#4 Ohio State 107, VMI 69 (Final)

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Photos from the game.....

Ohio State's Ron Lewis (12) drives the baseline as VMI's Lucas Jones defends during the second half of the BCA classic college basketball game, Friday, Nov. 10, 2006, in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State won, 107-69. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)



Ohio State's Jamar Butler (14) shoot as VMI's Chavis Holmes defends during the second half of the BCA classic college basketball game, Friday, Nov. 10, 2006, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)



Ohio State's Ivan Harris (3) shoot over VMI's Lucas Jones during the second half of the BCA classic college basketball game, Friday, Nov. 10, 2006, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)


Ohio State's Daequan Cook (31) goes in for a dunk against VMI during the first half of the BCA classic college basketball game, Friday, Nov. 10, 2006, in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State won, 107-69. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)


Ohio State coach Thad Matta reacts to a call during the first half against VMI at the BCA classic college basketball game, Friday, Nov. 10, 2006, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)

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DDN

Buckeyes find their rhythm to overwhelm VMI, 107-69

Freshman Daequan Cook leads Ohio State with 22 points.


By Mark Gokavi
Staff Writer

Saturday, November 11, 2006


COLUMBUS ? The Buckeyes gave the crowd a win, set a points record in their place and put on quite a show.
Coach Thad Matta's No. 7-ranked Ohio State's men's basketball team opened its season with a 107-69 victory over VMI in front of an announced crowd of 13,219 the Schottenstein Center. OSU plays Loyola at 8 tonight in the second round of the Black Coaches Association Classic.
"They're as advertised, I thought," Virginia Military Institute coach Duggar Baucom said. "Thad has got a stable full of horses here."
The Buckeyes were unsteady early, but new colts like Dunbar graduate Daequan Cook and "old" horses like junior Jamar Butler pulled away down the stretch. One second-half spurt took the lead from 56-49 to 77-61. After that, OSU put the hammer down with a 19-0 run.
"Defensively, second half, our guys locked down and did a much better job," Matta said. "We were able to go from 43 (first-half points) to 26 points. That was probably the biggest difference right there."
Without 7-foot freshman Greg Oden, the undersized Buckeyes were outrebounded in the first half. That turned into a 52-42 game advantage. Of course, there were plenty of rebounds available since VMI was 11 of 47 from 3-point land ? a record number of tries for an OSU foe.
OSU shot 13 of 34 from the arc for a huge total of 81 threes attempted. The Buckeyes shot 59 percent overall but that included 30 of 39 from two-point land. Ohio State's 107 points is an arena record.
Cook got his share, leading OSU with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting. He also had 9 rebounds but added five turnovers.
"Me and coach Matta had a conversation about how I was rushing a lot of my shots, drawing a lot of charges," said Cook, whose 22 points were the best for an OSU true freshman debut (Michael Redd had 21 in 1997). "What he talked to me about today was just let my game come to me."
Butler scored 18, Ivan Harris 17, Ron Lewis 15 and David Lighty 11. Point guard Mike Conley had 8 points and 10 assists against two turnovers while Othello Hunter scored 8 and had a team-high 13 rebounds.
Reggie Williams and Fred Robinson led VMI with 16 points apiece.
Key play: Butler's 3-pointer started the 19-0 run.
Key player: Cook, who also added two 2 assists, 2 steals and a block.
Key stats: OSU shot 64.7 percent in the second half. OSU outscored VMI 50-6 in fast-break points. The teams combined for 81 three-point attempts and 50 turnovers.
The starters were Butler, Lewis, Lighty, Conley and Hunter. Cook entered the game with 16:02 left before halftime.


Contact this reporter (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@daytondailynews.com.




Other BCA Classic games Friday

IUPUI 86, Alabama A&M 47: George Hill scored 20 and Austin Montgomery added 15 as IUPUI led in points off turnovers 35-8.
Kent State 105, South Dakota State 50: Six Flashes hit double digits as Kent State shot 63 percent and outscored South Dakota State 56-14 in the lane.
Loyola 68, Princeton 57: Leon Young and J.R. Blount each scored 12 as the Ramblers shot 58 percent and won the rebounding battle 33-14.

Today's games
Noon ? Alabama A&M (0-1) vs. South Dakota State (0-1)
2 p.m. ? Princeton (0-1) vs. VMI (0-1)
6 p.m. ? Kent State (1-0) vs. IUPUI (1-0)
8 p.m. ? Ohio State (1-0) vs. Loyola (1-0)

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CPD

BCA CLASSIC

OSU's youth is served, compliments of Cook

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Elton Alexander

Plain Dealer Reporter

Columbus- It was the visual definition of run and gun in the 2006-07 opener for Ohio State men's basketball as the Buckeyes set a Value City Arena scoring record by topping VMI, 107-68, Friday night in the BCA Classic.

It was the first game for several OSU freshmen, including David Lighty (Villa Angela-St. Joseph), who started and delivered 11 points. But it was another rookie, 6-5 Daequan Cook, who stole the show with 22 points, nine rebounds and five assists on a night the two teams combined for a whopping 81 3-point attempts, making 24.

"I felt comfortable," said Cook, from Dayton Dunbar. "I let the game come to me."

Indeed, it came to just about everyone in scarlet and gray as the Buckeyes had five players in double figures, shot 58.9 percent for the game, and outrebounded Virginia Military Institute, 52-42.

"They are really, really talented," VMI coach Duggar Baucom said. "They are as advertised. [OSU coach Thad Matta] has a stable full of horses. They are good, good players."

Buckeyes 7-0 freshman Greg Oden was sidelined with a still-mending broken right wrist, so Ohio State attempted to run and gun without him. The result was a game of ebbs and flows in the first half as VMI dominated the glass (29-24) the first 20 minutes, including 13 offensive boards, and played nearly even in turnovers (11-12) to trail, 51-43, at the half.

With a hot hand early, the Buckeyes used a pair of Jamar Butler 3-pointers to get off to a 16-4 start. Some fast-break alley-oops aided freshman Mike Conley (eight points, 10 assists, five steals) as his seven early assists helped to push the edge to 26-11.

But that was followed by cold spells that saw VMI close to 29-25 before the Bucks pushed their lead back up to 13. Yet a 9-2 run brought VMI within 47-41 before fatigue hit and OSU got its halftime edge.

The main man for seventh-ranked OSU was Cook. He came off the bench to deliver 17 of his points on 7 of 9 shooting to anchor the Buckeyes early on. After the break, Ohio State's physical superiority wore the Keydets down, even as both teams kept shooting 3-pointers at will.

The Buckeyes will play Loyola of Chicago, a 68-57 winner over Princeton, at 8 tonight in the semifinal round.

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Dispatch

OHIO STATE 107 VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE 69

Off to a running start
Buckeyes get into footrace with Keydets before blowing them away in second half

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Ohio State?s Daequan Cook, right, leaves VMI?s Adam Lonon with nowhere to go. Cook led the Buckeyes in scoring with 22 points.


That adage about kids having to learn to walk before they run is true.
Unfortunately for the newborn Ohio State men?s basketball team, it had no choice but to run ? and run, and run some more ? last night in the first Division I college game for about half the roster.
Either that or get lapped by spunky Virginia Military Institute, which had scored 272 points in two exhibition wins.
It was pretty at times. It wasn?t pretty at times. But it was, at the end, a 107-69 victory for the Buckeyes in Value City Arena in the first round of the Black Coaches Association Classic.
It was the most points scored by Ohio State in nine seasons in Value City Arena and its most in a game since a 121-96 win over George Mason in St. John Arena on Jan. 8, 1995.
"I don?t know if I?ve coached in a game like that where, offensively, you?re just basically making plays the entire game," said coach Thad Matta, looking at a box score that showed the teams combining for 159 shots from the field and 50 turnovers.
"I thought our guys did a pretty good job. We got careless with the ball. . . . But defensively, in the second half, our guys locked down and we did a much better job. We were able to go from 43 (points allowed in the first half) to 26 points (in the second). That was probably the biggest difference right there."
Ohio State (1-0) advanced to play Loyola (Ill.) in a BCA Classic semifinal at 8 tonight. Loyola (1-0) defeated Princeton 68-57.
Kent State and IUPUI will meet in the other semifinal at 2 p.m. Kent State defeated South Dakota State 105-50 and IUPUI toppled Alabama A &M 86-47.
The consolation semifinals will match Alabama A &M and South Dakota State at noon and Princeton and VMI at 5:30 p.m.
Daequan Cook came off the bench to lead five double-figure scorers for Ohio State with 22 points, the most by a true freshman in his Ohio State debut. He also had nine rebounds.
"I let the game come to me," Cook said. "Me and coach Matta had a conversation about how I was rushing a lot of my shots and drawing a lot of (charging fouls). What he talked to me about today was just letting the game come to me and playing my game, and that?s what I did."
Jamar Butler had 18 points, Ivan Harris 17, Ron Lewis 15 and David Lighty 11. Othello Hunter had 13 rebounds and Mike Conley Jr. 10 assists and five steals.
Reggie Williams and Fred Robinson led VMI with 16 points apiece.
"They are really, really talented. They?re as advertised," VMI coach Duggar Baucom said of the Buckeyes.
Ohio State, which led 51-46 with 19 minutes to play after an entertaining if sometimes exasperating first half, put the game away with a solid six-plus minutes during which they outscored the Keydets 21-8.
Until then, the Buckeyes had been breathtaking on offense at times with their athleticism, victimizing VMI?s ball pressure by passing or dribbling through it and finding open finishers for layups or alley-oop dunks.
Problem was, the pace of the game caused them to be loose and lax on both ends. They finished with 26 turnovers and, as in their two exhibition games, were getting beaten on the boards by an inferior opponent.
"We went away from our system defensively. We weren?t very sound," Matta said.
The Buckeyes tied up the loose ends in the second half. They outrebounded VMI 28-13 to finish with a 10-board edge, held the Keydets to nine field goals and forced 13 turnovers.
"I thought their defense was much better in the second half," Baucom said. "Every shot was contested, they were bodying up. They started playing that Big Ten basketball."
bbaptist@dispatch.com

Saturday, November 11, 2006

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Dispatch

COMMENTARY
OSU freshmen give fans an exciting debut

Saturday, November 11, 2006

BOB HUNTER







Three flamboyant passes into the season for these monster Ohio State freshmen, it was obvious how different this was.
An exasperated Jim O?Brien would have lost the rest of his raspy voice in the first 10 minutes, and he would have worked those worn-out vocal chords so hard that he might never have gotten his voice back. But then, the former coach was so discipline-minded that he never would have had players who could perform such magic tricks, and he would have used the dreaded Mr. Bench to rein in anyone who tried.
Thad Matta didn?t do that, and even said after the game that he was happy with the first-half shot selection, which sometimes seemed like a cross between the Worthington Summer League and the NBA All-Star Game.
"I thought we took a couple of bad ones," he said, "but I think as we go back and watch the tape tonight, we had some pretty wide-open looks there."
There is no disputing that. The Buckeyes created many open looks themselves, and it?s probably not an exaggeration to say that there might have been more dazzling plays in Ohio State?s 107-69 seasonopening win over Virginia Military Institute than there were all of last season.
The game was a smorgasbord of alley-oops, stunning spins, no-look passes and tomahawk dunks ? point guard Mike Conley and slasher Daequan Cook were particularly magical ? which rendered some of the defensive lapses almost inconsequential. And all of this came with Greg Oden sitting on the bench, looking more like an assistant coach than a franchise player.
"(Matta) has a stable full of horses," VMI coach Duggar Baucom said. "They have some good, good players."
That much was obvious, which is why the lingering impression of OSU?s sloppy but spectacular win was that it?s going to be loads of fun watching these guys, if nothing else.
That?s not to say this team?s debut was all good ? not even close. The first-half defense was awful and the rebounding ? VMI had a shocking 13 offensive rebounds ? wasn?t much better.
As entertaining as it was watching this offensive dynamo, 2? minutes into the second half it was a seven-point game. But the Buckeyes cranked up the defense, went to the boards and simply blew away the Keydets.
The curious went home happy. The purists would say they didn?t, but probably couldn?t resist the urge to smile all the way through their hollow rant.
This young team can thank its lucky stars this was VMI and not North Carolina, but then this is the second week of November.
This was a scrapbook moment for most of them, just as it was for a VMI team that got a chance to get hammered by them. If these Buckeyes go on to the great things that are predicted for them, the suspicion is that the Keydets might someday enjoy talking about this night even more than the Buckeyes. As Baucom got up to leave the postgame news conference, he smirked. "Is there a football game here next Saturday?" he said. "I don?t know," one reporter answered. "We don?t pay any attention to that. This is a basketball school." Baucom laughed harder than anyone. "It was tonight," he said. Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch. bhunter@dispatch.com

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Scout.com (Free)

Game wrap-up by Dave Biddle.

Good Stat: OSU held the rebounding edge 52-42
Bad Stat: 26 turnovers