Five things that need to change for the Buckeyes to make a run in March
After 19 games of the 2007-2008 basketball season, to say that Ohio State hoops is a disappointment is an understatement. After winning the ’05-06 Big Ten title with smoke and mirrors and last year’s conference crown with the famed “Thad Five,” Columbus basketball fans have come to expect greatness.
And why shouldn’t they? The current recruiting class was another of coach Thad Matta’s heralded groups, and while Greg Oden, Mike Conley and others didn’t return, Jamar Butler and Othello Hunter were still on campus to lead another young squad. While a third consecutive Bit Ten Championship might have been overly optimistic, the Buckeyes should be better than the bubble team that they are.
Despite the struggles, they’ve shown their potential at times this season, just never for 40 minutes. Remember when the then second-ranked Tar Heels trailed at half-time back in December? More recently, the Buckeyes only needed a few minutes to erase large deficits to Michigan State and Tennessee, both on the road.
So what’s wrong with the Buckeyes? At 13-6, Ohio State is currently slated to be an 11-seed and one of the last four invited to the dance, at least according to ESPN.com’s bracketology. Here are five things that must improve if the Buckeyes are going to make any noise come March.
1. Play 40 minutes
I alluded to this earlier, but the Buckeyes have had difficulty playing the entire game this season. For long stretches within games, OSU has struggled on at least one end of the floor. With nine minutes remaining Tuesday against Illinois, the Buckeyes were in control with a 15 point lead. But a 20-8 run over the next eight and a half minutes allowed the Illini to get back in a game that had been out of reach.
While the Buckeyes escaped that game, in others they haven’t been so lucky. At MSU, the game was over before it started. After taking a 2-1 lead barely over a minute into the game, the Spartans outscored OSU 26-5 over the next ten minutes. Matta’s crew fought back in the second half, but never regained the lead and ended up losing by six.
The same story has come up in other games this season. OSU is never going to beat a good team playing only 30 minutes a night.
2. Find an inside presence
Kosta Koufos has game. At seven feet tall, he can run the floor and make shots from anywhere on the floor. The only problem?
He’s soft.
Despite an overwhelming height advantage, Koufos averages under seven boards a contest. He prefers to play outside rather than banging down low, a la Dirk Nowitzki.
This wouldn’t be too much of a problem if there were somebody else to do the dirty work inside, but there isn’t. Hunter has been inconsistent to say the least, and back-ups Matt Terwilliger and Dallas Lauderdale haven’t shown they can be trusted for long stretches off the bench, let alone in the starting line up. Given all the struggles at the big positions, it makes you wonder how badly Kyle Madsen has been in practice since he can’t even crack the rotation.
Until the Buckeyes find consistency in the paint, they won’t be a viable Big Ten contender.
3. Where’s Robin?
What I mean by this is there needs to be a sidekick. Senior point guard Butler has been a scoring threat night in and night out. Rather, he’s been the scoring threat night in and night out. Lately though, teams have started to wise up and are making Butler the focal point of their defense. After cracking double figures in 11 of the first 13 games, Butler has only broken then 10-point barrier twice in the last six contests.
Koufos, Hunter, Jon Diebler, David Lighty and Evan Turner have all had good games this season, but one of them needs to emerge as a consistent second option in order to keep defenses honest. Look for Turner to fill this role, as he’s been catching fire of late.
4. Bring some back up
Speaking of taking the load off of Butler, he’s averaging 35 minutes a night for the Buckeyes this year. That’s more than many NBA starters. If OSU is going to make a run in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, Butler is going to need to have his legs under him.
The problem is there isn’t a lot of depth at the point guard position. Diebler doesn’t have the ball handling skills to run the offense, so it falls on either Lighty or little-used P.J. Hill.
Lighty is a good player, but at his size he may have difficulty controlling the ball. Not only that, but Lighty struggles to assert himself in a lot of games, and a floor general has to know where they’re going with the basketball.
So that leaves Hill, who has struggled with turnovers in limited playing time this season. This might be the biggest problem facing the Buckeyes, as there doesn’t appear to be a feasible option on the roster.
5. Grow up a little
This is a young team, one of the youngest in the conference. The only starter remaining from last year’s Final Four squad is Butler, and Lighty, Hunter and Terwilliger are the only other guys who saw significant playing time. Only four players on the 13-man roster are upper classmen, and one of those is a walk on (Danny Peters).
The downside to Matta’s ability to recruit the best talent in the country is constant roster turnover. After one year of the “Thad Five,” three members of the celebrated class left for the NBA. Even highly regarded freshmen are still freshmen.
So it falls on those freshmen and sophomores to do it all. They must score the points and lead the team despite their inexperience.
Outlook
The bumps in the road aren’t over. Expect a bad loss in the near future for the Buckeyes, maybe even as soon as tonight against Minnesota. That being said, as the season wears on, this team will grow.
The talent is there, but the wisdom and leadership aren’t. The regular season conference title is a pipe dream at this point, but expect a deep Big Ten tournament run, and an exit in either the second round or Sweet 16 of the NCAAs.