Ken
Guest
Let’s talk Men’s Basketball
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
.. for a minute. Or two.
(Thad knows what I’m talking about.)
Ohio State men’s basketball just endured a season that certainly wasn’t the best of times, nor was it the worst of times. It was a season that, if we were sane and realistic with ourselves, was what we expected.
Before I get into the weeds with this, let’s be clear that I am not a Thad Matta apologist. My views have been jaundiced about his 20-win seasons. I’ve never been happy with OSU’s piss-poor FT shooting. I am disappointed with Ohio State’s indifference to offensive rebounding. So, no, I do not think that (professionally) Thad is pristine.
However, I do think he is a very good coach. In fact, I hold Thad in higher esteem as a coach higher now that I ever have, despite the “disappointment of another 20 win season. If you take the time to peel the onion you’ll have a better appreciation, compared to others.
In his article, 11W’s Ramzy seems to buddy up with Andy. To be honest, in the past three years, when I’ve been paying attention to this stuff, I’ve always admired Ramzy’s works. He just happened to whiff on this one. All quotations are per his article:
Meanwhile, Wisconsin was at a crossroads. A couple weeks earlier its head coach Bo Ryan abruptly retired. This was a team that had seen its two best players – Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker – go #9 and #18 in the NBA draft, leaving two craters on its lineup card. The roster carried just one senior and he has clocked nine minutes of playing time this season. Leadership would have to grow out of the underclass while guidance would be required from a shuffled staff.
First, this is not a “shuffled staff”, I don’t know where in the hell Ramzy gets this. Greg Gard has been with Wisconsin for 15 years. If anyone was the heir apparent to Bo Ryan, this gentleman was the guy. He was at Wisconsin as long as Ryan was for god’s sake.
But it has a culture. Wisconsin owns that identity. It’s also demonstrated noticeable player development. Tresselball won championships, sent dozens to the NFL and drove millions of people crazy in the process. Matta’s title teams had an identity for years and produced lottery picks, but these last three have barely resembled them.
This was a throw-away paragraph. Yes, Tresselball sent players to the NFL, but how many have stuck with the NFL? Yeah, not as many as he’d have you think. Professional team rosters are vastly different between NFL/NBA teams. Don’t get sucked into the comparison. And lets not lose sight of the fact that a “successful” player in college may not translate into a “successful” professional athlete. This is not a valid comparison.
Ohio State basketball is routinely outhustled. Sluggish is the default setting. Its opponents appear to care more and try harder.
Jesuschrist, I couldn’t disagree more with this statement. If anything this season, their effort far exceeded their capabilities. I will grant the point of sluggishness the last 2-3 games. But I also pointed out in articles that with a frosh laden lineup, fatigue will/did set in. The team was physically/mentally exhausted at the end of the season. In no way does that diminish their efforts.
Ruminations on one player’s motivations is a pretty weak sauce argument to use to baste the entire program with. Moving on to other non-sequitur comparisons:
The Buckeyes have had the same assistants during this three-year stretch, and this is a dangerous word to describe the state of the program: Stale.
Since we’re on the Thad-Urban comparison train; coaches Fickell, Warinner, Coombs and Smith are at/beyond the 3 year mark. If you remember, the Buckeye offense looked pretty dicey for most of the season, compared to the previous year, it headed in the wrong direction. Perhaps we need to move them out before the football team gets stale as well. Off with their heads!
Wrap Up
Look, this Ohio State team performed about as well as I thought it would. Hell, it won more games than I thought it would. This team had one junior, who was probably not of the right personality to assume the “Cloak of Leadership” on this team. That’s fine, not everyone is cut of that cloth. It had several sophomores that had intermittent/sporadic game time last season. It had a lot of freshmen that were put into significant game-time minutes due to attrition. It takes time to mesh individuals into a team. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand anything.
The other point is that a team’s roster/capabilities takes the ebb and flow of eligibility/recruiting cycles. This was an ‘ebb’ period. I’ll be honest; I thought this was one of Thad’s more challenging, and better years of coaching that I’ve seen., and I’ve seen all his year at Ohio State. This was not so much a ‘coaching’ challenge as it was a ‘teaching’ challenge’. To not acknowledge that is an error.
To be blunt, his article was written from the fainting couch. This team will be fine next yer, and beyond. We’re not talking about a cure for cancer; we’re talking about college basketball. Keep things in perspective. We’ll be fine. The Ohio State basketball program is in good hands.
The post Let’s talk Men’s Basketball appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
.. for a minute. Or two.
(Thad knows what I’m talking about.)
Ohio State men’s basketball just endured a season that certainly wasn’t the best of times, nor was it the worst of times. It was a season that, if we were sane and realistic with ourselves, was what we expected.
Before I get into the weeds with this, let’s be clear that I am not a Thad Matta apologist. My views have been jaundiced about his 20-win seasons. I’ve never been happy with OSU’s piss-poor FT shooting. I am disappointed with Ohio State’s indifference to offensive rebounding. So, no, I do not think that (professionally) Thad is pristine.
However, I do think he is a very good coach. In fact, I hold Thad in higher esteem as a coach higher now that I ever have, despite the “disappointment of another 20 win season. If you take the time to peel the onion you’ll have a better appreciation, compared to others.
In his article, 11W’s Ramzy seems to buddy up with Andy. To be honest, in the past three years, when I’ve been paying attention to this stuff, I’ve always admired Ramzy’s works. He just happened to whiff on this one. All quotations are per his article:
Meanwhile, Wisconsin was at a crossroads. A couple weeks earlier its head coach Bo Ryan abruptly retired. This was a team that had seen its two best players – Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker – go #9 and #18 in the NBA draft, leaving two craters on its lineup card. The roster carried just one senior and he has clocked nine minutes of playing time this season. Leadership would have to grow out of the underclass while guidance would be required from a shuffled staff.
First, this is not a “shuffled staff”, I don’t know where in the hell Ramzy gets this. Greg Gard has been with Wisconsin for 15 years. If anyone was the heir apparent to Bo Ryan, this gentleman was the guy. He was at Wisconsin as long as Ryan was for god’s sake.
But it has a culture. Wisconsin owns that identity. It’s also demonstrated noticeable player development. Tresselball won championships, sent dozens to the NFL and drove millions of people crazy in the process. Matta’s title teams had an identity for years and produced lottery picks, but these last three have barely resembled them.
This was a throw-away paragraph. Yes, Tresselball sent players to the NFL, but how many have stuck with the NFL? Yeah, not as many as he’d have you think. Professional team rosters are vastly different between NFL/NBA teams. Don’t get sucked into the comparison. And lets not lose sight of the fact that a “successful” player in college may not translate into a “successful” professional athlete. This is not a valid comparison.
Ohio State basketball is routinely outhustled. Sluggish is the default setting. Its opponents appear to care more and try harder.
Jesuschrist, I couldn’t disagree more with this statement. If anything this season, their effort far exceeded their capabilities. I will grant the point of sluggishness the last 2-3 games. But I also pointed out in articles that with a frosh laden lineup, fatigue will/did set in. The team was physically/mentally exhausted at the end of the season. In no way does that diminish their efforts.
Ruminations on one player’s motivations is a pretty weak sauce argument to use to baste the entire program with. Moving on to other non-sequitur comparisons:
The Buckeyes have had the same assistants during this three-year stretch, and this is a dangerous word to describe the state of the program: Stale.
Since we’re on the Thad-Urban comparison train; coaches Fickell, Warinner, Coombs and Smith are at/beyond the 3 year mark. If you remember, the Buckeye offense looked pretty dicey for most of the season, compared to the previous year, it headed in the wrong direction. Perhaps we need to move them out before the football team gets stale as well. Off with their heads!
Wrap Up
Look, this Ohio State team performed about as well as I thought it would. Hell, it won more games than I thought it would. This team had one junior, who was probably not of the right personality to assume the “Cloak of Leadership” on this team. That’s fine, not everyone is cut of that cloth. It had several sophomores that had intermittent/sporadic game time last season. It had a lot of freshmen that were put into significant game-time minutes due to attrition. It takes time to mesh individuals into a team. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand anything.
The other point is that a team’s roster/capabilities takes the ebb and flow of eligibility/recruiting cycles. This was an ‘ebb’ period. I’ll be honest; I thought this was one of Thad’s more challenging, and better years of coaching that I’ve seen., and I’ve seen all his year at Ohio State. This was not so much a ‘coaching’ challenge as it was a ‘teaching’ challenge’. To not acknowledge that is an error.
To be blunt, his article was written from the fainting couch. This team will be fine next yer, and beyond. We’re not talking about a cure for cancer; we’re talking about college basketball. Keep things in perspective. We’ll be fine. The Ohio State basketball program is in good hands.
The post Let’s talk Men’s Basketball appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...