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tBBC tBBC Pregame Glance: Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Ken

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tBBC Pregame Glance: Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Ken
via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


cs_app-150x150.jpe

Corey Sanders very good. And very young.

(Image Courtesy of app.com)

Ohio State (15-10, 6-5) visits Rutgers (6-18, 0-8) Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale between these teams. The Buckeyes won at Columbus 94-68 on January 13th, powered by JaQuan Lyle’s triple double (16 pts, 12 rbs, 11 asst). In the first meeting, Rutgers played Ohio State evenly, holding a 41-39 lead at intermission. Fortunately, Tate, Thompson and Bates-Diop came alive in the 2nd half (they combined for 28 points) as OSU overpowered the Scarlet Knights 55-27 in the final 20 minutes.

Let’s start by taking a look at some team comparisons.

PPG-O PPG-D RPG FG% 3PT% FT% APG TO/G
Ohio State 71 66 38.4 44.1% 34.2% 66.1% 11.8 12.8
Rutgers 68 80 35.4 42.0% 31.4% 68.3% 11.8 13.6

So, what do we have? At first glance, Rutgers appears to be absolutely horrible at playing defense. That Ohio State hung 94 points on them last month would confirm that. Other than that, nothing really sticks out. Assists and turnovers are about the same. Ohio State is a bit better at rebounding and shooting, but Rutgers is a better FT shooting team. Opponents make 45% of their FGs and 35% of their 3-point attempts, so OSU’s season long numbers look pretty legit against Rutgers.



Rutgers

Let’s get this out of the way right now; the Rutgers offense runs through freshman Corey Sanders. The 6’2″ guard leads the team in scoring and assists. He also leads them in minutes-per-game.

The Scarlet Knights go with a 3G/2F lineup, with; 6’2″ G Corey Sanders, 6’2″ G Mike Williams, 6’4″ G Omari Grier, 6’8″ F D.J. Foreman and 6’9″ F Greg Lewis likely the starting lineup. Early players off the bench are 6’7 F Deshawn Freeman, 6’6 F Jonathan Laurent and 6’3″ G Bishop Daniels.

Here are the Scarlet Knights, likely starter in bold:

Nbr Name Pos MPG FG% 3PT% FT% RPG APG PPG
3 Sanders, Corey G 33.3 42.2% 32.5% 74.7% 3.3 4.2 15.9
5
Williams, Mike G 27.3 39.1% 29.1% 77.8% 3.9 1.0 12.1
31
Grier, Omari G 21.0 45.9% 41.7% 80.5% 1.4 0.6 7.9
1
Foreman, D.J. F 25.9 47.1% 60.0% 56.8% 6.3 0.6 7.5
35
Lewis, Greg F/C 21.3 37.1% 0.0% 42.4% 5.1 0.7 4.2
33 Freeman, Deshawn F 28.1 54.4% 0.0% 66.7% 5.3 1.2 13.1
2 Daniels, Bishop G 26.3 39.9% 30.0% 67.4% 3.9 2.6 8.7
4 Laurent, Jonathan F 21.7 45.3% 27.3% 73.5% 4.4 0.8 6.7
32 Diallo, Ibrahima F/C 15.6 48.5% 0.0% 46.2% 3.7 0.3 3.8
10 Goode, Justin G 15.0 29.5% 22.6% 82.4% 1.3 0.8 2.0
15 Dadika, Jake G 3.4 37.5% 25.0% 50.0% 0.2 0.2 0.6
13 Batie, Khalil G 2.4 14.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.3 0.0 0.2
23 Hyde, Jalen G 2.1 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.5 0.0 0.2
40 Doorson, Shaquille C 0.0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0 0.0 0.0
22 Johnson, Nigel G 0.0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0 0.0 0.0

In the previous meeting, Corey Sanders went off for 20 points on 7-14 shooting. In fact, Sanders was the game high scorer. D.J. Foreman contributed 13 points and 9 rebounds. Bishop Daniels had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, so “The Bishop’s” line score looked pretty damn good.



Ohio State

From a won-loss standpoint, the Buckeyes are treading water right now. I think we have to be realistic and prepare for Thad to not win 20 games, nor make the NCAA’s this season. They sit at 15-10 and 4 of their remaining 6 games are against Michigan, Michigan State and Iowa. Ohio State absolutely needs this win to keep any hope alive of a 20-win season.

The Giddens/Harris experiment has played out for now, with Thompson and Lyle back in the starting lineups against Northwestern. So, we appear to be back to the original starting lineup of Loving, Tate, Bate-Diop, Thompson and Lyle. I’m perfectly fine with that. At this point in the season, and player development, I don’t think that being designated a “starter” means as much as playing time. You may recall that John Havlicek had a HoF career not starting.

And, for the Buckeyes, likely starters, maybe, in bold:

Nbr Player Pos MPG FG% 3FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
2 Marc Loving F 33.2 40.1% 32.2% 74.0% 5.3 1.5 13.0
33
Kieta Bates-Diop F 30.4 45.0% 33.7% 81.3% 6.3 1.5 11.6
1
Jae’Sean Tate F 28.6 50.2% 36.1% 50.0% 6.0 1.4 11.1
13
JaQuan Lyle G 28.4 39.8% 27.2% 65.5% 4.0 4.9 10.1
32
Trevor Thompson C 17.6 54.5% 0.0% 80.0% 5.1 0.2 6.7
15 Kam Williams G 20.4 45.2% 45.2% 77.8% 1.7 1.0 7.6
4 Daniel Giddens C 18.3 47.4% 0.0% 38.3% 3.9 0.4 4.0
0 Mickey Mitchell F 8.4 38.9% 0.0% 53.8% 2.6 0.1 1.6
10 David Bell F 6.6 50.0% 0.0% 63.6% 1.9 0.1 1.6
12 A.J. Harris G 12.9 34.3% 34.3% 65.2% 1.1 1.7 2.9
14 Joey Lane G 1.6 14.3% 14.3% 50.0% 0.0 0.0 0.6

Last time out, OSU rocked Rutgers with 94 points, thanks to five players scoring in double figures; Lyle (16), Bate-Diop (14), Tate (14), Loving (12) and Thompson (11). One of the perils of a young team is slow starts, and Ohio State has a tendency to play “not as well” in the 1st half as they need. The Rutgers game will be a good exercise to get off to a fast start.

This is one of those games where Ohio State should win fairly easily, but Ohio State does have it’s defensive vulnerabilities. Combined with Rutgers hungry for its first conference win, this could be uncomfortably close.

Tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 PM ET. The game will be televised on BTN (check local listings), can be followed on Gametracker and heard on 97.1.

The post tBBC Pregame Glance: Rutgers Scarlet Knights appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.

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