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crazybuckfan40
Head Coach
Hopefully we can get up big tonite and on Wednesday so we can rest the legs alittle bit for the big one on Saturday.
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OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
BN$
12/13/05
Nice article on Matta talking about the current team and the ongoing distractions facing them with the NCAA investigation.......by Steve Helwagen...
12/13/05
Nice article on Matta talking about the current team and the ongoing distractions facing them with the NCAA investigation.......by Steve Helwagen...
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OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
ozone
12/14/05
12/14/05
Change of Roles Brings New Role for Buckeyes
By John Porentas
Something unusual happened this week. The 5-0 Ohio State Buckeyes appeared in a major top-25 basketball ranking.
The Buckeyes are now ranked number 25 in the USA Today coaches poll, and are knocking at the door at number 27 in the Associated Press writers poll. The last time the Buckeyes were ranked, Terence Dials was a true freshman. That's a long time ago.
The Buckeyes have scored a solid victory over Virginia Tech (in the Big Ten vs. ACC challenge) and notched a good road win over St. Joseph's for their two biggest win of the young season.
It's a change of circumstance for the Buckeyes whose basketball program has fallen on hard times in recent seasons. Helping make that change is a change of roles this season for a couple of Buckeye veterans, Terence Dials and J. J. Sullinger.
Dials was last year's leading scorer and rebounder for the Buckeyes, but thus far this season he is not leading his team in either of those categories. His scoring pace of 15.9 points per game of last season has slipped to 12.8 points per game this year, good for third on the team behind Je'Kel Foster (15.4 points per game) and Ron Lewis (13.0 points per game).
Last year his rebounding pace of 7.9 per game was best on the team. This year, his 6.8 rebounds per game is nearly 2.5 per game behind current team leader J. J. Sullinger.
Part of Dials' scoring decline can be attributed to the fact that he is a known quantity this season and the opposition has set their defenses to stop Dials. Dials is drawing more double and triple teams, making it tough for him to score. His role becomes that of a passer who kicks the ball out when he feels the double team so the shooters can score from the perimeter.
Dials says his new role suits him just fine as long as the Buckeye keep on winning.
"I'm OK with the fact that we're 5-0 right now," said Dials.
"As long as we keep getting Ws I'm OK with any role that I play.
"Last year I had to score in order for my team to be successful. This year I think defenses are going to key on me more than anybody else on the squad, so what I'm going to have to do is when I get the ball, make sure that I make smart plays.
"I can't turn it over and I have to kick it out of the double teams.
"If that's what it's going to take for this team to win, then I'll be happy with getting assists."
For Dials, winning is more important than his stats.
"As long as Je'kel and J.J. and Ron Lewis keep hitting shots and keep getting buckets playing smart, things are going to open up for me. I just have to keep being patient," said Dials.
Dials role has changed, but no Buckeye has changed his role more than J. J. Sullinger.
Last year Sullinger played the small forward position where he was expected to bring scoring punch and rebound a little. This year, Sullinger is playing down low at the power forward despite his 6-5 size. His role is to rebound and be the OSU defensive stopper, a role in which he has excelled thus far this season.
His 9.2 rebound per game pace leads the Buckeyes and is good for fourth in the Big Ten after averaging just 5.4 rebounds per game last year. Perhaps his biggest improvement, however, has been on defense, where his effort and hustle, combined with his impressive athletic ability, has made him a force to be feared at the defensive end of the court.
"I think he's (Sullinger) learned to focus in on what he can do, and he's doing them well," said OSU Head Coach Thad Matta.
"When he's dialed in defensively, the other day against Stachitas (against St. Joseph's), that was some of the best half-court defense I've ever seen a guy play," Matta said.
Sullinger seems to relish his new role as defensive stopper.
"You want to take on the challenge. It's fun competing. I'm a competitor, so anytime he (Matta) calls my number to stop a guy from beating the Ohio State University I'm on duty and ready," said Sullinger.
Sullinger's defensive style is intense, and also includes some tactics that are a bit unorthodox. Sullinger actually whoops and whelps at his opponent when he plays defense, something the Value City Crowd picked up on this week and joined him in the whooping and whelping.
"I've noticed it," said Sullinger.
"Like last night I was hooting and hollering at the guy while I was guarding him and a couple of people in the crowd, I heard them doing it with me. It definitely gets you excited. I definitely noticed it and hopefully it's something people keep doing," Sullinger said.
His teammate, Dials, also liked what he heard from the crowd in response to Sullinger's defensive effort.
"I wish the crowd would get into it with that woofing because I think it will mess the other team up a little bit," grinned Dials.
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crazybuckfan40
Head Coach
How does he think we only get 5 teams in when 7 are ranked in the top 26 in the country.
Right now I would say that us, Ill, MSU, IU, Wisky, Iowa, and maybe scUM would get in.
I wonder how many he thinks are getting in from the ACC 14?
Right now I would say that us, Ill, MSU, IU, Wisky, Iowa, and maybe scUM would get in.
I wonder how many he thinks are getting in from the ACC 14?
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OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
I don't think he is saying only 5 teams will make it from the Big Ten, I believe he is saying at least the top 5 teams will automatically be in regardless.
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crazybuckfan40
Head Coach
Ok I see, but you know he thinks the top 12 from the ACC are goign to get in.
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OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
link
12/19/05
12/19/05
Buckeyes display newfound ability to get over hump
Monday, December 19, 2005
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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STEVE POPE | ASSOCIATED PRESS Je’Kel Foster, who arrived last year from junior college, has become a steadying force. He scored a career-high 28 points against Iowa State and tied his career high of six threepoint field goals. He kept Ohio State in the game against a zone defense that seemed to bother his teammates.</IMG>
DES MOINES, Iowa — Down eight points with six minutes to go on the road. The past couple of seasons, that was a death sentence for the Ohio State men’s basketball team. Whatever it took to overcome the adversity, the Buckeyes didn’t have it.
Saturday night, with a loud crowd rooting against them, they had it. They scored on 10 of their last 11 possessions, limited a decent Iowa State team to seven points in the last 6½ minutes and won 70-67 in Wells Fargo Arena, a neutral site in name only located 35 miles south of the Cyclones’ campus.
"We wouldn’t have even been in that game two years ago," J.J. Sullinger said afterward. "It says a lot about our team."
Sullinger was on the OSU team two years ago that, among other lows, surrendered meekly in a blowout loss at Seton Hall and was embarrassed in a 17-point defeat at Penn State.
Now he’s a senior on the first Ohio State team in 15 years to start a season 7-0. The Buckeyes, ranked No. 25 last week in the coaches’ poll, are likely to also crack the Associated Press media top 25 this week.
They also rank among the top 10 in unofficial replications of the Rating Percentage Index power rating. They have beaten three teams among the RPI top 60: Iowa State, St. Joseph’s and Butler.
The win at St. Joseph’s also was on the road.
"The thing about our team is we have great leadership," guard Je’Kel Foster said. "We have three fifth-year seniors and I’m a senior, too. We do a great job of leading our teammates and just making sure everybody’s ready to play."
Terence Dials and Matt Sylvester have been at Ohio State for five years and Sullinger for four, including the year he was ineligible after transferring from Arkansas.
Foster arrived last year from junior college and has become the Buckeyes’ backbone.
He scored a career-high 28 points against the Cyclones and tied his career high of six three-point field goals. All of his treys came in the first 23½ minutes as he kept Ohio State in the game against a zone defense that was more bothersome to his teammates.
But in the last six minutes, the Buckeyes attacked Iowa State’s traps and penetrated the zone better than they had to that point. After being outscored 15-4 in a span of more than eight minutes to fall behind 60-52, they outscored the Cyclones 18-7 in the last 5:36 with driving layups or the free throws that resulted from being fouled on them. Foster had eight and Ron Lewis seven of the points.
"All coaches talk about toughness and tenacity and all that stuff," coach Thad Matta said, "but I told them before we came here, ‘This is going to be a great test of our character, of our toughness.’ The way it played out was tremendous for us to help drive home the point of what we’re trying to get here with this team."
[email protected]
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OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
link
12/23/05
Quote:
Practice at the line pays off for OSU
Buckeyes are much better at making their free throws
Friday, December 23, 2005
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
OHIO STATE VS. TENNESSEE STATE 8 tonight TV:WBNS (CH.10) Radio: WBNS-AM/FM • OSU-Tennessee State preview box | E2
Ohio State men’s basketball players shot 50 free throws after every workout during the off-season. They worked out five days a week, so that was 250 a week.
Since practice began in October, they have shot 25 at the end of every session. At first, they had to make 20 before they could leave the floor. Now, they have to make 22. If they don’t, they shoot 25 more and must make 22 of those.
"We try to get them up when we’re tired because that’s when you shoot them in the game, late in the game when you don’t have the freshest legs," J.J. Sullinger said.
"There’s no talking, no joking around. It’s all business. I think it’s helped."
The Buckeyes (7-0) are off to their best start in 15 years and are ranked (No. 24) for the first time in four years going into their game tonight against Tennessee State. They have proved able to win close games down the stretch, a quality that has prompted conjecture about intangibles this team has that its recent predecessors did not.
One tangible difference between this team and those is free throw shooting. The Buckeyes, one of the Big Ten’s more scattershot teams at the line during coach Jim O’Brien’s seven seasons and Thad Matta’s first, have made 72.5 percent of their chances so far, ranking them third in the Big Ten.
Six of the seven players playing the most minutes are shooting 70 percent or better. The team is averaging nine more attempts and nearly eight more makes per game than last season.
In closely contested wins over Butler, St. Joseph’s, Belmont and Iowa State, the Buckeyes made 38 of 44 free throws in the final minute of regulation and overtime. All but six were attempted by guards Jamar Butler, Ron Lewis and Je’Kel Foster, who are shooting 79 percent or better.
"People don’t think free throws mean a lot, but they mean a whole lot down the stretch," said Lewis, who led the Mid-American Conference with 191 made free throws two years ago at Bowling Green. He leads Ohio State with 42 attempts and 33 makes despite playing fewer minutes than four teammates.
"I’m one of the players on our team that can get to the free throw line easily," Lewis said. "I need to be driving the ball more. That’s one aspect of our team that really helps us."
Center Terence Dials, whose percentage has jumped to .700 from .617 last season, said the team’s improvement at the line is "probably the biggest" reason for the Buckeyes’ ability to hold leads they might have squandered the past two seasons, when they made fewer than two of every three free throws they attempted.
"You see it on TV all the time. You either win or lose because of free throws," Dials said. "If you’re not hitting your free throws, with how people shoot threes in college basketball, they can get back in the game real quick."
The turnaround began as soon as last season ended, during spring-quarter workouts in which coaches were permitted to work with players on their skills. The players shot on their own during the summer.
"We’ve shot a lot more free throws (in practice) than we did last year. I think that’s helped us, the repetition," Matta said. "We’ve talked about being more confident. We wanted to try to shoot 72 percent for the season."
Another goal is to make more free throws than opponents attempt. Matta said Xavier led the nation in that differential during one of his years as coach there. So far this season, Ohio State has made 124 free throws and its opponents have attempted 90.
"It’s a free shot," Foster said, "but it means so much at the end of a game."
[email protected]
12/23/05
Quote:
Practice at the line pays off for OSU
Buckeyes are much better at making their free throws
Friday, December 23, 2005
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
OHIO STATE VS. TENNESSEE STATE 8 tonight TV:WBNS (CH.10) Radio: WBNS-AM/FM • OSU-Tennessee State preview box | E2
Ohio State men’s basketball players shot 50 free throws after every workout during the off-season. They worked out five days a week, so that was 250 a week.
Since practice began in October, they have shot 25 at the end of every session. At first, they had to make 20 before they could leave the floor. Now, they have to make 22. If they don’t, they shoot 25 more and must make 22 of those.
"We try to get them up when we’re tired because that’s when you shoot them in the game, late in the game when you don’t have the freshest legs," J.J. Sullinger said.
"There’s no talking, no joking around. It’s all business. I think it’s helped."
The Buckeyes (7-0) are off to their best start in 15 years and are ranked (No. 24) for the first time in four years going into their game tonight against Tennessee State. They have proved able to win close games down the stretch, a quality that has prompted conjecture about intangibles this team has that its recent predecessors did not.
One tangible difference between this team and those is free throw shooting. The Buckeyes, one of the Big Ten’s more scattershot teams at the line during coach Jim O’Brien’s seven seasons and Thad Matta’s first, have made 72.5 percent of their chances so far, ranking them third in the Big Ten.
Six of the seven players playing the most minutes are shooting 70 percent or better. The team is averaging nine more attempts and nearly eight more makes per game than last season.
In closely contested wins over Butler, St. Joseph’s, Belmont and Iowa State, the Buckeyes made 38 of 44 free throws in the final minute of regulation and overtime. All but six were attempted by guards Jamar Butler, Ron Lewis and Je’Kel Foster, who are shooting 79 percent or better.
"People don’t think free throws mean a lot, but they mean a whole lot down the stretch," said Lewis, who led the Mid-American Conference with 191 made free throws two years ago at Bowling Green. He leads Ohio State with 42 attempts and 33 makes despite playing fewer minutes than four teammates.
"I’m one of the players on our team that can get to the free throw line easily," Lewis said. "I need to be driving the ball more. That’s one aspect of our team that really helps us."
Center Terence Dials, whose percentage has jumped to .700 from .617 last season, said the team’s improvement at the line is "probably the biggest" reason for the Buckeyes’ ability to hold leads they might have squandered the past two seasons, when they made fewer than two of every three free throws they attempted.
"You see it on TV all the time. You either win or lose because of free throws," Dials said. "If you’re not hitting your free throws, with how people shoot threes in college basketball, they can get back in the game real quick."
The turnaround began as soon as last season ended, during spring-quarter workouts in which coaches were permitted to work with players on their skills. The players shot on their own during the summer.
"We’ve shot a lot more free throws (in practice) than we did last year. I think that’s helped us, the repetition," Matta said. "We’ve talked about being more confident. We wanted to try to shoot 72 percent for the season."
Another goal is to make more free throws than opponents attempt. Matta said Xavier led the nation in that differential during one of his years as coach there. So far this season, Ohio State has made 124 free throws and its opponents have attempted 90.
"It’s a free shot," Foster said, "but it means so much at the end of a game."
[email protected]
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