Season is under way. Just looking at scores tonight which are mostly David vs Goliath matchups but a couple of premier matchups. Ohio State went to Gainesville and demolished the Gators who are favored to win the SEC. Louisville is thumping last years Cinderella in Butler by 18 points at halftime. Terry
Terry, I was very pleased with our performance in Gainesville against #9 Florida. We have a freshman point guard who can really dish it out and a power forward Jared Sullinger, who can score and rebound, great soft hands and a real competitor. (HS All American) David Lighty and Sully led the Buckeyes in scoring with 26 points each. I thought we were over rated at #4 for this early in the season, but maybe not.
OSU looked real strong in G-ville. They will get serious consideration for my pool champion in March......barring injury.
Looks like college basketball season is well underway. Unranked Louisville beats Butler and Gonzaga loses at home. Should be a great season.
Tennessee is 2-0 but has not played the likes of OSU. With that said, LSU is 1-1 after losing to Nicholls State at home by 9.
Matta is showing he is among the elite both in terms of recruiting and game coaching. There were at times 3 true freshmen on the court at the same time on the road playing an excellent team in a big game atmosphere in a hostile environment. Trailing at half, won by 20.... The Sullinger kid is extraordinary to be sure, but the young freshman point guard Craft may turn out to be just as valuable to this team. The Gators pressed full court the entire night.....Craft rarely turned the ball over, torched them continually for easy baskets. I couldn't understand why Donovan continued to press when it became obvious that the young man was just going to carve them up again, but I suppose once the game got out of hand, he didn't have a whole lot of options to try and get back in it.... Tom, my understanding is that Craft originally verballed to UT. I'm glad he ended up in Columbus, he is a good one. Valedictorian, 4.0 gpa, QB of the football team, etc...a good catch. He probably won't have a difficult time getting a date either....
T, that was my thought, also...wondered why Fla kept up with the press when I can only think of one turnover that it generated. I thought both teams played really well but Fla looked flustered (or gassed) when they got a little bit behind at the end and all of a sudden the lead was huge.
Made sense early, wear out Buford and/or put the young freshmen to the test on the road, but after it became clear that he was more than up to the task, it just made things very easy for Craft to find Sully for a dunk or Craft to find somebody else who then found Sully for a dunk.....but at the end of the press, Sully was dunkin'.....it was almost as if Billy was admitting he couldn't match up in the half court and had no better option. I like this team....nice mix of veterans who've seen alot and talented kids. They can beat you a lot of ways, inside the paint, slashing to the rim and beyond the arc......they're going to be fun to watch....just need everybody to stay healthy...right Stu!? :shock:
I love college basketball but the days of any type of dynasty are gone forever. You simply cannot keep a team together. If the kid is exceptional he's gone after a year.
Unfortunate but true.....Sully is exceptional and will likely be a lottery pick, if not the first pick, in the draft. Local Columbus kid grew up less than a mile from where I did, good family, smart, big brother was a Buckeye, whatcha gonna do?
Me neither. Didn't seem like UF was trying in the second half what worked well in the first half. Ohio State shot lights out for the game from 3 point land as well and something like 65% from the field. Hard to defend red hot shooting like that.
I hope that eventually the NCAA and the NBA will reach an agreement like MLB has with the colleges. You can come right out of HS, but if you go to college you have to wait 3 years. To me the 1 and done type of kid no matter how good a kid he is a pox on college basketball. While I don't want to indict every kid, but I wouldn't be shocked to learn that most of the 1 and dones attend classes in the fall to establish eligibilty and maybe make a pass at going to class in the Spring but don't finish and take their finals. Spend the rest of the spring after basketball getting ready for the NBA draft.
Just over 40% from 3 which is decent, but not spectacular. The reason the shooting % was so high is because we took the majority of shots from the paint....Sully was 13-17, many of which were dunks coming off a broken press and a mismatch down low. Lighty was 7-7 inside the arc, almost all of which were after slashing to the paint...we weren't shooting it so well as much as UF was defending poorly and providing easy scoring opportunites, imo....
Stu, I see that Purdue is playing Mich State this weekend. Isn't that sort of odd for a conference game to be played in Nov? Why are they doing it?
OSU made 24 of 34 shots in the second half ( 70.5 % ) with many of those shots three pointers and several close in shots as well. Heck they didn't miss from 6-8 feet which is never a given. The Buckeyes don't hit the threes as well as they did then UF defends the paint a little better. But they did....and that's why they romped and why they look so strong this early in the season.
Thad Matta notches yet another top recruit for 2011, Amir Williiams a 6'10" center from Detroit Country Day High School. That make five top notch recruits for next year. He chose OSU over Florida and Michigan. Guess the win last night might have made a huge difference?
I'm suprised UM hasn't turned it around more with John Beilein, he really seems like an excellent coach.
It's really not all that odd when you consider that you were looking at the football schedule. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Purdue University...where ACL's go to die. Lost another one last week...this time in women's basketball.