IUFLA Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 When: Saturday, January 6th 8 PM EST Where: Simon-Skjotd Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana TV: Fox Chris Holtmann (7th year at OSU 135-77 overall 65-56 in the Big 10) brings his Ohio State Buckeyes (12-2 2-1 in the Big 10) into SSAH off of a tough home game where they outlasted a game Rutgers squad. The Buckeyes are led by one of the best points guards in the Big 10, 6'2 sophomore Bruce Thornton. Thornton leads the team in scoring (17 ppg) assists (4 apg) and steals, and only averages 1 turnover per game. The kid is a leader that shoots it at 52% overall and 37% from 3. He's backed up scoring wise by 6'7 senior grad transfer (George Washington, Minnesota) Jamison Battle (15 ppg and leads the Big 10 in 3 point percentage @ 45%) and 6'4 sophomore Roddy Gayle (15 ppg 40% from behind the arc). 6'11 sophomore rim runner and protector Felix Okpara (6 ppg) and 6'6 Swiss Army knife transfer (Penn State) Evan Mahaffey (4 ppg) round out the starting 5. Veteran 6'8 senior Zed Key (9 ppg) is a reliable post presence off the bench. 6'2 grad transfer (Baylor) Dale Bonner (6 ppg 33% from 3) provides backcourt depth. 6'6 freshmen Scotty Middleton (RSCI #49 5 ppg) and Devin Royal (RSCI #40 2 ppg) supply spot minutes. Ohio State is one of the better 3 point shooting teams we will see (38% as a team), even if their volume is middle of the pack. Thornton, Battle, and Gayle all have serviceable mid-range and dribble-drive games. Good free throw shooting team that rebounds well, and moves the ball well. Okpara is a pretty good shot blocker and a decent rebounder, but it's Mahaffey who you have to keep off of the offensive boards. He's an excellent defender and makes a lot of "hustle plays" as well. Good team... Much better than last year. They lost their only true road game to a mediocre Penn State team in early December. We'll have our crowd backing us, and I would imagine Woody will light a fire under a few of our guys. We cannot turn it over like we did against Nebraska and expect to win. I think Malik, Trey, and X rebound here and have good games... They'll need to for us to take this one... GO HOOSIERS! 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parakeet Jones Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 As discouraged as I am right now, I still think we find a way to win this one. The SSAH home court magic gets us this one. We really need it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoB2011 Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 Don’t like the matchup. Ohio State shoots the three and offensive rebounds well. We need home court to be rocking, but there’s a lot of conflicting interest at the same time as the game. Hopefully not too many people have tickets to this and the Colts game because that will impact our home court. Are the students back? I am thinking they are not but haven’t seen confirmation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parakeet Jones Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 10 minutes ago, KoB2011 said: Don’t like the matchup. Ohio State shoots the three and offensive rebounds well. We need home court to be rocking, but there’s a lot of conflicting interest at the same time as the game. Hopefully not too many people have tickets to this and the Colts game because that will impact our home court. Are the students back? I am thinking they are not but haven’t seen confirmation. I don't think they are because it is in my mini series package. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoB2011 Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 7 minutes ago, Parakeet Jones said: I don't think they are because it is in my mini series package. That’s what I was thinking. I wonder how many mini series and season ticket holders also have Colts tickets to what is essentially a playoff game? I know of a few folks, I am sure there’s a decent overlap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobSaccamanno Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 Ohio State did a great job last offseason recruiting the right pieces coming off a lousy year and their young players improved drastically. This is a big game but on paper they look better. Huge game for Woody. This has nothing to do with getting over the hump. He needs to get them to turn it around drastically and finally get their first quality win. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parakeet Jones Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 10 minutes ago, KoB2011 said: That’s what I was thinking. I wonder how many mini series and season ticket holders also have Colts tickets to what is essentially a playoff game? I know of a few folks, I am sure there’s a decent overlap. I don't know. I'll be there since I already have tickets. With the overlap of the games, I wouldn't be seeking them out if I didn't already. IU basketball is my primary fandom and there is no way I'd just blow off going, but dang it I hate that I am going to miss being able to be a dual threat fan that night. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoB2011 Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 40 minutes ago, Parakeet Jones said: I don't know. I'll be there since I already have tickets. With the overlap of the games, I wouldn't be seeking them out if I didn't already. IU basketball is my primary fandom and there is no way I'd just blow off going, but dang it I hate that I am going to miss being able to be a dual threat fan that night. Yeah I would suspect most folks that have tickets for the IU game will go. My concern is people that don’t already have tickets or have tickets to both. I’m not saying it’ll be an empty stadium, but if we have a couple thousand empty seats, have a number of folks as interested in scoreboard watching the Colts as they are the game, the team plays uninspired again… it may not be the home court advantage we need to win this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking6 Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 Going to go out on a big limb here. If we don't turn the ball over 19 times we win. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
13th&Jackson Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 They aren't deep, but their backcourt is much better and Battle has been lights out from three. We don't have anyone who can guard him out there effectively, Thornton and Gayle are a very bad matchup. They don't have much inside, so Ware and Reneau should have good games. Will it be enough to offset the perimeter deficiency? They have seven players averaging over 3 rebounds per game. IU needs to be much more active there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyhoosier29 Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 I’m leaning towards us squeaking this one out at home, but won’t be surprised to see us lose if we guard the perimeter like we normally do. But I’ll say we win, then everybody thinks we can go to Rutgers and win, but we get beat by 15 again. Just no confidence in this team figuring it out, or playing significantly better. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotIThatLives Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 This seems like a Kansas game. Not quite as good. Not very favorable match ups. Don't know the recent history but i think its in our favor with OSU. No confidence what so ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCHoosier32 Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 2 hours ago, kyhoosier29 said: I’m leaning towards us squeaking this one out at home, but won’t be surprised to see us lose if we guard the perimeter like we normally do. But I’ll say we win, then everybody thinks we can go to Rutgers and win, but we get beat by 15 again. Just no confidence in this team figuring it out, or playing significantly better. this is exactly what i'm saying. now if we lose this one...ugh. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reacher Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 I see this as a battle between their backcourt and our frontcourt. Have to believe we have the edge playing at home. Hope they are pissed after that last showing and come ready to play hard. OSU will be physical. Need to get some fouls on them and test their depth. Cannot afford a loss here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking6 Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 We get Gus Johnson and Jimmy Jackson on the call Saturday night. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier987 Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 (edited) I'm expecting or at least hoping for a win mainly because it's home...but until we get better guard play - if ever this season - this team has a very low ceiling. I'm hoping we shorten the rotation to 8 and if CMW is absolutely hell bent on playing Gunn and Banks then please play one at a time...playing those two together is a recipe for disaster as we have seen time and time again. Their negatives simply outweigh any positive they bring. Edited January 5 by Hoosier987 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IUFLA Posted January 5 Author Report Share Posted January 5 18 hours ago, Reacher said: I see this as a battle between their backcourt and our frontcourt. Have to believe we have the edge playing at home. Hope they are pissed after that last showing and come ready to play hard. OSU will be physical. Need to get some fouls on them and test their depth. Cannot afford a loss here. Control Thornton (which is asking a lot) and we'll win...that simple to me...Battle can kill you from outside, but Thornton is the catalyst... We definitely need the defensive XJ from 2022 to show up... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kdug Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 36 minutes ago, IUFLA said: Control Thornton (which is asking a lot) and we'll win...that simple to me...Battle can kill you from outside, but Thornton is the catalyst... We definitely need the defensive XJ from 2022 to show up... Imo XJ is the catalyst not just for this game, but the rest of the season. He showed he can be an effective two way guard in 2022. I think we need that version of XJ to have any chance of winning enough down the stretch. Unfortunately that’s been the exception, not the norm. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCHoosier32 Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 1 hour ago, Hoosier987 said: I'm expecting or at least hoping for a win mainly because it's home...but until we get better guard play - if ever this season - this team has a very low ceiling. I'm hoping we shorten the rotation to 8 and if CMW is absolutely hell bent on playing Gunn and Banks then please play one at a time...playing those two together is a recipe for disaster as we have seen time and time again. Their negatives simply outweigh any positive they bring. i agree, but take it a step further... any minutes that we have a combo of 3 of these guys on the floor at the same time are ugly offensively: Ware, Reneau, Walker, Banks, Sparks. pretty easy to understand why. none are wing players offensively. problem is Mgbako is the only 3 on the team and he is better suited at the 4. so any time he is out, we either have 3 of those guys in together or now we can go XJ, Cupps, Galloway which is definitely better. until X came back, Gunn and Leal were the only other options which wasn't much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCHoosier32 Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 13 minutes ago, Kdug said: Imo XJ is the catalyst not just for this game, but the rest of the season. He showed he can be an effective two way guard in 2022. I think we need that version of XJ to have any chance of winning enough down the stretch. Unfortunately that’s been the exception, not the norm. totally agree that that is what we need and am highly skeptical that we will get the level of play that we need out of him on a consistent basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5fouls Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 1 hour ago, Seeking6 said: We get Gus Johnson and Jimmy Jackson on the call Saturday night. Gus is always a good get. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IUFLA Posted January 5 Author Report Share Posted January 5 I'm thinking Ware-Okpara Reneau-Battle Mgbako-Mahaffey Galloway-Gayle Johnson-Thornton Okpara is more slight than Kel'el is, but he's also long and pretty athletic... The matchup I like on the offensive end for us is Battle-Reneau...Battle might be lights out shooting it, but he's not exactly Bobby Jones on the defensive end... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGleas Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 19 minutes ago, IUFLA said: I'm thinking Ware-Okpara Reneau-Battle Mgbako-Mahaffey Galloway-Gayle Johnson-Thornton Okpara is more slight than Kel'el is, but he's also long and pretty athletic... The matchup I like on the offensive end for us is Battle-Reneau...Battle might be lights out shooting it, but he's not exactly Bobby Jones on the defensive end... Agree, though the problem with a Reneau-Battle matchup is we're trading 3's for 2's. I guess we're kind of always doing that, but might be exasperated in this matchup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoB2011 Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 5 minutes ago, BGleas said: Agree, though the problem with a Reneau-Battle matchup is we're trading 3's for 2's. I guess we're kind of always doing that, but might be exasperated in this matchup. I also don’t think Ohio State is going to let Battle just get roasted in the post by Reneau. They’ll double, zone, etc. but we will have a much tougher time solving for the three point defense because of the schematic problems we have over helping. We can win this at home but it’s going to take a very good effort from everyone on our side. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGleas Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 1 minute ago, KoB2011 said: I also don’t think Ohio State is going to let Battle just get roasted in the post by Reneau. They’ll double, zone, etc. but we will have a much tougher time solving for the three point defense because of the schematic problems we have over helping. We can win this at home but it’s going to take a very good effort from everyone on our side. Really good point on how OSU will probably defend the post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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