tOSU vs. American University, Wed 11/20 @ 7:30pm ET, BTN

[Mike80]

Agreed. This team will go as far as the defense takes it, no further. The transition offense can be good, but the half court offense just isn't there this year. Maybe if Q comes around (and it is early in the season) but for whatever reason he hasn't shown it yet.

Last year when he was playing well he went strong to the hoop and was confident in his shot taking.

Last night he kept making himself smaller going to the hoop and wasn't going up strong down low and I don't know where his shot was especially early on

 

[LitlBuck]

Amir Williams looking up, LaQuinton Ross looking puzzled as Ohio State slides past American

Quick summary: Matta not very pleased with Q's performance and really not happy with the performance of the entire team. Says that Williams needs to keep practicing to keep getting better. I do not think that I would want to be a player at practice today.

 

[calibuck]

From what I saw of the game, saw a lot of missed shots and many 'missed' defensive plays by the Buckeyes. Starters were left in longer than should have been if they had been playing tOSU basketball. Agree with LitlBuck that I wouldn't want to be lacing 'em up today at the Schott. I'm thinkin' maybe Q is not quite ready for prime time. Last year he was the second go-to, and now he's primary, ergo the best defender is gonna be in his jock. That might explain why Shannon and Sam-I-am are scoring more points. Basketball is a game of streaks, and I'm betting that Q will start swishing a few, and he'll have a couple of 13 of 15 nights (10 of 12, etc) and he'll be 'right'. Meanwhile, the nice take away from this game was the center play. I know the level of competition hasn't been too high, but what I see I like. Not sure that I'd like to see Amir and Trey on the floor at the same time, I think they'd trip over themselves. But compared to last year, progress has been made. Wish Lenzelle would produce up to his starting role, and finally, is Matta pushing Craft to be the '2', so he'll have more versatility for the NBA? I'm not sure that Shannon isn't a better '2' right now, and let Craft concentrate on ball-handling and dishing off.....

 

[DZ83CK]

People have to remember that Q was wildly inconsistent last year. He had three really good scoring games in a row in the tourney, but that was highly unusual for him (plus, he was only 4-12 from the field against WSU) and he's still a guy who has yet to have 4 consecutive games of 10+ points in the same season. He did play his best ball at the end of last year, but it took him until March to bring any sort of consistency over a number of games.

I know this OSU team needs Q to play better, and he can, it's just a matter of him gaining confidence, getting back in a rhythm, and being smarter about what he's doing when he attacks the basket. He could get a lot of points at the foul line with his drives if he was smarter about how he is attacking the defense with the new emphasis on freedom of movement, but he has opted for more of a finesse game which is not rewarded by the officials and has resulted in a lot of low percentage shots from some fairly high percentage locations.

 

[Onebuckfan]

Q has the skills and Matta needs to find away for Ross to become more like Kobe or Michael or even Deshaun. Ross not having instant success in college has hurt his confidence. Its mostly mental and if he regains a swagger it would be great for this squad..they need an assasin, they have the foot soldiers.