Men's Basketball Buckeye Tidbits 2006-2007 Season

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Originally Posted by osugrad21

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Oden-less Buckeyes move to No. 5

By Jim O'Connell

Job well done by the Bucks. I think we are going to be just fine. I didn't see ncaa bb coverage over the weekend. Not one thing about the Bucks. Then last night i started seeing items about Duke and the big east, and then indiana. but still nothing about us. We have a great team but not a big name I guess.

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BSB$ (Jeff Rapp)

10 Things We Now Know About Basketball Bucks..........

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Dispatch

OHIO STATE MEN?S BASKETBALL
Matta views Michigan game as plus for recruiting plans

Basketball players get a feel for fervor of fans

Friday, November 17, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




The coaches of Ohio State?s two highest-profile sports have made it a habit the past couple of years to textmessage each other before big games.
Thad Matta remembered yesterday that he had yet to message Jim Tressel and the football team. Matta had not even thought of what to say. But he knew what not to say.
As much as Matta wants every seat in sold-out Value City Arena filled tonight for his men?s basketball team?s game against Eastern Kentucky ? not just sold but actually occupied ? he won?t do the one thing that might guarantee that: ask the undefeated and No. 1-ranked football Buckeyes to attend. Fans would be out the door to get a look.
No, Matta knows Tressel?s young men have more important things to do, such as watch more tape of No. 2 Michigan.
"I wouldn?t want to be held responsible if they lose," Matta said.
Matta is hoping, however, to take advantage in other ways on the most hyped Ohio State-Michigan game in history. He expects to have a dozen or more prime recruiting targets in town to experience the fervor of Buckeye Nation. Some also will be at the basketball game tonight.
"I know two years ago, my first rivalry game between the two teams, I never felt anything like that," Matta said. "Hopefully, a little bit of that will rub off in the (Schottenstein Center) on Friday night, kind of use it for the fans to get ready for the game on Saturday."
From what some of the players have seen on campus, the students have been ready all week.
"I can?t even describe how different it is to see a whole city just go crazy over a rivalry like this," said freshman guard Mike Conley Jr., who said he was thinking of attending the students? traditional dip in Mirror Lake last night. But only to watch ? can?t have the starting point guard catching pneumonia.
Conley said Indianapolis, where he grew up, has nothing that compares with Ohio State-Michigan.
"I thought it was good to see Indiana and Purdue in basketball. I thought that was crazy," he said. "This blows that out of the gym. I?ve never seen anything like it."
Neither had Jamar Butler when he was a freshman. Now he?s a wiser junior.
"I saw some cars get flipped," he said. "I said, ?Why are they flipping them?? Someone said, ?Because they?re blue.?
"I have a blue Explorer. I?m parking it at the Schott all weekend."
None of the four players interviewed yesterday said he planned to attend the game. None has tickets ? although freshman David Lighty said he was looking for one ? and NCAA rules prohibit them from using any from the allotment the coaches have for recruits.
Moreover, the team has practice a few hours before kickoff, and Butler, Conley and senior Ron Lewis said they would rather chill after that with teammates and watch the game on TV in the players? dormitory rather than be part of the mosh pit in Ohio Stadium.
"If guys want to go, they can go," Butler said. "I?m going to stay out of it.
"There?s going to be a lot going on. I don?t want to say bad things (going on), but a lot of things going on that I don?t think we as players should be around."
bbaptist@dispatch.com

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Dispatch

OHIO STATE MEN?S BASKETBALL
Attention to shooting pays off for Buckeyes

Monday, November 20, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


TERRY GILLIAM ASSOCIATED PRESS Ohio State?s Mike Conley Jr., left, says the Buckeyes "shoot every day before practice and after practice. ? We shoot like we?re actually in a game, and I think that helps us."



When Thad Matta became a head coach for the first time, at Butler in 2000, one sage he tapped for advice was Dick Harter, regarded as one of the best defensive minds in basketball and then an assistant with the Indiana Pacers.
Matta asked Harter if he had another chance to be a head coach, what would he do differently from when he led the expansion Charlotte Hornets from 1988 to ?90.
"He said, ?I?d shoot the ball more (in practice),? " Matta said. "I?ve always taken that from day one as a coach, to practice shooting, because it?s that important.
"It?s like taking 20 minutes to run five-on-zero and get all your sets down and (take) no time for shooting. You may run the play well, but (it doesn?t matter if) you can?t make the shot."
Practice has paid off for Matta?s young Ohio State men?s basketball team. Good shot selection, and by extension good shooting percentages, are not always a strength of players experiencing college basketball for the first time. Yet the No. 5-Buckeyes (4-0), with four firstyear players in their eight-man rotation, have shot 50 percent or better from the field in every game leading up to tonight?s against San Francisco (2-1).
"In the offseason, we got up a ton of shots each day. It?s paid off. It shows everybody worked on their shot," said guard Jamar Butler, whose .469 field-goal percentage is the lowest of the eight regulars.
Matta said he did not know how many shots players hoisted from April through September, but guard Mike Conley Jr. said the team?s goal when it began preseason conditioning in September was to shoot 10,000 shots before practice began Oct. 13. The goal was met.
"It?s just crazy how much we shoot," Conley said. "But it?s definitely working out for us."
Conley said people thought he was working hard in high school when he would put up 200 to 300 extra shots a week.
"That was nothing compared to what we do here," he said. "We shoot every day before practice and after practice. We get up at least 100 jump shots or three-pointers or whatever the drills are that day. We do like 50 mid-range (jumpers), then 50 threes, then come back and shoot 25 free throws.
"The important thing is that we shoot game-type shots, so it?s not like we?re just messing around and throwing the ball up. We shoot like we?re actually in a game, and I think that helps us."
It can be tiring after a hard practice, Conley said, but that?s the idea. "Being able to still shoot when you?re tired is a big deal," he said.
Matta complimented his players for "getting the shots we wanted" in a 74-45 win over Eastern Kentucky on Friday. He singled out freshman Daequan Cook, who scored a game-high 22 points, for doing "a nice job of finding the (open areas)."
Openings could be harder to come by tonight. San Francisco will have better athletes than Eastern Kentucky did. The Dons were picked to finish third in the West Coast Conference this season, behind Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount.
"They?re an athletic team, they like to get up (on defense) and force your hand a little bit," Matta said. bbaptist@dispatch.com

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Dispatch

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Dispatch

OHIO STATE MEN?S BASKETBALL

Channel 10 will show games

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The sometimes-futile search for Ohio State men?s basketball games on local television is over.
All of the Buckeyes? games not televised by ESPN or ESPN2 will be on Channel 10 for the rest of the season, Frank Willson, the station?s director of operations, said yesterday.
Some recent games had been shown on Ohio News Network, prompting complaints from some viewers whose cable systems do not carry ONN. The Buckeyes? next game, at 8 p.m. Friday in Nationwide Arena against Youngstown State, will be on Channel 10.
"Each year, CBS, ESPN and 10 TV negotiate what games we?re going to be able to (air on Channel 10) and what CBS programs we?re going to pre-empt," Willson said. "ESPN came in with a much more aggressive schedule this year. ESPN wanted to air more games on WBNS than we had room to air under our CBS contract."
As a CBS affiliate, Channel 10 is sensitive to the network?s wishes, Willson said.
"If you say we?re going to run your programming and decide to pre-empt, they?re not happy," he said. "They have 200-plus markets they?re counting on to deliver viewers to their programming. Every affiliate that pre-empts CBS takes those viewers away from those advertisers and programs (that CBS has) paid to produce.
"But all parties worked well together and got it solved before there were too many inconveniences."
The starting times of two games were changed as a result. Games against Valparaiso on Dec. 2 and Cleveland State on Dec. 9 will start at 4 p.m. They had been scheduled for 2 p.m.
bbaptist@dispatch.com