I second that Don....Stu was right on target with his assessment. There is JuJuan and that was about it while we had kids making plays offensively and defensively all over the court.....JuJuan is very impressive. The total package on offense. Didn't expect that at all....Matta has got these kids playing at a very high level on both ends of the court. The upperclassmen and Sully were known commodities. Craft and Thomas are really coming on strong....especially on the defensive end. If this team stays healthy they could make alot of noise in the dance.
Don't mean to hijack but you Big Ten BB fans had to have seen the end of Fl-Ga while waiting for your game to start. That was one helluva college bb game and what a shot to tie by Walker at the end of the first OT. Gators will make the tourney but they are not in the same room as Ohio State.
This is Matta's 11th year as a head coach.....he has won at least 20 games in each and every year at 3 different schools. He is 43 years old....he is a great bench coach, a great recruiter and the kids love him....I think we're onto something here! Bob Knight currently has the most wins at 902, but Coach K is likely to pass him this year....to put their accomplishments in perspective, Matta would have to average 28 wins a year until he's 65 to pass Knight.....what an extraordinary record of consistently developing outstanding teams for those men.
I like Matta. He's from the Butler cradle of coaches. I was impressed when I saw that he has on the team the Ohio Mr. Basketballs from the last 4 years (Sullinger twice) as well as last year's Indiana Mr. Basketball. That has to be the equivalent of a football coach recruiting about 8 to 10 5-star athletes each year for 4 years in a row.
I saw an interesting article over on ESPN about the make up of college teams. As Sid has pointed out Matta has been excellent in bringing in top talent to Ohio State, some of those guys only stay 1 or 2 years and move to the NBA though. The article pointed out that Wisconsin on the other hand doesn't get that same level of player, but Wisconsin players rarely leave early for the NBA and so Wisconsin frequently has an experienced team lead by Jrs and Srs and has an excellent regular season record. But that teams like Wisconsin (and put ND in this category) rarely go deep into the NCAA, while Ohio State will. His theory is that experienced mature teams will do well in the reg season, but will rarely go far in the NCAA due to the lack of a NBA ready player on the roster.
Ohio State is so far ahead of most of the other teams it almost makes a playoff moot. Let's suppose Florida gets into the top 16....a #4 seed....which I think they will. What's the point then of UF playing the Buckeyes in the NCAA playoffs? Another ass whupping of the Gators proves nothing other than we could have just appointed OSU as one of the top 4 teams at least playing for all the marbles. An extreme example I know but it works in this instance.
I predict right now that the only way Ohio State loses in the tourney is if the Buckeyes experience either a rash of injuries or a couple of key suspensions or....they lose to another high quality top 4 echelon team. OSU is not losing this season to an inferior team.
Yeah couldn't ever happen in a million years....just try to tell that to the can't lose UNLV team that Duke beat, or the can't lose Georgetown team that Villanova beat, or the Can't lose Phi Slamma Jamma Houston Cougars with Hakeem and Clyde who NCState beat!! Sorry OSU fans you now have the KOD!!
There may just be one or two other teams who believe they are our equal or better who have not had the opportunity to play and would like nothing more than to have the opportunity to prove themselves on the court.....instead of having somebody "guess" what the outcome might be and then annoint a champion accordingly.....
All of these conversations makes for some interesting reading, but basketball games can and do exactly the opposite of what the media predicts. A cold shooting night, an injury, a suspension, all take their tolls. But I love watching college basketball. Ohio State on top just makes it that much more interesting. Best enjoy the good times, they are never around forever!
Oh....the Buckeyes won't just get annointed. I would equate any # 2 BB tourney seed or higher as the football equivalent of the top 4 football teams. If the Buckeyes slip just a little against any of the top 8 in the tourney then of course they could be beat. But those teams I don't consider as inferior necessarily but outside of that top 8 yes......all the rest are inferior and I guarantee the Buckeyes will not lose to any team seeded lower than 2 in the NCAA tourney this year. There probably hasn't been as strong a championship contender since UF's defending champion repeaters in 2007 and possibly UNC's senior laden...Hansbrough led squad a couple of years ago. And both of those teams did have tough finals......UNC vs. MSU ( in Detroit ) and Fla vs. OSU ( Oden ) but they both were just that good and persevered for the title. Ohio State is that good as well.
With BYU defeating San Diego State last night, Ohio State remains as the only division 1 team with a perfect record. Fredette is one whale of a scoring machine for BYU.
Buckeyes played an awesome game...was very frustrating to watch. Lost in the conversation is that Purdue did not come ready to play...looked lost. Two guys think a one-and-one is a two shot situation and just stand there. Lewjack throws a pass that hits a guy in the back, for crying out loud. Glad I can go back to rooting for the Buckeyes now...at least until they come to Mackey...but I think I may just spend that day drinking. I do hope that Matta had a little talk with Sully about those elbows he got away with throwing at JJ.
I didn't see that Stu....I do know that would be totally out of character for the young man, something I've yet to see this year and surely not how Satch raised him. Typically he's on the other side of that equation with teams thinking the only way to stop him is to maul him....and he does get mauled regularly. I've yet to see him retaliate in a dirty manner. I do remember them getting tangled up after JuJuan fouled him early as I recall.....I wouldn't classify that as an elbow as much as a message to JuJuan that if he wanted to maul Sully in the post, he needs to add about 50 pounds.....life is rough in the paint in the Big 10 and it sure seems like our guys are the ones ending up with the bloody noses.
Not yet....we play them in two weeks in Mad-town and then finish the regular season with them in Columbus.
I dunno if we're talking about the same play or not...Sully used his left elbow to hook his way around JJ...should have been an offensive foul. Then after the foul was called on JJ he threw his right elbow back at JJ...no contact made and no foul called. No big deal...life is tough in the paint. But I didn't like it.
I think we're talking about the same play....to me it was a message from a savvy freshman that thrives on contact to an upperclassmen that doesn't who had just fouled the younger but much bigger and more physical player....and the message was, "Are you sure?" Had I been a Boiler fan, I'm sure I wouldn't have liked it either, but as a Buckeye fan, I don't like what I see emerging as a double standard on foul calls....those defending against Sully, and everybody else....he gets hammered more than anybody in the league..... That elbow didn't land, but the facial that caught Diebler later in the game surely did.....unintentional perhaps, perhaps not, tough to tell....but you're right, it's a tough conference and life is tough in the paint.
I was unable to watch the game, so I can not comment on ths issue in question between Sully and JJ. Moving on to the game with Northwestern Saturady in Evanston. Minnesota put it the Wildcats pretty good last night without their point guard. We should be able to win but road games are generally not a piece of cake. Northwestern is going to try and hold down the tempo, I am sure of that and sometimes that can cause numerous problems, especially road games.