It wasn’t much of a game today at Value City Arena as the #2 ranked Buckeyes beat the UT-Pan American Broncs 64-35 for Thad Matta’s 300th victory overall, and his 100th victory over an unranked opponent in Value City Arena. It was overall a slow and plodding game for both sides, with little to get excited about during the course; it very nearly made you wonder if you were really watching the number two team in the nation at all. Evan Ravenel and Deshaun Thomas each scored 11 points for the Buckeyes in replacing Jared Sullinger for the game. Jared Maree of UTPA led all scorers with 13 points and 3 rebounds.

In place of the injured Jared Sullinger, the Buckeyes started Evan Ravenel, the standard backup at the five. Not surprisingly, the Buckeyes started out very sluggishly on the offensive end despite playing aggressive defense. Few shoots were falling, including an easy fast-break layup for Aaron Craft, and may have been an indication of some letdown after the big Duke win. The Bucks kept plugging away, running their standard offense, and Deshaun Thomas managed to do enough early on to get OSU going.

Amazingly, Evan Ravenel was taken out inside the first 4 minutes and replaced with Amir Williams. Matta might have done this to try to get a spark for the team on offense, or to get Amir Williams some more valuable minutes while a game was still “in doubt”. Either way, it was nice to see the young guy get plenty of good minutes early in a basketball game.
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Tags: Aaron Craft, Amir Williams, Broncs, buckeyes, Deshaun Thomas, Evan Ravenel, Jared Sullinger, Jordan Sibert, Lenzelle Smith, Mike Ryans, Ohio State, shannon scott, Texas Pan American, Thad Matta, William Buford
Categories: Analysis, Basketball Analysis, College Basketball, Ohio State Basketball

Today’s liveblog tips at 11:30 am as the Buckeyes take on the Broncs of Texas Pan American.

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.

We’re going to miss Sullinger today one way or another. Get well soon big guy – this team is just not the same without you abusing people in the paint.

Go Bucks!

Tags: Aaron Craft, Amir Williams, Brandon Provost, Broncs, buckeyes, Deshaun Thomas, Evan Ravenel, Jared Maree, Jared Sullinger, JD Weatherspoon, Lenzelle Smith, Mark Ryans, Ohio State, Sam Thompson, shannon scott, Texas Pan American, Thad Matta, William Buford
Categories: Analysis, Basketball Live Chats, College Basketball, Ohio State Basketball

The Buckeyes lost a pretty key ingredient to their team this week heading into their matchup with UTPA. Let’s take a look.

Here come the Bron...Broncs? Uhh..ok

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Tags: Aaron Craft, Amir Williams, Brandon Provost, Broncs, buckeyes, Deshaun Thomas, Evan Ravenel, Jared Maree, Jared Sullinger, JD Weatherspoon, Lenzelle Smith, Mark Ryans, Ohio State, Sam Thompson, shannon scott, Texas Pan American, Thad Matta, William Buford
Categories: Analysis, Basketball Analysis, College Basketball, Ohio State Basketball