joins us again to talk the NFL Draft. Jeff is a contributor on Indian’s Baseball Insider, has contributed NFL draft coverage on Sports Time Ohio, and can be found on twitter @jeffMLBdraft.
With about two weeks to go until the NFL draft, things are falling into place. The All Star games are done, the combine is long over, and pro days are all but done as well. Ohio State wrapped up their own Pro Day, so at this point things are pretty set in stone for the players.
The Pro Day was the last chance for a lot of these guys to show off what they could do, and prove to teams not only are they worth drafting but drafting high. The downside to this is that the top showing at the Pro day and the only guy who seemed to turn heads was Troy Smith, who used the Pro Day as a chance to try and get back into the NFL. It’s been frankly a rough few months for the guys in grey, so let’s see where their stock is and where I think they end up going.
Johnathan Hankins
Jonathan Hankins is the star of this class. When he declared some people had him listed as a top ten pick and the second defensive tackle on the board behind Star Lotulelei. Since then others have rocketed up, and while Hankins hasn’t hurt himself he has still fallen. This is often a problem for underclassmen, they don’t get to participate in the all star games and this in turn can make them forgotten. The other issue is that while the talent is without a doubt there for Hankins to be a first rounder, the question following him is why he failed to produce and why he seemed to be a low effort player. When no one can see you play, the low effort and little production will hurt you.
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The Buckeyes are in the Elite Eight, and playing the Wichita State Shockers for a trip to the Final Four. For more on the Shockers, check out Ken’s work from yesterday.
Join us and The Buckeye Blog, Buckeye Empire, Men of the Scarlet and Gray, and Buckeye Ninja as we cheer on the Buckeyes in tournament time! The chat will kick off around 6:50 PM Eastern, with tip off on CBS around 7:05 pm.
Special thanks to Fox Sports Ohio for graciously helping with these livechats all year long!
Go Bucks!
Aaron Craft takes a layup over Arizona’s Mark Lyons.
The Arizona Wildcats gave the Buckeyes a rude welcome to the Sweet 16 to start, but the Buckeyes put together an excellent run to reclaim the lead and put the game away 73-70 on a last second LaQuinton Ross three pointer to advance to the Elite Eight. Despite the rough start, the game developed into a back and forth battle that Arizona very nearly reclaimed. DeShaun Thomas led the Buckeyes with 20 points, and was joined in scoring by LaQuinton Ross (17), Aaron Craft (15), and Sam Thompson (11). Arizona was led by Mark Lyons’ 20 points, along with Solomon Hill’s 16.
Arizona controlled the first half for the balance on the strength of a stifling defensive effort. The work shutting down the OSU offense turned into easy points on the other end for the Cats, often on the fast break, but also against a surprising flat Buckeye defense. Of course, that wasn’t about to stop the Wildcats from building a double digit lead with their three point shooting, mostly while Aaron Craft sat on the bench with 2 fouls. But, Thad Matta wasn’t going to let it stay that way. With six minutes to go in the half, Matta risked putting Craft back into the game to try regain control of the momentum. The strategy worked brilliantly, allowing the Bucks to finish on a 12-6 run to close to within 4 points going into the locker room.
What didn’t help the effort for either team was the ludicrous pace of the game as dictated by the officials. I won’t say that the calls were necessarily wrong, but with both teams in the bonus with just under 10 minutes to go in the first half, there were certainly a lot of them. Only at the very end of the half did the officials seem to loosen up on the controls and allow the players to simply play the game.
The Buckeyes came out of the half ready to play basketball. OSU jumped out on a quick 8-0 run on the strength of their own tough defense to take their first lead since the opening possessions. They were able to continue to push that momentum to a solid 8 point lead while continuing to suppress Arizona’s scoring. Not surprisingly, that wasn’t to last. After building up a 10 point lead, the Buckeyes found themselves taking fire from Solomon Hill of Arizona, who sank 9 straight points and brought the game within four.
The Buckeyes have advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 4th time in as many years on the strength of an Aaron Craft dagger – which I’m sure everyone has seen by now. Next up are the 6th-seeded Wildcats of Arizona in sunny Los Angeles.
For more on Sean Miller’s team, check out Ken’s work from a couple days ago.
Join us and The Buckeye Blog, Buckeye Empire, Men of the Scarlet and Gray, and Buckeye Ninja as we cheer on the Buckeyes in tournament time! The chat will kick off around 7:30 PM Eastern, with tip off on TBS (note the “T”!) around 7:47 pm.
Special thanks to Fox Sports Ohio for graciously helping with these livechats all year long!
Go Bucks!
Leapin’ Lizards…
Sam Thompson put his full game on display tonight with a 20 point/10 rebound double-double to lead OSU in a rout of their 1st round opponent Iona, 95-70.
Ah, the ebbs and flows of NCAA tournament basketball. Ohio State went on a tear midway through the 1st half (from about the 17 minute mark to the 9 minute mark) expanding their lead from 6-5 to 27-8. Times were good and we settles in to watch the rout. Except if you’re at all familiar with OSU basketball this year, it wasn’t about to last. Over the next seven minutes, the Gaels outscored the Bucks 25-10 to pull within 4 points, 37-33. Ohio State strung together the final 6 points to go into the break with a 43-33 lead.
Even though the Buckeyes shot well in the 1st half, 50% FG, 75% 3-pt, 80% Ft, it was the defense that powered this team. Ohio State (read Aaron Craft) forced 7 turnovers and converted them into 13 points, several on Sam Thompson you-know-whats.
In addition to the 7 turnovers, OSU blocked 5 Iona shots, 3 by Evan Ravenal.
Ohio State needed to come out and regain their focus in 2nd half to put Iona away. Knowing a good thing when they see it, OSU right away went to their strengths; Sam Thompson, DeShaun Thomas and defense. At the 15 minute mark, led by Craft and Shannon Scott, OSU had already forced 5 turnovers and expanded the 10 point halftime lead to 20 points. At about the 10:30 mark Iona’s David Laury fouled out. At that point, any semblance of a front court game went to the bench as well. At about the same time with the 25-point or so lead, Thad began to rest his starters. At the 5:38 ,ark, in an effort to spark his offense, Thad inserted Amedeo Della Valle (FHM).
In somewhat of a defense of Iona, as good as David Laury (14 points, 8 rebounds) and Sean Armond (17 points, 4 assists, 6 rebounds) played tonight, this was an athletic mismatch, without any doubt at all. The Gaels played true to form with a very upbeat pace, but were often enough stymied at the offensive end by OSU’s length, quickness and athleticism.
The Ohio State box score looked pretty good; hard to look bad when you win by 25 points. Aaron Craft ( 4 points,7 assists,6 steals) Sam Thompson ( 20 points, 10 rebounds) DeShaun Thomas (24 points, 3 rebounds) Evan Ravenal (11 points,4 rebounds,3 blocks). For the full box score, go here, it was a thing of beauty.
On Sunday, Ohio State plays the winner of the Iowa State – Notre Dame game, played played later tonight.
Killian, the mascot…
School: Iona College
Location: New Rochelle, NY (20 miles north of Manhattan)
Founded: 1940
School Type: Private
Student Population: 3,189 total
Stadium: Hynes Athletic Center
Seating: 2,611
Opened: 1974
Head Coach: Tim Cluess
Experience: 2nd year
